“The sweetest teaching did he introduce,
Concealing truth under untrue speech.
The place he spoke of as the gods' abode
Was that by which he might awe humans most, —
The place from which, he knew, terrors came to mortals
And things advantageous in their wearisome life —
The revolving heaven above, in which dwell
The lightnings, and awesome claps
Of thunder, and the starry face of heaven,
Beautiful and intricate by that wise craftsman Time, —
From which, too, the meteor's glowing mass speeds
And wet thunderstorm pours forth upon the earth.”

—  Euripidés

Sisyphus as translated by R. G. Bury, and revised by J. Garrett

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

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Euripidés 116
ancient Athenian playwright -480–-406 BC

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Variants:
Eripuit fulmen coelo, mox sceptra tyrannis.
Eripuit coelo fulmen sceptrumque tyrannis.
He snatched lightning from the heavens and the scepter from the tyrants.
He snatched lightning from the sky and scepters from tyrants.

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