“Never mind him,” said Ion, “and I will tell you


 

a wonderful story. I was still a young lad, about
fourteen years old, when someone came and told
my father that Midas the vine-dresser, ordinarily a
strong and industrious servant, had been bitten by
a viper toward midday and was lying down, with his
leg already in a state of mortification. While he
was tying up the runners and twining them about
the poles, the creature had crawled up and bitten
him on the great toe; then it had quickly gone
down again into its hole, and he was groaning in
mortal anguish.

 
“As this report was being maile, we saw Midas
himself being brought up on a litter by his fellowslaves, all swollen and livid, with a clammy skin and
but little breath left in him. Naturally my father
was distressed, but a friend who was there said
to him: ‘Cheer up: I will at once go and get you
a Babylonian, one of the so-called Chaldeans, who
will cure the fellow.’ Not to make a long story of
it, the Babylonian came and brought Midas back
to life, driving the poison out of his body by a
spell, and also binding upon his foot a fragment
which he broke from the tombstone of a dead
maiden.
 
“Perhaps this is nothing out of the common:
although Midas himself picked up the litter on
which he had been carried and went off to the farm,
so potent was the spell and the fragment of the
tombstone.

 
But the Babylonian did other things that
were truly miraculous. Going to the farm in the early
morning, he repeated seven sacred names out of an
old book, purified the place with sulphur and torches,
going about. it three times, and called out all the


 

reptiles that there were inside the boundaries. They
came as if they were being drawn in response to the
spell, snakes in great numbers, asps, vipers, horned
snakes, darters, common toads, and puff-toads; one
old python, however, was missing, who on account
of his age, I suppose, could not creep out and so
failed to comply with the command. The magician
said that not all were there, and electing one of the
snakes messenger, the youngest, sent him after the
python, who presently came too. When they were
assembled, the Babylonian blew on them and they
were all instantly burned up by the blast, and we
were amazed.”

 
“Tell me, Ion,” said I, “did the messenger snake,
the young one, give his arm to the python, who you
say was aged, or did the python have a stick and
lean on it?” 
“You are joking,” said Cleodemus: “I myself
was formerly more incredulous than you in regard to
such things, for I thought it in no way possible that
they could happen; but when first I saw the foreign
stranger fly—he came from the land of the Hyperboreans, he said—, I believed and was conquered
after long resistance. What was I to do when I saw
him soar through the air in broad daylight and walk
on the water and go through fire slowly on foot?”
“Did you see that?’ said I—“the Hyperborean
flying, or stepping on the water?” “Certainly,”
said he, “with brogues on his feet such as people of
that country commonly wear. As for the trivial

 

feats, what is the use of telling all that he performed,
sending Cupids after people, bringing up supernatural beings, calling mouldy corpses to life, making
Hecate herself appear in plain sight, and pulling
down the moon?

 

But after all, I will tell you what I
saw him do in the house of Glaucias, son of Alexicles. 
“Immediately after Glaucias’ father died and he
acquired the property, he fell in love with Chrysis,
the wife of Demeas. I was in his employ as his
tutor in philosophy, and if that love-affair had not
kept him too busy, he would have known all the
teachings of the Peripatetic school, for even at
eighteen he was solving fallacies and had completed
the course of lectures on natural philosophy. Aristotle’s Physics. At
his wit’s end, however, with his love-affair, he told
me the whole story; and as was natural, since I was
his tutor, I brought him that Hyperborean magician
at a fee of four minas down (it was necessary to pay
something in advance towards the cost of the victims)
and sixteen if he should obtain Chrysis. The man
waited for the moon to wax, as it is then, for the
most part, that such rites are performed; and after
digging a pit in an open court of the house, at about
midnight he first summoned up for us Alexicles,
Glaucias’ father, who had died seven months before.
The old gentleman was indignant over the love-affair .
and flew into a passion, but at length he permitted
him to go on with it after all. Next he brought up
Hecate, who fetched Cerberus with her, and he drew
down the moon, a many-shaped spectacle, appearing
differently at different times; for at first she
exhibited the form of a woman, then she turned into
a handsome bull, and then she looked like a puppy.


 

Finally, the Hyperborean made a little Cupid out of
Clay and said: ‘Go and fetch Chrysis.’ The clay took
wing, and before long Chrysis stood on the threshold
knocking at the door, came in and embraced Glaucias
as if she loved him furiously, and remained with him
until we heard the cocks crowing. Then the moon
flew up to the sky, Hecate plunged beneath the earth,
the other phantasms disappeared, and we sent Chrysis
home at just about dawn.

 
If you had seen that,
Tychiades, you would no longer have doubted that
there is much good in spells.” 
“Quite so,” said I, “I should have believed if I
had seen it, but as things are I may perhaps be
pardoned if I am not able to see as clearly as you.
However, I know the Chrysis whom you speak of, an
amorous dame and an accessible one, and I do not
see why you needed the clay messenger and the
Hyperborean magician and the moon in person to
fetch her, when for twenty drachmas she could have
been brought to the Hyperboreans! The woman
is very susceptible to that spell, and her case is the
opposite to that of ghosts; if they hear a chink of
bronze or iron, they take flight, so you say, but as
for her, if silver chinks anywhere, she goes toward
the sound. Besides, I am surprised at the magician
himself, if he was able to have the love of the
richest women and get whole talents from them, and
yet made Glaucias fascinating, penny-wise that he is,
for four minas.”’

 
 
“You act ridiculously,” said Ion, “to doubt everything.