Dialogi mortuorum
Lucian of Samosata
The Works of Lucian of Samosata, complete, with exceptions specified in thepreface, Vol. 1. Fowler, H. W. and Fowlere, F.G., translators. Oxford at the Clarendon Press, 1905.
Menippus What are you crying out about, Tantalus? standing at the edge and whining like that!
Tantalus Ah, Menippus, I thirst, I perish!
Menippus What, not enterprise enough to bend down to it, or scoop up some in your palm?
Tantalus It is no use bending down; the water shrinks away as soon as it sees me coming. And if I do scoop it up and get it to my mouth, the outside of my lips is hardly moist before it has managed to run through my fingers, and my hand is as dry as ever.
Menippus A very odd experience, that. But by the way, why do you want to drink? you have no body—the part of you that was liable to hunger and thirst is buried in Lydia somewhere; how can you, the spirit, hunger or thirst any more?
Tantalus Therein lies my punishment—soul thirsts as if it were body.