The Gong at Dodona

Abstract

The Greeks had a proverb which compared talkative persons to ‘the gong at Dodona.’ Menander (342–291 B.C.) in his Arrephoros made one of his characters remark:‘Give this creature Myrtile the merest touch or simply call nurse, and there's no end to her talking. To stop the gong at Dodona, which they say sounds all day if a passer-by lays a finger on it, would be an easier job than to stop her tongue; for it sounds all night as well.’A fragment of Kallimachos (c. 310–c. 240 B.C.) implies the same proverb:… ‘lest it might be said that I was but awakening the echoes of the bronze at Dodona.’