17
Do you talk to me of Hades and of Tityus and Tantalus and their like? For my part, when I die I shall find out for certain whether there is really any such thing, but for the present I prefer to live out my time in happiness, however short it may be, and then have my liver torn by sixteen vultures after my death, rather than go as thirsty as Tantalus here on earth and do my drinking in the Isles of the Blest, lying at my ease among the heroes in the Elysian Fields.
18
What’s that you say? Don’t you believe that there are any punishments and rewards, and a court where each man’s life is scrutinized!
18
I hear that somebody named Minos, a Cretan, acts as judge in such matters down below. And please answer me a question on his behalf, for he is your son, they say.
18
What have you to ask him, Cyniscus?
18
Whom does he punish principally?
18
wicked, of course, such as murderers and temple-robbers.
18
And whom does he send to join the heroes?
18
Those who were good and pious and lived virtuously.
18
Why is that, Zeus?
18
Because the latter deserve reward and the former punishment.
18
But if a man should do a dreadful thing unintentionally, would he think it right to punish him like the others?
18
Not by any means.
18
I suppose, then, if a man did something good unintentionally, he would not think fit to reward him, either?
18
Certainly not!
18
Then, Zeus, he ought not to reward or punish anyone.
18
Why not?
18
Because we men do nothing of our own accord. but only at the behest of some inevitable necessity, if what you previously admitted is true, that Fate is the cause of everything If a man slay, it is she who slays, and if he rob temples, he only does it under orders. Therefore if Minos were to judge justly, he would punish Destiny instead of Sisyphus and Fate instead of Tantalus, for what wrong did they do in obeying orders?
19
It isn’t proper to answer you any longer when you ask such questions. You are an impudent fellow and a sophist, and I shall go away and leave you now.;
