Therefore

 

my wrongs have driven me to this outlying
farm, where, dressed in skins, I till the soil as a
hired labourer at four obols a day, philosophizing
with the solitude and with my pick. By so doing, I
expect to gain at least thus much, that I shall no
longer see a great many people enjoying undeserved
success; for that, certainly, would be more painful.
Come then, son of Cronus and Rhea, shake off at
length that deep, sound sleep, for you have slumbered
longer than Epimenides; Epimenides of Crete fell asleep in a cave and did not wake for forty years or more. fan your thunderbolt
into flame or kindle it afresh from Aetna, and make
a great blaze, evincing anger worthy of a stalwart
and youthful Zeus—unless indeed the tale is true
that the Cretans tell about you and your tomb in
their island.
 ZEUS 
Who is that, Hermes, who is shouting from Attica,
near Hymettus, in the foot-hills, all dirty and
squalid and dressed in skins? He is digging, I
think, with his back bent. A mouthy fellow and an
impudent one. Very likely he is a philosopher,
otherwise he would not talk so impiously against
us.
 HERMES 
What, father! Don’t you know Timon of Collytus, the son of Echecratides? He is the man who
often treated us to perfect sacrifices; the one who
had just come into a fortune, who gave us the complete hecatombs and used to entertain us brilliantly
at his house during the Diasia.

 

 ZEUS 
Ah, what a reverse! He the fine gentleman, the
rich man, who had all the friends about him? What
has happened to him to make hin like this, poor
man, a dirty fellow digging ditches and working for
wages, it seems, with such a heavy pick to swing?

 HERMES 
Well, you might say that he was ruined by
kind-heartedness and philanthropy and compassion
on all those who were in want; but in reality it was
senselessness and folly and lack of discrimination in
regard to his friends. He did not perceive that he
was showing kindness to ravens and wolves, and
while so many birds of prey were tearing his liver,
the unhappy man thought they were his friends and
sworn brothers, who enjoyed their rations only on
account of the good-will they bore him. But when
they had thoroughly stripped his bones and gnawed
them clean, and had very carefully sucked out whatever marrow there was in them, they went away and
left him like a dry tree with severed roots, no longer
recognizing him or looking at him—why should they,
pray ?—or giving him help or making him presents in
their turn. So, leaving the city out of shame, he has
taken to the pick and the coat of skin, as you see,
and tills the soil for hire, brooding” crazily over his
wrongs because the men whom he enriched pass him
by very disdainfully without even knowing whether
his name is Timon or not.

 ZEUS 
Come now, we must not overlook the man or neglect him, for he had reason to be angry in view of his
wretched plight. Why, we should be like those vile

 

toadies of his if we left a man forgotten who has
burned so many fat thigh-bones of bulls and goats on
the altar to honour us; indeed, I have the steam of
them still in my nostrils! However, business has
been so heavy, the perjurers and oppressors and
plunderers have made such a hubbub, and I have
been so afraid of the temple-robbers, who are numerous and hard to guard against and do not let me
close my eyes for an.instant, that I haven't even
looked at Attica for a long time, particularly
since philosophy and debates grew rife among the
Athenians, for it is impossible even to hear the
prayers on account of their wrangling and shouting ;
one must therefore either sit with his ears stopped
or be dinned to death with their harangues about
“virtue” and “things incorporeal”’ and other piffle.
That is how I happened to neglect this man, who is
not a bad sort.

 

However, take Riches, Hermes, and go to him
quickly ; let Riches take Treasure along too, and let
them both stay with Timon and not be so ready to
go away, however much he may try to chase them
out of the house again in the kindness of his heart.
About those toadies and the thanklessness which they
showed toward him I shall take measures later, and
they shall be punished as soon as I get my thunderbolt put in order; for the two longest tines of it
are broken and blunted since yesterday, when I let
drive a little too vigorously at the sophist Anaxagoras,
who was teaching his disciples that we gods do not
count at all. I missed him, for Pericles held his

 

hand over him, Lucian is referring to the fact that Pericles intervened in favour of Anaxagoras when the latter was tried for impiety at Athens. and the bolt, glancing off into the
Anaceum, set the temple afire and itself came near
being broken to bits on the rock. But in the meantime it will be punishment enough for them if they
see Timon enormously rich.