Another similar story is to be found in the writings of the mythologists, telling of the days when all animals had a common language. The tale is that in old days all animals, whether on land or in water or winged, had the same language, and just as among men to-day Greeks talk with Greeks and barbarians with barbarians if they have the same tongue, so too every creature conversed with every other, about all that happened to be done to them or by them, and in this way they mourned together at misfortunes, and rejoiced together when anything of advantage came their way. For since community of language led them to impart to each other their pleasures and discomforts, both emotions were shared by them in common. As a result they gained a similarity of temperament and feeling until surfeited with the abundance of their present blessings they desired the unattainable, as so often happens, and wrecked their happiness thereon. They sent an embassy to demand immortality, asking that they might be exempted from old age and allowed to enjoy the vigour of youth for ever. They pleaded that one of their fellow-creatures, that mere reptile the serpent, had already obtained this boon, since he shed his old age and renewed his youth afresh, and it was absurd that the superior beings should fare worse than the inferior, or all than the one. However, for this audacity they were punished as they deserved. For their speech at once became different, so that from that day forward they could no longer understand each other, because of the difference of the languages into which the single language which they all shared had been divided.
On the Confusion of Tongues 3
Tap any verse to see what it echoes — and start a chain or echo from it.