Disappointed, therefore, in this expectation, I was
still more uncomfortable than before, although I consoled myself somewhat with the thought that if I
was still foolish and went about in ignorance of the
truth, at all events I had the company of many wise
men, widely renowned for intelligence. So one time,
while I lay awake over these problems, I resolved to
go to Babylon and address myself to one of the
Magi, the disciples and successors of Zoroaster, as
I had heard that with certain charms and ceremonials
they could open the gates of Hades, taking down in
safety anyone they would and guiding him back again.
Consequently I thought best to arrange with one of


 

these men for my going down, and then to call upon
Teiresias of Boeotia and find out from him in his
capacity of prophet and sage what the best life was,
the life that a man of sense would choose.
Well, springing to my feet, I made straight for
Babylon as fast as I could go. On my arrival I
conversed with one of the Chaldeans, a wise man of
miraculous skill, with grey hair and a very majestic
beard; his name was Mithrobarzanes. By dint of
supplications and entreaties, I secured his reluctant
consent to be my guide on the journey at whatever
price he would.

 

So the man took me in charge, and
first of all, for twenty-nine days, beginning with the
new moon, he took me down to the Euphrates in the
early morning, toward sunrise, and bathed me;
after which he would make a long address which I
could not follow very well, for like an incompetent
announeer at the games, he spoke rapidly and indistinctly. It is likely, however, that he was invoking
certain spirits. Anyhow, after the incantation he
would spit in my face thrice and then go back again
without looking at anyone whom he met. We ate
nuts, drank milk, mead, and the water of the
Choaspes, and slept out of doors on the grass.
When he considered the preliminary course of
dieting satisfactory, taking me to the Tigris river
at midnight he purged me, cleansed me, and consecrated me with torches and squills and many other
things, murmuring his incantation as he did so. Then
after he had becharmed me from head to foot and
walked all about me, that I might not be harmed
by the phantoms, he took me home again, just as

 

I was, walking backward. After that, we made
ready for the journey.

 
He himself put on a
magician’s gown very like the Median dress, and
speedily costumed me in these things which you
see—the cap, the lion’s skin, and the lyre besides;
and he urged me, if anyone should ask my name,
not to say Menippus, but Heracles or Odysseus or
Orpheus.
 FRIEND 
What was his object in that, Menippus? I do
not understand the reason either for the costume
or for the names.
 MENIPPUS 
Why, that, at any rate, is obvious and not at all
shrouded in mystery. Since they had been before
us in going down to Hades alive, he thought that
if he should make me look like them, I might easily
slip by the frontier-guard of Aeacus and go in unhindered as something of an old acquaintance; for
thanks to my costume they would speed me along
on my journey just as they do in the plays. There were many comedies with this motive. The only one extant is the Frogs of Aristophanes, where Dionysus descends in the costume of Heracles. 
 
Well, day was just beginning to break when we
went down to the river and set about getting under
way. He had provided a boat, victims, mead, and
everything else that we should need for the ritual.
So we shipped all the stores, and at length ourselves

 Gloomily hied us aboard, with great tears falling
profusely. Odyssey, 11, 5. 



 

For a space we drifted along in the river, and
then we sailed into the marsh and the lake in which
the Euphrates loses itself. After crossing this, we
came to a deserted, woody, sunless place. There
at last we landed with Mithrobarzanes leading the
way; we dug a pit, we slaughtered the sheep, and
we sprinkled their blood about it. Meanwhile the
magician held a burning torch and no longer
muttered in a low tone but shouted as loudly as
he could, invoking the spirits, one and all, at the
top of his lungs; also the Tormentors, the Furies,

 Hecate, queen of the night, and eery Persephoneia. Source of the verse unknown. 

With these names he intermingled a number
of foreign-sounding, meaningless words of many
syllables.
 
In a trice the whole region began to quake,
the ground was rent asunder by the incantation,
barking of Cerberus was audible afar off, and
things took on a monstrously gloomy and sullen
look.

 Aye, deep down it affrighted the king of the
dead, Aidoneus— Iliad, 20, 61. 


for by that time we could see almost everything—
the Lake, and the River of Burning Fire, and the
palace of Pluto. But in spite of it all, we went
down through the chasm, finding Rhadamanthus
almost dead of fright. Cerberus barked a bit, to be
sure, and stirred slightly, but when I hastily
touched my lyre he was at once bewitched by the
music. When we reached the lake, however, we
came near not getting across, for the ferry was
already crowded and full of groaning. Only


 

wounded men were aboard, one injured in the
leg, another in the head, and so on. They
were there, in my opinion, through some war
or other. Supposed to refer to the disasters of a.d. 161 in the Parthian war. 
However, when good old Charon saw the lion-skin
he thought that I was Heracles, so he took me in,
and not only ferried me across gladly but pointed
out the path for us when we went ashore.