TIRYNS. 445 
ment, the Members of the French Academy CHAP - 
J vii. 
may recur to the story, in support of a very 
probable truth; namely, that the Tirynthians 
and the Gauls were only earlier and later scions 
of the same Indio- -European stock. Such was 
their remarkable levity, that the most serious 
and important concerns served among them 
merely to give a turn to a Ion-mot. At last, 
even fun became a lore ; and they applied to 
the Oracle of Delphi, to be delivered from the 
ennui of its perpetual recurrence. The answer 
of the Oracle put them to a trial, which only 
served to render their natural character the 
more conspicuous : it promised relief, upon con- 
dition, that, after having gravely sacrificed a 
bull to Neptune, they should as gravely cast it 
into the sea. For this purpose the Tirynthians 
assembled upon the shore; taking especial 
care to prevent the juvenile members of their 
society from being present at the solemnity. 
A young pickle, however, made his way into 
the crowd ; and finding they were eager to drive 
him from the ceremony, exclaimed, " Are ye 
then afraid lest 1 should swallow your bull?"* The 
(4) Thus rendered by Barthelemy. The words in the original, how- 
ever, are, T) 5r', fyn, Si8/xar p* <riv fffayio* vfitiy a,ir^u. Athenai 
neiftnosoph. Mb. vi. c. 17. p. 261. Lugd. 1657. 
