Ir was three thousand furlongs, then, from the earth to the moon, my first stage; and from there up to the sun perhaps five hundred leagues; and from the sun to Heaven itself and the citadel of Zeus would be also a day’s ascent for an eagle travelling light.
In the name of the Liberal Arts, Menippus, why are you playing astronomer and surveyor on the quiet like that? For a long time I have been following you about and listening to your outlandish talk about suns and moons and even those outworn topics, stages and leagues.
Don’t be surprised, my friend, if my talk seems to you to be.up in the air and flighty; I am just figuring up the total length of my recent journey.
So you did like the Phoenicians, old chap, and guessed your way by the stars ¢
No indeed, I made my journey right among the
stars,
Dream, man! Do you think I’m telling you a dream? [am just back from a visit to Zeus.
What’s that you say? Menippus here from Heaven, dropt from the clouds ?
Here I an, I tell you, just come back to-day from the very presence of your great Zeus himself, and I have seen and heard wonderful things. If you don’t believe me, I am overjoyed precisely because my good luck is beyond belief,
Why, my divine Menippus, my Olympian Menippus,
how can a mortal groundling like myself disbelieve
a sky-man—in fact, to use the words of Homer, a
son of Heaven?
You have clearly been making fun of me this long
time, and it is no wonder you think that my strange
story is like a fairy-tale. However, I had no need
of your ladder; for my ascent, nor yet to become the
eagle’s pet, for I had wings of my own.
Your guess is well-aimed, my friend, and hits the bull’s-eye ; for I myself constructed wings, patterned after Daedalus’ clever invention.