---
title: "Dialogues of the Dead · Νεκρικοὶ διάλογοι"
author: "Lucian"
translator: "Matthew Donald Macleod"
languages: [grc, en]
shelf: "Classical Greek"
section: 9 of 30
url: https://scriptura.si/works/lucian-dialogues-of-the-dead/9/
cite: "Lucian, tr. Matthew Donald Macleod, Dialogues of the Dead · Νεκρικοὶ διάλογοι, section 9. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/lucian-dialogues-of-the-dead/9/"
---

# 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.

## 9. Dialogue 9

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/lucian-dialogues-of-the-dead/9/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/lucian-dialogues-of-the-dead/9/#p-N

[¶0] 1. 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. 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.

> Greek: 1. ΜΕΝΙΠΠΟΣ: Ὦ Τειρεσία, εἰ μὲν καὶ τυφλὸς εἶ, οὐκέτι διαγνῶναι ῥᾴδιον. ἅπασι γὰρ ἡμῖν ὁμοῖα τὰ ὄμματα, κενά, μόνον δὲ αἱ χῶραι αὐτῶν· τὰ δ’ ἄλλα οὐκέτ' ἂν εἰπεῖν ἔχοις, τίς ὁ Φινεὺς ἦν ἢ τίς ὁ Λυγκεύς. ὅτι μέντοι μάντις ἦσθα καὶ ὅτι ἀμφότερα ἐγένου μόνος καὶ ἄρρην καὶ γυνή, τῶν ποιητῶν ἀκούσας οἶδα. πρὸς τῶν θεῶν τοιγαροῦν εἰπέ μοι, ὁποτέρου ἡδίονος ἐπειράθης τῶν βίων, ὁπότε ἀνὴρ ἦσθα, ἢ ὁ γυναικεῖος ἀμείνων ἦν; ΤΕΙΡΕΣΙΑΣ: Παρὰ πολύ, ὦ Μένιππε, ὁ γυναικεῖος· ἀπραγμονέστερος γάρ. καὶ δεσπόζουσι τῶν ἀνδρῶν αἱ γυναῖκες, καὶ οὔτε πολεμεῖν ἀνάγκη αὐταῖς οὔτε παρ' ἔπαλξιν ἑστάναι οὔτ' ἐν ἐκκλησίᾳ διαφέρεσθαι οὔτ' ἐν δικαστηρίοις ἐξετάζεσθαι.

[¶1] 2. MENIPPUS: Then you haven’t heard, Tiresias, what Euripides’ Medea 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?

> Greek: 2. ΜΕΝΙΠΠΟΣ: Οὐ γὰρ ἀκήκοας, ὦ Τειρεσία, τῆς Εὐριπίδου Μηδείας, οἷα εἶπεν οἰκτείρουσα τὸ γυναικεῖον, ὡς ἀθλίας οὔσας καὶ ἀφόρητόν τινα τὸν ἐκ τῶν ὠδίνων πόνον ὑφισταμένας; ἀτὰρ εἰπέ μοι,— ὑπέμνησε γάρ με τὰ τῆς Μηδείας ἰαμβεῖα—καὶ ἔτεκές ποτε, ὁπότε γυνὴ ἦσθα, ἢ στεῖρα καὶ ἄγονος διετέλεσας ἐν ἐκείνῳ τῷ βίῳ; ΤΕΙΡΕΣΙΑΣ: Τί τοῦτο, Μένιππε, ἐρωτᾷς;

[¶2] MENIPPUS: 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.

> Greek: ΜΕΝΙΠΠΟΣ: Οὐδὲν χαλεπόν, ὦ Τειρεσία· πλὴν ἀπόκριναι, εἴ σοι ῥᾴδιον. ΤΕΙΡΕΣΙΑΣ: Οὐ στεῖρα μὲν ἤμην, οὐκ ἔτεκον δ’ ὅλως.

[¶3] MENIPPUS: That will suffice; I wanted to know if you had a womb. TIRESIAS: Of course I did.

> Greek: ΜΕΝΙΠΠΟΣ: Ἱκανὸν τοῦτο· εἰ γὰρ καὶ μήτραν εἶχες, ἐβουλόμην εἰδέναι. ΤΕΙΡΕΣΙΑΣ: Εἶχον δηλαδή.

[¶4] 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? TIRESIAS: I don’t understand the object of your question, but it seems to me you don’t believe things happened like that.

> Greek: ΜΕΝΙΠΠΟΣ: Χρόνῳ δέ σοι ἡ μήτρα ἠφανίσθη καὶ τὸ χωρίον τὸ γυναικεῖον ἀπεφράγη καὶ οἱ μαστοὶ ἀπεστάθησαν καὶ τὸ ἀνδρεῖον ἀνέφυ καὶ πώγωνα ἐξήνεγκας, ἢ αὐτίκα ἐκ γυναικὸς ἀνὴρ ἀνεφάνης; ΤΕΙΡΕΣΙΑΣ: Οὐχ ὁρῶ τί σοι βούλεται τὸ ἐρώτημα· δοκεῖς δ’ οὖν μοι ἀπιστεῖν, εἰ τοῦθ' οὕτως ἐγένετο.

[¶5] MENIPPUS: Why shouldn’t I disbelieve such a story, Tiresias, rather than accept it like a dolt without examining whether its possible or not?

> Greek: ΜΕΝΙΠΠΟΣ: Οὐ χρὴ γὰρ ἀπιστεῖν, ὦ Τειρεσία, τοῖς τοιούτοις, ἀλλὰ καθάπερ τινὰ βλᾶκα μὴ ἐξετάζοντα, εἴτε δυνατά ἐστιν εἴτε καὶ μή, παραδέχεσθαι;

[¶6] 3. 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?
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? TIRESIAS: You see, you know nothing about me, or how I settled a quarrel of the gods, and Hera blinded me, and Zeus consoled me in my misfortune with the gift of prophecy.

> Greek: 3. ΤΕΙΡΕΣΙΑΣ: Σὺ οὖν οὐδὲ τὰ ἄλλα πιστεύεις οὕτω γενέσθαι, ὁπόταν ἀκούσῃς ὅτι ὄρνεα ἐκ γυναικῶν ἐγένοντό τινες ἢ δένδρα ἢ θηρία, τὴν Ἀηδόνα ἢ τὴν Δάφνην ἢ τὴν τοῦ Λυκάονος θυγατέρα;
ΜΕΝΙΠΠΟΣ: Ἤν που κἀκείναις ἐντύχω, εἴσομαι ὅ τι καὶ λέγουσι. σὺ δέ, ὦ βέλτιστε, ὁπότε γυνὴ ἦσθα, καὶ ἐμαντεύου τότε ὥσπερ καὶ ὕστερον, ἢ ἅμα ἀνὴρ καὶ μάντις ἔμαθες εἶναι; ΤΕΙΡΕΣΙΑΣ: Ὁρᾷς; ἀγνοεῖς τὰ περὶ ἐμοῦ ἅπαντα, ὡς καὶ διέλυσά τινα ἔριν τῶν θεῶν, καὶ ἡ μὲν Ἥρα ἐπήρωσέν με, ὁ δὲ Ζεὺς παρεμυθήσατο τῇ μαντικῇ τὴν συμφοράν.

[¶7] MENIPPUS: So you still keep to your falsehoods, Tiresias? That’s just like you prophets; you’re habitual liars.

> Greek: ΜΕΝΙΠΠΟΣ: Ἔτι ἔχῃ, ὦ Τειρεσία, τῶν ψευσμάτων; ἀλλὰ κατὰ τοὺς μάντεις τοῦτο ποιεῖς· ἔθος γὰρ ὑμῖν μηδὲν ὑγιὲς λέγειν.