The Downward Journey or The Tyrant

​Megapenthes ‘Well, then, do not refuse me this at least, Fate!’ Clotho ‘What is that?’ Megapenthes ‘I want to know how things after me will be.’ Clotho ‘Listen, then, for you will be more distressed by learning. Your wife, Midas the slave will have her, who has indeed long committed adultery with her.’ Megapenthes ‘That cursed fellow, whom I, persuaded by her, set free?’ Clotho ‘And your daughter will be numbered among the concubines of the one who is now tyrant. Your images and statues which the city erected for you long ago, all overthrown, will provide laughter for those who look at them.’ Megapenthes ‘Tell me, will none of my friends be angry at what is being done?’ Clotho ‘Who indeed was a friend to you? Or for what reason did he become one? Do you not know that all those who prostrated themselves and praised every single one of your words and deeds did this either out of fear or out of hope, being friends of your power and looking to the occasion?’ Megapenthes ‘And yet, pouring libations at banquets, they prayed with a loud voice for many good things for me, each of them ready to die before me, if it were possible; and in short, I was their oath.’ Clotho ‘Therefore, yesterday you died after dining at the house of one of them; for that last drink offered to you sent you down here.’ Megapenthes ‘That indeed was what I felt to be bitter. With what intention did he do this?’ Clotho ‘You ask me too many questions, when you ought to embark.’

​Megapenthes ‘One thing chokes me most of all, Clotho, because of which I longed to bob up to the light again, even for a little.’ Clotho ‘What is this? For it seems to be something very great.’ Megapenthes ‘My servant Carion, as soon as he saw me dead, coming up late in the evening into the room where I lay, since there was leisure — for no one was even guarding me — took my concubine Glycerium, with whom, I believe, he had long had relations, and having drawn the door to, began to mate with her as if no one were inside. Then, when he had enough of his desire, looking at me, he said, “You, indeed, you wretched little man, often inflicted blows on me when I did no wrong.” And saying this, he at the same time began to pluck my hair and strike me on the cheek; and finally, clearing his throat loudly, he spat on me, and saying, “Go to the region of the impious,” he departed. I was burning with rage, but yet I did not know what to do to him, being already dry and cold. And that wretched girl, when she perceived the noise of some people approaching, having smeared her eyes with saliva to make it seem as if she had wept over me, went away wailing and calling out my name. If only I could catch them —‘ ​Clotho ‘Stop threatening, but embark; it is already time for you to appear before the court.’ Megapenthes ‘And who will deign to cast a vote against a tyrant?’ Clotho ‘Against a tyrant, indeed, no one, but against a dead man Rhadamanthus, whom you will see very soon, being very just and imposing the deserved penalty on each. For the present, do not delay.’ Megapenthes ‘Make me even a private citizen, Fate, one of the poor, even a slave instead of the king of old; only let me live again.’ Clotho ‘Where is the one with the club? And you, Hermes, drag him in by the foot; for he will not embark willingly.’ Hermes ‘Follow now, runaway. You receive this man, ferryman, and the other thing, so that safely —‘ Charon ‘Do not worry, he shall be bound to the mast.’ Megapenthes ‘Yet indeed I ought to sit in the seat of honor.’ Clotho ‘Because of what?’ Megapenthes ‘Because, by Zeus, I was a tyrant and had ten thousand bodyguards.’ Cyniscus ‘Then did not Carion rightly pluck your hair, you being so foolish? At any rate, you will have a bitter taste of tyranny, having tasted the club.’ Megapenthes ‘Will Cyniscus dare to raise his staff against me? Did I not recently, because you were too free and harsh and censorious, almost have you nailed up?’ Cyniscus ‘Therefore you too shall remain nailed up to the mast.’