Lucian, Juppiter Confutatus, Henry Watson Fowler (Translator), Francis George Fowler (Translator), 17

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Cyniscus

I say nothing of our own days, in which villains and money-grubbers prosper, and honest men are oppressed with want and sickness and a thousand distresses, and can hardly call their souls their own.

Zeus

Surely you know, Cyniscus, what punishments await the evil-doers after death, and how happy will be the lot of the righteous?

Cyniscus

Ah, to be sure: Hades—Tityus—Tantalus. Whether there is such a place as Hades, I shall be able to satisfy myself when I die. In the meantime, I had rather live a pleasant life here, and have a score or so of vultures at my liver when I am dead, than thirst like Tantalus in this world, on the chance of drinking with the heroes in the Isles of the Blest, and reclining in the fields of Elysium.

Juppiter Confutatus. Lucian. Henry Watson Fowler (Translator), Francis George Fowler (Translator). Medford, MA, USA. 2023-08-01.

Current edition Perseus

Zeus Cross-examined (English) (The Works of Lucian of Samosata, Vol. 3. Fowler, Henry Watson and Fowler, Francis George, translators. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1905.)

Editions (1)

Ζεὺς ἐλεγχόμενος Perseus (Lucian, Vol. 2. Harmon, Austin Morris, editor. London: William Heinemann, Ltd.; Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1915.) — 17 focus

Κυνίσκος

ἵνα ὑμῖν¹ μὴ τὰ νῦν λέγω καθʼ ἕκαστον ἐπεξιών, τοὺς μὲν πονηροὺς εὐδαιμονοῦντας καὶ τοὺς πλεονέκτας, ἀγομένους δὲ καὶ φερομένους τοὺς χρηστοὺς ἐν πενίᾳ καὶ νόσοις καὶ μυρίοις κακοῖς πιεζομένους.

Ζεύς

οὐ γὰρ οἶσθα, ὦ Κυνίσκε, ἡλίκας μετὰ τὸν βίον οἱ πονηροὶ τὰς κολάσεις ὑπομένουσιν, ἢ ἐν ὅσῃ οἱ χρηστοὶ εὐδαιμονίᾳ διατρίβουσιν;

Κυνίσκος

Ἅιδην μοι λέγεις καὶ Τιτυοὺς καὶ Ταντάλους. ἐγὼ δέ, εἰ μέν τι καὶ τοιοῦτόν ἐστιν, εἴσομαι τὸ σαφὲς ἐπειδὰν ἀποθάνω· τὸ δὲ νῦν ἔχον ἐβουλόμην τὸν ὁποσονοῦν χρόνον τοῦτον εὐδαιμόνως διαβιοὺς ὑπὸ ἑκκαίδεκα γυπῶν κείρεσθαι τὸ ἧπαρ ἀποθανών, ἀλλὰ μὴ ἐνταῦθα διψήσας ὥσπερ ὁ Τάνταλος ἐν Μακάρων νήσοις πίνειν μετὰ τῶν ἡρώων ἐν τῷ Ἠλυσίῳ λειμῶνι κατακείμενος.

Translations (1)

Zeus Catechized Perseus (Lucian, Vol. 2. Harmon, Austin Morris, editor. London: William Heinemann, Ltd.; Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1915.) — 17 focus

CYNISCUS

not to speak in detail f the present state of affairs, when the wicked and he selfish are happy and the good are driven about from pillar to post, caught in the pinch of poverty and disease and other ills without number?

ZEUS

Why, don’t you know, Cyniscus, what punishments await the wicked when life is over, and in what happiness the good abide?

CYNISCUS

Do you talk to me of Hades and of Tityus and Tantalus and their like? For my part, when I die I shall find out for certain whether there is really any such thing, but for the present I prefer to live out my time in happiness, however short it may be, and then have my liver torn by sixteen vultures after my death, rather than go as thirsty as Tantalus here on earth and do my drinking in the Isles of the Blest, lying at my ease among the heroes in the Elysian Fields.

Lucian Juppiter Confutatus 17

Henry Watson Fowler (Translator), Francis George Fowler (Translator)

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Cyniscus

I say nothing of our own days, in which villains and money-grubbers prosper, and honest men are oppressed with want and sickness and a thousand distresses, and can hardly call their souls their own.

Zeus

Surely you know, Cyniscus, what punishments await the evil-doers after death, and how happy will be the lot of the righteous?

Current edition Perseus

Ζεύς

οὐ γὰρ οἶσθα, ὦ Κυνίσκε, ἡλίκας μετὰ τὸν βίον οἱ πονηροὶ τὰς κολάσεις ὑπομένουσιν, ἢ ἐν ὅσῃ οἱ χρηστοὶ εὐδαιμονίᾳ διατρίβουσιν;

CYNISCUS

not to speak in detail f the present state of affairs, when the wicked and he selfish are happy and the good are driven about from pillar to post, caught in the pinch of poverty and disease and other ills without number?

ZEUS

Why, don’t you know, Cyniscus, what punishments await the wicked when life is over, and in what happiness the good abide?

Stable identifiers

Search the Perseus Catalog for:

Search the Perseus Catalog for:

Cyniscus I say nothing of our own days, in which villains and money-grubbers prosper, and honest men are oppressed with want and sickness and a thousand distresses, and can hardly call their souls their own.

Zeus Surely you know, Cyniscus, what punishments await the evil-doers after death, and how happy will be the lot of the righteous?

Current edition Perseus

Ζεύς οὐ γὰρ οἶσθα, ὦ Κυνίσκε, ἡλίκας μετὰ τὸν βίον οἱ πονηροὶ τὰς κολάσεις ὑπομένουσιν, ἢ ἐν ὅσῃ οἱ χρηστοὶ εὐδαιμονίᾳ διατρίβουσιν;

CYNISCUS not to speak in detail f the present state of affairs, when the wicked and he selfish are happy and the good are driven about from pillar to post, caught in the pinch of poverty and disease and other ills without number?

ZEUS Why, don’t you know, Cyniscus, what punishments await the wicked when life is over, and in what happiness the good abide?

Stable identifiers

Cyniscus

I say nothing of our own days, in which villains and money-grubbers prosper, and honest men are oppressed with want and sickness and a thousand distresses, and can hardly call their souls their own.

Zeus

Surely you know, Cyniscus, what punishments await the evil-doers after death, and how happy will be the lot of the righteous?

Ζεύς

οὐ γὰρ οἶσθα, ὦ Κυνίσκε, ἡλίκας μετὰ τὸν βίον οἱ πονηροὶ τὰς κολάσεις ὑπομένουσιν, ἢ ἐν ὅσῃ οἱ χρηστοὶ εὐδαιμονίᾳ διατρίβουσιν;

CYNISCUS

not to speak in detail f the present state of affairs, when the wicked and he selfish are happy and the good are driven about from pillar to post, caught in the pinch of poverty and disease and other ills without number?

ZEUS

Why, don’t you know, Cyniscus, what punishments await the wicked when life is over, and in what happiness the good abide?