20–22
Hermes
You have mourned enough; we have almost finished our voyage.
Charon
Come, pay me the ferry-charge first! -Give me yours, too. Now they have all paid. -Pay me your obol, too, Mikyllos.
Mikyllos
You are joking, Charon, or else your accounts are writ in water, as they say, if you expect any obol from Mikyllos. I absolutely do not know whether an obol is four-sided or round.
Charon
This is a fine, profitable voyage to-day! However, take yourselves ashore. I am going after the horses and cows and dogs and other animals, for they, too, must needs cross now.
Klotho
Take them and conduct them, Hermes. I myself must sail to the other shore, to bring over Indopatris and Eraminthe, the Seres. They are already dead just now from fighting with each other about the boundaries of their territories.
Hermes
Let us proceed, friends, or, rather, all follow me in order.
5
Mikyllos
Goodness, how dark it is. Where now is the handsome Megillos? Or how can any one tell here whether Simmiche is more beautiful than Phryne? All things are equal and of the same complexion, and there are no such things as degrees of beauty. Even my threadbare cloak, which always used to seem hideous to me, is now just as good as the king's purple, for they are both invisible and covered by the same darkness. Kyniskos, where may you happen to be?
Kyniskos
Here I am. Let us stroll on together, if agreeable to you.
Mikyllos
By all means. Give me your arm. Tell me, is not this much the same sort of thing as the Eleusinian mysteries-for of course you have been initiated?
