Alexander

Lucian of Samosata

Lucian, Vol. 4. Harmon, A. M., editor. London: William Heinemann, Ltd.; Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1925.

Sometimes, to amaze dolts, he would deliver an oracle for the benefit of someone who had neither enquired nor sent—who, in fact, did not exist at all. For example:

  1. Seek thou out that man who in utmost secrecy shrouded
  2. Tumbleth at home on the couch thy helpmeet Calligeneia,
  3. Slave Protogenes, him upon whom thou fully reliest.
  4. He was corrupted by thee, and now thy wife he corrupteth,
  5. Making a bitter return unto thee for his own violation.
  6. Aye more, now against thee a baneful charm they have fashioned
  7. So that thou mayst not hear nor see what deeds they are doing ;
    8. v.4.p.241
  8. This shalt thou find on the floor, beneath thy bed, by the wall-side, :
  9. Close to the head; thy servant Calypso shareth the secret.”
What Democritus[*](Democritus of Abdera is adduced as a typical hardheaded sceptic; see above, c. 17, and the Lover of Lies, 32 (iii, PR 369). ) would not have been disturbed on hearing names and places specified—and would not have been filled with contempt soon afterward, when he saw through their stratagem ?