Letter 738: If someone has already said that a favor can sometimes work to a man's disadvantage, what wonder is it that a...

If someone declares that a misfortune has already proved profitable to certain people, what is so surprising if a favor too should end in harm for someone? Theophilus, then, is among those who have met with favor, but he finds fault with the favor; for out of the very things by which he accomplished what he formerly wished, a greater danger has sprung up for him. And now he has hurried off to Cilicia to unravel a kind of web of Penelope. But he has need of your help against the web, for this one is far more difficult to unravel than that of old. He imitates at once both Penelope and Penelope's husband. For both the [...] and the [...] are bitter to him. But since it is necessary to endure one of the two evils, he steers his vessel toward grappling with Scylla rather than toward Charybdis.

Εἰ συμφοράν τισιν ὴόη λυσιτελῆσοί τις ἴφησι, τι θαυ- μαστὸν καὶ χάριν ει·ς βλάβην τελευτῆσαί τῳ: Οιόφιλος τοίνυν τῶν τυχόντων μέν ἐστι χάριτος, μεμφομίlιὤ 6i τὴν χάριν ἐκ γὰρ ὧν κατέπραττεν ἃ πρῴην ἠβούλετο κίνδυνος αὐτῶ μείζων ἐξέφυ. κοὶ νῦν ἴδραμεὶι ng Κιλικίαν ἱστόν τινά Πηνελόπης ἀναλύσων. δεῖ δὲ αὐτῷ τῶν σῶν πρὸς τὸν ἱστὸν yitQmv πολὺ γὰρ οὗτος ἐκείνου χαλεπώτερὀ͂ ἀναλῦσαι. μι- μεῖται δὲ ὁμοῦ μὲν τὴν Πηνελόπην, ὁμοῦ δὲ τῆς ΠηνΠόπης τὸν ἄνδρα. πικρὰ μὲν γὰρ αὐτῷ καὶ τἀκιἱ καὶ τὰ ΠΑι. ἀνάγκης δὲ οὔσης ἀνασχέσθαι θάτερα τῇ Σκύuῃ συμπλimαι μᾶλλον ἢ τὸ σκάφος ἐπὶ τὴν Χάρυβδιν ἄγει.