Gospel of Aristippus 4 · Third Witness: The Wave of Sovereignty, and Living in the Hour
Aristippus, born at Cyrene in north Africa about 435 before this era, died about 356. Student of Socrates, founder of the Cyrenaic school. He held the pleasure of the present to be the good, but the point of it was mastery and not indulgence: taunted with keeping company with a famous courtesan, he answered that he had her, and she did not have him. Of the four witnesses he alone took fees for teaching, which the others held shameful. He lived at the court of the tyrant of Syracuse, and asked how he could bear it, said that he knew when to keep his mouth shut. Not one of his books survives; everything known comes through later hands, so what is recorded of him here is to be doubted more than the rest. What this volume brings is a man who enjoyed himself. Without him the scripture is left with nothing but a severe face. This book is written at ease. Whoever reads it and does not laugh once has not read this book.
4.1The rulers could not beat him in argument, so they turned to force.
4.2And by a rigged vote they sentenced him to death.
4.3On the day of execution Socrates took the cup of hemlock as though receiving a rare vintage at a royal banquet.
4.4He raised it to the executioner in toast, and said:
4.5"I drink to this great journey."
4.6"Let us see what sort of order is waiting out there in the void."
4.7The executioner was the only man in the room who wept. The Teacher consoled him.
4.8He lay down with grace. His mind was clear and quick to the last breath.
4.9He looked at Crito and said, amused:
4.10"We owe Asclepius a cock, my friend."
4.11"Don't let him think us the sort of bad guests who slip away without a word and leave nothing for the host."
4.12Then, with a mild smile, his consciousness slid out of the shell of the body without the least obstruction.
4.13As a diver drops into a warm and boundless sea.
4.14I had thought a man would say something else at his death.
4.15He made a joke. That is the whole doctrine of this book.