PARTS OF ANIMALS, III. x. 



This may be so ; and those who assert it are more 

 credible than those who tell the tale of how a man's 

 head speaks after it is cut off. Sometimes they cite 

 Homer in support, who (so they say) was referring to 

 this when he wrote 



As it spake, his head was mingled with the dust 

 (not 



As he spake, his head was mingled with the dust.) ** 

 In Arcadia ^ this kind of thing w^as at one time so 

 firmly believed that one of the inhabitants was 

 actually brought into court on the strength of it. 

 The priest of Zeus hoplosmios had been killed, but 

 no one knew who had done it. Certain persons, 

 however, affirmed that they had heard the man's 

 head, after it had been cut off, repeating the follow- 

 ing line several times 



'Twas Kerkidas did slaughter man on man. 

 So they set to work and found someone in the 

 district who bore this name and brought him to trial. 

 Of course, speech is impossible once the windpipe 

 has been severed and no motion is forthcoming from 

 the lung. And among the barbarians, where they 

 cut heads off with expedition, nothing of this sort 

 has taken place so far. Besides, why does it not 

 occur with the other animals .'' [For {a) the story 

 about the laughter when the diaphragm has been 

 struck is plausible, for none of the others laughs ; 

 and (6) that the body should go forward some distance 

 after the head has been cut off, is not at all absurd, 

 since bloodless animals at any rate actually go on 



Cook, ZeuSy ii. 290, who gives the evidence, and J. Schaefer, 

 De Jove apud Cares culto^ 1912, pp. 370 f.) 



K 283 



