It is superfluous to relate what happened on earth afterwards. For you know it well, and there is no danger that those things which imprinted on public joy will be forgotten: no one is oblivious to his own fortune. Hear what happened in the sky: faith will be in the power of the author. It was reported to Jove that a certain man of good stature, nicely grey-haired had come; that he was threatening I don't know what, for he continuously moved his head; and that he dragged his right foot. It was reported that the messenger had asked him of what nation he was: and that Claudius had responded I don't know what with a perturbed sound and confused voice; and that the messenger did not understand his tongue: for it was neither Greek nor Roman nor of any known race. Then Jupiter ordered Hercules, who had wandered through the whole globe of the world and seemed to know all the nations, to go and to explore of what kind of human he was. Then at first sight Hercules was wholly disturbed, as a man who fears not all monsters. When he sees the appearance of a new race, the unaccustomed gait, the voice of no earthly animal but the sort accustomed to be for sea beasts, hoarse and tangled, he thought that his thirteenth labor had come for him. Claudius seemed to him examining more diligently as if a human. And so he came up to him and because it was easiest for the little Greek man, he said:
"What sort of man are you and from whence do you come, what sort are your city and your parents?"
Claudius rejoiced that there were philological men there: he hoped that there would be some place for his histories. And so even in Homeric verse himself signifying that he was Caesar he said:
"A wind, carrying me from Ilium, brought me to the Cicones."
(However the following verse, equally Homeric, was truer:
"There I looted the city, and destroyed those people.)
"Faith will be in the power of the author" - this refers back to the unnamed man Seneca points out as his source in the opening section of the work. It is humorous that he places faith of the truth of the work on this man, as he will talk to no group of people.
ReplyDeleteThe person doing the reporting is unknown. It seems that a part of the text may have gone missing here, as one would expect the subject to be pointed out especially since it is not explicit enough to warrant dropping.
The use of "I don't know what (nescio quid)" is an idiom of sorts meaning 'something'.
The messenger cannot understand Claudius' infamous babbling that both Suetonius and Tacitus point out. This foreshadows the portrayal of Claudius as an unintelligible monster which Hercules is summoned forth to confront.
P.T. Eden himself is unsure as to what the simile of Hercules like a man who fears not all monsters exactly is referring to.
The quotes of Homeric verse (in the original Greek) are from the Iliad and Odyssey respectively.