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.