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!
(36) Or, "the gentle ministrations of loftiest-thoughted women and
fair wives possess a charm past telling, but from slaves, if
tendered, the reverse of welcome, or if not forthcoming..."
And if we come to masculine attachments, still more than in those whose end is procreation, the tyrant finds himself defrauded of such mirthfulness, (37) poor monarch! Since all of us are well aware, I fancy, that for highest satisfaction, (38) amorous deeds need love's strong passion. (39)