Source edition
Lucian, Vol. 2. Harmon, Austin Morris, editor. London: William Heinemann, Ltd.; Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1915.
Source data
Perseus Digital Library · CC BY-SA 4.0
Cloned and adapted by Humanitext, with ongoing edits.
Summary
This satirical dialogue humorously depicts the vanity of earthly wealth and power, contrasting it with the absolute equality of death through a journey to the underworld. The story begins at the banks of the Styx, where the ferryman Charon and the Fate Clotho await Hermes, who arrives with a group of deceased souls. While the tyrannical ruler Megapenthes desperately clings to his former life and tries to delay his departure, the Cynic philosopher Cyniscus and the poor shoemaker Micyllus cheerfully embrace death, mocking the tyrant's exposed vanity. Upon crossing into the underworld, the dead are brought before the judge Rhadamanthus. While the philosopher and the shoemaker are proven innocent and set free, the tyrant is put on trial, with his own bed and lamp summoned as witnesses to testify to his wicked deeds. Ultimately, the tyrant receives a poetic punishment: he is forbidden from drinking the waters of Lethe, condemned to suffer eternally while retaining the agonizing memory of his lost earthly luxury.