died—all professions, all nationalities. Follow the thought
all the way down to Philistion, Phoebus, and Origanion. Now
extend it to other species.
We have to go there too, where all of them have already
gone:
... the eloquent and the wise—Heraclitus, Pythagoras,
Socrates...
... the heroes of old, the soldiers and kings who followed
them...
... Eudoxus, Hipparchus, Archimedes...
... the smart, the generous, the hardworking, the cunning,
the selfish...
... and even Menippus and his cohorts, who laughed at
thewhole brief, fragile business.
All underground for a long time now.
And what harm does it do them? Or the others either—the
ones whose names we don’t even know?