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Of this although we might produce examples without number, yet among you, that are now joined (as it
were) in the same dance and festival with Love,1 it will
not be from the purpose to relate the story of Camma the
Galatian. For she being a woman of transcendent beauty,
and married to Sinatus the tetrarch, Synorix, one of the
most powerful men in all Galatia, fell desperately in love
with her; and that he might enjoy her, murdered her husband Sinatus, since he could not prevail with her either by
force or persuasion, while her husband was alive. Thereupon Camma, having no other sanctuary for the preservation of her chastity nor consolation in her affliction, retired
to the temple of Diana, where she remained a votaress to
[p. 303]
the Goddess, not admitting any person so much as to speak
to her, though she had many suitors that sought her in
wedlock. But when Synorix boldly presumed to put the
question to her, she neither seemed to reject his motion,
neither did she upbraid him with the crime he had committed; as if he had been induced to perpetrate so vile an
act, not out of any malicious intent to Sinatus, but merely
out of a pure and ardent love and affection to her. Thereupon he came with greater confidence, and demanded her
in marriage. She, on the other side, met him no less
cheerfully; and leading him by the hand to the altar of the
Goddess, after she had poured forth a small quantity of
hydromel well tempered with a rank poison, as it were an
atonement offering to the Goddess, she drank off the one
half of that which remained herself, and gave the other
half to the Galatian. And then, so soon as she saw he
had drunk it off, she gave a loud groan, and calling her
deceased husband by his name; This day, said she, my
most dear and beloved husband, I have long expected, as
having lived, deprived of thee, a desolate and comfortless
life. But now receive me joyfully; for for thy sake I have
revenged myself upon the most wicked among men, willing
to have lived with thee, and now no less rejoicing to die
with him. Thus Synorix, being carried out of the temple,
soon after expired; but Camma, surviving him a day and
a night, is reported to have died with an extraordinary resolution and cheerfulness of spirit.
1 The dialogue is supposed to be held at the festival of Love. See ยงยง 1 and 2 (G).
Plutarch. Plutarch's Morals. Translated from the Greek by several hands. Corrected and revised by. William W. Goodwin, PH. D. Boston. Little, Brown, and Company. Cambridge. Press Of John Wilson and son. 1874. 4.
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