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home:texts_and_library:dialogues:menippus [2019/07/06 15:14] – created frankhome:texts_and_library:dialogues:menippus [2019/07/06 15:17] (current) – [1] frank
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 The Works of Lucian of Samosata. Translated by Fowler, H W and F G. Oxford: The Clarendon Press. 1905. The Works of Lucian of Samosata. Translated by Fowler, H W and F G. Oxford: The Clarendon Press. 1905.
  
-This dialogue was undoubtably designed by Lucian as a parody on the 11th Book of Homer's Odyssey, describing the descent of Odysseus to the Infernal Regions. The ancient critics have assigned the title "nekromantia", or the Book of Necromancy, to the work. There also seems to be an allusion to the [[http://lucianofsamosata.info/wiki/doku.php?id=2013:trophonius|Oracle of Trophonius]], and the ceremonies observed by all of those who consulted it, as accurately and minutely describe by Pausanias.+This dialogue was undoubtedly designed by Lucian as a parody on the 11th Book of Homer's Odyssey, describing the descent of Odysseus to the Infernal Regions. The ancient critics have assigned the title "nekromantia", or the Book of Necromancy, to the work. There also seems to be an allusion to the [[http://lucianofsamosata.info/wiki/doku.php?id=2013:trophonius|Oracle of Trophonius]], and the ceremonies observed by all of those who consulted it, as accurately and minutely described by Pausanias.
  
 //Menippus. Philonides// //Menippus. Philonides//
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 //Me//. Death’s lurking-place I leave, and those dark gates Where Hades dwells, a God apart from Gods. //Me//. Death’s lurking-place I leave, and those dark gates Where Hades dwells, a God apart from Gods.
  
-{{:images/200/menippus.jpg|Menippus visits wise figures and goes to the underworld to discover the common lot is best}}+{{:home:texts_and_library:dialogues:menippus.jpg?100 |Menippus visits wise figures and goes to the underworld to discover the common lot is best}} 
 //Phi//. Good gracious! has Menippus died, all on the quiet, and come to life for a second spell? //Phi//. Good gracious! has Menippus died, all on the quiet, and come to life for a second spell?
  
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-Taking me under his charge, he commenced with a new moon, and brought me down for twenty-nine successive mornings to the Euphrates, where he bathed me, apostrophizing the rising sun in a long formula, of which I never caught much; he gabbled indistinctly, like bad heralds at the Games; but he appeared to be invoking spirits. This charm completed, he spat thrice upon my face, and I went home, not letting my eyes meet those of any one we passed. Our food was nuts and acorns, our drink milk and hydromel and water from the Choaspes, and we slept out of doors on the grass. When he thought me sufficiently prepared, he took me at midnight to the Tigris, purified and rubbed me over, sanctified me with torches and squills and other things, muttering the charm aforesaid, then made a magic circle round me to protect me from ghosts, and finally led me home backwards just as I was; it was now time to arrange our voyage.+Taking me under his charge, he commenced with a new moon, and brought me down for twenty-nine successive mornings to the Euphrates, where he bathed me, apostrophizing the rising sun in a long formula, of which I never caught much; he gabbled indistinctly, like bad heralds at the Games; but he appeared to be invoking spirits. This charm completed, he spat thrice upon my face, and I went home, not letting my eyes meet those of anyone we passed. Our food was nuts and acorns, our drink milk and hydromel and water from the Choaspes, and we slept out of doors on the grass. When he thought me sufficiently prepared, he took me at midnight to the Tigris, purified and rubbed me over, sanctified me with torches and squills and other things, muttering the charm aforesaid, then made a magic circle round me to protect me from ghosts, and finally led me home backwards just as I was; it was now time to arrange our voyage.
  
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 Troubled at heart, with welling tears, we went. Troubled at heart, with welling tears, we went.
  
-For some distance we floated down stream, until we entered the marshy lake in which the Euphrates disappears. Beyond this we came to a desolate, wooded, sunless spot; there we landed, Mithrobarzanes leading the way, and proceeded to dig a pit, slay our sheep, and sprinkle their blood round the edge. Meanwhile the Mage, with a lighted torch in his hand, abandoning his customary whisper, shouted at the top of his voice an invocation to all spirits, particularly the Poenae and Erinyes,+For some distance we floated downstream, until we entered the marshy lake in which the Euphrates disappears. Beyond this we came to a desolate, wooded, sunless spot; there we landed, Mithrobarzanes leading the way, and proceeded to dig a pit, slay our sheep, and sprinkle their blood round the edge. Meanwhile the Mage, with a lighted torch in his hand, abandoning his customary whisper, shouted at the top of his voice an invocation to all spirits, particularly the Poenae and Erinyes,
  
 Hecat’s dark might, and dread Persephone, Hecat’s dark might, and dread Persephone,
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 //Phi//. Now, if a man occupies a costly towering sepulchre, or leaves monuments, statues, inscriptions behind him on earth, does not this place him in a class above the common dead? //Phi//. Now, if a man occupies a costly towering sepulchre, or leaves monuments, statues, inscriptions behind him on earth, does not this place him in a class above the common dead?
  
-//Me//. Nonsense, my good man; if you had looked on Mausolus himself — the Carian so famous for his tomb —, I assure you, you would never have stopped laughing; he was a miserable unconsidered unit among the general mass of the dead, flung aside in a dusty hole, with no profit of his sepulchre but its extra weight upon him. No, friend, when Aeacus gives a man his allowance of space — and it never exceeds a foot’s breadth —, he must be content to pack himself into its limits. You might have laughed still more if you had beheld the kings and governors of earth begging in Hades, selling salt fish for a living, it might be, or giving elementary lessons, insulted by any one who met them, and cuffed like the most worthless of slaves. When I saw Philip of Macedon, I could not contain myself; some one showed him to me cobbling old shoes for money in a corner. Many others were to be seen begging — people like Xerxes, Darius, or Polycrates.+//Me//. Nonsense, my good man; if you had looked on Mausolus himself — the Carian so famous for his tomb —, I assure you, you would never have stopped laughing; he was a miserable unconsidered unit among the general mass of the dead, flung aside in a dusty hole, with no profit of his sepulchre but its extra weight upon him. No, friend, when Aeacus gives a man his allowance of space — and it never exceeds a foot’s breadth —, he must be content to pack himself into its limits. You might have laughed still more if you had beheld the kings and governors of earth begging in Hades, selling salt fish for a living, it might be, or giving elementary lessons, insulted by anyone who met them, and cuffed like the most worthless of slaves. When I saw Philip of Macedon, I could not contain myself; someone showed him to me cobbling old shoes for money in a corner. Many others were to be seen begging — people like Xerxes, Darius, or Polycrates.
  
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home/texts_and_library/dialogues/menippus.1562444064.txt.gz · Last modified: 2019/07/06 15:14 by frank

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