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MENIPPUS And yet the pair of you, Trophonius and Amphilochus, though shades, have somehow or other been thought worthy of temples, and are considered prophets, and empty-headed men have taken you for gods! AMPHILOCHUS Well, how is that our fault, if they are so silly as to think such things about Dead Men? MENIPPUS They would never have done so but for all your mysterious talk in your lifetime, and your pretence of knowing the future and foretelling it to anyone who asked. TROPHONIUS My good Menippus, Amphilochus here will know what answer to give on his own behalf, but, as for me, I am a hero and prophesy if anyone comes down to me. But I don’t think you’ve visited Lebadea at all, or you wouldn’t be so sceptical.

MENIPPUS What’s that? Must I go to Lebadea, and make a fool of myself wearing linen and carrying a pancake in my hands, and crawl into your cave through that passage that’s so low, in order to be able to tell that you’re dead just like us, surpassing us only in your false pretences? But, in the name of prophecy, what is a hero? I don’t know. TROPHONIUS A compound of god and man. MENIPPUS Something neither man nor god, you mean, but both at once? Well then, where has your divine half gone at present? TROPHONIUS It’s prophesying, Menippus, in Boeotia. MENIPPUS I don’t know what you mean, Trophonius; but I can see quite clearly that all of you is dead.