is the end of mortal's plans, such is the outcome of great ambitions!
See how man rides the waves!" Until now, I had been sorrowing for a mere
stranger, but a wave turned the face, which had undergone no change,
towards the shore, and I recognized Lycas; so evil-tempered and so
unrelenting but a short time before, now cast up almost at my feet! I
could no longer restrain the tears, at this; I beat my breast again and
yet again, with my hands. "Where is your evil temper now?" I cried.
"Where is your unbridled passion? You be there, a prey to fish and wild
beasts, you who boasted but a little while ago of the strength of your
command. Now you have not a single plank left of your great ship! Go
on, mortals; set your hearts upon the fulfillment of great ambitions: Go
on, schemers, and in your wills control for a thousand years the disposal
of the wealth you got by fraud! Only yesterday this man audited the
accounts of his family estate, yea, even reckoned the day he would arrive
in his native land and settled it in his mind! Gods and goddesses, how
far he lies from his appointed destination! But the waves of the sea are
not alone in thus keeping faith with mortal men: The warrior's weapons
fail him; the citizen is buried beneath the ruins of his own penates,
when engaged in paying his vows to the gods; another falls from his
chariot and dashes out his ardent spirit; the glutton chokes at dinner;
the niggard starves from abstinence. Give the dice a fair throw and you
will find shipwreck everywhere! Ah, but one overwhelmed by the waves
obtains no burial! As though it matters in what manner the body, once it
is dead, is consumed: by fire, by flood, by time! Do what you will,
these all achieve the same end. Ah, but the beasts will mangle the body!
As though fire would deal with it any more gently; when we are angry with
our slaves that is the punishment which we consider the most severe.
What folly it is, then, to do everything we can to prevent the grave from
leaving any part of us behind {when the Fates will look out for us, even
against our wills."} (After these reflections we made ready to pay the