MENIPPUS: OR, THE ORACLE OF THE DEAD.1 [MENIPPUS, the Cynic philosopher, just returned from a visit of inquiry to Hades, meets his friend Philonides, who earnestly begs him to reveal the reasons, and the experiences, of his interesting journey. Thus adjured, with some display of reluctance, Menippus, after having been assured by his friend that human life has not at all improved during his absence, professes that he had been impelled to take so hazardous a journey by an ardent desire to learn the truths of philosophy and life-vainly sought alike in the popular Theology and in the schools of the Philosophers, or Sophists, who were all at variance one with the other, and contradicted themselves; while they failed to practise their own teaching. Thus forced to trust to his own resources, after much mental inquietude, he determines to go to Babylon, a 1 Μένιππος ή Νεκυομαντεία. This Lucianic Dialogue (for its genuineness is doubtful, as shewn, among modern critics, by Wieland and Lehmann) borrows its alternative title from the Eleventh Book of the Odyssey, of which it is, in great part, a parody. It is a sort of epitome of the Dialogues of the Dead and other writings of the great master, which satirize the popular theology respecting the Under-World, and is of high interest as a résumé of this province of Hellenic superstition. Rabelais (who is indebted, especially, to the True History) borrows one of his most instructive scenes from this Dialogue. In the battle with the Dipsodes, on behalf of the Amaurotes (the "shadowy " or "fleeting" people, a name suggested to Rabelais by the Utopia of More, himself indebted to Lucian), Pantagruel's companion, Epistemon-who loses his head, but afterwards recovers it through the skilful surgery of Panurge -upon returning from his temporary sojourn in Hades, reports the altogether reversed conditions of some of the heroes of antiquity and of later times. (Gargantua and Pantagruel, ii.) The Spanish satirist, Quevedo, also, has obligations to the Menippus, in his Sueños. principal seat of the Magi and the Mystics, and by their occult science obtain admission to the Under-World, and, like his prototype, Odysseus, consult the soul of the Theban prophet Teiresias. Arrived at Babylon, Menippus introduces himself to one of these Magi, named Mithrobarzanes, and, with considerable difficulty, obtains from him promise of assistance. Under the tuition of the Magus, he enters upon a course of purificatory and mystic rites, and a strict dietetic regimen, until he is properly prepared for the dreadful descent. Embarking on the Euphrates, they sail to a certain secluded place, where they leave their boat, and begin the prescribed infernal rites and sacrifices-still faithfully following the authority of the poet of the Odyssey -invoking Hekate, the Erinyes (or Furies), and all the dæmons. The Earth opens, and the various infernal sights are revealed. Descending, with much difficulty, the travellers secure places on board Charon's boat, already overladen with dead men, who, for the most part, had received their quietus in battle. The lion's skin, and mane of Herakles, with which the Cynic had provided himself, secure for them places on board, and a courteous reception from the Ferryman of the Styx. Disembarking, with the Magus for guide, Menippus makes his way, through "squealing ghosts, to the tribunal of Minos. There they see the various punishments for crime and injustice administered, and a novel sort of witnesses in the shadows of the accused. Among those most severely punished appear the arrogant Rich; and Menippus does not lose his opportunity for the exercise of his satirical faculty. Leaving the judgmentseat of Minos, they proceed to the scenes of punishment, and view the various instruments and infliction of torture. In the Acherusian plains, they verify the accounts of the poet of the Odyssey, as to the ȧuévnya kapýva, and other particulars. The iooriuía is found to be complete and indubitable. Thersites and Nireus, Irus and Alkinous, have nothing whatever to distinguish them one from the other. Under the influence of this spectacle, Menippus compares human life to a gigantic public Procession, and to the Stage, where the several constituents play their diverse parts, for a short time, liable to extremest vicissitudes of fortune. Mausolus, and other vain-glorious princes, with their "lying trophies" and inscriptions, in particular, fall under the Cynic's satire; and the Earthly kings and potentates who, in the Under-World, cut so abject and inglorious a figure. As for Sokrates and Diogenes, they still pursue their peculiar and favourite occupations. At this point of his narrative, Menippus is reminded that he has omitted to quote the solemn Decree against the Plutocrats, passed by the Popular Assembly of Hades (to which he had referred at the beginning of his report), the purport of which is the apportionment of a severe retribution. At the point of going back to the Upper-World, Menippus approaches Teiresias, and begs him to reveal the secret, which was the object of his descent. This the prophet's ghost does with laconic brevity. The philosophers then return, by a short cut, to Earth, near to the Cave of Trophonius.] Menippus Menippus and Philonides. "Domestic hearth, ancestral palace, hail! Philonides (seeing the Cynic at a distance). Is not this Menippus the Dog? Surely it is no other, unless my eyes see wrong (rubbing his eyes). Menippus every inch of him! But what means his strangeness of dress—felt hat, and lyre, and lion's skin? However, I must go up to him. Good-day, Menippus! And where do you hail from? Why, you have not shown yourself in the city 2 this long while. Menippus "I come, th' infernal vault, and Hades' gates Philonides. Herakles! Menippus dead without our knowing it. And so he has come back to life again? 1 3 'Ω χαῖρε, μέλαθρον, πρόπυλα θ' ἑστίας, ἐμῆς· Ως ἄσμενος σ' ἐσεῖδον ἐς φάος μολών. Eurip. Ηρακ. Μαιν. 523. 2 Athens, which, like Rome, was known, par excellence, as "the city." The opening address of the ghost of Polydorus, the son of Hekabe and Priam, who had been murdered by his Thracian host. Menippus "No, but yet alive dark Hades took me.' Philonides. What was the cause of this strange and extraordinary journey of yours? Menippus "Me youth incited: self-willed more than wise." 2 Philonides. Stop your tragic style, my fine Sir, and descending from your iambics, speak much as I am doing, in simple prose, thus. What was your equipment? What need had you to take the journey below? For anyhow it's not a pleasant sort of thing, nor is the road a usually welcome one. Menippus 66 Necessity, O friend of mine, conducted me to Hades, The spirit to consult there of Teiresias the Theban." 3" Philonides. Ah! my good fellow, but you surely are off your head: for otherwise you would not be thus declaiming to your friends in metrical strain. Menippus. Don't be surprised, my friend, for having lately been in the company of Euripides and Homer, somehow or other I got stuffed full of their verses, and their measures come to my lips, as it were, of their own accord. But, tell me, how go things above on Earth, and what are they about in the city? Philonides. Nothing new, but just what they used to do before they plunder, perjure themselves, extort interest by hook or by crook, turn ": an honest penny " in the most sordid fashion.1 Menippus. Poor wretches, and unfortunate devils! They don't know what sort of measures have lately been determined on among the Powers below, and of what sort are 1 Οὔκ, ἀλλ ̓ ἔτ ̓ ἔμπνουν ̓Αΐδης μ' ἐδέξατο. A verse, apparently, from one of the lost dramas of Euripides. * Νεότης μ' ἐπῆρε, καὶ θράσος τοῦ νοῦ πλέον. From the lost drama of the 'Ανδρόμεδα of Euripides. 3 χρειώ με κατήγαγεν εἰς Αίδαο The reply of Odysseus to the inquiring ghost of his mother, 4 Τοκογλυφοῦσι, ὀβολοστατοῦσι. The latter verb (lit. “ to weigh obols") is derived, apparently, from Aristophanes, Nɛp. 1139. the decrees that have been voted against the Rich, which, by Kerberus, there is no possible means of their escaping from. Philonides. How? Has any very new decree been passed by the Powers down below respecting those up here? Menippus. Yes, so help me heaven! and many of them : but it's not lawful to publish them abroad to everyone, nor to proclaim the ineffable secrets, for fear that someone or other might bring an action against us in the Court of Rhadamanthys for impiety. Philonides. Don't, Menippus, don't, in heaven's name, grudge a friend the narration of those events; for you will speak to one who knows how to hold his tongue, and, moreover, to one who has been initiated. Menippus. You impose upon me a hard task, and not at all a safe one. But, however, for your sake I must run the risk. It is decreed, I say, that these millionaires and plutocrats, and those who carefully keep their gold coin shut up like Danae Philonides. Don't tell me the decrees before, my good Sir, you have recounted that which I would with most particular pleasure hear from you-what was your intention in making the descent, and who was your guide on the journey? Next, in regular order, what you saw, and what you heard among them: for it is reasonable to suppose, surely, that you as a dilettante neglected nothing of what was worth seeing or hearing. Menippus. I must even do you this service, for what can one do, when a gentleman and a friend urges one? Well, then, I will recount to you, first of all, my design, and whence I got the impulse to make the descent. Well, I, as long as I was in my teens, when I listened to Homer and Hesiod recounting the wars and seditions not only of the demi-gods, but actually even of the Gods themselves before now; nay, further, even their adulteries, and violences, and rapes and feuds, their expulsions of parents, and their marriages with sisters-all this I used to consider to be good and right, and I tickled my fancy in no ordinary degree with it all. But when I began to arrive at mature age, on the contrary, I then heard the laws enjoining the opposite to the poets,-not to commit adultery, nor to engage in civil war, nor to rob with violence, I |