The Scales of Minos

Fable by Jean-Pierre Claris de Florian Period 18th century

Minos, no longer able to suffice
for the tiresome task of hearing and judging
every shade descended to the shadowy empire,
imagined, to shorten it,
to have a scale made
where in one of the pans he placed at once
five or six dead, in the other a certain weight
that determined the sentence.
If the weight rose, then more at leisure
Minos examined the matter;
if the weight sank, on the contrary,
without scruple he had them punished.
The method was sure, expeditious and clear;
Minos was well pleased with it. One day, at the same time,
at the bank of the Styx death gathers
two kings, a great minister, a hero, three scholars.
Minos has them weighed together.
The weight rises, he adds two,
and then three, it is in vain; four do no better.
Minos, a little surprised, removes from the scale
these useless weights, seeks another means;
and, near there seeing a poor man of good
who in an obscure corner awaited in silence,
he puts him alone as counterweight:
the six shades then rise at once.

Florian

Translation generated by Poésies 123 with assistance from the deepseek-chat artificial-intelligence model.

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