Letter 186

¹ To Antipater, the governor.²

Philosophy is an excellent thing, if only for this, that it even heals its disciples at small cost; for, in philosophy, the same thing is both dainty and healthy fare. I am told that you have recovered your failing appetite by pickled cabbage. Formerly I used to dislike it, both on account of the proverb,³ and because it reminded me of the poverty that went with it. Now, however, I am driven to change my mind. I laugh at the proverb when I see that cabbage is such a "good nursing mother of men,"⁴ and has restored our governor to the vigour of youth. For the future I shall think nothing like cabbage, not even Homer's lotus,⁵ not even that ambrosia,⁶ whatever it was, which fed the Olympians.

1 Placed in 374.
2 cf. Letter cxxxvii.
3 The Greek proverb was di\j kra/mbh qa/natoj
4 kourotpo/foj . Ithaca is a'gaqh\ kourotro/foj
5 Od . ix. 93.
6 Od . v. 93.