Absalom and Achitophel, ii. (1682).

EQUIVOKES.

1.  HENRY IV. was told that “he should not die but in Jerusalem,” which he supposed meant the Holy Land; but he died in the Jerusalem Chamber, London, which is the chapter-house of Westminster Abbey.

2.  POPE SYLVESTER was also told that he should die at Jerusalem, and he died while saying mass in a church so called at Rome.

3.  CAMBYSES, son of Cyrus, was told that he should die in Ecbat’ana, which he supposed meant the capital of Media.  Being wounded accidentally in Syria, he asked the name of the place; and being told it was Ecbatana, “Here, then, I am destined to end my life.”

4.  A Messenian seer, being sent to consult the Delphic oracle respecting the issue of the Messenian war, then raging, received for reply: 

  When the goat stoops to drink of the Neda, O, seer,
  From Messenia flee, for its ruin is near!

In order to avert this calamity, all goats were diligently chased from the banks of the Neda.  One day, Theoclos observed a fig tree growing on the river-side, and its branches dipped into the stream.  The interpretation of the oracle flashed across his mind, for he remembered that goat and fig tree, in the Messenian dialect were the same word.

[Illustration] The pun would be clearer to an English reader if “a stork” were substituted for the goat:  “When a stork stoops to drink of the Neda;” and the “stalk” of the fig tree dipping into the stream.

5.  When the allied Greeks demanded of the Delphic oracle what would be the issue of the battle of Salamis, they received for answer: 

  Seed-time and harvest, weeping sires shall tell
  How thousands fought at Salamis and fell;

but whether the oracle referred to the Greeks or Persians who were to fall by “thousands,” was not stated.

6.  When CROESUS demanded what would be the issue of the battle against the Persians, headed by Cyrus, the answer was, he “should behold a mighty empire overthrown;” but whether that empire was his own, or that of Cyrus, only the actual issue of the fight could determine.

7.  Similarly, when PHILIP of Macedon sent to Delphi to inquire if his Persian expedition would prove successful, he received for reply, “The ready victim crowned for sacrifice stands before the altar.”  Philip took it for granted that the “ready victim” was the king of Persia, but it was himself.

8.  TARQUIN sent to Delphi to learn the fate of his struggle with the Romans for the recovery of his throne, and was told, “Tarquin will never fall till a dog speaks with the voice of a man.”  The “dog” was Junius Brutus, who was called a dog by way of contempt.

9.  When the oracle was asked who would succeed Tarquin, it replied, “He who shall first kiss his mother.”  Whereupon Junius Brutus fell to the earth, and exclaimed, “Thus, then, I kiss thee, O mother earth!”