Charon, or the Inspectors (11-15)

But who are those men whom Croesus is sending out, and what are they carrying on their shoulders?[*]

He is making an offering of golden ingots to Apollo at Delphi to pay for the prophecies which will bring him to grief a little later on. The man is monstrously daft on divination.

Is that gold, the bright substance that shines, the pale yellow substance with a cast of red? This is the first time that I have seen it, though I am always hearing of it.

That is it, Charon, the name that they sing of and fight for.

Really I don’t see what good there is about it, except perhaps for one thing, that its bearers find it heavy.

You do not know how many wars there have been on account of it, how many plots, perjuries, murders, imprisonments, trading ventures, and enslavements.

On account of this substance, not much different from bronze? I know bronze, for, as you are aware, I collect an obol from everyone who makes the downward journey.

Yes, but bronze is plentiful, so that they do not prize it very highly, while this is dug up by the miners at a great depth in small quantities. It comes from the earth, however, like lead and the rest of the metals.

Men are terribly stupid, by what you say, since they have such a passion for a yellow, heavy substance.

Well, at any rate Solon yonder does not seem to love it, Charon, as you see, for he is laughing at Croesus and his barbarian boastfulness, and to my mind he wants to ask him a question. Let us listen, then.

Tell me, Croesus, do you really think that Apollo has any need of these ingots?

Good Heavens, yes! He has nothing to match them among the votive offerings at Delphi.

Then you expect to make the god happy if he adds ingots of gold to the rest of his possessions?

Why not?

They are very poor in Heaven from what you say, since they have to send and get gold from Lydia if they want it.

Why, where else can there be as much gold as there is in our country?

Tell me, is iron produced in Lydia?

Not to any great extent.

Then you are poor in the better metal.

In what way is iron better than gold?

If you will answer my questions without getting angry, you will find out.

Ask them, Solon.

Who is the better man, the one who saves a life or the one who is saved by him?

The one who saves a life of course.

Then if Cyrus attacks the Lydians, as rumour has it that he will, shall you get swords of gold made for your army, or will iron be necessary in that case?

Iron, certainly.

Yes, and if you should not provide iron, your gold would go off to Persia in captivity.

Don’t speak of such a thing, man!

I pray it may not turn out that way; but you clearly admit that iron is better than gold.

Then would you have me offer ingots of iron to the god and call the gold back again?

He will have no need of iron either, not he! Whether you offer bronze or gold, your offering will be a boon and a blessing to ethers than he—to the Phocians or the Boeotians or the Delphians themselves, or else to some tyrant or freebooter; but the god takes little interest in your gold-work.

You are always at war with my wealth and begrudge me it.

The Lydian cannot abide the outspokenness and the truthfulness of his words, Charon; it seems strange to him when a poor man does not cringe but says frankly whatever occurs to him. But he will remember Solon before long, when he has to be captured and put on the pyre by Cyrus. The other day I heard Clotho reading out the fate that had been spun for everyone, and among other things it had been recorded there that Croesus was to be “captured by Cyrus, and that Cyrus was to be slain by yonder woman of the Massagetae. Do you see her, the Scythian woman riding the white horse?

Indeed I do.

That is Tomyris; and after she has cut off Cyrus’ head she will plunge it into a wine-skin full of blood. And do you see his son, the young man? That is Cambyses; he will be king after his father, and when he has had no end of ill-luck in Libya and

How very funny! But now who would dare to look at them, so disdainful are they of the rest of the world? And who could believe that after a little the one will be a prisoner and the other will have his head in a sack of blood?

But who is that man, Hermes, with the purple mantle about him, the one with the crown, to whom the cook, who has just cut open the fish, is giving the ring,

All in a sea-girt island; a king he would have us believe him

You are good at parody, Charon. The man whom you see is Polycrates, the tyrant of Samos, who considers himself wholly fortunate; yet the servant who stands at his elbow, Maeandrius, will betray him into the hands of the satrap Oroetes, and he will be crucified, poor man, after losing his good fortune inamoment’s time. This, too, I heard trom Clotho.

Well done, Clotho, noble lady that you are! Burn them, gracious lady, cut off their heads and crucify them, so that they may know they are human. In the meantime let them be exalted, only to have a sorrier fall from a higher place. For my part I shall laugh when I recognize them aboard my skiff, stripped to the skin, taking with them neither purple mantle nor tiara nor throne of gold.

That is the way their lives will end. But do you see the masses, Charon, the men voyaging, fighting, litigating, farming, lending money, and begging?

I see that their activities are varied and their life full of turmoil; yes, and their cities resemble hives, in which everyone has a sting of his own and stings his neighbour, while some few, like wasps, harry and plunder the meaner sort. But what is that crowd of shapes that flies about them unseen?

Hope, Fear, Ignorance, Pleasure, Covetousness, Anger, Hatred and their like. Of these, Ignorance mingles with them down below and shares their common life, and so do Hatred, Anger, Jealousy, Stupidity, Doubt, and Covetousness; but Fear and Hope hover up above, and Fear, swooping down from time to time, terrifies them and makes them cringe, while Hope, hanging overhead, flies up and is off when they are most confident of grasping her, leaving them in the lurch with their mouths open, exactly as you have seen Tantalus served by the water down below.