Pr. Cronus, you are in authority just now, I understand; to you our sacrifices and ceremonies are directed; now, what can I make surest of getting if I ask it of you at this holy season?
Cro. You had better make up your own mind what to pray for, unless you expect your ruler to be a clairvoyant1 and know what you would like to ask. Then, I will do my best not to disappoint you.
Pr. Oh, I have done that long ago. No originality2 about it; the usual thing, please — -wealth, plenty of gold, landed proprietorship3, a train of slaves, gay soft raiment, silver, ivory, in fact everything that is worth anything. Best of Cronuses, give me some of these; your priest should profit by your rule, and not be the one man who has to go without all his life.
Cro. Of course! ultra vires; these are not mine to give. So do not sulk at being refused; ask Zeus for them; he will be in authority again soon enough. Mine is a limited monarchy5, you see. To begin with, it only lasts a week; that over, I am a private person, just a man in the street. Secondly6, during my week the serious is barred; no business allowed. Drinking and being drunk, noise and games and dice7, appointing of kings and feasting of slaves, singing naked, clapping of tremulous hands, an occasional ducking of corked8 faces in icy water — such are the functions over which I preside. But the great things, wealth and gold and such, Zeus distributes as he will.
Pr. He is not very free with them, though, Cronus. I am tired of asking for them, as I do at the top of my voice. He never listens; he shakes his aegis10, gets the thunderbolt ready for action, puts on a stern look and scares you out of worrying him. He does consent now and then, and make a man rich; but his selection is most casual; he will pass over the good and sensible, and set fools and knaves11 up to the lips in wealth, gaolbirds or debauchees most of them. But I want to know what are the things you can do.
Cro. Oh, they are not to be sneezed at; it does not come to so very little, if you make allowance for my general limitations. Perhaps you think it a trifle always to win at dice, and be able to count on the sice when the ace9 is the best the others can throw? Anyhow, there are plenty who get as much as they can eat just because the die likes them and does what it can for them. Others you may see naked, swimming for their lives; and what was the reef that wrecked12 them, pray? that little die. Or again, to enjoy your wine, to sing the best song at table, at the slaves’ feast to see the other waiters 1 ducked for incompetence13, while you are acclaimed14 victor and carry off the sausage prize is all that nothing? Or you find yourself absolute monarch4 by favour of the knucklebone, can have no ridiculous commands 1 laid on you, and can lay them on the rest: one must shout out a libel on himself, another dance naked, or pick up the flute-girl and carry her thrice round the house; how is that for a sample of my open-handedness? If you complain that the sovereignty is not real nor lasting16, that is unreasonable17 of you; you see that I, the giver of it, have a short-lived tenure18 myself. Well, anything that is in my power — draughts19, monarchy, song, and the rest I have mentioned — you can ask, and welcome; I will not scare you with aegis and thunderbolt.
Pr. Most kind Titan, such gifts I require not of you. Give me the answer that was my first desire, and then count yourself to have repaid my sacrifice sufficiently20; you shall have my receipt in full.
Cro. Put your question. An answer you shall have, if my knowledge is equal to it.
Pr. First, then, is the common story true? used you to eat the children Rhea bore you? and did she steal away Zeus, and give you a stone to swallow for a baby? did he when he grew to manhood make victorious21 war upon you and drive you from your kingdom, bind22 and cast you into Tartarus, you and all the powers that ranged themselves with you?
Cro. Fellow, were it any but this festive23 season, when ’tis lawful24 to be drunken, and slaves have licence to revile25 their lords, the reward for thy question, for this thy rudeness to a grey-haired aged26 God, had been the knowledge that wrath27 is yet permitted me.
Pr. It is not my story, you know, Cronus; it is Homer’s and Hesiod’s; I might say, only I don’t quite like to, that it is the belief of the generality.
Cro. That conceited28 shepherd 1? you do not suppose he knew anything worth knowing about me? Why, think. Is a man conceivable — let alone a God — who would devour29 his own children? — wittingly, I mean; of course he might be a Thyestes and have a wicked brother; that is different. However, even granting that, I ask you whether he could help knowing he had a stone in his mouth instead of a baby; I envy him his teeth, that is all. The fact is, there was no war, and Zeus did not depose30 me; I voluntarily abdicated32 and retired33 from the cares of office. That I am not in fetters34 or in Tartarus you can see for yourself, or you must be as blind as Homer.
Pr. But what possessed35 you to abdicate31?
Cro. Well, the long and short of it is, as I grew old and gouty — that last, by the way, accounts for the fetters of the story — I found the men of these latter days getting out of hand; I had to be for ever running up and down swinging the thunderbolt and blasting perjurers, temple-robbers, oppressors; I could get no peace; younger blood was wanted. So I had the happy thought of abdicating36 in Zeus’s favour. Independently of that, I thought it a good thing to divide up my authority — I had sons to take it on — and to have a pleasant easy time, free of all the petition business and the embarrassment37 of contradictory38 prayers, no thundering or lightening to do, no lamentable39 necessity for sending discharges of hail. None of that now; I am on the shelf, and I like it, sipping40 neat nectar and talking over old times with Iapetus and the others that were boys with me. And He is king, and has troubles by the thousand. But it occurred to me to reserve these few days for the employments I have mentioned; during them I resume my authority, that men may remember what life was like in my days, when all things grew without sowing or ploughing of theirs — no ears of corn, but loaves complete and meat ready cooked — when wine flowed in rivers, and there were fountains of milk and honey; all men were good and all men were gold. Such is the purpose of this my brief reign15; therefore the merry noise on every side, the song and the games; therefore the slave and the free as one. When I was king, slavery was not.
Pr. Dear me, now! and I accounted for your kindness to slaves and prisoners from the story again; I thought that, as you were a slave yourself, you were paying slaves a compliment in memory of your own fetters.
Cro. Cease your ribald jests.
Pr. Quite so; I will. But here is another question, please. Used mortals to play draughts in your time?
Cro. Surely; but not for hundreds or thousands of pounds like you; nuts were their highest stake; a man might lose without a sigh or a tear, when losing could not mean starvation.
Pr. Wise men! though, as they were solid gold themselves, they were out of temptation. It occurred to me when you mentioned that — suppose any one were to import one of your solid gold men into our age and exhibit him, what sort of a reception would the poor thing get? They would tear him to pieces, not a doubt of it. I see them rushing at him like the Maenads at Pentheus, the Thracian women at Orpheus, or his hounds at Actaeon, trying which could get the biggest bit of him; even in the holidays they do not forget their avarice41; most of them regard the holy season as a sort of harvest. In which persuasion42 some of them loot their friends’ tables, others complain, quite unreasonably43, of you, or smash their innocent dice in revenge for losses due to their own folly44.
But tell me this, now: as you are such a delicate old deity45, why pick out the most disagreeable time, when all is wrapt in snow, and the north wind blows, everything is hard frozen, trees dry and bare and leafless, meadows have lost their flowery beauty, and men are hunched46 up cowering47 over the fire like so many octogenarians — why this season of all others for your festival? It is no time for the old or the luxurious48.
Cro. Fellow, your questions are many, and no good substitute for the flowing bowl. You have filched49 a good portion of my carnival50 with your impertinent philosophizings. Let them go, and we will make merry and clap our hands and take our holiday licence, play draughts for nuts in the good old way, elect our kings and do them fealty51. I am minded to verify the saw, that old age is second childhood.
Pr. Now dry be his cup when he thirsts, to whom such words come amiss! Cronus, a bowl with you! ’tis enough that you have made answer to my former questions. By the way, I think of reducing our little interview to writing, my questions and your so affable answers, for submission52 to those friends whose discretion53 may be trusted.
H.
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1
clairvoyant
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| adj.有预见的；n.有预见的人 | |
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originality
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| n.创造力，独创性；新颖 | |
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proprietorship
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| n.所有（权）；所有权 | |
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monarch
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| n.帝王，君主，最高统治者 | |
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monarchy
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| n.君主，最高统治者；君主政体，君主国 | |
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secondly
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| adv.第二，其次 | |
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dice
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| n.骰子；vt.把（食物）切成小方块，冒险 | |
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corked
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| adj.带木塞气味的，塞着瓶塞的v.用瓶塞塞住( cork的过去式 ) | |
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ace
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| n.A牌；发球得分；佼佼者；adj.杰出的 | |
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aegis
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| n.盾；保护，庇护 | |
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knaves
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| n.恶棍，无赖( knave的名词复数 )；（纸牌中的）杰克 | |
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12
wrecked
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| adj.失事的，遇难的 | |
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incompetence
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| n.不胜任，不称职 | |
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acclaimed
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| adj.受人欢迎的 | |
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reign
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| n.统治时期，统治，支配，盛行；v.占优势 | |
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16
lasting
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| adj.永久的，永恒的；vbl.持续，维持 | |
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unreasonable
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| adj.不讲道理的，不合情理的，过度的 | |
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18
tenure
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| n.终身职位；任期；(土地)保有权，保有期 | |
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19
draughts
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| n. <英>国际跳棋 | |
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sufficiently
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| adv.足够地，充分地 | |
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victorious
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| adj.胜利的，得胜的 | |
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bind
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| vt.捆，包扎；装订；约束；使凝固；vi.变硬 | |
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festive
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| adj.欢宴的，节日的 | |
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lawful
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| adj.法律许可的，守法的，合法的 | |
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revile
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| v.辱骂，谩骂 | |
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aged
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| adj.年老的，陈年的 | |
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wrath
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| n.愤怒，愤慨，暴怒 | |
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conceited
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| adj.自负的，骄傲自满的 | |
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devour
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| v.吞没；贪婪地注视或谛听，贪读；使着迷 | |
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30
depose
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| vt.免职；宣誓作证 | |
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abdicate
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| v.让位，辞职，放弃 | |
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32
abdicated
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| 放弃（职责、权力等）( abdicate的过去式和过去分词 )； 退位，逊位 | |
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33
retired
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| adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的 | |
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34
fetters
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| n.脚镣( fetter的名词复数 )；束缚v.给…上脚镣，束缚( fetter的第三人称单数 ) | |
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35
possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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36
abdicating
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| 放弃（职责、权力等）( abdicate的现在分词 )； 退位，逊位 | |
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embarrassment
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| n.尴尬；使人为难的人(事物)；障碍；窘迫 | |
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38
contradictory
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| adj.反驳的，反对的，抗辩的；n.正反对，矛盾对立 | |
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lamentable
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| adj.令人惋惜的，悔恨的 | |
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40
sipping
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| v.小口喝，呷，抿( sip的现在分词 ) | |
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41
avarice
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| n.贪婪；贪心 | |
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42
persuasion
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| n.劝说；说服；持有某种信仰的宗派 | |
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43
unreasonably
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| adv. 不合理地 | |
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44
folly
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| n.愚笨，愚蠢，蠢事，蠢行，傻话 | |
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45
deity
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| n.神，神性；被奉若神明的人(或物) | |
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46
hunched
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| （常指因寒冷、生病或愁苦）耸肩弓身的，伏首前倾的 | |
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47
cowering
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| v.畏缩，抖缩( cower的现在分词 ) | |
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48
luxurious
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| adj.精美而昂贵的；豪华的 | |
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49
filched
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| v.偷（尤指小的或不贵重的物品）( filch的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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50
carnival
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| n.嘉年华会，狂欢，狂欢节，巡回表演 | |
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51
fealty
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| n.忠贞，忠节 | |
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52
submission
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| n.服从，投降；温顺，谦虚；提出 | |
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53
discretion
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| n.谨慎；随意处理 | |
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