• Variant translations:
• The painful secret of Gods and kings; it is that men are free. They are free, Aegisthus. You know it and they don't.
• As quoted in Sartre : A Philosophic Study (1966), by Anthony Manser, p. 227
• The painful secret of gods and kings is that men are free. They are free, Aegisthus. You know it, but they do not.
• As quoted in The Intellectual Resistance in Europe (1981) by James D. Wilkinson, p. 41
• The painful secret of gods and kings is that men are free, Aegistheus. You know it and they do not.
Zeus (Jupiter): Agistheus, you are a king, and it's to your sense of king-ship I appeal, for you enjoy wielding the scepter.
Aegistheus: Continue.
Zeus: You may hate me, but we are akin; I made you in my image. A king is a god on earth, glorious and terrifying as a god.
Aegistheus: You, terrifying?
Zeus: Look at me. [A long silence.] I told you you were made in my image. Each keeps order; you in Argos, I in heaven and on earth — and you and I harbor the same dark secret in our hearts.
Aegistheus: I have no secret.
Zeus: You have. The same as mine. The bane of gods and kings. The bitterness of knowing men are free. Yes, Aegistheus they are free. But your subjects do not know it, and you do.
What It Means
This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "Zeus (Jupiter): Agistheus, you are a king, and it's to your sense of king-ship I appeal, for you enjoy wielding the scepter.
Aegistheus: Continue.
Zeus: You may hate me, but we are akin; I made you in my image. A king is a god on earth, glorious and terrifying as a god.
Aegistheus: You, terrifying?
Zeus: Look at me. [A long silence.] I told you you were made in my image. Each keeps order; you in Argos, I in heaven and on earth — and you and I harbor the same dark secret in our hearts.
Aegistheus: I have no secret.
Zeus: You have. The same as mine. The bane of gods and kings. The bitterness of knowing men are free. Yes, Aegistheus they are free. But your subjects do not know it, and you do." in the context of "Act II, tableau II, scene 5, as translated by Stuart Gilbert (1946)
• Variant translations:
• The painful secret of Gods and kings; it is that men are free. They are free, Aegisthus. You know it and they don't.
• As quoted in Sartre : A Philosophic Study (1966), by Anthony Manser, p. 227
• The painful secret of gods and kings is that men are free. They are free, Aegisthus. You know it, but they do not.
• As quoted in The Intellectual Resistance in Europe (1981) by James D. Wilkinson, p. 41
• The painful secret of gods and kings is that men are free, Aegistheus. You know it and they do not." to mean that wisdom is timeless.
About Jean-Paul Sartre