Icaromenippus, or the Sky-man (13-14)

MENIPPUS

Thanks for reminding me; somehow or other I neglected to say what I certainly should have said. When I recognised the earth by sight, but was unable to distinguish anything else on account of the height, because my vision did not carry so far, the thing annoyed me excessively and put me in a great quandary. I was downcast and almost in tears when the philosopher Empedocles came and stood behind me, looking like a cinder, as he was covered with ashes and all burned up. On catching sight of him I wasa bit startled, to tell the truth, and thought I beheld a lunar spirit; but he said “Don’t be alarmed, Menippus;

No god am I: why liken me to them?

Od. 16, 187. I am the natural philosopher Empedocles, at your service. You see, when I threw myself head-first into the crater, the smoke snatched me out of Aetna and brought me up here, and now I dwell in the moon, although I walk the air a great deal, and I live on dew. So I have come to get you out of your present quandary; for it annoys and torments you, I take it, that you cannot clearly see everything on earth.” “Thank you very much, Empedocles,” said I; “you are most kind, and as soon as I fly down to Greece again I will remember to pour you a drink-offering in the chimney[*] and on the first: of every month to open my mouth at the moon three times and make a prayer.” “Great Endymion!” said he, “I didn’t come here for pay; my heart was touched a bit when I saw you sorrowful. Do you know what to do in order to become sharp-sighted?”

MENIPPUS

“No,” said I, “unless you are going to take the mist from my eyes somehow. At present my sight seems to be uncommonly blurred.” “Why,” said he, “you won’t need my services at all, for you yourself have brought the power of sharp sight with you from the earth.” “What is it, then, for I don’t know?” I said. “Don’t you know,” said he, “that you are wearing the right wing of an cagle?” “Of course,” said I, “but what is the connection between wings and eyes?” “This,” said he; “the eagle so far surpasses all the other creatures in strength of sight that he alone can look square at the sun, and the mark of the genuine royal cagle is that he can face its rays without winking an eye.” “So they say,” I

replied, “and I am sorry now that when I came up here I did not take out my own eyes and put in those of the eagle. As things are, I have come in a_halffinished condition and with an equipment which is not fully royal; in fact, I am like the bastard, disowned eaglets they tell about.”[*] “Why,” said he, “it is in your power this minute to have one eye royal, for if you choose to stand up a moment, hold the vulture’s wing still, and flap only the other one, you will become sharp-sighted in the right eye to match the wing; the other eye cannot possibly help being duller, as it is on the inferior side.” It will satisfy me,” said I, “if only the right one has the sight of an eagle; it would do just as well, for I am sure I have often seen carpenters getting on better with only one eye when they were trimming off timbers to the straight-edge.” This said, I set about doing as Empedocles advised, while he receded little by little and gradually dissolved into smoke.