Page:Lucian, Vol 3.djvu/17

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THE DEAD COME TO LIFE

insulting. But how are we to punish him, to be sure? Let us invent a complex death for him, such as to satisfy us all; in fact he deserves to die seven times over for each of us.

PHILOSOPHER

I suggest he be crucified.

ANOTHER

Yes, by Heaven; but flogged beforehand.

ANOTHER

Let him have his eyes put out long beforehand.

ANOTHER

Let him have that tongue of his cut off, even longer beforehand.

SOCRATES

And you, Empedocles — what do you suggest?

EMPEDOCLES

That he be thrown into my crater,[1] so that he may learn not to abuse his betters.

PLATO

Indeed, the best suggestion would have been for him, like another Pentheus or Orpheus,

“To find among the crags a riven doom,”[2]

so that each of us might have gone off with a scrap of him.

FRANKNESS

No, no ! In the name of Him who hears the suppliant,[3] spare me!

  1. ↑ Aetna, into which Empedocles is said to have leapt.
  2. ↑ Both Pentheus and Orpheus were torn to pieces by Maenads. The verse is from a lost tragedy (Nauck, Tr. Gr. Fragm. p. 895).
  3. ↑ Zeus.
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