40
Besides, it is humiliating that sickness will come to you as to ordinary folk and fever will not set you apart as a king: Death has no fear of your bodyguard, but comes when he will and takes you moaning with no respect for your diadem. From what a height you will fall when, jerked from your royal throne, you depart by the same road as the common crowd, all equal as you are driven in the herd of the dead. Above ground you will leave behind a high mound and a lofty tombstone or a pyramid with inscribed corners, honours too late for you to see. Those statues and temples which cities erect to flatter you, and your great name, all will soon disappear unnoticed and be gone, neglected. But if all remains as long as may be, what enjoyment will now come to one who is beyond feeling? Do you see what further troubles you will have in life from fear, anxiety, and labour, and what will remain with you after you depart?
41
But now it’s your turn to make your request, Timolaus. See that you outdo them—as we expect from an intelligent man of the world.
41
Well, Lycinus, see if my wish will be open to censure or possible correction. Gold, treasures and bushels of coin, kingdoms, wars and fears for empire you have rightly censured—I shall not ask for them. They are insecure, full of plots and give more grief than pleasure.
42
I want Hermes to meet me and give me a set of rings with certain powers: one is to keep the body always strong and healthy, invulnerable and free from disease, another to make the wearer invisible like the ring of Gyges, The story is told in Plato, Republic II, 359d ff. a third to make me stronger than thousands of men and able easily to carry by myself a weight that thousands together could hardly move, and another to lift me flying far above the earth—let me have a ring for this as well. Then a ring to put anyone I want to sleep and open every door as I approach, releasing bolts and bars—let one ring do both.
