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MENIPPUS All hail, ye halls and portals of my home! What joy you give mine eyes, to light returned!Euripides, Hercules Furens, 523-4. A FRIEND Isn’t this Menippus the Cynic? Assuredly nobody else, unless I cannot see straight; Menippus all over. Then what is the meaning of that strange costume— a felt cap, a lyre, and a lion’s skin? Anyhow, I must go up to him. Good day, Menippus; where under the sun have you come from? It is a long time since you have shown yourself in the city.
MENIPPUS I come from Dead Men’s Lair and Darkness Gate Where Hades dwells, remote from other gods.Euripides, Hecuba, 1; spoken by Polydorus as prologue. FRIEND Heracles! Did Menippus die without our knowing it, and has he now come to life all over again? MENIPPUS Nay, I was living when I went to Hell.Attributed to Euripides; play unknown, perhaps the Petrithous (Nauck, Trag. Graec. Fragm., p. 663). FRIEND What reason had you for this novel and surprising trip?
MENIPPUS Youth spurred me, and I had more pluck than sense.Perhaps from the lost Andromeda of Euripides (Nauck, p. 403). FRIEND My dear fellow, do stop your play-acting; come off your blank-verse, and tell me in plain language like mine what your costume is, and why you had to go down below. Certainly it is not a pleasant and attractive journey!
