One hastens to his native land though he be
an islander, and though he could lead a life of ease
elsewhere. If immortality be offered him he will not
accept it, preferring a grave in his native land, and
the smoke thereof is brighter to his eyes than fire
elsewhere.
 This passage is full of allusions to the Odyssey. Ithaca,
“rough, but good for breeding men” (9, 27), is not fit for
horses (4, 601). Odysseus, the islander, who might have been
happy, even immortal, with Circe (5, 135; 2U8), will not
accept immortality, for his native land is dearer than all
else to him (9, 27 ff.) and he longs to see the very smoke
arising from it (1, 57). 

 

To such an extent do all men seem to prize
their own country that lawgivers everywhere, as one
may note, have prescribed exile as the severest
penalty for the greatest transgressions. And it cannot be said that in this view lawgivers differ from
commanders. On the contrary, in battle no other
exhortation of the marshalled men is so effective as
“You are fighting for your native land!” No man
who hears this is willing to be a coward, for the
name of native land makes even the dastard brave.



 

 This treatise (evidently compiled in haste for a special
occasion) cannot fairly be fathered on Lucian. It is valuable,
however, as a document, and not uninteresting in spots.