Tiresias: The Ancient Mediterranean Religions Source Database

7486

Lucian, Charon Or The Inspectors, 16
nan the Fates up aloft, spinning each man his spindle-full; from that spindle a man hangs by a narrow thread. Do you see what looks like a cobweb, coming down to each man from the spindles? CH: I see each has a very slight thread. They are mostly entangled, one with another, and that other with a third. HERM: Of course they are. Because the first man has got to be murdered by the second, and he by the third; or again, B is to be A's heir (A's thread being the shorter), and C is to be B's. That is what the entangling means. But you see what thin threads they all have to depend on. Now here is one drawn high up into the air; presently his thread will snap, when the weight becomes too much for it, and down he will come with a bang: whereas yonder fellow hangs so low that when he does fall it makes no noise; his next-door neighbours will scarcely hear him drop. CH: How absurd it all is! HER: My dear Charon, there is no word for the absurdity of
nan Now look closely, and you will make out the Fates up aloft, spinning each man his spindle full; from that spindle a man hangs by a narrow thread. Do you see what looks like a cobweb, coming down to each man from the spindles?Ch. I see each has a very slight thread. They are mostly entangled, one with another, and that other with a third.Her. Of course they are. Because the first man has got to be murdered by the second, and he by the third; or again, B is to be A’s heir (A’s thread being the shorter), and C is to be B’s. That is what the entangling means. But you see what thin threads they all have to depend on. Now here is one drawn high up into the air; presently his thread will snap, when the weight becomes too much for it, and down he will come with a bang: whereas yonder fellow hangs so low that when he does fall it makes no noise; his next door neighbours will scarcely hear him drop.Ch. How absurd it all is!

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Subjects of this text:

subject	book bibliographic info
herakles, herodotus, parody of	Alexiou and Cairns, Greek Laughter and Tears: Antiquity and After (2017) 68
heterotopias, comic	Alexiou and Cairns, Greek Laughter and Tears: Antiquity and After (2017) 68
homer, parody/pastiche	Alexiou and Cairns, Greek Laughter and Tears: Antiquity and After (2017) 68
laughter, contempt	Alexiou and Cairns, Greek Laughter and Tears: Antiquity and After (2017) 68
parody, of classical literature	Alexiou and Cairns, Greek Laughter and Tears: Antiquity and After (2017) 68
pepaideumenos	Alexiou and Cairns, Greek Laughter and Tears: Antiquity and After (2017) 68
satire'	Alexiou and Cairns, Greek Laughter and Tears: Antiquity and After (2017) 68