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different from what I expected!'
    He put the fig back together and placed it on the table. Suddenly calm again, as at the beginning of the conversation, the Decipherer went on: 'I pick them out myself at a metic's stall in the Agora. He's a good man and almost never cheats me, I assure you - he knows very well that I'm an expert when it comes to figs. But nature sometimes plays tricks.'
    Diagoras was flushed again. He cried: 'Are you going to accept the job, or would you rather go on about that fig?'
    'Please understand, I can't take on something like this.' The Decipherer picked up the krater and poured a cup of thick, undiluted wine. 'I'd be betraying myself. What have I to go on? Mere suppositions . . . and not even my own, but yours.' He shook his head. 'Impossible. Would you care for some wine?'
    But Diagoras was already standing, straight as a reed. His cheeks were flushed a deep red. 'No, I wouldn't. Nor do I want to take any more of your time. I realise now I was wrong to ask you. I'm sorry. We have both done our duty - I in setting out my offer, and you in rejecting it. I bid you a good evening'
    'Wait,' said Heracles casually, as if Diagoras had left something behind. 'I said I couldn't take on your job, but if you'd like to pay me for a job of my own, I'd be happy to accept your money.'
    'Is this some kind of joke?'
    The heads of Heracles' eyes emitted multiple glints of mockery as if all he had said up till then had, indeed, been nothing but an immense joke. He explained: "The night the soldiers brought Tramachus' body, an old madman named Candaulus roused the whole neighbourhood. Like everyone else, I went outside to find out what was going on, and I saw the corpse. A doctor, Aschilos, was examining it, but the incompetent fool couldn't see beyond his own beard. I, however, did see something that I thought strange. I'd forgotten all about it, until now.' He stroked his beard thoughtfully. Then, as if he'd suddenly come to a decision, he cried: 'Yes, I accept! I will solve the mystery of your disciple, Diagoras, but not because of what you thought you saw when you spoke to him, but because of what I saw when I looked at his corpse!'
    The Decipherer would answer none of the multiple questions that had formed in Diagoras' head, saying only: 'Let's not discuss the fig until we've opened it up. I may be mistaken, so I'd rather say nothing more for now. But trust me, Diagoras: if I solve my enigma, it's likely that yours, too, will be solved. If you like, I'll visit you to discuss my fee.'
    They confronted the multiple heads of the financial side of the matter and reached an agreement. Then Heracles said he would begin his investigation the following day - he'd go to Piraeus and try to find the hetaera Tramachus frequented.
    'May I go with you?' Diagoras asked eagerly. And, as the Decipherer stared at him in amazement, Diagoras added: 'I know it's not necessary, but I would like to. I want to work with you. It would make me feel I was helping Tramachus. I promise to do exactly as you say.'
    Heracles Pontor shrugged and smiled. 'Very well. It's your money, Diagoras, so I suppose you have every right to take part in the investigation.'And at that moment, the multiple snakes coiled at his feet raised their scaly heads and flicked out their slimy tongues in fury. 10
    10 I'm sure readers were as surprised as I was by these last lines! We should definitely not see them as a complicated metaphor, but neither should we take them too literally - it really would be going too far to believe that 'multiple snakes' were 'coiled' on the floor of Heracles' room and that the entire conversation between Diagoras and the Decipherer of Enigmas therefore takes place in 'a place full of snakes slithering, cold and slow, up the arms and legs of the protagonists while they talk on, oblivious', as Montalo puts it. (This distinguished expert in Greek literature offers an absurd justification: 'Why shouldn't there be snakes in the room if the