And we, Charon, were just accusing Hermes of neglecting his duties!
Well, what are we waiting for now?
Haven't we lost enough time already?
You are right; let them embark. I will take my note-book in my hand and sit by the gangway, as usual; and as each one of them comes aboard I will find out who he is and whence he comes, and what sort of ath he died by. Do you, Charon, receive them and stack them together in lots; and you, Hermes, put these new-born children aboard first. For how could they answer any of my questions?
See, ferryman, there are three hundred of these for you, counting those that were exposed.
Dear me, that is a large bag. You have brought us unripe dead.
Shall we put the unwept aboard next to these, Klotho?
Do you mean the aged? Yes, do so. Why should I trouble myself now to inquire into such ancient history? All you who are over sixty come forward at once. What is this? They do not hear me, because their ears are stopped with age. Probably you will have to lift these, too, and ship them.
Here is another lot, lacking two of four hundred. These are all soft and ripe, and gathered in their prime.
No, by Jove! they are all raisins already.
Bring on the wounded next to these,
I will begin with you. Tell me by what death you have come here; or, rather, I will examine you by reference to the documents. Eightyfour must have died in battle yesterday in Mysia, among them Gobares, the son of Oxyartes.
They are here.
Seven cut their own throats for love, and Theagenes the philosopher on account of the courtesan from Megara.
These are at hand.
Where are the two who killed each other fighting for the throne?
They are here.
And he who was murdered by his wife and her lover?
Here he is, close by.
Now bring those from the law-courts; I mean the impaled and the flogged to death. And where are the sixteen who were killed by robbers?
You see this lot are here, the wounded. Shall I bring on the women en masse?
By all means; and the shipwrecked en masse, for they died in the same way. And as for the fever patients, bring them all at once, too, and Agathokles the doctor with them.
Where is the philosopher Kyniskos, who ought
to have died of eating Hecate's supper and the
purifiactory eggs and a raw polyp to top off with?
I have been standing here at your service for some time, my good Klotho. What wrong have I done that you left me on earth so long? You almost spun out your whole spindle for me. However, I tried often to cut the thread and come, but somehow or other it was not to be broken.
I left you to be a guardian and physician of human errors. But come aboard, and luck go with you!
By Heaven, no, unless we shall first have shipped the fellow in fetters, for I am afraid he will persuade you with his prayers.
Come, let me know who he is.
Megapenthes, son of Lakydes, a despot.
Come aboard.
Not for worlds, Madam Klotho. Let me go up for a little while. Then I will come to you by my own free-will at no one's summons.
What is the reason you want to go?
Give me time to finish my house. I left my dwelling behind half built.
Nonsense! Get in.
I do not ask for a long time, Fate.
Let me stay just this one day, to appear to my
wife and tell her something about my moneywhere I kept my great treasure hidden.
It is fixed. You cannot do it.
Then will all that gold be lost?
Not at all; you may be at ease about that. Your cousin Megakles will get hold of it.
Oh, what an affront! My enemy, whom I was too easy-going to put to death before me?
The same. He will survive you forty years and something over, in possession of your harem and your clothes and all your wealth.
It is unjust, Klotho, to assign my property to my greatest enemies.
I suppose, my noble sir, that you did not seize it when it belonged to Kydimachos, murdering the man himself and then slaying his children on their father's warm body?
But at present it was mine.
Well, your time of possession had run out.