Similar to these are the lines of
Theognis, The lines
are:
Ζεὺς γάρ τοι
τὸ τάλαντον
ἐπιρρέπει
ἄλλοτε
ἄλλως
῎Αλλοτε μὲν
πλουτεῖν,
ἄλλοτε δ᾽
οὐδὲν ἔχεω.
Theog. 157. in which he says that
God (whatever he means by “God”) inclines the scale to men
now one way and now another, and so at one moment they are rich, and at
another penniless. Somewhere too in his writings Prodicus, the
Sophist of Chios, has made similar reflexions on vice and virtue, to
whom attention may well be paid, for he is a man by no means to be
despised. So far as I recollect his sentiments, they are
something to this effect. I do not remember the exact words, but
the sense, in plain prose, was as follows: The story
of The Choice of Hercules used to be called, from Prodicus
(of Ceos, not Chios) Hercules Prodicius. Suidas says
that the title of the work quoted was Ωραι. The allegory is given
at length in Xenophon’s Memorabilia (II. i. 21) in Dion
Chrysostom’s Regnum, and in Cicero (De Officiis
i. 32), who refers to Xenophon. It is imitated in the
Somnium of Lucian.