Now then, please imagine a little room, not very
bright and not admitting any too much daylight;
also, a crowd of heterogeneous humanity, excited,
wonder-struck in advance, agog with hopes. When
they went in, the thing, of course, seemed to
them a miracle, that the formerly tiny snake
within a few days had turned into so great a
serpent, with a human face, moreover, and tame!
They were immediately crowded towards the exit,
and before they could look closely were forced out
by those who kept coming in, for another dovr


 

had been opened on the opposite side as an exit.
That was the way the Macedonians did, they say,
in Babylon during Alexander’s illness, when he was
in a bad way and they surrounded the palace,
craving to see him and say good-bye. This exhibition the scoundrel gave not merely once, they say,
but again and again, above all if any rich men
were newly arrived.
 
In that matter, dear Celsus, to tell the truth, we
must excuse those men of Paphlagonia and Pontus,
thick-witted, uneducated fellows that they were, for
being deluded when they touched the serpent—
Alexander let anyone do so who wished—and besides saw in a dim light what purported to be its
head opening and shutting its mouth. Really the
trick stood in need of a Democritus, or even
Epicurus himself or Metrodorus, or someone else
with a mind as firm as adamant toward such
matters, so as to disbelieve and guess the truth-—
one who, if he could not discover how it went,
would at all events be convinced beforehand that
though the method of the fraud escaped him, it
was nevertheless all sham and could not possibly
happen.
 
Little by little, Bithynia, Galatia, and Thrace
came pouring in, for everyone who carried the news
very likely said that he not only had seen the god
born but had subsequently touched him, after he
had grown very great in a short time and had a
face that looked like a man’s. Next came paintings
and statues and cult-images, some made of bronze,
some of silver, and naturally a name was bestowed

 

upon the god. He was called Glycon in consequence of a divine behest in metre; for Alexander
proclaimed:

 Glycon am I, the grandson of Zeus, bright beacon
to mortals! 
 

When it was time to carry out the purpose for
which the whole scheme had been concocted—that
is to say, to make predictions and give oracles
to those who sought them—taking his cue from
Amphilochus in Cilicia, who, as you know, after the
death and disappearance of his father Amphiaraus
at Thebes, In speaking of the “death and disappearance” of Amphiaraus, Lucian is rationalizing the myth, according to which Zeus clove the earth with a thunderbolt and it swallowed him up alive (Pindar, Nem. 9, 57). was exiled from his own country, went
to Cilicia, and got on very well by foretelling the
future, like his father, for the Cilicians and getting
two obols for each prediction—taking, as I say, his
cue from him, Alexander announced to all comers
that the god would make prophecies, and named a
date for it in advance. He directed everyone to
write down in a scroll whatever he wanted and what
he especially wished to learn, to tie it up, and to
seal it with wax or clay or something else of that
sort. Then he himself, after taking the scrolls and
entering the inner sanctuary—for by that time the
temple had been erected and the stage set—proposed to summon in order, with herald and priest,
those who had submitted them, and after the god
told him about each case, to give back the scroll
with the seal upon it, just as it was, and the reply
to it endorsed upon it; for the god would reply
explicitly to any question that anyone should put.


 
 
As a matter of fact, this trick, to a man like you,
and if it is not out of place to say so, like myself
also, was obvious and easy to see through, but to
those drivelling idiots it was miraculous and almost
as good as incredible. Having discovered various
ways of undoing the seals, he would read all the
questions and answer them as he thought best.
Then he would roll up the scrolls again, seal them,
and give them back, to the great astonishment of
the recipients, among whom the comment was
frequent: “Why, how did he learn the questions
which I gave him very securely sealed with impressions hard to counterfeit, unless there was really
some god that knew everything?”