The Downward Journey, or the Tyrant (11-15)

MEGAPENTHES

Well, at all events don't refuse me this, Lady of Destiny.

CLOTHO

What?

MEGAPENTHES

I want to know how things will turn out after my death.

CLOTHO

Listen, for it will vex you all the more to know. Midas, your slave, will have your wife; indeed, he has been her lover a long time.

MEGAPENTHES

Curse him, I set him free at her request!

CLOTHO

Your daughter will be enrolled among the concubines of the present tyrant, and the busts and statues which the city long ago set up in your honour will all be pulled down and will make everyone who looks at them laugh.

MEGAPENTHES

Tell meé, will none of my friends get angry at these doings?

CLOTHO

Why, what friend did you have, and how did you make him? Don’t you know that all those who bowed the knee and praised your every word and deed did so either from hope or from fear, being

friends of your power, not of you, and keeping their eyes on the main chance?

MEGAPENTHES

But as they poured their libations at our drinking parties they used to pray at the top of their voices that many blessings might descend upon me, saying every one of them that he was ready to die for me if so might be; in a word, they swore by me.

CLOTHO

Consequently, you died after dining with one of them yesterday: it was that last drink he gave you that sent you down here.

MEGAPENTHES

Then that is why I noticed a bitter taste. But what was his object in doing it?

CLOTHO

You are asking me many questions when you ought to get aboard.

MEGAPENTHES

There is one thing that sticks in my throat above all, Clotho, and on account of it I longed to slip back again to the light of day, if only for a moment.

CLOTHO

What is that? It must be something tremendous.

MEGAPENTHES

As soon as Cario, my valet, saw that I was dead, toward evening he came into the room where I lay, having nothing to do, for nobody was doing anything, not even guarding me, and brought in my mistress Glycerium; they had been on good terms a long time,

Isuppose. Shutting the door, he began to make free with her as though nobody was in the room, and then, when he had enough of it, he gazed at me and said: “You wretched little shrimp, you often gave me beatings when I was not at fault.” With that he pulled my hair and hit me in the face, and finally, after clearing his throat raucously and spitting on me, went away saying: “Off with you to the place of the wicked!” I was aflame with rage, but could not do a thing to him, for I was already stiff and cold. And as for the wretched wench, when she heard people approaching she smeared her eyes with spittle as if she had been crying over me and went away weeping and calling my name. If I should catch them—

CLOTHO

Stop threatening and get aboard; it is already time for you to make your appearance in court.

MEGAPENTHES

And who will dare to pass judgement on a tyrant?

CLOTHO

On a tyrant, no one, but on a dead man, Rhadamanthus. You shall soon see him impose on every one of you the sentence that is just and fits the case. No more delay now!

MEGAPENTHES

Make me even a common man, Lady of Destiny, one of the poor people; make me even a slave instead of the king that once I was. Only let me come to life again!

CLOTHO

Where is the man with the club? You take hold of him too, Hermes, and pull him in by the leg, for he won’t go aboard willingly.

HERMES

Come along now, runaway. (To Charon.) Take this fellow, ferryman, and see here—mind you make sure—

CHARON

No fear! he shall be lashed to the mast.

MEGAPENTHES

But I ought to sit on the quarter-deck!

CLOTHO

For what reason?

MEGAPENTHES

Because I was a tyrant, God knows, and had a regiment of guardsmen.

CYNISCUS

Then wasn’t Cario justified in pulling your hair, if you were such a lout? But you'll get small joy of your tyranny if I give you a taste of my club!

MEGAPENTHES

What, will a Cyniscus make bold to shake his staff at me? Did I not come within an ace of tricing you up to a cross the other day because you were too free-spoken and sharp-tongued and censorious?

CYNISCUS

That is why you yourself will stay triced up to the mast.

MICYLLUS

Tell me, Clotho, do you people take no account at all of me? Is it because I am poor that I have to get aboard last?

CLOTHO

And who are you?

MICYLLUS

The cobbler Micyllus.

CLOTHO

So you are aggrieved at having to wait? Don’t you see how much the tyrant promises to give us if we will let him go for a little while? Indeed, it surprises me that you are not equally glad of the delay.

MICYLLUS

Listen, kind. Lady of Destiny; I have no great liking for such gifts as the famous one of the Cyclops,—to be promised “T’]l eat Noman last of all.”[*] In truth, be it first, be it last, the same teeth are in waiting. Besides, my position is not like that of the rich; our lives are poles apart, as the saying goes. Take the tyrant, considered fortunate his whole life long, feared and admired by everybody; when he came to leave all his gold and silver and clothing and horses and dinners and handsome favourites and beautiful women, no wonder he was distressed and took it hard to be dragged away from them. Somehow or other the soul is limed, as it were, to things like these and will not come away readily because it has been cleaving to them long; indeed, the ties with which such men have the misfortune to be bound are like unbreakable fetters. Even if they are haled away by force, they lament and entreat, you may be sure, and although they are bold in everything else, they prove to be cowardly in the face of this journey to Hades. At any rate, they turn back and, like unsuccessful lovers, want to

gaze, even from afar, at things in the world of light. That is what yonder poor fool did, who not only ran away on the road but heaped you with entreaties when he got here.

MICYLLUS

But as for me, having nothing at stake in life, neither farm nor tenement nor gold nor gear nor reputation nor statues, of course I was in marching order, and when Atropos did but sign to me I gladly flung away my knife and my leather (I was working on a sandal) and sprang up at once and followed her, barefooted as I was and without even washing off the blacking. In fact, I led the way, with my eyes to the fore, since there was nothing in the rear to turn me about and call me back. And by Heaven I see already that everything is splendid here with you, for that all should have equal rank and nobody be any better than his neighbour is more than pleasant, to me at least. And I infer that there is no dunning of debtors here and no paying of taxes, and above all no freezing in winter or falling ill or being thrashed by men of greater consequence. All are at peace, and the tables are turned, for we paupers laugh while the rich are distressed and lament.