Since I flew down without mischance, I began to
aspire high and used to take wing from Parnes or
Hymettus, flying to Geraneia and from there up to
Acrocorinthus and then over Pholoe and Erymanthus
clear to Taygetus.
Now that I had thoroughly practised my experiment and had become an adept and a lofty soarer,
I no longer had fledgling aspirations but ascended
Olympus, provisioned myself as lightly as I could
and this time made straight for Heaven. At first
I was dizzied by the height, but afterwards I stood
even that without discomfort. But when I had
left the clouds far below and had got close to
the moon, I felt myself getting tired, especially in
the left wing, the vulture’s. Flying up, therefore,
and perching on the moon, I rested myself, looking
down on the earth from on high and like Homer’s
Zeus,Iliad 13, 4. now observing the land of the horse-loving
Thracians, now the land of the Mysians, and
presently, if I liked, Greece, Persia and India; and
from all this I got my fill of kaleidoscopic pleasure.
Then do tell me about it, Menippus, so that I
may not miss a single detail of the trip, but may even
know whatever you may have found out incidentally.
I assure you, I am looking forward to hearing a good
deal about the shape of the earth and about
everything upon it as it looked to you, viewing it all
from above.
You are right in your assumption, my friend, so
mount up to the moon in fancy as best you can and
share my trip and my view of the whole scheme of
things on earth.
In the first place, imagine that the
earth you see is very small, far less than the moon, [
mean; so that when I suddenly peered down I was
long uncertain where the big mountains and the
great sea were, and if I had not spied the Colossus of
RhodesThe Colossus of Rhodes had been lying prostrate for several centuries at the time this dialogue was written. It stood upright for only 56 years (ca. 283-2278.¢.). Consequently the allusion is thought to come from Menippus. and the lighthouse on Pharos, I vow I
shouldn’t have known the earth at all. But as it
was, the fact that they were high and prominent
and that the ocean glinted in the sun showed me
that what I saw was the earth. But as soon as I
had concentrated my gaze fixedly, the life of man
in its entirety disclosed itself to me, and not only
the nations and cities but the people themselves
as clear as could be, the traders, the soldiers, the
farmers, the litigants, the women, the animals and,
in a word, all the life that the good green earth
supports.A reminiscence of Homer; cf. Il. 2, 548 ; Od. 4, 229; 9, 357- 2 Od. 16, 187
What you say is completely beyond belief and
self-contradictory, for you told me just now that you
had to look for the earth because it was diminished
by the intervening distance, and that if the Colossus
hadn’t given you your bearings, perhaps you would
have thought you were looking at something else.
How is it, then, that you have suddenly turned into a
Lynceus and can make out everything on earth—
the men, the animals and very nearly the nests of
the mosquitoes ?