CLOTHO Come, let’s see who he is. CYNISCUS Megapenthes, “Great woe.” son of Lacydes, a tyrant. CLOTHO Aboard with you! MEGAPENTHES Oh no, good lady Clotho! Do let me go back to earth for a little while. Then [ll come of my own accord, you will find, without being summoned by anyone. CLOTHO Why is it that you want to go back? MEGAPENTHES Let me finish my house first, for the building has been left half-done. CLOTHO Nonsense! Come, get aboard. MEGAPENTHES It’s not much time that I ask for, Lady of Destiny; let me stay just this one day, till I can give my wife directions about my money—the place where I kept my great treasure buried. CLOTHO It is settled; you can’t be permitted. MEGAPENTHES Then is all that gold to be lost? CLOTHO No, it will not be lost. Be easy on that score your cousin Megacles will get it. MEGAPENTHES What an outrage! My enemy, whom I was too easy-going to put to death before I died? CLOTHO The very man; and he will outlive you forty years and a little more, taking over your concubines and your clothing and all your plate. MEGAPENTHES You are unjust, Clotho, to bestow my property on my worst enemies. CLOTHO Why, did not it formerly belong to Cydimachus, and did not you take it over after killing him and slaughtering his children upon him while the breath was still in his body? MEGAPENTHES But it was mine now. CLOTHO Well, the term of your ownership has now expired.