# How the Embassy of the Fleas Fared with Jupiter explained — The Adventurous Simplicissimus

> Chapter companion for The Adventurous Simplicissimus by Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen.

## What happens

Simplicissimus, disguised as a fool, tests Jupiter by accusing the gods of ill repute, provoking Jupiter's wrath. Jupiter then recounts the embassy of the fleas, who petitioned for more honorable execution methods instead of being crushed by women. Jupiter denies their request and reaffirms that women may continue to crush them.

## Themes in this chapter

### Folly and Wisdom

Simplicissimus feigns folly to test Jupiter's sanity, while Jupiter's serious response to the flea embassy reveals the thin line between wisdom and absurdity.

### Deception and Appearance

Simplicissimus pretends to be a fool and slanders the gods to deceive Jupiter, while Jupiter himself is deceived by the fleas' embassy.

## Character check-ins

### Simplicissimus

Disguised as a fool, he provokes Jupiter by slandering the gods to test his madness.

### Jupiter

Angered by the slander, he recounts the embassy of the fleas and denies their petition for honorable execution.

### Ganymede

Addressed by Jupiter as his beloved Ganymede during the conversation.

## Key lines

> Now methought ’twas possible this fellow might be no such fool as he pretended, but might be serving me as I had served others in Hanau to escape from us the better: so I determined to put him in a passion, for in such plight it is easiest to know a real madman

Simplicissimus suspects Jupiter is feigning madness to escape, so he decides to anger him to reveal his true nature.

_Simplicissimus uses provocation as a test of Jupiter's sanity._

> the nation of the fleas, as soon as they learned he was come on earth, had sent their ambassadors to compliment him: and there had complained to him that, though he had assigned to them the dogs’ coats as a dwelling, yet on account of certain properties common to women, some poor souls went astray and trespassed on the ladies’ furs; and such poor wandering creatures were by the women evil entreated, caught, and not only murdered, but first so miserably martyred and crushed between their fingers that it might move the heart of a stone.

The fleas sent ambassadors to Jupiter complaining that women cruelly crush them between their fingers, even though fleas are meant to live on dogs.

_Jupiter recounts the fleas' petition for more humane execution._

> I will give them a privilege, but only this, that the women may squeeze them and crush them as much as they will: and if I catch any so pestilent a customer I will deal with him no better.

Jupiter denies the fleas' request and declares that women may continue to crush them without mercy.

_Jupiter's final judgment on the flea embassy._

## Links

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