12–13
BUYER
Who that is in his senses would buy so corrupt and lawless a slave? How he reeks of myrrh, and how he staggers and reels in his gait! But you yourself, Hermes, might tell me what traits he has and what his object in life is.
5
HERMES
In general, he is accommodating to live with, satisfactory to drink with, and handy to accompany an amorous and profligate master when he riots about town with a flute-girl, Moreover, he is a connoisseur in pastries and a highly expert cook: in short, a Professor of Luxury. He was educated in Athens, and entered service in Sicily, at the court of the tyrants, with whom he enjoyed high favour. The sum and substance of his creed is to despise everything, make use of everything and cull pleasure from every source.
BUYER
You had better look about for someone else, among these rich and wealthy people; for I can’t afford to buy a jolly life.
HERMES
It looks as if this fellow would be left on our hands, Zeus.
ZEUS
Remove him; bring on another—stay! those two, the one from Abdera who laughs and the one from Ephesus who cries, for I want to sell them together.The Schools of Democritus of Abdera, the propounder of the atomic theory, and of Heraclitus of Ephesus, who originated the doctrine of the flux; he held that fire is the first principle, and its manifestations continually change, so that nothing isstable. Both representatives talk Ionic Greck.
HERMES
Come down among us, you two. I sell the two best philosophies; we offer the two that are sagest of all.
