Hermes

Receive these people, Tisiphone-a thousand and four.

Tisiphone

Indeed, Rhadamanthos here has been waiting for you a long time.

Rhadamanthos

Bring them forward, Erinnys. You, Hermes, officiate as herald and summon them.

Kyniskos

Rhadamanthos, in the name of your father, produce me and examine me first.

Rhadamanthos

Why?

Kyniskos

I have a great desire to accuse some one of the evil deeds I know he committed in his lifetime, and my testimony would not be worthy of credence unless it has first been shown what my character is and how I passed my life.

Rhadamanthos

And who are you?

Kyniskos

Kyniskos, my good sir, of the philosophical persuasion.

Rhadamanthos

Come here and stand your trial first. Hermes, call for the accusers.

Hermes

If any one accuses Kyniskos, the defendant, let him come forward.

Kyniskos

No one comes.

Rhadamanthos

But this is not enough, Kyniskos. Take off your clothes, so that I may judge you by your brands.

Kyniskos

How should I be a branded slave?

Rhadamanthos

Every evil deed that one of you commits in his life brands invisible marks on his soul.

Kyniskos

Here I stand stripped, so look for these brands you talk about.

Rhadamanthos

He is spotless from head to foot, except for these three or four blurred and very indistinct brands. But what is this? Here are the prints and traces of many burnings, but they have been washed out somehow, or rather cut out. What do these mean, Kyniskos, and how is it that you look spotless again?

Kyniskos

I will tell you. I used to be wicked because I was ignorant, and won many a brand by this means. But as soon as I began to take to philosophy, I washed off, little by little, all the stains from my soul, by the use of this so excellent and effectual medicine.

Rhadamanthos

I dismiss you to the islands of the blest, to the society of the noblest, after you have accused the despot you mention. Summon the others.

Mikyllos

My case, too, Rhadamanthos, is a trifling one, and calls for a short inquiry. I am stripped for you already, so examine me.

Rhadamanthos

Who may you be?

Mikyllos

Mikyllos, the shoemaker.

Rhadamanthos

Well done, Mikyllos; you are perfectly spotless and unmarked. You, too, I dismiss along with Kyniskos here. Now summon the tyrants.

Hermes

Let Megapenthes, son of Lakydes, appear. Which way are you turning? Come forward. I am summoning you, the despot. Shove him out, Tisiphone, head-foremost into the middle.

Rhadamanthos

But you, Kyniskos, accuse him now and expose him utterly, for the man is at hand as defendant.