Croesus and Irus

Meaning

Crœsus and Irus d’Homere make an extreme contrast of wealth and poverty. Nuysement uses it to express the claimed superiority of those who love philosophy and know its treasures over people who lack that knowledge. The comparison does not narrate a meeting between the two, say that Croesus practised the art, or turn Irus into a failed alchemist. The supplied annotation identifies the Homeric beggar’s context in Odyssey 18; that contextual aid remains distinct from the historical text’s brief naming. Intellectual possession, rather than an independently established fortune, is the immediate stake.