Athenaeus, The Learned Banqueters (Deipnosophistae) 602b · 602b
Chariton and Melanippus
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Myrtilus — Μελάνιππος δ’ ἦν τὰ παιδικά, ὥς φησιν Ἡρακλείδης ὁ Ποντικὸς ἐν τῷ περὶ Ἐρωτικῶν. οὗτοι φανέντες ἐπιβουλεύοντες Φαλάριδι καὶ βασανιζόμενοι ἀναγκαζόμενοί τε λέγειν τοὺς συνειδότας οὐ μόνον οὐ κατεῖπον, ἀλλὰ καὶ τὸν Φάλαριν αὐτὸν εἰς ἔλεον τῶν βασάνων ἤγαγον, ὡς ἀπολῦσαι αὐτοὺς πολλὰ ἐπαινέσαντα. διὸ καὶ ὁ Ἀπόλλων ἡσθεὶς ἐπὶ τούτοις ἀναβολὴν τοῦ θανάτου τῷ Φαλάριδι ἐχαρίσατο, τοῦτο ἐμφήνας τοῖς πυνθανομένοις τῆς Πυθίας ὅπως αὐτῷ ἐπιθῶνται· ἔχρησεν δὲ καὶ περὶ
Melanippus was the beloved, as Heraclides of Pontus says in his book On Love Affairs. These two were found plotting against Phalaris, and under torture, forced to name their accomplices, they not only did not betray them but even moved Phalaris himself to pity for their tortures, so that he praised them highly and let them go. That is why Apollo too, pleased at this, granted Phalaris a postponement of his death, and made this clear to those who asked the Pythia how they might attack him. And he also gave an oracle about…
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Phalaris ruled Acragas in Sicily in the 6th century BC and was remembered as the cruellest of tyrants. Heraclides of Pontus, a pupil of Plato, wrote a book on love that is now lost.
A note on this passage
The story is told to Phalaris' credit as much as theirs. The tyrant in the legends kept a hollow bronze bull and roasted men inside it, yet here he is so moved by two lovers who will not talk that he sets them free.<br><br>Apollo's part is odd. The god delays the tyrant's death as a reward, and when others come to Delphi asking how to kill him, they are told his death has been put off.
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