Written by Konstantinos Konstantinidis Amphiktyon
When Hercules became a teenager, he wondered, as all young people do, which path to choose. As the sophist Prodicus writes, he withdrew to a quiet place and it seemed to him that two tall women approached him, one of them decent in appearance and naturally gentle, as befits free people, having as ornaments of her body cleanliness, shyness in her eyes, modesty in her figure, wearing a white dress. The other was well-fed, plump and soft in flesh, adorned with ornaments to appear whiter and rosier than she was and taller in stature, with eyes wide open and a transparent dress to show off her exuberant beauty. She examined herself and cast friendly glances around to see if others were looking at her and even looked at her shadow. The first went first to Hercules and said to him: “I see you, Hercules, embarrassed about which path to follow in life. I will lead you to the most pleasant and easy path and there will be nothing that you will not taste, while you will not taste anything unpleasant in your life. For first of all you will not care for wars or for annoying things, but you will live your life seeking what pleasant things you can find, food or drink, with what sight or hearing you can be entertained, or what pleasures you can reap by smell or touch, with what childhood loves you could be delighted, how you can sleep more comfortably and how without any effort you can enjoy all this. And if there is ever a suspicion that you will miss these things, I will lead you to reap what others acquire with their work, without you suffering in body and soul. For I give my students the opportunity to obtain profits from everywhere” Woman what is your name? He asks her “My friends call me Bliss and those who hate me call me Evil.” Then the other one appears before him and says to him: “I have come to you, Hercules, because I know your parents and have perceived your good character during the period of your education. On my path you will become a very capable creator of beautiful and modest works, and I, thanks to these works of yours, will be shown to be worthy of much greater honor and will acquire greater glory. I will not deceive you with pleasant prologues, but I will explain things to you truthfully, as the gods have arranged them. Of the good and beautiful things the gods give nothing to mortals without labor and care, but if you want the gods to be merciful to you, you must worship them, if you want your friends to love you, you must benefit them, and if you want a state to honor you, you must benefit it. And if you have the claim to be admired by all of Greece, you must benefit Greece. And if you want the land to give you abundant fruits, you must cultivate it, or if you think you should get rich from livestock, you must take care of your animals. And when you go to war to increase your strength and want to be able to free friends and enslave enemies, you must also learn the martial arts from the experts and practice how to use them. If you also want to be strong in body, you must accustom the body to serve contemplation and train it with effort and sweat” Kakia then, as Prodicus recounts, immediately takes the floor and says: “Do you mean, Hercules, how difficult and long a path to pleasures this woman indicates to you? I, on the contrary, will lead you to bliss by an easy and short path.” Virtue then says: “Unhappy woman, what good do you have? What pleasant thing do you know since you do not want to do anything to have the pleasant? Why do you not wait to desire them, but before you desire them you are satisfied with everything, you eat before you are hungry and drink before you are thirsty and in order to eat with pleasure you contrive culinary arts, in order to drink pleasantly you make luxurious wines and in the middle of summer you run here and there looking for snow and in order to sleep pleasantly you make not only the mattresses soft but also the beds and the mattresses under the mattress, desiring sleep not because you are tired, but because you have nothing to do. You provoke aphrodisiac pleasure before you seek it by contriving everything and treating men like women. Thus you learn your friends, that is, you humiliate them at night and put them to sleep during the day, and while you are immortal, the gods have removed you from their side and good people despise you. You have not heard the most pleasant sound of praise, nor have you seen the most pleasant sight, because up to now you have never seen any good work of yours. Who is truly able to believe you when you say something, and who can help you in your need? What wise man could ever