Again, to someone else who was not there and
did not exist at all, he said in prose: “Go back;
he who sent you was killed to-day by his neighbour
Diocles, with the help of the bandits Magnus, Celer,
and Bubalus, who already have been caught and
imprisoned.”
 
I may say too that he often gave oracles to
barbarians, when anyone put a question in his native
language, in Syrian or in Celtic; since he readily
found strangers in the city who belonged to the
same nation as his questioners. That is why the
time between the presentation of the scrolls and
the delivery of the oracle was long, so that in the
interval the questions might be unsealed at leisure
without risk and men might be found who would be
able to translate them fully. Of this sort was the
response given to the Scythian:

 
Morphen eubargoulis eis skian chnechikrage
leipsei phaos. The oracle seems to contain some Greek, in the two phrases eis skian (into the darkness) and leipsei phaos (thou shalt leave the light of day); it is uncertain, however, whether these phrases belong to the original text, or to someone’s interpretation, which has become confused with the text, or are mere corruptions due to a scribe’s effort to convert “Scythian” into Greek. The “Scythian” part itself is a complete mystery. 




 
 
Let me also tell you a few of the responses
that were given to me. When I asked whether
Alexander was bald, and sealed the question carefully and conspicuously, a “nocturnal” oracle was
appended:
 Sabardalachou malachaattealos en. In failing to submit this to the official interpreters, Lucian lost a priceless opportunity. 
At another time, I asked a single question in
each of two scrolls under a different name, “What
was the poet Homer’s country?” In one case,
misled by my serving-man, who had been asked why
he came and had said, “To request a cure for a
pain in the side,” he replied:

 Cytmis Alexander’s nostrum; cf c. 22. I bid you apply, combined with the
spume of a charger. 

To the other, since in this case he had been told
that the one who sent it enquired whether it would
be better for him to go to Italy by sea or by land,
he gave an answer which had nothing to do with
Homer:
 Make not your journey by sea, but travel afoot
by the highway. 

 

Many such traps, in fact, were set for him by me
and by others. For example, I put a single question,
and wrote upon the outside of the scroll, following
the usual form: “Eight questions from So-and-so,”’
using a fictitious name and sending the eight
drachmas and whatever it came to besides. Since the price of each oracle was one drachma, two obols, the indefinite plus was sixteen obols, or 2dr. 4 obols. Rely-




 

ing upon the fee that had been sent and upon the
inscription on the roll, to the single question:
“When will Alexander be caught cheating?” he
sent me eight responses which, as the saying goes,
had no connection with earth or with heaven, but
were silly and nonsensical every one.
When he found out about all this afterward, and
also that it was I who was attempting to dissuade
Rutilianus from the marriage and from his great
dependence upon the hopes inspired by the shrine,
he began to hate me, as was natural, and to count
me a bitter enemy. Once when Rutilianus asked
about me, he replied:
 Low-voiced walks in the dusk are his pleasure,
and impious matings. 

 
And generally, I was of course the man he most
hated.
When he discovered that I had entered the city
and ascertained that I was the Lucian of whom he
had heard (I had brought, I may add, two soldiers
with me, a pikeman and a spearman borrowed from
the Governor of Cappadocia, then a friend of mine,
to escort me to the sea), he at once sent for me
very politely and with great show of friendliness.
When I went, I found many about him; but I had
brought along my two soldiers, as luck would have
it. He extended me his right hand to kiss, as his
custom was with the public; I clasped it as if to kiss
it, and almost crippled it with a right good bite!
 
The bystanders tried to choke and beat me for
sacrilege; even before that, they had been indignant
because I had addressed him as Alexander and not
as Prophet.” But he mastered himself very hand-

 

somely, held them in check, and promised that he
would easily make me tame and would demonstrate
Glycon’s worth by showing that he transformed
even bitter foes into friends. Then he removed
everybody and had it out with me, professing to
know very well who I was and what advice I was
giving Rutilianus, and saying, ‘What possessed you
to do this to me, when I can advance you tremendously in his favour?” By that time I was glad to
receive this proffer of friendship, since I saw what
a perilous position I had taken up; so, after a little,
I reappeared as his friend, and it seemed quite a
miracle to the observers that my change of heart
had been so easily effected.