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 Well, but you have heard how Medea, in Euripides, compassionates her sex on their hard lot—on the intolerable pangs they endure in travail? And by the way—Medea’s words remind me—did you ever have a child, when you were a woman, or were you barren?
Tiresias What do you mean by that question, Menippus?
Menippus Oh, nothing; but I should like to know, if it is no trouble to you.
Tiresias I was not barren: but I did not have a child, exactly.
Menippus No; but you might have had. That’s all I wanted to know.
Tiresias Certainly.
Menippus And your feminine characteristics gradually vanished, and you developed a beard, and became a man? Or did the change take place in a moment?
Tiresias Whither does your question tend? One would think you doubted the fact.
Menippus And what should I do but doubt such a story? AmI to take it in, like a nincompoop, without asking myself whether it is possible or not?