Many people . . . resorted to the temple of Hermes asking for the gift of wisdom [and offered him rich presents] . . . Now when on the appointed day they arrived of the distribution of the gifts of wisdom, Hermes as the god of wisdom and eloquence and also of rewards, said to him who, as you may well suppose, had made the biggest offering: ‘Here is philosophy for you’; and to him who had made the next handsomest present he said: ‘Do you take your place among the orators’; and to others he said: ‘You shall have the gifts of astronomy or you shall be a musician, or you shall be an epic poet and write in heroic metre, or you shall be a write of iambics.'