Thereupon Antigonus, the physician, said, “I
myself, Eucrates, have a bronze Hippocrates about
eighteen inches high. As soon as the light is
out, he goes all about the house making noises,
turning out the vials, mixing up the medicines, and
overturning the mortar, particularly when we are
behindhand with the sacrifice which we make to
him every year.” “Has it gone so far,’ said I,
“that even Hippocrates the physician demands
sacrifice in his honour and gets angry if he is not
feasted on unblemished victims at the proper season ?
He ought to be well content if anyone should
bring food to his tomb or pour him a libation of
milk and honey or put a wreath about his gravestone !”

 
“Let me tell you,” said Eucrates, “—this, I assure
you, is supported by witnesses—what I saw five
years ago. It happened to be the vintage season of
the year; passing through the farm at midday, I left
the labourers gathering the grapes and went off by
myself into the wood, thinking about something in
the meantime and turning it over in my mind.
When I was under cover, there came first a barking
of dogs, and I supposed that my son Mnason was at
his usual sport of following the hounds, and had


 

entered the thicket with his companions. This was
not the case, however; but after a short time there .
came an earthquake and with it a noise as of thunder,
and then I saw a terrible woman coming toward me,
quite half a furlong in height. She had a torch in
her left hand and a sword in her right, ten yards
long; below, she had snake-feet, and above she
resembled the Gorgon, in her stare, I mean, and the
frightfulness of her appearance ; moreover, instead
of hair she had the snakes falling down in ringlets,
twining about her neck, and some of them coiled
upon her shoulders.—See,” said he, “how my flesh .
creeps, friends, as I tell the story!’ And as he
spoke he showed the hairs on his forearm standing
on end (would you believe it?) because of his terror !

 

Ion, Deinomachus, Cleodemus, and the rest of
them, open-mouthed, were giving him unwavering attention, old men led by the nose, all but
doing obeisance to so unconvincing a colossus, a
woman half a furlong in height, a gigantic bugaboo!
For my part I was thinking in the meantime: “They
associate with young men to make them wise and
are admired by many, but what are they themselves?
Only their grey hair and their beard distinguishes
them from infants, and for the rest of it, even infants
are not so amenable to falsehood.”

 
Deinomachus,
for instance, said: “Tell me, Eucrates, the dogs of
the goddess—how big were they ?”
“Taller than Indian elephants,” he replied ;
“black, like them, with a shaggy coat of filthy,
tangled hair.— Well, at sight of her I stopped, at
the same time turning the gem that the Arab gave
me to the inside of my finger, and Hecate, stamping


 

on the ground with her serpent foot, made a
tremendous chasm, as deep as Tartarus; then after
a little she leaped into it and was gone. I plucked up
courage and looked over, taking hold of a tree that
grew close by, in order that I might not get a dizzy
turn and fall into it headlong. Then I saw everything in Hades, the River of Blazing Fire, and the
Lake, and Cerberus, and the dead, well enough to
recognise some of them. My father, for instance, I
saw distinctly, still wearing the same clothes in
which we buried him.” 
“What were the souls doing, Eucrates?”’ said Ion.
“What else would they be doing,” he said, “except
lying upon the asphodel to while away the time, along
with their friends and kinsmen by tribes and clans ?”’
“Now let the Epicureans go on contradicting holy
Plato,” said Ion, “and his doctrine about the souls!
But you did not see Socrates himself and Plato among
the dead?” “Socrates I saw,” he replied, “and
even him not for certain but by guess, because he
was bald and pot-bellied ; Plato I could not recognise,
for one must tell the truth to friends, I take it.
 
“No sooner had I seen everything sufficiently well
than the chasm came together and closed up; and
some of the servants who were seeking me, Pyrrhias
here among them, came upon the scene before the
chasm had completely closed. Tell them, Pyrrhias,
whether I am speaking the truth or not.” “Yes,
by Heaven,” said Pyrrhias, “and I heard barking,
too, through the chasm and a gleam of fire was

 

shining, from the torch, I suppose.’ I had to laugh
when the witness, to give good measure, threw in
the barking and the fire!

 
Cleodemus, however, said, “These sights that
you saw are not novel and unseen by anyone else,
for I myself when I was taken sick not long ago
witnessed something similar. Antigonus here visited
and attended me. It was the seventh day, and the
fever was like a calenture of the most raging type.
Leaving me by myself and shutting the door, they
all were waiting outside ; for you had given orders to
that: effect, Antigonus, on the chance that I might
fall asleep. Well, at that time there appeared at my
side while I lay awake a very handsome young man,
wearing a white cloak ; then, raising me to my feet,
he led me through a chasm to Hades, as I realised
at once when I saw Tantalus and Ixion and Tityus
and Sisyphus. Why should I tell you all the details?
But when I came to the court—Aeacus and Charon
and the Fates and the Furies were there—a person
resembling a king (Pluto, I suppose) sat reading off
the names of those about to die because their lease
of life chanced to have already expired. The young
man speedily set me before him; but Pluto was
angry and said to my guide: ‘ His thread is not yet
‘fully spun, so let him be off, and bring me the
blacksmith Demylus, for he is living beyond the
spindle.’ I hastened back with a joyful heart, and
from that time was free from fever ; but I told everyone that Demylus would die. He lived next door
to us, and himself had some illness, according to
report. And after a little while we heard the
wailing of his mourners.”