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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
ICHNEUTAE: A RIDDLE, by SOPHOCLES Poet's Biography
First Line: Though the goddess made you wonder, do believe the things she said
Last Line: Boy hermes calls it 'tortoise': and its voice he calls 'the lyre'.
Subject(s): Riddles
First Line: Though the goddess made you wonder, do believe the things she said
Last Line: Boy hermes calls it 'tortoise': and its voice he calls 'the lyre'.
Subject(s): Riddles
CYLLENE, CHORUS
CYLL.
Though the goddess made you wonder, do believe the things she said.
CHO.
How can I believe such thunder comes from any creature dead?
CYLL.
Do believe, -- when dead, the creature talks: alive, its mouth is shut.
CHO.
How explain its form and feature? Tall, or arched, or sharply cut?
CYLL.
It is very short and pot-like, shrivelled, and with chequers barred.
CHO.
Is it like a cat, or not like? . . . Or more nearly like a pard?
CYLL.
Half and half. You see it grew monotonously fat and squab.
CHO.
Why, it sounds like an ichneumon, -- or perhaps it is a crab?
CYLL.
No, it's not like that to meet. Alas, you'd better try again.
CHO.
Isn't it a horny beetle of the old AEtnean strain?
CYLL.
Much the nearest -- that is clever -- to the beast I talk about.
CHO.
Tell me, tell me, then, wherever is its voice, -- inside or out?
CYLL.
. . . . Sinister and dark of hide, to the shell-back near allied.
CHO.
Then its name you might report us, if you know what we desire.
CYLL.
Boy Hermes calls it 'tortoise': and its voice he calls 'the lyre'.
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