The Ferry (11-15)

Megapenthes Well, but do not refuse me this thing at any rate, Fate.

Klotho What is it?

Megapenthes I wish to know what the course of events will be after me.

Klotho You shall, for your knowledge will be an added torment. Midas the slave will have your wife; he has been her lover this long time.

Megapenthes The villain! It was by her persuasion that I gave him his freedom.

Klotho Your daughter will be counted among the harem of the present monarch. Your portraits and statues, which the city erected for you in times past, will all be overturned, a laughingstock to the beholders.

Megapenthes Tell me, is not one of my friends moved to anger by these acts?

Klotho Why, who was a friend to you? What reason had any one to be? You know that all of them, those who bowed before you and those who extolled your every word and deed, acted from fear or hope, being friendly to your office and having an eye to the main chance.

Megapenthes And yet they used to pour out their libations at the banquets, and pray with a loud voice that many good things might befall me, saying that every one of them was ready to die

in my stead if possible, and altogether they swore by me.

Klotho Accordingly, it was after dining with one of them that you died yesterday. For that last cup that was handed to you sent you here.

Megapenthes That is why I tasted something bitter! What was his object in doing it?

Klotho You ask too many questions when you ought to be embarking.

Megapenthes There is one thing that chokes me most of all, Klotho, and makes me long to rise to the light again, if but for a moment.

Klotho What is this? It must be something tremendous.

Megapenthes Karion, my slave, as soon as he saw I was dead, came late in the evening into the room where I was lying, without any trouble, for no one was so much as watching by me, and looked at me and said, "You wretched little creature, you gave me a blow many a time when I didn't deserve it." With these words he fell to plucking out my hair and beating me to his heart's content, and finally he spat upon me and went off, saying, "Go to the devil!" I was aflame with rage, but all the same I could not do anything to him, stiff and cold as I was. But if I could get hold of him—

Klotho Stop your threats and come aboard. It is time now for you to go to your trial.

Megapenthes And who will venture to pass judgment on a man of kingly rank?

Klotho No one will judge the king, but the dead man must come before Rhadamanthos. You will soon see him assigning his doom to each with great justice and according to merit. Don't waste any more time just now.

Megapenthes Make me a private citizen, Fate, if you will, a poor man, a slave instead of a king as I was. Only let me come to life again!

Klotho Where is the man with the club? And you, too, Hermes; drag him in by the foot, for he would not come voluntarily.

Hermes Come with me, you runaway. Take him, ferryman, and, to make him safe, dash it—

Charon All right. He shall be made fast to the mast.

Megapenthes Assuredly I ought to be placed in the seat of honor.

Klotho Why?

Magapenthes Because, by Heaven, I was a despot and had a body-guard of ten thousand men.

Kyniskos Then Karion was right to pluck out the hair of such a mischievous creature. You will rue your tyranny when you have tasted the club.

Megapenthes Will Kyniskos, then, dare to raise his staff against me? Did I not almost crucify you a day or two ago because you were too free and rough and disrespectful?

Kyniskos That is why you, too, will stay crucified against the mast.

Mikyllos Tell me, Klotho, do you take no account of me at all? Or because I am a poor man, is that a reason why I ought to be the last to embark, too?

Klotho And who are you?

Mikyllos Mikyllos the shoemaker.

Klotho And you object to lingering? Do you not see what promises the tyrant makes on condition of being let off for a little while? I am amazed, then, if you, too, are not pleased at the delay.

Mikyllos Listen, best of Fates. I am not greatly cheered by such a boon as the Cyclops gave to "Noman" in promising to eat him last. First or last, the same teeth are waiting. Moreover, I am not in the same plight as the rich. Our lives are poles asunder, as they say. Now the despot was considered happy while he lived. He was feared and stared at by all. When he left behind him so much gold and silver and raiment, so many horses and banquets and lovely boys and beautiful women, it was natural that he should take it ill and grieve at being dragged from them. For the soul sticks to such things as if it were somehow glued to them, and it is loth to give them up without a struggle, because it has clung to them so long. Or, rather, it is as

if they had come to be bound by fetters that cannot be broken. Of course if any one drags them off by force they shriek and beg mercy; and though they have a bold face for other things, they show themselves cowards about this, the road that leads to Hades. They turn back and have a lovesick longing to see the things of daylight even if from afar, just as this fool here did, trying to run away on the road and persecuting you with entreaties here.

But I, because I had nothing at stake in life, neither estates nor apartment houses nor gold nor furniture nor reputation nor portraits, naturally had my loins girt up; and as soon as Atropos nodded to me I gladly threw down my knife and my sole-for I had a boot in my hand-and jumped up and followed barefoot, not even waiting to wash off the stains. from the leather. No, I rather led the way, looking ahead; for there was nothing behind that turned my head or called me back. And, by Zeus! I see already that everything is charming down here; for in my opinion it is most delightful to have universal equality, and no one better than his neighbor. I judge that debtors are not dunned for their debts here nor taxes paid; and most important of all, no one is frozen in winter or falls ill or gets beaten by his betters. We poor men laugh it is the rich who feel the pain and bewail their case.