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The King's Question
- Article from:
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The Hudson Review
- Article date:
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July 1, 2008
- Author:
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Copyright informationCopyright Hudson Review Summer 2008. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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Before he put his important question to an oracle,
Croesus planned to test all the famous soothsayers,
Sending runners half around the world, to Delphi,
Dodona, Amphiarius, Branchidae, and Ammon,
So as to determine the accuracy of their words;
His challenge: not to say anything of his future
But rather what he was doing in his capital Sardis,
(Eating an unlikely meal of lamb and tortoise,
Exactly one hundred days after messengers had set out).
This posed a challenge, then, of far space not of time:
Of seeing past dunes and rock fortresses; of flying,
Freighted, above caravans and seas; of sightedness,
As it were, in the present construed as a darkened room.
Croesus of Lydia sought by this ...