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?