The Wisdom of Heracles

This is a marvellous piece on why we should eat, drink and be merry

Euripides, Alcestis 779-802 (spoken by Heracles, tr. Moses Hadas and John McLean):

Come here and learn a thing or two. Do you understand the nature of mortality?

I suppose you don't. How could you? But listen to me.

All men have to pay the debt of death, and there is not a mortal who knows whether he is going to be alive on the morrow.

The outcome of things that depend on fortune cannot be foreseen; they can neither be learnt nor discovered by any art.

Hearken to this and learn of me, cheer up, drink, reckon the days yours as you live them; the rest belong to fortune.

Pay honor too to Cypris, most sweetest of goddesses to men; she is a gracious deity.

Let these other things go, and heed my words—if I seem to you to be talking sense; I think I am.

Come away from the door there, bind your head with garlands, and drink with me.

I know well that the splash of the wine in the cup will shift you from this dour, tight moodiness.

We are only human, and our thought ought to be human.

Life for all you sober and frowning folk, if you take my opinion, is not really life but a calamity.

δεῦρ' ἔλθ', ὅπως ἂν καὶ σοφώτερος γένῃ.
τὰ θνητὰ πράγμαθ' ἣντιν' οἶσθ' ἔχει φύσιν;
οἶμαι μὲν οὔ· πόθεν γάρ; ἀλλ' ἄκουέ μου.

βροτοῖς ἅπασι κατθανεῖν ὀφείλεται,
κοὐκ ἔστι θνητῶν ὅστις ἐξεπίσταται
τὴν αὔριον μέλλουσαν εἰ βιώσεται·
τὸ τῆς τύχης γὰρ ἀφανὲς οἷ προβήσεται,
κἄστ' οὐ διδακτὸν οὐδ' ἁλίσκεται τέχνῃ.
ταῦτ' οὖν ἀκούσας καὶ μαθὼν ἐμοῦ πάρα
εὔφραινε σαυτόν, πῖνε, τὸν καθ' ἡμέραν
βίον λογίζου σόν, τὰ δ' ἄλλα τῆς τύχης.
τίμα δὲ καὶ τὴν πλεῖστον ἡδίστην θεῶν
Κύπριν βροτοῖσιν· εὐμενὴς γὰρ ἡ θεός.
τὰ δ' ἄλλ' ἔασον πάντα καὶ πιθοῦ λόγοις
ἐμοῖσιν, εἴπερ ὀρθά σοι δοκῶ λέγειν.
οἶμαι μέν. οὔκουν τὴν ἄγαν λύπην ἀφεὶς
πίῃ μεθ' ἡμῶν [τάσδ' ὑπερβαλὼν τύχας,
στεφάνοις πυκασθείς]; καὶ σάφ' οἶδ' ὁθούνεκα
τοῦ νῦν σκυθρωποῦ καὶ ξυνεστῶτος φρενῶν
μεθορμιεῖ σε πίτυλος ἐμπεσὼν σκύφου.
ὄντας δὲ θνητοὺς θνητὰ καὶ φρονεῖν χρεών·
ὡς τοῖς γε σεμνοῖς καὶ συνωφρυωμένοις
ἅπασίν ἐστιν, ὥς γ' ἐμοὶ χρῆσθαι κριτῇ,
οὐ βίος ἀληθῶς ὁ βίος ἀλλὰ συμφορά.