Arresting the losers and putting them in irons,
they sent them off to be punished still more severely
than before. An account of this battle was written
by Homer, and as I was leaving he gave me the
book to take to the people at home, but later I lost
it along with everything else. The poem began:

 This time sing me, O Muse, of the shades of the
heroes in battle! 


 

But to return—they cooked beans, An allusion to the Pyanepsia, the Athenian Beanfeast. 
as is their
custom when they are successful at war, hdd a feast
in honour of the victory and made a great holiday.
Pythagoras was the only one who did not take part
in it; he sat by himself and went dinnerless
because he detested beans.
 
Six months had passed and it was about the
middle of the seventh when sedition arose. Cinyras,
the son of Scintharus, a tall and handsome lad, had
long been in love with Helen, and it was no secret
that she herself was madly enamoured of the boy. For
instance, they often winked to one another at table,
drank to each other and got up together and
wandered about the wood. Well, one fine day
through love and despair Cinyras determined to rape
Helen—she agreed to it—and go to one of the
islands in the offing, either Cork or Cheesie. As
accomplices they had long ago taken on three of the
most reckless of my comrades; but Cinyras did not
inform his father, for he knew that he would not let
him do it. When they had come to a decision, they
carried out their stratagem. It was at nightfall, and
I was not on hand, as I chanced to be taking a nap
under the table. Without the knowledge of the
rest they carried Helen off and put to sea in haste.

 

About midnight, when Menelaus woke up, and
found that his wife was not in bed, he made a
great stir and took his brother and went to King
Rhadamanthus. But as day began to break the
lookouts said that they saw the ship far out at sea.
Then Rhadamanthus put fifty of the heroes aboard a



 

ship made of a single log of asphodel and ordered
them to give chase. Rowing with a will, they overtook them about noon, just as they were entering
the milky place in the ocean near Cheesie—that is
all they lacked of escaping! Securing the ship with
a hawser of roses, they sailed home. -Helen cried
and hid her head for shame. As to Cinyras and the
rest, first Rhadamanthus asked them if they had any
other accomplices, and they said no; then he. had
them secured by the offending member and sent
them away to the place of the wicked, after they
had been first scourged with mallow.

 

The heroes
voted, too, that we be dismissed from the island
before our time was up, remaining only till the next
day. 
Thereupon I began to cry aloud and weep because
I had to leave such blessings behind me and resume
my wanderings. But they cheered me up, saying
that before many years I should come back to them
again, and they even pointed out to me my future
chair and couch, close to the best people. I went
to Rhadamanthus and earnestly besought him to tell
me what would happen and indicate my course. He
said that I should reach my native land in spite of
many wanderings and dangers, but refused to tell the
time of my return. However, pointing out the islands
near by—there were five in sight and a sixth in the
distance—, “These,” said he, “are the Isles of
the Wicked, here close at hand, from which you see
all the smoke arising: the sixth yonder is the City
of Dreams. Next comes the island of Calypso, but


 

you cannot see it yet. When you have sailed by
these, you will finally come to the great continent
opposite the one which your people inhabit. Then
at last, after you have had many adventures and
have travelled through all sorts of countries and lived
among unfriendly men, in course of time you will
reach the other continent.”

 
With these words he plucked a root of mallow
from the ground and handed it to me, telling me to
pray to it in my greatest straits. And he advised me
if ever I reached this country, neither to stir the fire
with a sword-blade nor to eat lupines nor to make
love to anyone over eighteen,
 The first is a real Pythagorean precept, or what passed
for such (Plut. Mor, 128); the other two are parodies. saying that if I bore
these points in mind I might have good hopes of
getting back to the island.
 
Well, I made preparations for the voyage, and
when the time came, joined them at the feast. On
the next day I went to the poet Homer and begged
him to compose me a couplet to carve up, and when
he had done so, I set up a slab of beryl near the
harbour and had the couplet carved-onit. It was:

 One Lucian, whom the blessed gods befriend, 
 Beheld what’s here, and home again did wend.