They render especial honours to Achilles and after
him to Theseus. About love-making their attitude



 

is such that they bill-and-coo openly, in plain sight
of everyone, without any discrimination, and think
no shame of it at all. Socrates, the only exception,
used to protest that he was above suspicion in
his relations with young persons, but everyone held
him guilty of perjury. In fact, Hyacinthus and
Narcissus often said that they knew better, but he
persisted in his denial. They all have their wives in
common and nobody is jealous of his neighbour; in
this point they out-Plato Plato. Complaisance is the
universal rule.
 
Hardly two or three days had passed before I
went up to Homer the poet when we were both at
leisure, and questioned him about everything.
“Above all,” said I, “where do you come from?
This point in particular is being investigated even
yet at home.” “Iam not unaware,” said he, “that
some think me a Chian, some a Smyrniote and many
a Colophonian. As a matter of fact, I am a Babylonian, and among my fellow-countrymen my name
was not Homer but Tigranes. Later on, when I was
a hostage ‘(homeros) among the Greeks, I changed my
name.” I went on to enquire whether the
bracketed lines had been written by him, and he
asserted that they were all his own: consequently I
held the grammarians Zenodotus and Aristarchus
guilty of pedantry in the highest degree. Since
he had answered satisfactorily on these points, I
next asked him why he began with the wrath of
Achilles; and he said that it just came into his
head that way, without any study. Moreover, I
wanted to know whether he wrote the Odyssey
before the Iliad, as most people say: he said no.
 

That he was not blind, as they say, I understood at
once—I saw it,and so had no need toask. Often again
at other times I would do this when I saw him at
leisure; I would go and make enquiries of him and he
would give me a cordial answer to everything, particularly after the lawsuit that he won, for a charge of libel
had been brought against him by Thersites because
of the way he had ridiculed him in the poem, and
the case was won by Homer, with Odysseus for his
lawyer.

 


At about this time arrived Pythagoras of Samos
who had undergone seven transformations, had
lived in seven bodies and had now ended the migrations of his soul. All his right side was of gold.
Judgment was pronounced that he should become a
member of their community, but when I left
the point was still at issue whether he ought to be
called Pythagoras or Euphorbus. Empedocles came
too, all burned and his body completely cooked,
 From his leap into the crater of Aetna, but
he was not received in spite of his many entreaties.

 
As time went on their games came round, the
Games of the Dead. The referees were Achilles,
serving for the fifth time, and Theseus for the
seventh. The full details would make a long story,
but I shall tell the principal things that they did.
In wrestling the winner was Caranus, the descendant
of Heracles, who defeated Odysseus for the championship. The boxing was a draw between Areius
the Egyptian, who is buried at Corinth, and Epeius.
For combined boxing and wrestling they offer no



 

prizes. In the foot-race I do not remember who
won and in poetry, Homer was really far the best
man, but Hesiod won. The prize in each case was
a crown that was plaited of peacock feathers.

 
Hardly had the games been concluded when
word came that those who were under punishment
in the place of the wicked had burst their bonds, had
overpowered their guard, and were advancing on the
island: that théy were under the leadership of
Phalaris of Acragas, Busiris the Egyptian, Diomed of
Thrace, and Sciron and Pityocamptes. When Rhadamanthus heard of this he mustered the heroes on the
shore. They were led by Theseus, Achilles and Ajax,
the son of Telamon, who by this time had recovered
his wits. They engaged and fought, and the heroes
won. Achilles contributed most to their success, but
Socrates, who was stationed on the right wing, was
brave, too—far more so than when’ he fought at -
Delium in his lifetime. When four of the enemy
came at him he did not run away or change countenance. For this they afterwards gave him a special
reward, a beautiful great park in the suburbs,
where he used to gather his comrades and dispute:
he named the place the Academy of the Dead.