The Ten Thousand

BOOK ELEVEN

For two urns stand upon the floor of Zeus's palace

Which hold his gifts to us, the one filled with evils, the other blessings.

When Zeus Lord of Thunder mixes his gifts between the two,

A man meets now with good fortune, now with ill.

But when Zeus bestows gifts from the jar of sorrow only,

That man becomes a pariah-cruel famine and madness

Pursue him to the ends of the earth,

And he wanders without aim, damned by gods and men alike.

– HOMER