[26] Lit. "so long as the soul (i.e. the appetite) accepts with pleasure the viands"; i.e. there's an interval, at any rate, during which "such as my soul delights in" can still apply and for so long.
But, as a matter of plain logic (Hiero retorted), should you not say, the greater the pleasure a man feels in any business, the more enthusiastic his devotion to it?
That is quite true (he answered).
Hiero. Then have you ever noticed that crowned heads display more pleasure in attacking the bill of fare provided them, than private persons theirs?
No, rather the reverse (the poet answered); if anything, they show a less degree of gusto,[27] unless they are vastly libelled.
[27] "No, not more pleasure, but exceptional fastidiousness, if what people say is true." {agleukesteron}, said ap. Suid. to be a Sicilian word = "more sourly."Well (Hiero continued), and all these wonderfully-made dishes which are set before the tyrant, or nine-tenths of them, perhaps you have observed, are combinations of things acid to the taste, or pungent, or astringent, or akin to these?[28]
[28] Lit. "and their congeners," "their analogues," e.g. "curries, pickles, bitters, peppery condiments."To be sure they are (he answered), unnatural viands, one and all, in my opinion, most alien to ordinary palates.[29]
[29] Or, "unsuited to man's taste," "'caviare to the general' I name them."Hiero. In fact, these condiments can only be regarded as the cravings[30] of a stomach weakened by luxurious living; since I am quite sure that keen appetites (and you, I fancy, know it well too) have not the slightest need for all these delicate made things.
[30] Cf. Plat. "Laws," 687 C; "Hipp." ii. 44. Lit. "can you in fact regard these condiments as other than . . ." See Holden ad loc.(ed. 1888); Hartm. op. cit. p. 259, suggests {enthumemata},"inventions." It is true, at any rate (observed Simonides), about those costly perfumes, with which your persons are anointed, that your neighbours rather than yourselves extract enjoyment from them; just as the unpleasant odour of some meats is not so obvious to the eater as to those who come incontact with him.
Hiero. Good, and on this principle we say of meats, that he who is provided with all sorts on all occasions brings no appetite to any of them. He rather to whom these things are rarities, that is the man who, when some unfamiliar thing is put before him, will take his fill of it with pleasure.[31]
[31] {meta kharas}. Cf. Aesch. Fr. 237, {stomatos en prote khara}, of a hungry man; "Od." xvii. 603.
It looks very much (interposed Simonides) as if the sole pleasure left you to explain the vulgar ambition to wear a crown, must be that named after Aphrodite. For in this field it is your privilege to consort with whatever fairest fair your eyes may light on.
Hiero. Nay, now you have named that one thing of all others, take my word for it, in which we princes are worse off than lesser people.[32]
[32] Reading {saph' isthi}, or if as Cobet conj. {saphestata}, transl. "are at a disadvantage most clearly by comparison with ordinary folk."To name marriage first. I presume a marriage[33] which is contracted with some great family, superior in wealth and influence, bears away the palm, since it confers upon the bridegroom not pleasure only but distinction.[34] Next comes the marriage made with equals; and last,wedlock with inferiors, which is apt to be regarded as degrading and disserviceable.
[33] Cf. "Hunting," i. 9. Holden cf. Eur. "Rhes." 168; "Androm." 1255.
[34] Cf. Dem. "in Lept." S. 69, p. 499. See Plat. "Rep." 553 C.
Now for the application: a despotic monarch, unless he weds some foreign bride, is forced to choose a wife from those beneath him, so that the height of satisfaction is denied him.[35]
[35] Al. "supreme content, the quintessential bliss, is quite unknown to him."The tender service of the proudest-souled of women, wifely rendered, how superlatively charming![36] and by contrast, how little welcome is such ministration where the wife is but a slave--when present, barely noticed; or if lacking, what fell pains and passions will it not engender!
