Saturday, December 14, 2019
Final Moments
Menander, fragment 25 Kassel and Austin, lines 3-6 (tr. Francis G. Allinson):
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If I desired some appropriate form of death this one alone appears as euthanasia: prone on my back to lie, with well-creased paunch, fat, scarce uttering a word, with upward panting breath, and eat and eat and say: "I rot for very pleasure."
ἴδιον ἐπιθυμῶν μόνος μοι θάνατος οὗτος φαίνεται
εὐθάνατος, ἔχοντα πολλὰς χολλάδας κεῖσθαι παχύν,
ὕπτιον, μόλις λαλοῦντα καὶ τὸ πνεῦμ' ἔχοντ' ἄνω,
ἐσθίοντα καὶ λέγοντα 'σήπομ' ὑπὸ τῆς ἡδονῆς.'
