ABSTRACT
Three young men are walking down the road from Athens to the Academia. 1 Menexenus, the son of Socrates, is a student at the Academia, and he is eagerly anticipating another day of thoughtful discourse with his teacher, Plato. Jason and Niko are friends of Menexenus; they have come along because they want to harvest olives in the groves surrounding the Academia. After having walked about a half mile from the Dipylon Gates of Athens, all three men suddenly turn their eyes to observe a bony, bearded man crouching naked among the gravestones at the side of the road. At first glance, it appears that he is bending an arrow toward a target in the trees, but then the travelers note that the old man is holding nothing in his hands. “The furies! The furies!” he shouts, as he thrashes about and points his imaginary arrow first here, then there. He is wild-eyed, filthy, and foaming at the mouth. The three friends immediately realize that the old man is mad, so they approach him to learn more. “Dionysus told me to slaughter my mother and remove her eyes, and I have done so,” says the old man. “Everywhere now, these furies pursue me to avenge my mother’s death. It is because of this that I neither eat nor drink. I fear being poisoned, and I go sleepless lest the furies strike me in bed. Even here, where lies the remains of my mother, the furies torment me, and so I shoot my arrows.”
