Verae historiae
Lucian of Samosata
Selections from Lucian. Smith, Emily James, translator. New York; Harper Brothers, 1892.
During this same time Pythagoras of Samos also put in an appearance after his seventh transformation, his lives in the forms of as many animals, and his completion of the cycles of the soul. His whole right thigh was of gold. He was judged worthy to dwell with the others, but there was doubt whether he ought to be called Pythagoras or Euphorbos. Empedokles also came, done to a turn, with his whole body roasted. He, however, was not admitted, though he begged hard.
Some time after this their games were held in honor of the Festival of the Dead. Achilles presided for the fifth time and Theseus for the seventh. A full description would be too lengthy, but I will narrate the most important events. Karos, of the line of Hercules, won the wrestling prize, although he had Odysseus for a competitor. The boxing-match was a tie between Areion the Egyptian, who is buried in Corinth, and Epeios, who contended together. For the all-round contest they offer no prize there, and as for the footrace, I no longer remember who was the winner. Among the poets Homer was easily the real victor, but nevertheless Hesiod won the prize. The prize for all alike was a wreath woven of peacock's feathers.
Hardly were the games at an end when word was brought that the criminals who were being punished in the realm of the wicked had broken
The vanquished were collected, of course, and sent back again in irons to still greater punishments. Homer wrote an account of this battle, too, and presented me with a copy on my departure for me to carry to men in this land, but I lost it afterwards, with my other belongings. The first line of the poem was this:
- Sing to me now, O Muse, the wars of the shades of the heroes.
Six months had already gone by and half of the seventh when a disaster happened. Kinyras, Skintharos's son, tall and handsome, had for some time already been in love with Helen, who, on her side, made no secret of her lively passion for the youth. At any rate, they were constantly making signs to one another at table and pledging each other as they drank their wine, and then they would rise and wander off alone in the forest. Well, at last Kinyras, urged on by his passion and his helpless condition, conceived the plan of stealing Helen and running off with her. She, too, approved the idea of going off to one of the neighboring islands, either Cork or Cheeseland. They had some time ago taken three of my most valiant comrades into the conspiracy, but Kinyras had not mentioned it to his father, for he knew he would hinder him. They carried out their preconcerted plan. The night came. I was not at hand, for I happened to be asleep in the banquet-hall. The conspirators eluded the others, captured Helen, and set sail in haste.
About midnight Menelaus awoke, and, finding
They decided that we, too, must be sent out of the island on short notice, giving us only the following day. Thereupon I burst into lamentations and wept at the thought of leaving so many delights and setting forth on my wanderings again. But the heroes heartened me by saying that before many years I should return to them, and they showed me a chair and a couch made ready against that day near the noblest. I went to Rhadamanthos and begged and besought him to read the future for me and map out my voyage, and he told me I should return
So much he told me; and, plucking a mallow-root from the earth, he handed it to me, bidding me call upon this in my greatest perils. He also laid these injunctions on me in case I should ever get back to this country: never to stir the fire with my sword, never to eat beans, and never to kiss a girl more than eighteen years old. If I should keep these rules in mind I might confidently hope to return to the island. After this I made ready for the voyage, and when the time was come I feasted together with them. The next morning I went to Homer, the poet, to ask him to write me a distich for an inscription,
- Lucian, beloved of the gods who dwell in bliss everlasting,
- Saw these realms, and then returned to the land of his fathers.
This was our last day; on the next we set forth, escorted by the heroes. At this juncture Odysseus, too, came to me unbeknownst to Penelope, and gave me a letter to carry to Kalypso in the island of Ogygia. [The first land made by Lucian on this voyage was one of the Islands of the Wicked, where Timon of Athens was gate-keeper. Here he saw Kinyras and others in torment, but the severest punishments were reserved for liars and inaccurate historians, among whom he saw Ktesias the Knidian and Herodotus. Thence he sailed to the Island of Dreams, and so to Ogygia.]
On the third day thereafter we made the island of Ogygia and went ashore, but first I opened the letter and read the contents. It ran as follows:
ODYSSEUS GREETS KALYPSO.
Know that as soon as I sailed away from your island on the raft I had built I suffered shipwreck,
This was what the letter said, together with a request that she would show us hospitality.
When I had advanced a short distance from the sea I found a cave such as Homer described, and the lady herself spinning wool. When she had taken the letter and read it through she burst into tears and wept a long time, but after a while she invited us to dinner and feasted us nobly. She asked questions about Odysseus and about Penelope, what she was like to look at, and whether her good sense was so remarkable as Odysseus used to boast it. We made such answers as we thought would be agreeable to her. Then we went off to the ship and bivouacked near by on the beach.
These, then, were my adventures on the sea, during my voyage among the islands, in the air,