Verae historiae

Lucian of Samosata

Selections from Lucian. Smith, Emily James, translator. New York; Harper Brothers, 1892.

The third case was a question of precedence between Alexander, son of Philip, and Hannibal the Carthaginian. It was decided that the pas belonged to Alexander, and a chair was set for him beside Cyros the Elder, of Persia.

As the fourth case we were brought forward. He asked what circumstances had brought us, still living men, within sacred precincts, and we told him the whole story in order. He then sent us aside for some time and considered our case, discussing it with his colleagues; for many others were on the bench with him, and among them Aristides the Just, of Athens. He announced his decision as follows: we were to pay, after death, the penalty for our curiosity and our voyage; but for the period fixed by him we might stay in the island and dwell with the heroes, and then take ourselves off. He set the day of our departure at not more than seven months' distance.

Thereupon the garlands fell from us of their own accord, leaving us free, and we were led into the city, and to the banquet-hall of the blest. The city itself is all of gold, but the wall around it is of emerald. There were seven gates, each a single piece of cinnamon. But the streets of the city and the ground within the walls were ivory. The temples of all the gods were built of beryll

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stone, and the great altars in them, on which hecatombs are offered, are single amethysts. Around the city flows a river of the sweetest unguents, fifty yards broad and twenty-five deep, so that one may swim in it pleasantly. The baths of this country are great buildings of crystal filled with the fragrance of burning cinnamon. But, instead of water, there is warm dew in the pools.

For garments the people wear delicate purple spiders' webs. They themselves have no bodies; they are impalpable and fleshless, and present to the eye nothing but a shape, a contour. But although they are thus disembodied, they yet have consistency, move, reason, and utter speech. In fact, it is just as though their naked souls were walking about, wearing the likeness of their bodies. At any rate, unless you should lay hold of one of them, you would not detect that what your eye rested on was incorporeal. They are like shadows, except that they are upright and not dark. No one grows old; each remains at the age he had when he came. Nor is there any night with them, or very bright day either, for the light that pervades the land is like that white radiance of dawn before the sun has risen. Moreover, they know only one time of year, for it is always spring there, and the south wind is the only one that blows.

The country blooms with all sorts of flowers and of green things, too, cultivated

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plants and shady forest-trees. The vines bear twelve times a year, bringing forth their fruit every month. But the pears and apples and other fruits are said to come thirteen times yearly, for in one month, called there the month of Minos, the trees bear twice. Instead of grain the ears bear loaves, ready for eating, on their heads like mushrooms. There are three hundred and sixty-five springs of water about the city, as many more of honey, and five hundred of perfumed oil; but these are smaller. There are seven rivers of milk and eight of wine.

The place of their banquets is outside the city, in what is called the Elysian Field. It is a very beautiful meadow surrounded by a dense wood of all sorts of trees, which shade the guests as they lie beneath them on beds of blossoms. The winds wait upon the guests and serve them with everything but wine. This they need not serve, for surrounding the place are great trees of the clearest crystal, and the fruits of these trees are wine-cups of every sort of workmanship and size. So that, when any one comes to table, he gathers one or two of the cups and sets them beside him, and they are straightway filled with wine. This, then, is the manner of their drinking, and as for garlands, they have none, but the nightingales and other tuneful birds gather flowers from the neighboring meadows in their beaks, and let them

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fall like snow as they fly over the guests, singing the while. And I will tell you how they are anointed with perfumes. Thick clouds draw up perfume from the springs and the river; then they station themselves above the banquet, and when the winds gently press them they let fall a light rain like dew.

At the feast they amuse themselves with music and singing, and their favorites are the songs of Homer; for he is there in person and feasts with them, sitting next above Odysseus. The choruses are composed of youths and maidens, and Eunomos of Lokris, Arion of Lesbos, Anakreon and Stesichoros conduct them and sing with them. For Stesichoros, too, I saw there, as Helen had already made it up with him. When these cease singing a second chorus comes forward, composed of swans and swallows and nightingales. As soon as they begin to sing, the whole forest, set going by the winds, accompanies them on the flute.

But the greatest incentive they have to good cheer is this: there are two springs near the feasting-place, one of laughter and the other of pleasure. Every one drinks from each of these at the beginning of the merry-making, and the rest of the time is spent with pleasure and laughter.

I wish to tell you, also, what famous persons I saw there. There were all the demi-gods and the

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heroes who went on the Trojan expedition, with the exception of Lokrian Ajax; he, they said, was being punished in the realm of the wicked. Among the barbarians there were both the Cyruses, Anacharsis the Scythian, Zamolxis the Thracian, and Numa the Italian. Sparta was represented by Lykourgos, and Athens by Phokion, Tellos, and all the sages except Periander. I also saw Sokrates, son of Sophroniskos, gossipping with Nestor and Palamedes. Round him were Hyakinthos of Lacedaemon, Narkissos of Thespiae, Hylas, and many other handsome lads, and it seemed to me that he was fond of Hyakinthos. At all events, he often put him down in argument. It was rumored that Rhadamanthos was out of temper with Sokrates, and had often threatened to banish him from the island if he continued his nonsense and was not willing to stop revelling in his irony. Plato only was not there, and I was told that he was living himself in the city he had fashioned, under the constitution and laws with which he endowed it in his writings.

Aristippos, however, and Epicuros held the greatest honors there, because they were charming and agreeable and most convivial. Aesop the Phrygian was there, too, and held the office of court-jester. Diogenes of Sinope had so altered his ways as to marry Lais, the courtesan,

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and was given to getting up and dancing when he was drunk, and playing other drunken tricks. Not one of the Stoics was there, for they were said to be still climbing the steep hill of "the higher life." And I heard this of Chrysippos himself, that it was not permitted to him to come to the island until he had completed his fourth course of hellebore-treatment. They said that the Academics wished to come, but were still suspending their judgment and considering the matter, for they had not yet an apprehension even of this, whether there be any such island or no. I imagine they particularly dreaded the judgment of Rhadamanthos, for by their principles they deny any standard for forming judgments. They asserted that many of their number set out to follow these who actually arrived, but were so deliberate that they were left behind, and turned back when they had come half-way.

These, then, were the most noteworthy people there. The person most looked up to was Achilles, and next after him Theseus.

Before more than two or three days had passed I approached Homer, the poet, when we were both at leisure, and asked him several questions; among others, what his birthplace was, telling him that this was a great subject of research among us to this day. He said he was aware already that some believe he was born in Chios,

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some in Smyrna, and many in Colophon. He was, however (he said), a Babylonian, and in his own country was called not Homer, but Tigranes. But when later he made his home in Greece as a hostage he changed his name. I also asked him about those verses in his poems rejected by the critics, whether they were written by him or not, and he declared they were all his. As you will imagine, this filled me with contempt for the callous criticism of the commentators Zenodotos and Aristarchos. When he had satisfied me on these points, I asked what in the world was his reason for beginning his poem with the word "wrath." He said that was the way it came into his head, and he took no pains about it. I was eager to know this, too: whether he wrote the Odyssey before the Iliad, as most critics declare; but he said he did not. As to that other story about him, that he was blind, I very soon perceived that it was false, for he saw, so that there was no need even to put the question. I repeated my action frequently when I saw him unoccupied, going up to him and interrogating him. He answered me cordially, especially after he had won his lawsuit. An indictment for slander had been brought against him by Thersites, on the ground of the scoffs against him in Homer's poems. But Homer won the suit, having Odysseus as counsel.
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