Icaromenippus

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.

FRIEND 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.

MENIPPUS 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 Rhodes[*](The 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) FRIEND 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 ?