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A Mule in the Mud: Thus Spoke the Platypus

I was reading Catullus XVII and reminded of the words of Utnapishtim, that wisest of men:

As Utnapishtim stood at the crossroads, a man came by driving an ass. Now it chanced that, because of the rains, the ass became stuck in the mud. The man drew out a stick and began beating the ass and it cried after the manner of an ass: "yeah! yeah!" As it was beaten, the ass struggled forward, nor would the man for an instant let the animal back up or himself lead it back, and so it sank deeper and deeper into the mud. Even as the mud rose above its shoulders and filled its nostrils the man continued to beat it and the ass continued his cry of "yeah! yeah!"

The sun traveled across the sky, and at last the ass was overcome with exhaustion and died. Utnapishtim spoke to the man and said: "Surely, if you had led the animal back or around or had given it its own head it would have lived!"

At these words, the man grew incensed and struck Utnapishtim with his stick saying: "It cannot go backward! It shall not go backward!"

Then the man went off in a rage, but Utnapishtim with his own hands took dirt and stones from the road and buried the poor animal in the mire where it lay. The people saw this thing that Utnapishtim did, and were divided in their hearts toward him.

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