Are you such a lover of gold and of riches,
Micyllus, and is owning quantities of gold the only
thing in the world that you admire and consider
blissful ?
I am not the only ‘one to do so, Pythagoras: you
yourself, when you were Euphorbus, sallied forth to
fight the Achaeans with your curls tricked out in
gold and silver, and even in war, where it would
have been better to wear iron, you thought fit to
face danger with your hair caught up with gold.Tliad 17, 52.
No doubt Homer said that your hair was “like the
Graces” because “it was snooded with gold and with
silver” ; for it looked far finer and lovelier, of course,
when it was interwoven with gold and shone in
unison with it. And yet as far as you are concerned,
Goldenhair, it is of little moment that you, the son
of a Panthous, honoured gold, but what of the father
of gods and of men, the son of Cronus and Rhea?
When he was in love with that slip ofa girl in Argos,
not having anything more attractive to change
himself into nor any other means of corrupting the
sentries of Acrisius, he turned into gold, as you, of
course, have heard, and came down through the roof
to visit his beloved. Then what is the use of my
telling you the rest of it—how many uses gold has,
and how, when people have it, it renders them
handsome and wise and strong, lending them honour
and esteem, and not infrequently it makes inconspicuous and contemptible people admired and renowned in a short time?
For instance, you know
my neighbour, of the same trade, Simon, who dined
with me not long ago when I boiled the soup for
Cronus-day and put in two slices of sausage?
Yes, I know him; the snub-nosed, short fellow
who filched the earthen bowl and went away with it
under his arm after dinner, the only bowl we had—
I myself saw him, Micyllus.
So it was he that stole it and then swore by so
many gods that he did not? But why didn’t you
cry out and tell on him then, cock, when you saw us
being plundered ?
I crowed, and that was all that I could do at the
time. But what about Simon? You seemed to be
going to say something about him.
He had a cousin who was enormously rich, named
Drimylus. This fellow while he was alive never gave
apenny to Simon—why should he, when he himself
did not touch his money? But since his death the
other day all his property is Simon’s by law, and now
he, the man with the dirty rags, the man that used
to lick the pot, takes the air pleasantly, dressed in
fine woollens and royal purple, the owner of servants
and carriages and golden cups and_ ivory-legged
tables, receiving homage from everybody and no
longer even giving a glance at me. Recently, for
example, I saw him coming toward me and said,
“Good-day, Simon’; but he replicd: “Tell that
pauper not to abbreviate my name; it is not Simon
but Simonides.”He adopts a name better suited to his new position in society ; ef. Timon 22.1 What is more, the women are
actually in love with him now, and he flirts with
them and slights them, and when he receives some
and is gracious to them the others threaten to hang
themselves on account of his neglect. You see,
don’t you, what blessings gold is able to bestow,
when it transforms ugly people and renders them
lovely, like the girdle in poetry?The girdle of Aphrodite: /liad 14, 214 ff. And you have
heard the poets say: “O gold, thou choicest
treasure,”Euripides, from the lost Danae: Nauck, Vrag. Graec. Frag. 324. and
Tis gold that over mortal men doth rule.Source unknown ; Nauck, ibid., adesp. 294.
But why did you interrupt me by laughing, cock ?
Because in your ignorance, Micyllus, you have
gone just as far astray as most people in regard to
the rich. Take my word for it, they live a much
more wretched life than we. I who talk to you have
been both poor and rich repeatedly, and have tested
every kind of life : after a little you shall hear about
it all.
Yes, by Heaven, it is high time now for you to
talk and tell me how you got transformed and what
you know of each existence.
Listen ; but first let me tell you thus much, that I
have never seen anyone leading a happier life than
you.
Than I, cock? I wish you no better luck yourself! You force me to curse you, you know. But
begin with Euphorbus and tell me how you were
transformed to Pythagoras, and then the rest of it
till you get to the cock : for it is likely that you have
seen many sights and had many adventures in your
multifarious existences.