XXVIII. MENIPPUS RIDICULES THE STORY OF THE PROPHET TEIRESIAS AS FOUND IN THE POETS AND THEOLOGISTS, AND, IN PARTICULAR, HIS METAMORPHOSIS INTO A WOMAN. Menippus and Teiresias.1 Menippus. Whether, in fact, you are blind, Teiresias, it is no longer easy to distinguish; for the eyes of all of us alike are empty, and only their sockets remain; and, for the rest, you would no longer be able to tell which was Phineus, or which Lynkeus. That, however, you were a prophet, and that you are the only one who has ever been of both sexes- -both a man and a woman-I am aware, having heard so from the poets. In heaven's name, therefore, tell me which life did you find by experience the pleasanter-when you were a man, or was the woman's superior? Teiresias. The woman's, Menippus, far away, for it was more free from the cares of life, and the women lord it 1 The famous prophet of Thebes, who figures conspicuously in the Sophoklean drama. His blindness has been variously accounted for. One narrative attributes it to the indignation of Athena, whom he had chanced to see in the bath, who, however, gave him, by way of compensation, the prophetic faculties. His transformation into one of the opposite sex is attributed to his having killed a female serpent, and his double experience induced Zeus to make him arbiter in his dispute with Hera upon the question, which sex has the greater enjoyment; and, when he pronounced in favour of the weaker, the indignant Hera deprived him of sight. See Apollod. iii. 6; Ov. Met. iii. 318-338. Cf. 'Od. xi. where Odysseus, by means of his barbarous magic rites, evokes the spectres of the dead. ་ 2 Phineus, the Thracian king and prophet in one, famous as having been the especial object of the persecution of the 'Apπviaι (on account of his cruelty to his sons), and as the instructor of the Argonauts. The cause of his blindness is variously given. See Apollod. i. 9, 21, 22; iii. 14, 7; Apollonius, 'Apy. Milton celebrates the blind prophets and poets of Hellas in the well-known passage in his Par. Lost : "Blind Thamyris, and blind Mæonides, And Teiresias and Phineus, prophets old." (iii. 35.) over the men, and they are not forced to go to fight in war, or to stand sentinel at the battlements, or to wrangle in parliament, or to be cross-examined in law courts. Menippus. Have you not heard, Teiresias, the Medeia of Euripides, how she pities the female sex, in her speech, as wretched, and having to undergo certain intolerable pangs -those of childbirth ? 1 But tell me for the iambics of Medeia remind me of it—did you ever have a child, when you were a woman, or did you continue barren and unfruitful in that state of life? Teiresias. Why do you ask that, Menippus ? Menippus. No offence intended, Teiresias; but answer me, if it is agreeable to you. Teiresias. I was not barren, and yet I did not have a child at all. Menippus. That's quite enough. If you had a womb, in fact-I wished to know that. Teiresias. Of course I had. Menippus. And was it in course of time that it disappeared, and the sexual part was obstructed, and your breasts were removed, and the manly parts sprang into existence, and you grew a beard; or did you immediately from being a woman turn out a man? Teiresias. I don't see what your question means exactly. The forsaken wife of Iason thus expresses the unhappy condition of her sex : Γυναῖκες ἔσμεν ἀθλιώτατον φυτόν· But you appear to me, however, to doubt that these things were so. Menippus. Why, is not one allowed to have any sort of doubt in these cases, Teiresias; but, like some simpleton who doesn't inquire into the truth, must one receive them as gospel, whether they are possible or not? Teiresias. Do you not, pray, believe other things to have so happened as they are related—when, for example, you hear that certain persons have been changed from women into birds, or trees, or quadrupeds; into Philomela,1 or Daphne, or the daughter of Lycaon? Menippus. If ever I come across them, I shall know-what they say. But you, my fine Sir, when you were a woman, did you play the prophet then, as afterwards, or did you learn to be man and prophet at the same time ? Teiresias. Just see. You are ignorant of everything that concerns me how I put an end to a certain quarrel among the gods, and how Hera blinded me, in consequence; and how Zeus consoled me for my misfortune by the gift of prophecy.2 Menippus. Do you still stick to your lies, Teiresias? However, you do so quite in prophetic style; for it is the custom of you people to say nothing rational or true.3 1 For the tragic and frightful story of Philomela (from which Shakspere, or whoever was the author, derived the idea of the tragedy of Titus Andronicus), see Ov. Met. vi. 424-676. For Daphne, Met. vi. 205, and e. A. ii., xv. For the daughter of Lycaon (the impious king who served up human flesh to Zeus during his wanderings in Arkadia), Callisto, see Met. ii. 496. 2 See Ov. Met. iii. 333-338: gravius Saturnia facto, Nec pro materiâ fertur doluisse; suique Judicis æternâ damnavit lumina nocte, etc. Cf. Aristoph. 'Opvílɛç, 960-991; Juv. vi. 512-591; Apul. De Aur. Asino; Lucian, 'Aλéžavôpos, Niypivos, etc. XXIX. AGAMEMNON INQUIRES OF (TELAMONIAN) AIAS THE REASON OF HIS LATE COOL RECEPTION OF ODYSSEUS, WHEN HE CAME DOWN TO LEARN THE FUTURE FROM TEIRESIAS. AIAS JUSTIFIES HIS HOSTILE FEELING BY ALLEGING THE CONDUCT OF ODYSSEUS TO HIM, IN THE MATTER OF THE COMPETITION FOR THE ARMS OF ACHILLE US. Aias and Agamemnon.1 Agamemnon. If you in a fit of madness, Aias, killed yourself, and intended also to murder us all, why do you blame Odysseus; and, the day before yesterday, why did you not even look at him, when he came to consult the oracle, or deign to address a word to your old comrade and companion, but haughtily passed him by with huge strides ? 2 Aias. With good reason, Agamemnon; for he was the actual and sole cause of my madness, seeing that he put himself in competition with me for the arms. Agamemnon. And did you consider it your right to be unopposed, and to lord it over all without the toil of contest ? Aias. Yes, indeed, in such respect; for the suit of armour was my own, as it was my uncle's.3 Indeed, you others, though far superior to him, declined the contest for yourselves, and yielded the prize to me; whereas the son of Laertes, whom I often saved, when in imminent peril of being cut to pieces by the Phrygians, set himself up to be my superior, and to be more worthy to receive the arms. Agamemnon. Blame Thetis, then, my admirable Sir, who, though she should have delivered over the heritage of 1 Cf. 'Od. 542-563; Soph. Alas, 1355; Ov. Met. xiii. 1-398, where, at the close of the lengthy harangues of the rival competitors, Odysseus prevails, "fortisque viri tulit arma disertus." 2 The Homeric phrase-paкpà ßißác. the arms to you as her relative, took and deposited them for general competition. Aias. No, but Odysseus, who was the only one to put himself forward as claimant. Agamemnon. It is excusable, if, human as he was, he had great longing after glory, a very pleasant acquisition, for the sake of which every one of us, also, underwent dangers ; seeing, too, he conquered you, and that before Trojan judges. Aias. I know what Goddess gave sentence against me: but it is not allowed one to say anything true regarding the divinities. But as for your Odysseus, however, I could not by any means cease from hating him, Agamemnon; not even if Athena herself should enjoin it upon me.1 2 XXX. SOSTRATUS, FOR HIS CRIMES, ABOUT ΤΟ BE CONSIGNED BY MINOS TO THE TORTURES OF TARTARUS, PROTESTS AGAINST THE INJUSTICE OF HIS SENTENCE; SINCE, UPON THE ADMISSIONS OF HIS JUDGE HIMSELF, HE HAD BEEN A MERE INSTRUMENT IN THE HANDS OF FATE. MINOS, MOVED BY THE PLAUSIBILITY OF HIS PLEA, REPRIEVES HIM. Minos and Sostratus. Minos. Let this brigand Sostratus be cast into Pyriphlegethon, and let the sacrilegious rascal be torn piecemeal by our Chimæra;3 and, as for this tyrant, let him be ex 1 Athena had favoured the pretensions of her protégé. Her interposition at a still more critical juncture, between the two principal Achæan chiefs, quarrelling for the captive girls, Briseis and Chryseis, may be seen in 'IX. i. 193-222. 2 Of this follower of Prokrustes, nothing more is known than his name. Lucian (as remarked by Du Soul), from a passage in his Anuwvat seems to have written his life, and, in the 'Aλɛžávdpos, he is numbered among the worst criminals. 3 This divine monster, who has given to the modern languages a word expressive of the fabulous or impossible, was a composition of lion, goat, and dragon or serpent, as described in 'IX. vi. 180-183 :— |