Dialogi mortuorum

Lucian of Samosata

The Works of Lucian of Samosata, complete, with exceptions specified in thepreface, Vol. 1. Fowler, H. W. and Fowlere, F.G., translators. Oxford at the Clarendon Press, 1905.

Diogenes Ah, now I see! Alcmena had twins, you mean,— Heracles the son of Zeus, and Heracles the son of Amphitryon? You were really half-brothers all the time?

Heracles Fool! not so. We twain were one Heracles.

Diogenes It’s a little difficult to grasp, the two Heracleses packed into one. I suppose you must have been like a sort of Centaur, man and God all mixed together?

Heracles And are not all thus composed of two elements,—the body and the soul? What then should hinder the soul from being in Heaven, with Zeus who gave it, and the mortal part— myself—among the dead?