Timon or The Misanthrope

​Timon Come, my mattock, now strengthen yourself for me and do not grow weary in summoning the Treasure from the depths into the light. O Zeus of wonders, and friendly Corybantes, and Hermes the gain-giver, from where is so much gold? Is this perhaps a dream? I fear at least lest I find ashes upon waking. But indeed it is coined gold, reddish, heavy, and most sweet to the sight. “O gold, fairest welcome for mortals!” For like burning fire you shine out both by night and by day. Come, dearest and most lovely. Now indeed I believe that Zeus once became gold; for what maiden would not have received with open lap so beautiful a lover flowing down through the roof?

​Timon O Midas and Croesus, and the votive offerings in Delphi, how you were after all nothing compared to Timon and Timon’s wealth, to whom not even the king of the Persians is equal! O mattock and dearest leather jerkin, it is fitting to dedicate you to this Pan here; and I, having now bought all this borderland, and having built a small tower over the treasure sufficient for me alone to live in, think that I shall have this same also as my tomb when I die. Let these things be resolved and enacted as law for the remainder of my life: no association with anyone, ignorance, and contempt; and friend, stranger, companion, or the Altar of Mercy, let these be great nonsense; and to pity one who weeps or to help one in need, let this be a transgression of the law and a dissolution of customs; let my way of life be solitary like that of wolves, and let there be only one friend, Timon.

​Timon And all the others are enemies and schemers; and to converse with any of them is a pollution; and if I but see anyone, the day is ill-omened; and in short, let them differ in nothing for us from stone or bronze statues; and let us neither receive a herald from them nor make treaties with them; and let the desert be our boundary against them. Tribesmen, and clansmen, and demesmen, and the fatherland itself, are cold and useless names, and the ambitions of foolish men. Let Timon alone be rich, and let him look down on all, and let him live in luxury alone by himself, freed from flattery and vulgar praises; and let him sacrifice to the gods and feast alone, neighbor and borderer to himself, shaking off the others. And let it be resolved that he greet only himself once and for all, if he must die, and place the crown upon himself.

​Timon And let the name “Misanthrope” be sweetest, and let the marks of my character be testiness, harshness, clumsiness, anger, and inhumanity. And if I should see someone being destroyed in fire and begging to extinguish it, I would extinguish it with pitch and oil. And if in winter the river should sweep someone away, and he stretching out his hands should beg to be rescued, I would push him also, plunging him headlong, so that he could not even surface again; for thus they would receive their equal deserts. “Timon, son of Echecrates, of the deme Collytus, proposed this law; the same Timon put it to the vote in the assembly.” Well then, let these things be resolved by us, and let us manfully abide by them.

​Timon However, I would have valued it highly if these things somehow became known to all, namely that I am super-rich; for the matter would be a hanging-noose to them. And yet, what is this? Ah, what speed! They are running together from all sides, covered in dust and panting, having smelled the gold, I know not from where. Whether then, having gone up on this hill, shall I drive them away, skirmishing with stones from a superior position? Or shall we commit a lawlessness to this extent, conversing with them just once, so that they may be more grieved by being looked down upon? This, I think, is better. So let us receive them now, standing our ground. Come, let me see, who is this first of them? Gnathonides the flatterer, who the other day, when I asked for a contribution, stretched out a noose to me, though he had often vomited whole jars at my house. But he did well to arrive; for he shall weep before the others.