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“What he should have done, I think, was first and foremost to await death and not to cut and run from life; but if he had determined to be off at all costs, not to use fire or any of these devices out of tragedy, but to choose for his departure some other form of death out of the myriads that there are. If, however, he is partial to fire as something connected with Heracles,. why in the world did he not quietly select a wellwooded mountain and cremate himself upon it in solitude, taking along only one person such as Theagenes here for his Philoctetes?Philoctetes had helped Heracles to cremate himself on Mt. Oeta by kindling the pyre for him. On the contrary, it is in Olympia, at the height of the festival, all but in the theatre, that he plans to roast himself— not undeservedly, by Heracles, if it is right for parricides and for atheists to suffer for their hardinesses.As the cremation actually took place at Harpina, two miles away from Olympia, and on the day after the festival closed, it may be that religious scruples (cf. § 26) caused Peregrinus to modify an original plan which involved its taking place at Olympia itself while the festival was in progress. And from that point of view he seems to be getting about it very late in the day; he ought long ago to have been flung into the bull of PhalarisSee Phalaris I, 11-12 (Vol. I, pp. 17 ff.). to pay the fitting penalty instead of opening his mouth to the flames once for all and expiring in a trice. For people tell me that no other form of death is quicker than that by fire; you have only to open your mouth, and die forthwith.
