Lucian of Samosata, Contemplantes, Austin Morris Harmon (Translator), 18

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CHARON

I see all this, and am wondering what pleasure they find in life and what it is that they are distressed to lose. For example, if one considers their kings, who are counted most happy, quite apart from the instability and uncertainty of their fortune which you allude to, one will find that the pleasures which they have are fewer than the pains, for terrors, alarums, enmities, plots, rage, and flattery are with them always. I say nothing of sorrows, diseases, and misadventures, which of course dominate them without partiality; but when their lot is hard, one is driven to conjecture what the lot of common men must be.

Contemplantes. Lucian of Samosata. Austin Morris Harmon (Translator). United States. Perseus 5.0.

Funding provided by National Endowment for the Humanities.

Current edition Perseus

Charon, or the Inspectors (English) (Lucian, Vol. 2. Harmon, Austin Morris, editor. London: William Heinemann, Ltd.; Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1915.)

Editions (1)

Χάρων ἢ Ἐπισκοποῦντες Perseus (Lucian, Vol. 2. Harmon, Austin Morris, editor. London: William Heinemann, Ltd.; Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1915.) — 18 focus

Χάρων

ὁρῶ ταῦτα πάντα καὶ πρὸς ἐμαυτόν γε ἐννοῶ ὅ τι τὸ ἡδὺ αὐτοῖς παρὰ τὸν βίον ἢ τί ἐκεῖνό ἐστιν, οὗ στερούμενοι ἀγανακτοῦσιν. ἢν γοῦν τοὺς βασιλέας αὐτῶν ἴδῃ τις, οἵπερ εὐδαιμονέστατοι εἶναι δοκοῦσιν, ἔξω τοῦ ἀβεβαίου ὡς φὴς καὶ¹ ἀμφιβόλου τῆς τύχης, πλείω τῶν ἡδέων τὰ ἀνιαρὰ εὑρήσει προσόντα αὐτοῖς, φόβους καὶ ταραχὰς καὶ μίση καὶ ἐπιβουλὰς καὶ ὀργὰς καὶ κολακείας· τούτοις γὰρ ἅπαντες σύνεισιν. ἐῶ πένθη καὶ νόσους καὶ πάθη ἐξ ἰσοτιμίας δηλαδὴ ἄρχοντα αὐτῶν· ὅπου δὲ τὰ τούτων πονηρά, λογίζεσθαι καιρὸς οἷα τὰ τῶν ἰδιωτῶν ἂν εἴη.

Translations (1)

Charon Perseus (The Works of Lucian of Samosata, Vol. 1. Fowler, Henry Watson and Fowler, Francis George, translators. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1905.) — 18 focus

Charon

Yes! I see it all; and I ask myself, what is the satisfaction in life? What is it that men bewail the loss of? Take their kings; they seem to be best off, though, as you say, they have their happiness on a precarious tenure; but apart from that, we shall find their pleasures to be cuewelghed by the vexations inseparable from their position—worry and anxiety, flattery here, conspiracy there, enmity everywhere; to say nothing of the tyranny of Sorrow, Disease, and Passion, with whom there is confessedly no respect of persons. And if the king’s lot is a hard one, we may make a pretty shrewd guess at that of the commoner.

Lucian of Samosata Contemplantes 18

Austin Morris Harmon (Translator)

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