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Menippus
All hail, my roof, my doors, my hearth and home!How sweet again to see the light and thee!
Philonides
Menippus the cynic, surely; even so, or there are visions about. Menippus, every inch of him. What has he been getting himself up like that for? sailor’s cap, lyre, and lion-skin? However, here goes.—How are you, Menippus? where do you spring from? you have disappeared this long time.Menippus
Death’s lurking-place I leave, and those dark gatesWhere Hades dwells, a God apart from Gods.
Philonides
Good gracious! has Menippus died, all on the quiet, and come to life for a second spell?Menippus
Not so; a living guest in Hades I.Philonides
But what induced you to take this queer original journey?Menippus
Youth drew me on—too bold, too little wise.Philonides
My good man, truce to your heroics; get off those iambic stilts, and tell me in plain prose what this get-up means; what did you want with the lower regions? It is a journey that needs a motive to make it attractive.Menippus
Dear friend, to Hades’ realms I needs must go,To counsel with Tiresias of Thebes.
Philonides
Man, you must be mad; or why string verses instead of talking like one friend with another?Menippus
My dear fellow, you need not be so surprised. I have just been in Euripides’s and Homer’s company; I suppose I am full to the throat with verse, and the numbers come as soon as I open my mouth.Necyomantia. Lucian. Henry Watson Fowler (Translator), Francis George Fowler (Translator). Medford, MA, USA. 2023-08-01.
Sponsored by Tufts University.
Funding provided by National Endowment for the Humanities.