Icaromenippus

On the other hand, suppose a man should take a woman of gentle birth into his house in due form for the procreation of children, and then should neither lay a finger on the ripe and beautiful maiden himself nor suffer anyone else to look at her, but should lock her up and keep her a maid, childless and sterile, asserting, however, that he loved her and making it plain that he did so by his colour and wasted flesh and sunken eyes. Would not such a man appear to be out of his mind when, although he ought to have children and get some good of his marriage, he lets so fair and lovely a girl fade by keeping her all her life as if she were vowed to Demeter? That is the sort of thing I myself am angry about; for some of them kick me about shamefully and tear my flesh and pour me out like water, while others keep me in shackles like a runaway slave with a brand on his forehead.

ZEUS Then why are you angry at them? Both sorts pay a fine penalty ; for these last, like Tantalus, go hungry and thirsty and dry-lipped, merely gaping at

RICHES What, will he ever stop acting as if he were in a leaky boat and baling me out in haste before I have entirely flowed in, wanting to get ahead of the entering stream for fear that I will flood the boat and swamp him? No, and so I expect to carry water to the jar of the Danaids and pour it in without result, because the vessel is not tight but all that flows in will run out almost before it flows in, so much wider is the vent of the jar and so unhindered is the escape.[*](There are two distinct figures here. In both of them wealth is compared to water; but in the first it leaks in and is ladled out, while in the second it is ladled in and leaks out. In the first figure we want a word meaning “boat,” not ‘“basket”; and I assume therefore that κόφινος means “a coracle” here.)

ZEUS Well, if he doesn’t intend to stop that vent and it turns out to have been opened once for all, you will speedily run out and he will have no trouble in finding his coat of skin and his pick again in the lees of the jar. But be off now and make him rich; and when you come back, Hermes, be sure to bring me the Cyclopes from Actna, so that they may point my thunderbolt and put it in order, for we shall soon need it sharp.

HERMES Let us be going, Riches. What’s this? You're limping? I didn’t know that you were lame as well as blind, my good sir.

HERMES What you say is not so. I myself could name you plenty of men who yesterday had not a copper to buy a rope with, but to-day are suddenly rich and wealthy, riding out behind a span of white horses when they never before owned so much as a donkey. In spite of that, they: go about dressed in purple, with rings on their fingers, themselves unable to believe, I fancy, that their wealth is not a dream.