MENIPPUS
But if you were to ask the very man who is straining his lungs and bawling and accusing everybody else: ‘How about yourself? What do you really do, and what in Heaven’s name do you contribute’ to the world?’ he would say, if he were willing to say what was right and true: ¢1 hold it unnecessary to be a merchant or a farmer or a soldier or to follow'y trade; I shout, go dirty, take cold baths, walk abeut barefoot in winter, wear a filthy mantle and like Momus carp at everything the others do. If some rich man or other has made an extravagant outlay on a dinner or keeps a mistress, I make it my affair and get hot about it; but if one of my friends or associates is ill abed and needs relief and attendance, I ignore it.’
“That is what these whelps are like, gods.
But if you were to ask the very man who is straining his lungs and bawling and accusing everybody else: ‘How about yourself? What do you really do, and what in Heaven’s name do you contribute’ to the world?’ he would say, if he were willing to say what was right and true: ¢1 hold it unnecessary to be a merchant or a farmer or a soldier or to follow'y trade; I shout, go dirty, take cold baths, walk abeut barefoot in winter, wear a filthy mantle and like Momus carp at everything the others do. If some rich man or other has made an extravagant outlay on a dinner or keeps a mistress, I make it my affair and get hot about it; but if one of my friends or associates is ill abed and needs relief and attendance, I ignore it.’
“That is what these whelps are like, gods.
Icaromenippus. Lucian of Samosata. Austin Morris Harmon (Translator). United States. Perseus 5.0.
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