The Downward Journey, or the Tyrant (14-17)

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.

CLOTHO

Indeed, I noticed some time ago that you were laughing, Micyllus. What was it in particular that made you laugh?

MICYLLUS

Listen, goddess whom I honour most. As I lived next door to Sir Tyrant on earth, I used to see quite distinctly what went on at his house, and I then thought him a very god; for I held him happy when I saw the splendour of his purple, the number of his

attendants, his plate, his jewelled goblets, and his couches with legs of silver; besides, the savour of the dishes prepared for his dinner drove me to distraction. Therefore he appeared to me a superman, thrice-blessed, better looking and a full royal eubit taller than almost anyone else; for he was uplifted by his good fortune, walked with a majestic gait, carried his head high and dazzled all he met. But when he was dead, not only did he cut an utterly ridiculous figure in my eyes on being stripped of his pomp, but I laughed at myself even more than at him because I had marvelled at such a worthless creature, inferring his happiness from the savour of his kitchen and counting him lucky because of his purple derived from the blood of mussels in the Laconian Sea.

MICYLLUS

And he was not the only one that I laughed at. When I saw the usurer Gnipho groaning and regretting that he had not enjoyed his money but had died without sampling it, abandoning his property to that wastrel Rhodochares, who was nextof kin to him and had the first claim on the estate according to law, I could not control my laughter,: especially when I called to mind how pale and unkempt he always was, with a forehead full of worries, feeling his riches only with the fingers with which he reckoned up thousands and tens of thousands ashe gathered in, little by little, what was soon to be poured out by that lucky dog Rhodochares. But why not gonow? We can finish our laughing during: the sail as we see them crying.

CLOTHO

Get aboard, so that the ferryman can haul the anchor up.