Chremylus: I think it is clear to all alike that I have come to know this,
Chremylus: that it is just for the good men of men to fare well,
490
Chremylus: As for the wicked and the impious among them, surely they must have the opposite.
Chremylus: Therefore, we, desiring this, found it with difficulty, so that it might come to be.
Chremylus: a noble and generous and useful plan for every task.
Chremylus: For if Wealth now looks out and, being not blind, goes about,
Chremylus: as he walks among the good people and will not abandon them,
495
Chremylus: But he will flee the wicked and the godless; and then he will make
Chremylus: Surely all good and wealthy people, both those who reverence the divine things.
Chremylus: Yet who could ever find for these people a better one?
Blepsydemus: No one; I am a witness to this for you; do not ask her about this at all.
Chremylus: For as things now stand for us, the life of men is arranged,
500
Chremylus: Who would not consider it madness and a greater misfortune?
Chremylus: For many wicked people are rich, though they are men,
Chremylus: unjustly they gathered them; for though they were many, they were very good men
Chremylus: They fare badly and are hungry along with you, and most of them come to visit.
Chremylus: I do not say that he will be, if Wealth once sees this and stops it,
505
Chremylus: What road he might take to procure greater goods for men.
Poverty: But oh, having been persuaded most easily of all men not to be well
Poverty: two old men, companions in babbling and going mad,
Poverty: If this were to happen which you desire, I say it would not be profitable for you.
Poverty: for if Wealth were to see again and distribute himself equally,
510
Poverty: neither would she study any art of men nor wisdom.
Poverty: No one; but both of you, these two, being destroyed, will wish.
Poverty: Who is to forge or to build ships or to sew or to turn on the lathe,
Poverty: either to cut leather, or to make bricks, or to wash, or to sew shoes,
Poverty: or after breaking up the ground with ploughs, to reap the harvest of Demeter,
515
Poverty: Should you be allowed to live idly while everyone neglects [things]?
Chremylus: You are talking nonsense. For all these things that you have just now listed are ours.
Chremylus: The servants will suffer.
Poverty: Then from where will you have servants?
Chremylus: We will surely buy some silver.
Poverty: Who will be the first to sell?
Poverty: "Even when he himself has money?"
520
Chremylus: someone wanting to make a profit
Chremylus: a merchant who has come from Thessaly from most slave-traders.
Poverty: But no one will be first of all, nor will anyone be a slave-catcher.
Poverty: According to the argument you are making, surely. For who would be willing to become rich?
Poverty: 'Does he risk his own soul to do this?'
Poverty: So that he, being compelled to dig himself and to toil at other things as well.
525
Poverty: You will grind out a more painful life than the present one.
Chremylus: 'To the head, to you.'
Poverty: You will still not have even the opportunity to be beaten on a couch, for there will not be any.
Poverty: Not even in the bedrooms; for who would be willing to weave, since gold exists?
Poverty: neither to anoint oneself with dripping perfumes whenever one leads a bride.
Poverty: nor to adorn with expenses of dyed garments of varied shapes.
530
Poverty: Yet what is there more to be wealthy than to be in want of all these things?
Poverty: but with me these things are abundant for you all of which you desire; for I
Poverty: Sitting down, forcing the artisan to wait on me like a mistress.
Poverty: because of need and poverty, to seek from where one will have a livelihood.
Wealth. Aristophanes. . 2026-09-08.