<TEI xmlns="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0" xmlns:py="http://codespeak.net/lxml/objectify/pytype" py:pytype="TREE"><text xml:lang="eng"><body><div type="translation" n="urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0062.tlg066.perseus-eng4" xml:lang="eng"><div type="textpart" subtype="book" xml:base="urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0062.tlg066.perseus-eng4" n="26"><div type="textpart" subtype="section" xml:base="urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0062.tlg066.perseus-eng4:26" n="1"><sp><speaker>Menippus</speaker><p>I have heard that you were a god, Chiron, and that you died of your own choice?</p></sp><sp><speaker>Chiron</speaker><p>You were rightly informed. I am dead, as you see, and might have been immortal.</p></sp><sp><speaker>Menippus</speaker><p>And what should possess you, to be in love with Death? He has no charm for most people.</p></sp><sp><speaker>Chiron</speaker><p>You are a sensible fellow; I will tell you. There was no further satisfaction to be had from immortality.</p></sp><sp><speaker>Menippus</speaker><p>Was it not a pleasure merely to live and see the light?</p></sp><sp><speaker>Chiron</speaker><p>No; it is variety, as I take it, and not monotony, that constitutes pleasure. Living on and on, everything always the same; sun, light, food, spring, summer, autumn, winter, one thing following another in unending sequence,—I sickened of it all. I found that enjoyment lay not in continual possession; that deprivation had its share therein.</p></sp><sp><speaker>Menippus</speaker><p>Very true, Chiron. And how have you got on since you made Hades your home? </p></sp></div></div></div></body></text></TEI>