§1Τίμων
Ὦ Ζεῦ φίλιε καὶ ξένιε καὶ ἑταιρεῖε καὶ ἐφέστιε καὶ ἀστεροπητὰ καὶ ὅρκιε καὶ νεφεληγερέτα καὶ ἐρίγδουπε καὶ εἴ τί σε ἄλλο οἱ ἐμβρόντητοι ποιηταὶ καλοῦσι, — καὶ μάλιστα ὅταν ἀπορῶσι πρὸς τὰ μέτρα· τότε γὰρ αὐτοῖς πολυώνυμος γινόμενος ὑπερείδεις τὸ πῖπτον τοῦ μέτρου καὶ ἀναπληροῖς τὸ κεχηνὸς τοῦ ῥυθμοῦ — ποῦ σοι νῦν ἡ ἐρισμάραγος ἀστραπὴ καὶ ἡ βαρύβρομος βροντὴ καὶ ὁ αἰθαλόεις καὶ ἀργήεις καὶ σμερδαλέος κεραυνός;
Timon O Zeus, protector of friendship, hospitality, comradeship, and the hearth, wielder of lightning, guardian of oaths, cloud-gatherer, deep-thunderer, and whatever else the thunderstruck poets call you—especially when they are at a loss for their meters; for then, by becoming many-named to them, you prop up the falling meter and fill the gaping void of the rhythm—where is your loud-crashing lightning now, your deep-roaring thunder, and your glowing, flashing, terrible thunderbolt?
ἅπαντα γὰρ ταῦτα λῆρος ἤδη ἀναπέφηνε καὶ καπνὸς ἀτεχνῶς ποιητικὸς ἔξω τοῦ πατάγου τῶν ὀνομάτων.
For all of these have now turned out to be mere nonsense and absolutely poetic smoke, apart from the din of the names.
τὸ δὲ ἀοίδιμόν σοι καὶ ἑκηβόλον ὅπλον καὶ πρόχειρον οὐκ οἶδʼ ὅπως τελέως ἀπέσβη καὶ ψυχρόν ἐστι, μηδὲ ὀλίγον σπινθῆρα ὀργῆς κατὰ τῶν ἀδικούντων διαφυλάττον.
Your celebrated, far-shooting, and ready weapon has somehow completely died out and is cold, preserving not even a tiny spark of anger against the wrongdoers.
§2Τίμων
θᾶττον γοῦν τῶν ἐπιορκεῖν τις ἐπιχειρούντων ἕωλον θρυαλλίδα φοβηθείη ἂν ἢ τὴν τοῦ πανδαμάτορος κεραυνοῦ φλόγα· οὕτω δαλόν τινα ἐπανατείνεσθαι δοκεῖς αὐτοῖς, ὡς πῦρ μὲν ἢ καπνὸν ἀπʼ αὐτοῦ μὴ δεδιέναι, μόνον δὲ τοῦτο οἴεσθαι ἀπολαύειν τοῦ τραύματος, ὅτι ἀναπλησθήσονται τῆς ἀσβόλου.
Timon At any rate, anyone attempting to commit perjury would sooner fear a day-old lamp wick than the flame of your all-subduing thunderbolt; you seem to brandish a mere ember before them, so that they do not dread any fire or smoke from it, but think this is the only harm they will suffer from the blow—that they will be covered in soot.
ὥστε ἤδη διὰ ταῦτά σοι καὶ ὁ Σαλμωνεὺς ἀντιβροντᾶν ἐτόλμα, οὐ πάνυ τι ἀπίθανος ὤν, πρὸς οὕτω ψυχρὸν τὴν ὀργὴν Δία θερμουργὸς ἀνὴρ μεγαλαυχούμενος.
And so because of this, even Salmoneus dared to thunder back at you, being not at all unconvincing, a hot-blooded, boasting man against a Zeus whose anger is so cold.
πῶς γὰρ οὐ;
How indeed could it be otherwise?
ὅπου γε καθάπερ ὑπὸ μανδραγόρᾳ καθεύδεις, ὃς οὔτε τῶν ἐπιορκούντων ἀκούεις οὔτε τοὺς ἀδικοῦντας ἐπισκοπεῖς, λημᾷς δὲ καὶ ἀμβλυώττεις πρὸς τὰ γινόμενα καὶ τὰ ὦτα ἐκκεκώφησαι καθάπερ οἱ παρηβηκότες.
Since you sleep as if under the influence of mandragora, hearing neither those who break their oaths nor watching those who do wrong, but you have bleary eyes and weak sight toward what is happening, and your ears are completely deafened just like those who are past their prime.
§3Τίμων
ἐπεὶ νέος γε ἔτι καὶ ὀξύθυμος ὢν καὶ ἀκμαῖος τὴν ὀργὴν πολλὰ κατὰ τῶν ἀδίκων καὶ βιαίων ἐποίεις καὶ οὐδέποτε ἦγες τότε πρὸς αὐτοὺς ἐκεχειρίαν, ἀλλʼ ἀεὶ ἐνεργὸς πάντως ὁ κεραυνὸς ἦν καὶ ἡ αἰγὶς ἐπεσείετο καὶ ἡ βροντὴ ἐπαταγεῖτο καὶ ἡ ἀστραπὴ συνεχὲς ὥσπερ εἰς ἀκροβολισμὸν προηκοντίζετο·
Timon For when you were still young and quick-tempered, and in the prime of your anger, you did many things against the unjust and the violent, and you never then kept a truce with them. But the thunderbolt was always completely active, the aegis was shaken, the thunder crashed, and the lightning was continuously darted forward like skirmishing missiles.
οἱ σεισμοὶ δὲ κοσκινηδὸν καὶ ἡ χιὼν σωρηδὸν καὶ ἡ χάλαζα πετρηδόν, ἵνα σοι φορτικῶς διαλέγωμαι, ὑετοί τε ῥαγδαῖοι καὶ βίαιοι, ποταμὸς ἑκάστη σταγών·
The earthquakes were like a sieve, the snow in heaps, and the hail like stones—to speak to you in a vulgar way—and the rains were torrential and violent, every drop a river.
ὥστε τηλικαύτη ἐν ἀκαρεῖ χρόνου ναυαγία ἐπὶ τοῦ Δευκαλίωνος ἐγένετο, ὡς ὑποβρυχίων ἁπάντων καταδεδυκότων μόγις ἕν τι κιβώτιον περισωθῆναι προσοκεῖλαν τῷ Λυκωρεῖ ζώπυρόν τι τοῦ ἀνθρωπίνου σπέρματος διαφυλάττον εἰς ἐπιγονὴν κακίας μείζονος.
Consequently, in an instant, such a great shipwreck occurred in the time of Deucalion that, as everything was submerged under the water, barely a single chest was saved, running aground on Lycoreus, preserving some spark of the human seed for the offspring of a greater wickedness.
§4Τίμων
τοιγάρτοι ἀκόλουθα τῆς ῥᾳθυμίας τἀπίχειρα κομίζῃ παρʼ αὐτῶν, οὔτε θύοντος ἔτι σοί τινος οὔτε στεφανοῦντος, εἰ μή τις ἄρα πάρεργον Ὀλυμπίων, καὶ οὗτος οὐ πάνυ ἀναγκαῖα ποιεῖν δοκῶν, ἀλλʼ εἰς ἔθος τι ἀρχαῖον συντελῶν·
Timon Therefore, you receive from them the wages appropriate to your laziness, with no one sacrificing to you anymore or crowning you, unless someone does so as an incidental matter of the Olympic games, and even he does not seem to do what is necessary, but is performing some ancient custom.
καὶ κατʼ ὀλίγον Κρόνον σε, ὦ θεῶν γενναιότατε, ἀποφαίνουσι, παρωσάμενοι τῆς τιμῆς.
And by degrees, O most noble of the gods, they make you out to be Cronus, having pushed you aside from your honor.
ἐῶ λέγειν, ποσάκις ἤδη σου τὸν νεὼν σεσυλήκασιν· οἱ δὲ καὶ αὐτῷ σοὶ τὰς χεῖρας Ὀλυμπίασιν ἐπιβεβλήκασι, καὶ σὺ ὁ ὑψιβρεμέτης ὤκνησας ἢ ἀναστῆσαι τοὺς κύνας ἢ τοὺς γείτονας ἐπικαλέσασθαι, ὡς βοηδρομήσαντες αὐτοὺς συλλάβοιεν ἔτι συσκευαζομένους πρὸς τὴν φυγήν·
I pass over mentioning how many times they have already plundered your temple; and some have even laid their hands on you yourself at Olympia, and you, the high-thunderer, hesitated either to rouse the dogs or to call the neighbors, so that they might run to help and catch them while they were still packing up for flight.
ἀλλʼ ὁ γενναῖος καὶ Γιγαντολέτωρ καὶ Τιτανοκράτωρ ἐκάθησο τοὺς πλοκάμους περικειρόμενος ὑπʼ αὐτῶν, δεκάπηχυν κεραυνὸν ἔχων ἐν τῇ δεξιᾷ.
But you, the noble one, the slayer of Giants and conqueror of Titans, sat still while having your locks sheared off by them, though you held a ten-cubit thunderbolt in your right hand.
ταῦτα τοίνυν, ὦ θαυμάσιε, πηνίκα παύσεται οὕτως ἀμελῶς παρορώμενα;
When, then, O wonderful one, will these things cease to be so carelessly overlooked?
ἢ πότε κολάσεις τὴν τοσαύτην ἀδικίαν;
Or when will you punish such great injustice?
πόσοι Φαέθοντες ἢ Δευκαλίωνες ἱκανοὶ πρὸς οὕτως ὑπέραντλον ὕβριν τοῦ βίου;
How many Phaethons or Deucalions are sufficient for such an overflowing insolence of life?
§5Τίμων
ἵνα γὰρ τὰ κοινὰ ἐάσας τἀμὰ εἴπω, τοσούτους Ἀθηναίων εἰς ὕψος ἄρας καὶ πλουσίους ἐκ πενεστάτων ἀποφήνας καὶ πᾶσι τοῖς δεομένοις ἐπικουρήσας, μᾶλλον δὲ ἀθρόον εἰς εὐεργεσίαν τῶν φίλων ἐκχέας τὸν πλοῦτον, ἐπειδὴ πένης διὰ ταῦτα ἐγενόμην, οὐκέτι οὐδὲ γνωρίζομαι πρὸς αὐτῶν οὐδὲ προσβλέπουσιν οἱ τέως ὑποπτήσσοντες καὶ προσκυνοῦντες κἀκ τοῦ ἐμοῦ νεύματος ἀπηρτημένοι, ἀλλʼ ἤν που καὶ ὁδῷ βαδίζων ἐντύχω τινὶ αὐτῶν, ὥσπερ τινὰ στήλην παλαιοῦ νεκροῦ ὑπτίαν ὑπὸ τοῦ χρόνου ἀνατετραμμένην παρέρχονται μηδὲ ἀναγνόντες.
Timon For to leave aside public matters and speak of my own: after raising so many Athenians to great heights and turning them from the poorest into the richest, and helping all who were in need—or rather, pouring out my wealth all at once for the benefit of my friends—since I became poor because of this, I am no longer even recognized by them, nor do those look at me who formerly cowered, bowed down, and hung upon my nod. But if I happen to meet any of them while walking on the road, they pass me by as if they were passing some old, fallen tombstone, overturned by time, without even reading the inscription.
οἱ δὲ καὶ πόρρωθεν ἰδόντες ἑτέραν ἐκτρέπονται δυσάντητον καὶ ἀποτρόπαιον θέαμα ὄψεσθαι ὑπολαμβάνοντες τὸν οὐ πρὸ πολλοῦ σωτῆρα καὶ εὐεργέτην αὐτῶν γεγενημένον.
And some, seeing me from afar, turn into another path, supposing they will see a troublesome and abominable sight: the man who not long ago was their savior and benefactor.