28
Menippus And Tiresias
MENIPPUS
It’s difficult to tell now, Tiresias, whether you’re blind, as our eyes are all alike—empty, with nothing but sockets. Indeed, you can no longer tell which was Phineus, or which was Lynceus.
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But I do know you were a prophet, and the only person to have been both man and woman. I heard that from the poets. So, for heaven’s sake, tell me which life you found more pleasant—when you were a man, or a woman?
It’s difficult to tell now, Tiresias, whether you’re blind, as our eyes are all alike—empty, with nothing but sockets. Indeed, you can no longer tell which was Phineus, or which was Lynceus.
1
But I do know you were a prophet, and the only person to have been both man and woman. I heard that from the poets. So, for heaven’s sake, tell me which life you found more pleasant—when you were a man, or a woman?
TIRESIAS
The woman’s life, Menippus, by a long way. It has fewer worries, and women have the mastery over men, and don’t have to fight in wars, or stand on the battlements, or argue in parliament, or be crossexamined in court.
The woman’s life, Menippus, by a long way. It has fewer worries, and women have the mastery over men, and don’t have to fight in wars, or stand on the battlements, or argue in parliament, or be crossexamined in court.
MENIPPUS
Then you haven’t heard, Tiresias, what Euripides’ Medea
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said about women’s pitiable plight in having an unhappy lot, and having to endure intolerable suffering in childbirth? But tell me, now that I’m reminded of it by Medea’s lines from the play, did you ever have any children, when you were a woman, or did you remain barren and childless in that life?
Then you haven’t heard, Tiresias, what Euripides’ Medea
2
said about women’s pitiable plight in having an unhappy lot, and having to endure intolerable suffering in childbirth? But tell me, now that I’m reminded of it by Medea’s lines from the play, did you ever have any children, when you were a woman, or did you remain barren and childless in that life?
TIRESIAS
Why do you ask that, Menippus?
Why do you ask that, Menippus?
MENIPPUS
It’s an easy enough question, Tiresias. Just answer, if it’s not too difficult.
It’s an easy enough question, Tiresias. Just answer, if it’s not too difficult.
TIRESIAS
I wasn’t barren, but I didn’t have any children.
I wasn’t barren, but I didn’t have any children.
MENIPPUS
That will suffice; I wanted to know if you had a womb.
That will suffice; I wanted to know if you had a womb.
TIRESIAS
Of course I did.
Of course I did.
MENIPPUS
And in time your womb gradually disappeared, the woman’s place sealed up, your breasts subsided, you grew a male organ and produced a beard? Or was your change from woman to man sudden?
And in time your womb gradually disappeared, the woman’s place sealed up, your breasts subsided, you grew a male organ and produced a beard? Or was your change from woman to man sudden?
TIRESIAS
I don’t understand the object of your question, but it seems to me you don’t believe things happened like that.
I don’t understand the object of your question, but it seems to me you don’t believe things happened like that.
MENIPPUS
Why shouldn’t I disbelieve such a story, Tiresias, rather than accept it like a dolt without examining whether its possible or not?
Why shouldn’t I disbelieve such a story, Tiresias, rather than accept it like a dolt without examining whether its possible or not?
TIRESIAS
Then you don’t believe any of the other stories either, when you hear of women changing into birds or trees or beasts, as, for example, Aedon, or Daphne, or the daughter of Lycaon?
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Then you don’t believe any of the other stories either, when you hear of women changing into birds or trees or beasts, as, for example, Aedon, or Daphne, or the daughter of Lycaon?
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MENIPPUS
If I ever come across them, I’ll learn what they have to say. But when you were a woman, good sir, were you a prophet then too, just as later, or did you learn to be man and prophet at the same time?
If I ever come across them, I’ll learn what they have to say. But when you were a woman, good sir, were you a prophet then too, just as later, or did you learn to be man and prophet at the same time?
TIRESIAS
You see, you know nothing about me, or how I settled a quarrel of the gods,
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and Hera blinded me, and Zeus consoled me in my misfortune with the gift of prophecy.
You see, you know nothing about me, or how I settled a quarrel of the gods,
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and Hera blinded me, and Zeus consoled me in my misfortune with the gift of prophecy.
MENIPPUS
So you still keep to your falsehoods, Tiresias? That’s just like you prophets; you’re habitual liars.
So you still keep to your falsehoods, Tiresias? That’s just like you prophets; you’re habitual liars.
Dialogi mortuorum. Lucian of Samosata. Matthew Donald Macleod (Translator). Medford, MA. Perseus 5.0.
Sponsored by Perseus Project, Tufts University.
Funding provided by The National Endowment for the Humanities.