---
title: "Dialogues of the Dead · Νεκρικοὶ διάλογοι"
author: "Lucian"
translator: "Matthew Donald Macleod"
languages: [grc, en]
shelf: "Classical Greek"
section: 10 of 30
url: https://scriptura.si/works/lucian-dialogues-of-the-dead/10/
cite: "Lucian, tr. Matthew Donald Macleod, Dialogues of the Dead · Νεκρικοὶ διάλογοι, section 10. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/lucian-dialogues-of-the-dead/10/"
---

# Dialogues of the Dead · Νεκρικοὶ διάλογοι

*Lucian, tr. Matthew Donald Macleod*

Diogenes, Menippus, Alexander, Achilles and the rest in Hades, where beauty, wealth and power count for nothing.

> Greek: ed. Matthew Donald Macleod, from the Perseus Digital Library (canonical-greekLit, tlg0062.tlg066, CC BY-SA 4.0).

> English: Matthew Donald Macleod, from the Perseus Digital Library (tlg0062.tlg066.perseus-eng3). Notes are not included.

> Rows follow the references the two texts share (books, chapters and sections), cut where both reach the end of a sentence.

## 10. Dialogue 10

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/lucian-dialogues-of-the-dead/10/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/lucian-dialogues-of-the-dead/10/#p-N

[¶0] 1. MENIPPUS: And yet the pair of you, Trophonius and Amphilochus, though shades, have somehow or other been thought worthy of temples, and are considered prophets, and empty-headed men have taken you for gods! AMPHILOCHUS: Well, how is that our fault, if they are so silly as to think such things about Dead Men?

> Greek: 1. ΜΕΝΙΠΠΟΣ: Σφὼ μέντοι, ὦ Τροφώνιε καὶ Ἀμφίλοχε, νεκροὶ ὄντες οὐκ οἶδ’ ὅπως ναῶν κατηξιώθητε καὶ μάντεις δοκεῖτε, καὶ οἱ μάταιοι τῶν ἀνθρώπων θεοὺς ὑμᾶς ὑπειλήφασιν εἶναι. ΑΜΦΙΛΟΧΟΣ: Τί οὖν ἡμεῖς αἴτιοι, εἰ ὑπὸ ἀνοίας ἐκεῖνοι τοιαῦτα περὶ νεκρῶν δοξάζουσιν;

[¶1] MENIPPUS: They would never have done so but for all your mysterious talk in your lifetime, and your pretence of knowing the future and foretelling it to anyone who asked. TROPHONIUS: My good Menippus, Amphilochus here will know what answer to give on his own behalf, but, as for me, I am a hero and prophesy if anyone comes down to me. But I don’t think you’ve visited Lebadea at all, or you wouldn’t be so sceptical.

> Greek: ΜΕΝΙΠΠΟΣ: Ἀλλ' οὐκ ἂν ἐδόξαζον, εἰ μὴ ζῶντες καὶ ὑμεῖς τοιαῦτα ἐτερατεύεσθε ὡς τὰ μέλλοντα προειδότες καὶ προειπεῖν δυνάμενοι τοῖς ἐρομένοις. ΤΡΟΦΩΝΙΟΣ: Ὦ Μένιππε, Ἀμφίλοχος μὲν οὗτος ἂν εἰδείη ὅ τι αὐτῷ ἀποκριτέον ὑπὲρ αὑτοῦ, ἐγὼ δὲ ἥρως εἰμὶ καὶ μαντεύομαι, ἤν τις κατέλθῃ παρ' ἐμέ. σὺ δὲ ἔοικας οὐκ ἐπιδεδημηκέναι Λεβαδείᾳ τὸ παράπαν· οὐ γὰρ ἂν ἠπίστεις σὺ τούτοις.

[¶2] 2. MENIPPUS: What’s that? Must I go to Lebadea, and make a fool of myself wearing linen and carrying a pancake in my hands, and crawl into your cave through that passage that’s so low, in order to be able to tell that you’re dead just like us, surpassing us only in your false pretences? But, in the name of prophecy, what is a hero? I don’t know. TROPHONIUS: A compound of god and man.

> Greek: 2. ΜΕΝΙΠΠΟΣ: Τί φῄς; εἰ μὴ εἰς Λεβάδειαν γὰρ παρέλθω καὶ ἐσταλμένος ταῖς ὀθόναις γελοίως μᾶζαν ἐν ταῖν χεροῖν ἔχων εἰσερπύσω διὰ τοῦ στομίου ταπεινοῦ ὄντος ἐς τὸ σπήλαιον, οὐκ ἂν ἠδυνάμην εἰδέναι, ὅτι νεκρὸς εἶ ὥσπερ ἡμεῖς μόνῃ τῇ γοητείᾳ διαφέρων; ἀλλὰ πρὸς τῆς μαντικῆς, τί δαὶ ὁ ἥρως ἐστίν; ἀγνοῶ γάρ. ΤΡΟΦΩΝΙΟΣ: Ἐξ ἀνθρώπου τι καὶ θεοῦ σύνθετον.

[¶3] MENIPPUS: Something neither man nor god, you mean, but both at once? Well then, where has your divine half gone at present? TROPHONIUS: It’s prophesying, Menippus, in Boeotia.

> Greek: ΜΕΝΙΠΠΟΣ: Ὃ μήτε ἄνθρωπός ἐστιν, ὡς φῄς, μήτε θεός, καὶ συναμφότερόν ἐστιν; νῦν οὖν ποῦ σου τὸ θεῶν ἐκεῖνο ἡμίτομον ἀπελήλυθεν; ΤΡΟΦΩΝΙΟΣ: Χρᾷ, ὦ Μένιππε, ἐν Βοιωτίᾳ.

[¶4] MENIPPUS: I don’t know what you mean, Trophonius; but I can see quite clearly that all of you is dead.

> Greek: ΜΕΝΙΠΠΟΣ: Οὐκ οἶδα, ὦ Τροφώνιε, ὅ τι καὶ λέγεις· ὅτι μέντοι ὅλος εἶ νεκρὸς ἀκριβῶς ὁρῶ.