Bring in the wounded next, Hermes. (To the DEAD) First tell me what deaths brought you here—but no, I myself will refer to my papers and pass you. Eighty-four should have died in battle yesterday in Media, among them Gobares, the son of Oxyartas.

Here they are!

Seven committed suicide for love, among them the philosopher Theagenes for the courtesan from Megara.This man can hardly be other than the Cynic of Patras mentioned in The Passing of Peregrinus, who died in the teign of Marcus Aurelius. To be sure, Galen says he was killed by his doctor (x, p. 909), but he may well have been alive when Lucian wrote this.

Right here beside you.

Where are the men who killed each other fighting for the throne?

Here they stand.

And the man who was murdered by his wife and her lover?

There beside you.

Now bring in the output of the courts, I mean those who died by the scourge and the cross. And where are the sixteen who were killed by pirates, Hermes?

Where is the philosopher Cyniscus, who was to die from eating the dinner of Hecate and the lustral eggs and a raw squid besides?The dinner of Hecate (mentioned also in Dialogues of the Dead, 1) was a purificatory offering made at cross-roads and,to judge from Aristophanes (Plutus 594), very well received by the poor. For the use of eggs in purification see Ovid, Ars Amat. ii. 329; Juv. vi. 517. The raw squid is mentioned because Diogenes is said to have died from eating one (Diog. Laert. 156 ap; cf. Philosophers for Sale, 10).

Ihave been standing at your elbow a long time, kind Clotho. What have I done that you should leave me on earth so long? Why, you nearly ran off your whole spindle for me! In spite of that, I have often tried to cut the thread and come, but somehow or other it could not be broken.

I left you behind to observe and prescribe for the sins of man. But get aboard, and good luck to you.:

No, by Heaven, not till we have put this man in fetters aboard. I am afraid he may come it over you with his entreaties.