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 evenaslave 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. (Zo cuanon.) 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.” Odyssey 9, 369. 
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.

 

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.