One of themselves, [even] a prophet of their own, said, —This is a reference to the Cretan poet, Epimenides who lived about 600 B.C. It is a hexameter line and Callimachus quoted the first part of it in a Hymn to Zeus. It is said that Epimenides suggested to the Athenians the erection of statues to “unknown gods”. The Cretians [are] alway liars, evil beasts, slow bellies. — Epimenides describes the Cretans as habitual liars, lazy, gluttonous, and vile. The Cretans had a bad reputation for lying, partly due to their claim to having the tomb of Zeus. Slow bellies or idle gluttons as the ASV reads give the picture of the sensual gormandizer.