On Fate

[sdi]

After the grievous death of his daughter, it next happened to Menkaure that an oracle was sent to him from the city of Bouto, declaring that he had but six years to live and must die in the seventh. The king deemed this unjust, and sent back to the oracle a message of reproach, blaming the god: why must he die so soon who was pious, whereas his father and his uncle had lived long, who shut up the temples, and regarded not the gods, and destroyed men? But a second utterance from the place of divination declared to him that his good deeds were the very cause of shortening his life; for he had done what was contrary to fate; Egypt should have been afflicted for an hundred and fifty years, whereof the two kings before him had been aware, but not Menkaure. Hearing this, he knew that his doom was fixed.

(Herodotos, Histories II §133, as translated by A. D. Godley with minor edits by yours truly.)

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Assuming Herodotos's story is trustworthy, this is a fantastic theological argument for something; I'm just not sure what...

Comments

[thinking_turtle]

Myths like this have the ring of truth! Some that come to mind:

• One cannot row against the times
• Like the king, one can live a good life and still suffer an unjust fate
• Like the father and uncle, one can live a life of vice and still please the Gods
• Once shown the liguht by Oracles, one knows one was wrong all along
• There is a time when creation is good, but also a time when destruction is good

[temporaryreality]

It's interesting that Menkaure, who was pious, thought so poorly of his fate (with at least the translator calling it his "doom" - does Herodotus use that word?) that it's a punishment rather than, say, "graduation."

[sdi]

Good question! No, Herodotos's exact words were, "ὡς κατακεκριμένων ἤδη οἱ τούτων," which is something more like "that this sentence had already been pronounced" (e.g. that a final legal judgement had already been made against him and no appeal was now possible).

But it's clear that Menkaure was merely pious and not holy, since look what Herodotos says after this:

Therefore [Menkaure] caused many lamps to be made, and would light these at nightfall and drink and make merry; by day or night he never ceased from reveling, roaming to the marsh country and the groves and wherever he heard of the likeliest places of pleasure. Thus he planned, that by turning night into day he might make his six years into twelve and so prove the oracle false.

A better response would have been to spend his last six years in initiating to the mysteries, I think...

[temporaryreality]

Yes indeed! That would've been the far better and more appropriate response. To each his own and all that, but his response to his "sentence" seems tedious and stupid to me :D