Advice to Tyrants: The Motif of "Enigmatic Counsel" in Greek and Roman Texts

Abstract

IN THE WORKS of the English short-story writer Saki, known for his sardonic attitude toward the British aristocracy, we find the following description of a woman working in her garden: Mrs. Riversedge snipped vigorously at the nearest rose bush, incidentally decapitating a Viscountess Folkestone that was just coming into bloom.' This symbolic-though, in this case, accidental-execution of the highest classes, who are represented by flowers, has its literary origin at least as far back as Livy's histories. In the story of Tarquinius Superbus as told by Livy and the historians following in his tradition, Tarquinius' son sends him a messenger to inquire how Gabii might be conquered. Tarquinius answers the messenger by strolling into his garden and striking off the heads of the poppies there. Upon hearing of this figurative action his son correctly interprets it to mean that he should kill the prominent citizens of Gabii.2 Scholarship on the episode has noted the parallel of this story with Herodotus' story of Thrasyboulos and Periander, in which Thrasyboulos instructs Periander on tyranny by cutting down prominent stalks of wheat.3 The change from grain to poppies, however, has not been discussed, nor have the several other interesting variants on this detail.4 Ovid's version ofTarquin's history substitutes lilies for poppies,5 and two rabbinic versions concerning Rabbi Jehuda ha Nasi's advice to the Emperor Antoninus substitute radishes. Although the detail may seem insignificant, this type of symbolic, figurative action, centering around vegetation and carrying a political meaning, forms part of a folklore motif known as enigmatic counsel whose best-known variants are the above-mentioned rabbinic versions.6 While commentaries on the