Klotho Bring on the wounded next to these,


 Hermes I will begin with you. Tell me by what
death you have come here; or, rather, I will examine you by reference to the documents. Eightyfour must have died in battle yesterday in Mysia,
among them Gobares, the son of Oxyartes. Hermes They are here. Klotho Seven cut their own throats for love,
and Theagenes the philosopher on account of
the courtesan from Megara. Hermes These are at hand. Klotho Where are the two who killed each
other fighting for the throne? Hermes They are here. Klotho And he who was murdered by his wife
and her lover? Hermes Here he is, close by. Klotho Now bring those from the law-courts;
I mean the impaled and the flogged to death.
And where are the sixteen who were killed by
robbers? Hermes You see this lot are here, the wounded.
Shall I bring on the women en masse? Klotho By all means; and the shipwrecked en
masse, for they died in the same way.
And as
for the fever patients, bring them all at once, too,
and Agathokles the doctor with them.
 

Where is the philosopher Kyniskos, who ought
to have died of eating Hecate's supper and the
purifiactory eggs and a raw polyp to top off with?


 Kyniskos I have been standing here at your
service for some time, my good Klotho. What
wrong have I done that you left me on earth so
long? You almost spun out your whole spindle
for me. However, I tried often to cut the thread
and come, but somehow or other it was not to be
broken. Klotho I left you to be a guardian and physician of human errors. But come aboard, and
luck go with you! Kyniskos By Heaven, no, unless we shall first
have shipped the fellow in fetters, for I am afraid
he will persuade you with his prayers.

 Klotho Come, let me know who he is. Hermes Megapenthes, son of Lakydes, a despot. Klotho Come aboard. Megapenthes Not for worlds, Madam Klotho.
Let me go up for a little while. Then I will
come to you by my own free-will at no one's
summons. Klotho What is the reason you want to go? Megapenthes Give me time to finish my house.
I left my dwelling behind half built. Klotho Nonsense! Get in. Megapenthes I do not ask for a long time, Fate.
Let me stay just this one day, to appear to my
wife and tell her something about my moneywhere I kept my great treasure hidden.


 Klotho It is fixed. You cannot do it. Megapenthes Then will all that gold be lost? Klotho Not at all; you may be at ease about
that. Your cousin Megakles will get hold of it. Megapenthes Oh, what an affront! My enemy,
whom I was too easy-going to put to death before
me? Klotho The same. He will survive you forty
years and something over, in possession of your
harem and your clothes and all your wealth. Mcgapenthes It is unjust, Klotho, to assign my
property to my greatest enemies. Klotho I suppose, my noble sir, that you did
not seize it when it belonged to Kydimachos,
murdering the man himself and then slaying his
children on their father's warm body? Megapenthes But at present it was mine. Klotho Well, your time of possession had run
out.


 Megapenthes Listen, Klotho. There is something I should like to say to you in private without witnesses. You others step aside a moment.
If you will give me a chance to run away I
promise to give you this day a million dollars in
coin of the realm. Klotho You are absurd. Can you not get gold
and dollars out of your head yet? Megapenthes I will throw in the two bowls, if
you like, that I got when I killed Kleakritos.
kam


 


They weigh a hundred talents of unalloyed gold
apiece. Klotho Drag him in, for apparently he will not
embark of his own will. Megapenthes I call you people to witness that
my wall and my dockyards are unfinished. I
could have completed them if I had lived five
days longer. Klotho Never mind. Some one else will build
them. Megapenthes Anyhow, this one thing it is perfectly reasonable to ask for. Klotho What is that? Megapenthes To come to life long enough to
subdue the Persians, and impose taxes on the
Lydians, and raise a huge monument to myself,
inscribing on it how many great and warlike
deeds I did in my lifetime. Klotho My man, this is not asking for a single
day any longer, but to spend about twenty years.


 Megapenthes I am ready, moreover, to furnish
sureties for my quickness and my reappearance.
If you wish it, I will even provide you a substitute in my place in the person of my one beloved
son. Klotho You wretch, him whom you have often
prayed you might leave behind you? Megapenthes That used to be my prayer, but
now I see the better course.


 Klotho He, too, will join you soon, slain by
the new king.