Book 7
1
Why are you crying, Tantalus? Why do you stand beside Cf. On Funerals 8, Propertius 2, 17, 5, etc. The normal version (e.g. Odyssey, XI, 583) makes Tantalus stand up to his chin in water. the lake lamenting your lot?
1
Because, Menippus, I’m dying of thirst.
1
Are you too lazy to bend your head down and drink, or even, bless us, to scoop the water up with your palm?
1
It’s no good bending down; the water runs away as soon as it feels me coming near, and, if ever I do scoop up any, and bring it to my mouth, I can’t wet the tip of my lips before it runs through my fingers somehow and leaves my hand dry as before.
1
You’re the victim of a miracle, Tantalus. But tell me, just why do you need to drink? You have no body, for that’s been buried in Lydia. That could feel hunger and thirst. But you are a ghost; how can you still be thirsty or able to drink?
1
It’s just that that’s my punishment—that my ghost should be thirsty as if it were a body.
2
Well, we’ll believe it, since you tell us you’re punished by thirst. But what do you find so terrible in that? Are you afraid of dying for lack of drink? I can’t see another Hades after this one, or a death hereafter taking us elsewhere.
2
You are quite right; but this is part of my sentence—to long to drink when I’ve no need.
2
Nonsense, Tantalus: I think you really do need a drink—neat hellebore, A cure for madness. so help me; you’re the opposite of people bitten by mad dogs; you don’t fear water, but you do fear thirst.
2
I don’t mind drinking even hellebore—I only wish I could have some.
2
Don’t worry, Tantalus, for neither you nor any other dead man will drink; that’s impossible. However, they’ve not all been condemned to thirst, as you do, for water which won’t wait for them.
