Homer. When he wants to praise the greatest hero: Iliad 17. 570–2: Athena puts strength and courage into Menelaus.
flying in a mass looking for milk: Iliad 2. 469–71; 16. 641–3.
Athena … a woman caring for her sleeping child: Iliad 4. 130–1.
Hermotimus of Clazomenae: this story is found elsewhere in Apollonius, History of Marvels 3, Pliny, NH 7. 174, and Plutarch, De Genio Socratis 592c (see the Loeb note here).
a girl called Muia: Muia is the Greek for fly, and the story recalls the similar legend that Tithonus was turned into a grasshopper.
There also lived … poetess: this presumably refers to Corinna of Tanagra, a lyric poetess said to be contemporary with Pindar, who was apparently also called Muia (Suda s. v. Korinna).
‘Twas Muia bit him to the heart: from an unknown play: Kock, Com. Adesp. 475.
Strange … spear: from another unknown play: Nauck, Trag. Adesp. 295.
Muia the Pythagorean: she is not at all familiar to us, but we are told that Pythagoras had a daughter called Muia (Porphyry, Life of Pythagoras 4); and also that Milo of Croton had a wife called Muia who was a Pythagorean philosopher (Iamblichus, Life of Pythagoras 267). Possibly they were the same person.
the child of Hermes and Aphrodite … twofold beauty: Ovid tells the story (Met. 4. 285–388) that the youth Hermaphroditus united with the nymph Salmacis to form one bisexual body.
I am making an elephant out of a fly: the equivalent to our proverb ‘to make a mountain out of a mole-hill’. For its diminutive size and its weakness the fly commonly featured in proverbial expressions in Greek and Latin literature. See M. Davies and J. Kathirithamby, Greek Insects (Oxford 1986), 155.
Well begun is half done: Lucian has the proverb also at Hermotimus 3, and Horace gives a Latin version at Epistles 1. 2. 40.
In my sleep … night divine: from Iliad 2. 56–7, where Agamemnon is addressing a council of elders.
Pheidias … Polyclitus … Myron … Praxiteles: four of the most celebrated Greek sculptors. Pheidias, Polyclitus, and Myron belong to the fifth and Praxiteles to the fourth century BC. Pheidias’ Zeus was a colossal seated figure which he made for the temple of Zeus at Olympia. Polyclitus’ most famous work was his statue of Hera created for the Heraeum at Argos.
living a hare’s life: a proverbial expression which is found also in Demosthenes’ most famous speech, De Corona 263.
Demosthenes … Aeschines: Demosthenes and Aeschines were the two most famous Athenian orators, active at the time when Athens was confronting the increasing menace of Philip of Macedon in the 340s BC onwards.
Socrates himself was nurtured by Sculpture here: Socrates’ father Sophroniscus was said to have been a sculptor.
Niobe: a mythical character who boasted that she had more children than Leto. Consequently Leto’s two children, Apollo and Artemis, killed all those of Niobe, who after prolonged weeping was turned into stone. The story was very popular, e.g. Ovid, Met. 6. 146 ff.
sowing something over the earth like Triptolemus: Triptolemus of Eleusis was the first to be taught by Ceres the farming skills of ploughing and sowing seed: see Ovid, Fasti 4. 559–60.
three nights to conceive, like Heracles: Heracles was conceived during a night which Zeus spent with his mother Alcmena, and which he tripled in length for his visit to her. The story forms the theme of Plautus’ play Amphitruo.
when Xenophon described his dream: Xenophon, Anabasis 3. 1. 11. The dream about his father’s burning house was interpreted by Xenophon as either a consolation or a warning: a consolation because in the midst of his difficulties it could represent a shining light from Zeus, or a warning that there was no escape for him.
like that Thessalian youth: Protesilaus, the first Greek to be killed at Troy. His wife obtained leave for him to visit her from Hades for a few hours.
upper Zeus: ‘upper’ in contrast with the ‘lower Zeus’, i.e. Pluto.
as he treated Hephaestus: Hephaestus tells how he was thus treated by Zeus at Iliad 1. 590–4.
Cyllenian: a common title for Hermes, from Mount Cyllene in Arcadia, where he was born.
the toll-collector Aeacus … even an obol: Aeacus was one of the judges of the dead. An obol was a small Greek coin put into a dead person’s mouth as a fee to the ferryman Charon.
Homer tells us that the sons of Aloeus: Otus and Ephialtes: the story is told in Odyssey 11. 305–20.
Then upon Ossa Pelion with quivering leaves: Odyssey 11. 315–16.
See … distinguish a man from a god: Iliad 5. 127–8, where Athene is addressing Diomedes.
Lynceus: one of the Argonauts and famous for his extraordinarily keen sight: Apollonius, Argonautica 1. 153–5.
Poseidon gathering the clouds … that sort of thing: this is a recognizable echo of the passage where Poseidon stirs up a storm in Odyssey 5. 291 ff.
Who is that … head and broad shoulders?: adapted from Iliad 3. 226–7 (as is the ‘Homeric’ question in section 9 below) where Priam asks Helen to identify Ajax.
Milo: an athlete of legendary strength, who won many victories in wrestling at the Olympian and Pythian games. Cicero also records this anecdote about the bull in De Senectute 33.
Cyrus: the founder of the Achaemenid Persian Empire, which he ruled from 559 to 529 BC. He was killed fighting against the Scythian Massagetae (see section 13 below).
Croesus: the last king of Lydia (c. 560–546 BC), who was overthrown when his capital Sardis was captured by Cyrus in 546. Solon was a great Athenian poet and lawgiver (chief archon 594–593 BC). Lucian has derived the conversation between these two about the most fortunate of men (but not the discussion about ingots) from Herodotus (1. 30–3). However, in Herodotus’ version Tellos comes first.
For Croesus’ lavish sacrifices and gifts to Apollo see Herodotus 1. 50 ff.
Clotho: ‘the Spinner’: one of the three personified Fates (Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos), whose function was to spin the thread of everyone’s life.
the Massagetae: see note to p. 17.
Apis: the sacred bull worshipped by the Egyptians. The story is again in Herodotus (3. 27–38).
In a sea-girt isle: he claims to be some king: an adapted conflation of two Homeric lines, Odyssey 1. 50 and 16. 67.
Polycrates: he ruled Samos for about ten years until c.522 BC. Herodotus 3. 120–5 gives an account of his end.
bubbles … life of man: ‘Man is a bubble’ was proverbial: see Otto, Sprichwörter, s.v. bulla. Our passage caught the eye of Jeremy Taylor, who quoted it approvingly in his Holy Dying (1651).
he compares the race of men to leaves: Glaucus makes the comparison when talking to Diomedes, Iliad 6. 146–9.
Lethe: ‘forgetfulness’: a plain in the underworld. The river which was its boundary (not itself called Lethe, though this is commonly stated) caused the souls who drank of its water to forget their earthly life: see Virgil, Aeneid 6. 713–15.
They are equally dead … in the asphodel mead: Lucian writes a patchwork of phrases from many Homeric lines: Iliad 1. 130, 4. 512, 9. 319, 320, Odyssey 10. 521, 11. 539.
‘holy’ and ‘wide-streeted’ … ‘well-built’: Charon quotes three commonly used epithets in Homer: often these terms are not particularly significant, but rather evidence of the formulaic elements in the Homeric poems.
Othryadas, inscribing the trophy with his own blood: the fight took place in 546 BC over the possession of the plain of Thyreatis, and Othryadas was the single Spartan to survive for a while: see Herodotus 1. 82; [Plutarch], Parallela 306b.
O Zeus … terrifying bolt: the Greek phrases here recall Euripides, Phoenissae 182–3.
Salmoneus: a mythical king of Elis who tried to mimic Zeus by simulating lightning and thunder, and was killed by a real thunderbolt: Virgil, Aeneid 6. 585 ff.
Deucalion’s: in this Greek version of the story of Noah, Deucalion and his wife Pyrrha were forewarned that Zeus would be sending a flood over the earth in anger at the sins of men. They built an ark in which they floated until the waters subsided, and they landed on Lycoreus, the highest summit of Parnassus.
Cronus: the father of Zeus, who in time dethroned him and took his place.
Phaethons: Phaethon was a son of the sun-god Helios, who was allowed by his father to guide the sun’s chariot for a day. In doing so he was in danger of setting the world on fire, so Zeus killed him with a thunderbolt (Ovid, Met. 1. 750 ff.).
Epimenides’ record sleep: the Greek Rip Van Winkle, Epimenides was an early cosmogonist (perhaps sixth century BC) who was said to have slept for fifty-seven years (Diogenes Laertius 1. 109).
Zeus—unless what the Cretans say about you and your grave there is true after all: in the complex mythology of Zeus there was an early Cretan deity who was identified with the Greek Zeus, and Cretan legend told that this ‘Zeus’ was dead and buried.
Diasia: an important festival of Zeus at Athens, held on 23 Anthesterion.
all those vultures were tearing at his liver: a reference to the fate of Prometheus.
Anaxagoras: a major philosopher and original thinker, who was charged with impiety at Athens, but escaped from the city with the help of his pupil and friend, the statesman Pericles.
the Anaceum: the temple of Castor and Pollux in Athens, who had the title ‘Anakes’, ‘lords’.
Danae in a bronze or iron chamber: Danae was shut up in a room by her father, and visited by Zeus through the roof in the form of a shower of gold.
like the dog in the manger … the hungry horse to have it: the well-known Aesopic fable (no. 163, World’s Classics edn.), which Lucian quotes again at Adversus Indoctum 30.
Tantalus: one of the famous criminals punished in Tartarus. For some offence against the gods he had to stand thirsty in water up to his chin, but the water receded from him whenever he tried to drink. He also clutched unavailingly at fruit dangling over his head.
Phineus: a blind Thracian king, tormented by the Harpies who carried off or defiled all his food, until they were driven away by the sons of Boreas (Apollonius Rhodius 2. 178 ff.).
carrying water to the Danaids’ jar: another famous punishment in the underworld. The Danaids killed their husbands on their wedding night, and were condemned to be forever pouring water into a leaky vessel. The motif became proverbial for any pointless or frustrated activity.
Pluto … splendid gifts, as you can tell from his name: the name Pluto is associated with Ploutos, the Greek for ‘wealth’.
mill-house: this figures among the reminders of the ex-slave’s past life because slaves were sent to work at the mill.
more handsome than Nireus … richer than sixteen Croesuses: Nireus was the handsomest man among the Greeks at Troy next to Achilles. Cecrops was the mythical first king of Athens, and Codrus reputedly another king of Athens some time in the eleventh century BC. Odysseus was a byword for cunning throughout Greek literature. Croesus was the last king of Lydia (c. 560–546 BC), and proverbial for his great wealth.
Aristides … Hipponicus and Callias: these names are part of the world of early to mid-fifth-century Athenian politics. Hipponicus and his son Callias belonged to one of the wealthiest families in Athens. Aristides was a cousin of Callias but less well off. Plutarch (Arist. 25) tells us that Aristides once declined a loan from Callias because he was more proud of his poverty than Callias of his wealth.
pays homage to you, Hermes, for his windfall: the god Hermes was regularly thought responsible for lucky finds.
Lynceus: see Charon, note to p. 16.
‘into the deep-yawning sea’ and ‘down from the lofty crags’: these phrases are from Theognis 175–6.
Hyperbolus or Cleon: Hyperbolus (d. 411 BC) and Cleon (d. 422 BC) were both radical demagogues active in Athenian public life—not the type that Wealth would like to encounter by mistake.
Slayer of Argus: the usual interpretation of ‘Argeiphontes’, and a standard epithet of Hermes. He killed Argus, the many-eyed monster Hera set to watch Io when she was turned into a heifer.
Must I take up to Zeus a speech so harsh and so stubborn?: from Homer, Iliad 15. 202: Iris asks Poseidon if he really wants her to take back a defiant reply to a message from Zeus.
Corybants: priests of the Anatolian mother-goddess Cybele. Timon calls upon them because the frenzied excitement that characterized their rites matches his own mental fervour.
I fear I’ll wake up and find nothing but ashes: a proverbial expression which Lucian uses elsewhere, e.g. Hermotimus 71.
O gold, to mortals fairest gift: from Euripides’ lost play Danae, fr. 324 N.
you shine out like blazing fire: adapted from Pindar, Olympian Odes 1. 1–2.
Zeus once turned into gold … a lover pouring through the roof: see note on Danae on p. 30.
the Altar of Pity: according to Pausanias (1. 17. 1) there was an Altar of Pity situated in the Agora at Athens, and this has been identified with the Altar of the Twelve Gods on the northern edge of the Agora. See too the account of it in Statius, Thebais 12. 464 ff.
I’ll summon you before the Areopagus: the great judicial council of Athens, which met on the Hill of Ares (the meaning of the name), and dealt with charges including, as here, assault and homicide.
Nestor: king of Pylos, the elder statesman among the Greek leaders at Troy, respected for his age and his (usually long-winded) counsel.
his turn to distribute the show-money to the Erechtheis tribe: this refers to the theorikon, a state grant at Athens of two obols given to poorer citizens to allow them to attend theatrical shows. Editors point out that Lucian has slipped up in referring here to the Erechtheis tribe, as Timon’s deme Collytus belonged to the Aegeis tribe.
The assembly and both the councils: the Council of Areopagus (see note on p. 40.) and the Council of Five Hundred, which prepared measures to be discussed by the Assembly.
it’s not clear that you are a free citizen yourself: an insulting suggestion that one of Timon’s parents had been a slave or not an Athenian.
Zeuxis: one of the most famous painters of antiquity. He flourished in the later fifth century BC, working in Athens and southern Italy, and he was noted for the realism of his pictures.
the Nine Springs: a well or fountain in Athens with nine spouts: its exact location is much disputed. (See Gomme on Thucydides 2. 15. 5.)
two Aeginetan bushels: ‘bushels’ is a very rough translation of the Greek medimnoi, and the Aeginetan measures (used generally in the Peloponnese) were somewhat larger than the Attic ones. There is of course humorous exaggeration here: Thrasycles’ ‘pouch’ must have been very large indeed.
the Phrygian boy: Ganymede, the Trojan shepherd-boy who became the cup-bearer of the gods.
Daedalus: see introductory note. The Icarian Sea, to which Icarus gave his name, is part of the southern Aegean, between the Cyclades and Asia Minor.
Another … war was the father of the universe: Heraclitus fr. 53: a metaphor for his theory that the balance of existence in the cosmos is maintained by strife between opposing elements.
others swore by geese and dogs and plane-trees: Socrates swore by the dog (i.e. the dog-headed Egyptian god Anubis) and the plane-tree (Plato, Apology 22a, Phaedrus 236e), and one Lampon swore by the goose. Such oaths may have been playful or euphemistic: see Dunbar on Aristophanes, Birds 520–1, Dodds on Plato, Gorgias 482b5.
the ‘high-thundering’ men with their ‘fine beards’: the epithet ‘high-thundering’ (hypsibremetes) is used sardonically, being a stock description of Zeus in Homer. ‘Fine-bearded’ is also used by Homer to describe lions.
But another thought drew me back: from Homer, Odyssey 9. 302: Odysseus ponders how to deal with the Cyclops.
Aesop, who opens up heaven to eagles and beetles, and sometimes even to camels: see Aesop’s fables 153 and 510 in the Oxford World’s Classics edition (= Perry 3 and 117).
flying from Parnes or Hymettus … as far as Taygetus: these peaks take Menippus and us from the neighbourhood of Athens down through the Megarid, to Corinth, Arcadia, and Laconia.
like Zeus in Homer … Mysians: Iliad 13. 4–5.
the Colossus of Rhodes and the lighthouse on Pharos: the Colossus collapsed in an earthquake in 225 BC and lay on the ground for centuries thereafter; so (if it matters) Menippus’ journey must be imagined to have taken place before that date. Both the Colossus and the Pharos were counted among the seven wonders of the world.
all that the bountiful earth nurtures: a recurrent phrase in Homer, e.g. Iliad 2. 548.
Lynceus: see Charon, note to p. 16.
Empedocles … looking as if burnt to a cinder and baked in ashes: a reference to the legend that Empedocles died by throwing himself into the crater of Etna: see below, and cf. Peregrinus, note to p. 74.
I am no god: why think me like the immortals?: Odyssey 16. 187: Odysseus addresses his son.
by Endymion: an appropriate oath, as Endymion was a beautiful youth loved by the moon, where Empedocles now lives.
I saw Ptolemy … broken by a golden cup: some of the episodes in this list are otherwise unknown—those involving Antigonus, Attalus, Arsaces, and Spatinus. Of the others we can say that Ptolemies did marry their sisters; Lysimachus was a successor of Alexander the Great and ruler of Thrace; Seleucus I was another successor of Alexander and ruler of Babylon: the story alluded to here refers to c.292 BC and is widely recorded (elsewhere in Lucian at The Syrian Goddess 17–18). Alexander was tyrant of Thessaly in the early to mid-fourth century BC.
Hermodorus … brothel: all four of these characters are quite obscure, but the details of the anecdotes are less important than to note that Lucian/Menippus is taking a sideswipe at a range of philosophers and a public figure who behaved disgracefully.
those which Homer portrays on the shield: the shield which Hephaestus makes for Achilles: Iliad 18. 478ff.
the Cilicians practising piracy, the Spartans lashing themselves: the coast of Cilicia was infested with pirates from the second century BC until they were finally suppressed by Pompey in 67 BC. The Spartans regularly flogged their boys as part of a routine training in endurance.
the deaths of so many Argives and Spartans in one day: see Charon, 24 and note to p. 25.
Pangaeum: a mountain in Thrace famous for its gold and silver mines.
Thessalians … from ants into men: the original Myrmidon of this race in Thessaly was the son of Eurymedusa and Zeus, who visited her in the form of an ant (Gk. myrmex): see A. B. Cook, Zeus, (Cambridge, 1914–40) 532 n. 12.
to the palace of Zeus of the aegis, to join all the other immortals: Iliad 1.222.
From where there was nothing to see of the labours of cattle and men: Odyssey 10. 98.
What is your name among men, and where are your city and parents: a greeting that frequently occurs in Homer, e.g. Odyssey 1. 170.
Otus and Ephialtes: see Charon, 3 and note to p. 14.
Pheidias: see Peregrinus, note to p. 75.
the Diasia: see Timon, note to p. 28.
the Olympieion: the temple of Zeus at Athens, begun under the tyrant Pisistratus (d. 527 BC), but abandoned and not completed until the time of Hadrian (reigned AD 117–38).
the men who had robbed his temple at Dodona had been caught: presumably the Aetolians under their general Dorimachus, who in 219 BC ravaged Epirus and destroyed the temple at Dodona (Polybius 4. 67).
And all the streets … assemblies: see Nigrinus, note to p. 66.
Bendis: a Thracian goddess whose followers indulged in orgiastic rites. Zeus might also have complained that she was worshipped at the Piraeus.
Anubis: the Egyptian dog-headed god of the dead, sometimes identified with Hermes.
the temple of Artemis: this celebrated temple was regarded as one of the seven wonders of the world.
more frigid than the Laws of Plato or the Syllogisms of Chrysippus: the Laws is Plato’s longest (and in Zeus’ view most tedious) dialogue. Chrysippus (c.280–207 BC) was the third head of the Stoa and one of the most formidable of the Stoic thinkers, especially in the field of logic and dialectic. Many fragments and citations of his works survive.
But one thing the Father did grant and another rejected: slightly adapted from Iliad 16. 250: Zeus’ response to a prayer of Achilles.
like Pyrrho: Pyrrho (c.360–c.270 BC) was the founder of Greek scepticism.
Hermodorus the Epicurean: another sideswipe: cf. note to p. 52.
Pan and the Corybantes and Attis and Sabazius: Pan was a god local to Arcadia, half goat in shape. The Corybantes were priests of the Anatolian mother-goddess Cybele, and Attis was her consort. Sabazius was another Anatolian deity, sometimes identified with Dionysus.
eat not bread nor drink of sparkling wine: derived from Iliad 5. 341.
Silenus: a creature of the countryside, somewhat like a satyr, usually portrayed as part-horse, and a regular attendant on Dionysus.
Hesiod’s Theogony … Pindar’s Hymns: Hesiod’s Theogony (somewhere around 700 BC) is largely concerned with the genealogies of the gods. Pindar (518–438 BC) was the greatest lyric poet of Greece, whose Hymns survive in fragments and would have contained suitably honorific references to the gods.
The rest of the gods … sweet sleep: slightly adapted from Iliad 2. 1–2.
a useless burden on the land: a phrase from Iliad 18. 104 (Achilles remorsefully describing himself).
how they lick the dirt off obols: that is, they are so money-grubbing they will pick up the smallest coin from the dirty ground. Or the reference may be to the greasy dirt on coins that have passed from hand to hand.
Having no value in war or in council: almost Iliad 2. 202 (Odysseus accusing the fleeing Greeks of cowardice).
Momus: see Nigrinus, note to p. 70.
truce from hostilities: the hieromenia (‘sacred month’) was the period in which the great festivals of Greece took place and hostilities between states were suspended.
So spoke the son of Cronus … to confirm it: a Homeric formula for the stated and irresistible will of Zeus: e.g. Iliad 1. 528.
the Potters’ Quarter: Greek Kerameikos, an area in Athens frequented by potters.
the Painted Hall: the Stoa Poikile, a public hall in Athens where the early Stoics met and lectured.
An owl to Athens: the proverb derives from the fact that the owl was traditionally associated with Athena and was common in Athens and the surrounding region. It was also a regular motif on coins.
Thucydides’ maxim: Thucydides 2. 40. 3 (from Pericles’ famous funeral oration).
as they say on the stage, ‘thrice-blest’: in Greek trisolbios: a fairly rare word of which we have examples in Sophocles (fr. 837) and Aristophanes (Ecclesiazusae 1129).
instead of a slave … I am tolerably sane: this seems to be an adaptation of a line from a now lost comedy (Kock, Com.Adesp. 1419).
the Sirens … and the nightingales and the lotus: these are all references to Homer’s Odyssey. During his travels Odysseus encountered and evaded the Sirens (whose song would have charmed his sailors to their destruction, Od. 12. 166 ff.), and the Lotus-eaters (whose food, the lotus, would have caused them to forget their homeland, Od. 9. 83ff.). The nightingale appears in a famous simile in Penelope’s talk with the disguised Odysseus (Od. 19. 518 ff.).
you are urging on someone who is already keen, as Homer: Iliad 8. 293.
he left his sting behind in all who heard him: Eupolis (fr. 94. 7 Kock), referring to Pericles. Lucian quotes from the same passage in Demonax 10.
Hermes: a suitable god to invoke as he was associated with oratory and orators. The rules for rhetorical introductions (prooimia) included informing the audience of the topic of the speech and securing their attention and goodwill. The speaker was also advised to disclaim oratorical ability.
all its streets and all its squares: phrases from Aratus, Phaenomena 2–3 (all streets and squares are full of Zeus). Lucian liked the lines and quotes them again more fully at Prometheus 14 and Icaromenippus 24.
words of Homer: from Odyssey 11. 93–4: Tiresias asks Odysseus why he wants to visit the dead.
Away from the slaughter, the bloodshed and the din: Iliad 11. 164.
You simply have to follow Odysseus’ lead: these were Odysseus’ tactics in evading the Sirens: see note to p. 62.
greet people they meet through another’s voice: this refers to the nomenclator, a slave whose duty was to tell his master the names of the people he met.
forcing their way in beside the door: there is no trace of this phrase in the surviving plays, but the sense is that those who act irrationally in their pleasures are like a man who breaks into a house when he could just step in through a nearby door.
Momus: a figure who personified fault-finding. He plays an important part in Lucian’s Jupiter Tragoedus, and for the fable alluded to here see another allusion in True History 2. 3, and the fuller version in Hermotimus 20 and Babrius 59–Momus criticizes the inventions of three deities, including the bull created by Poseidon.
those Phaeacians: Odysseus held the Phaeacian court spellbound by the story of his wanderings and adventures, and there is a verbal echo in Lucian’s text of Homer’s lines describing this effect upon them (Od. 11. 333–4 = 13. 1–2).
they just scratch the surface: a phrase from a battle scene in Homer (Il. 17. 599).
the Curetes: a semi-divine people who lived in Crete and looked after the infant Zeus, but the reference here is obscure.
Shoot thus and bring perhaps salvation: adapted from Iliad 8. 282 (Agamemnon cheers Teucer on in the fighting).
Rhea: the wife of Cronus and mother of Zeus. She was commonly identified with the great Anatolian mother-goddess Cybele, whose frenzied rites among her Phrygian worshippers are here alluded to.
Telephus: king of Mysia, who was wounded in a fight with Achilles. As the wound would not heal he consulted the Delphic oracle, and was told that the wounder would also heal him. This was eventually achieved by applying rust-scrapings from Achilles’ spear to the wound. The story was the subject of Euripides’ play Telephus, fragments of which survive.
Proteus: a sea-god who could turn himself into all kinds of shapes, including fire: e.g. Odyssey 4. 384 ff., where he tries to escape from Menelaus.
Empedocles: the great fifth-century BC philosopher, who was alleged to have thrown himself into the crater of Mount Etna (see section 4).
I was nearly torn to pieces … Maenads: Actaeon was a hunter who saw Artemis bathing, and was therefore turned by her into a stag and killed by his own dogs (Ovid, Met. 3. 138 ff.). Pentheus was a king of Thebes who resisted the worship of Dionysus, and in consequence was torn to pieces by the Maenads, the frenzied followers of that god. The story is most famously told in Euripides’ Bacchae.
Heracles … Asclepius and Dionysus, through a thunderbolt: Heracles cremated himself on Mt Oeta in an agony of pain caused by wearing the shirt of Nessus. The story is widely reported, and Lucian makes further sardonic links between Peregrinus and Heracles. Asclepius was killed by Zeus with a thunderbolt for restoring Hippolytus to life. Dionysus appears in this list by association: it was his mother Semele who was blasted by a thunderbolt, and her unborn son by Zeus was rescued to be gestated in Zeus’ thigh.
Theagenes: a disciple of Peregrinus, who came from Patrae (section 30), and is known to us entirely from this work.
the man from Sinope, or his teacher Antisthenes: Diogenes of Sinope was probably inspired by Antisthenes (c. 445–c.360 BC), the effective founder of Cynicism.
Pheidias: (fifth century BC) was the most celebrated sculptor of Greece, and his statue of Zeus at Olympia was regarded as his masterpiece.
Heraclitus … Democritus: the two philosophers Heraclitus of Ephesus (sixth/ fifth century BC) and Democritus of Abdera (fifth century BC) are regularly paired as the ‘weeping’ and the ‘laughing’ philosopher respectively.
Polyclitus: of Argos (late fifth century BC), the most famous sculptor of his day, created a Doryphorus (youth carrying a spear) which was regarded as the ideal of harmony and proportion in statuary. We are also told that he wrote a treatise called Canon (‘Rule’), which discussed the theories of form embodied in this statue (Pliny, NH 34, 55). There is a copy of the piece in the Naples museum.
with a radish plugging his anus: this was a conventional punishment for adulterers caught in the act: see Dover on Aristophanes, Clouds 1083.
the new Socrates: it is worth noting that some Christian apologists considered the fate of Socrates as prefiguring the persecution of Jesus and his disciples. (See C. P. Jones, Culture and Society in Lucian 122.)
Parium: in spite of Lucian’s scornful tone, Parium was a major port and Roman colony on the southern coast of the Propontis, near to the Hellespont.
wearing a dirty cloak, a pouch at his side and a staff in his hand: cloak, pouch, and staff are routine items in the (usually uncomplimentary) description of itinerant Cynic preachers in the literature of this period.
Diogenes and Crates: Crates (c. 365–285 BC) of Thebes was a disciple of Diogenes and one of the most famous of the early Cynics.
Agathoboulos: see Demonax, note to p. 153.
an ‘indifferent’ act: that is, an act neither good nor bad enough to affect a true Cynic. The Greek term adiaphoron (if this is the right reading) is a technical one in Stoic ethics, and not apparently in Cynicism, but there is not much difference between Stoics and Cynics in this area, and Peregrinus is just demonstrating the moral indifference of the physical act.
the emperor: Antoninus Pius.
Musonius, Dio, Epictetus: all three were Stoic philosophers. Musonius was banished by Nero about AD 60; Dio Chrysostom by Domitian about 82; Epictetus also by Domitian in 89.
a man of outstanding culture and renown: this was Herodes Atticus (c.101–77), the celebrated sophist, who used his great wealth in generous benefactions, including an aqueduct at Olympia: Philostratus, Lives of the Sophists, 2. 551. Philostratus also records Peregrinus’ persistent insulting of Herodes (2. 563).
Philoctetes: one of the Greek leaders at Troy. He assisted Heracles at his self-cremation by lighting the pyre for him on Mt Oeta (Ovid, Met. 9. 223 ff.).
Phalaris: a sixth-century BC tyrant of Acragas, who roasted his enemies alive in a bronze bull. He is the subject of one of Lucian’s declamations.
set fire to the temple of Artenis of Ephesus: this was done by Herostratus of Ephesus in 356 BC: Strabo 14. 1. 22, Plutarch, Alexander 3.
Heracles … as the tragic poets tell us: the agony which made Heracles kill himself was caused by wearing a garment soaked in the poisonous blood of the centaur Nessus, which his wife Deianira had sent to him, thinking it would act as a love-charm. Sophocles’ Trachiniae and Seneca’s Hercules Oetaeus deal with the story.
Onesicritus … Calanus in the flames: Onesicritus was not only Alexander’s steersman but the author of a book about him (see the OCD entry for details). Calanus was an Indian Brahmin who was attached to Alexander’s army on his eastern campaign. In order to escape the suffering caused by disease he cremated himself on a pyre in Babylon (Plutarch, Alexander 69; Arrian, Anabasis 7. 3; Aelian, Varia Historia 5. 6).
Bacis: a generic title for a prophet rather than the name of an individual seer: see How and Wells on Herodotus 8. 20. Both these ‘oracles’ are largely centos of phrases from Homer and Aristophanes’ Knights. (The OCT apparatus lists the lines concerned.)
Patrae: the birth-place of Theagenes: see note to p. 75.
Nestor noticed the shouting: from Iliad 14. 1: Nestor hears the din of stubborn battle between Greeks and Trojans.
the Hellanodicae … in the Plethrium: the Hellanodicae were the judges of the Olympic Games. The Plethrium was an area in the gymnasium at Elis where they matched the competing athletes against each other (Pausanias 6. 23. 2).
a golden tip on a golden bow: Peregrinus goes one better than Pandarus in Homer, who had a golden tip on a bow of horn (Iliad 4. 111). He also puns on the Greek word bios, which (with different accents) means both ‘bow’ and ‘life’.
a vulture flew up from the midst of the flames: the vulture here is probably a sardonic substitute (suitable to Peregrinus) for the eagle, which was often associated with the death or transmigration of kings: see D’Arcy Thompson, A Glossary of Greek Birds (London and Oxford, 1936), 7.
the Colonnade of the Seven Echoes: this was in the precinct of Zeus at Olympia, and noted for its vocal phenomenon by Pausanias (5. 21. 17) and Pliny the Elder (NH 36. 100). The appearance of Peregrinus here after his death somewhat resembles that of Romulus seen after his death, radiant in bright armour, as reported by Plutarch (Romulus 28).
Hesiod’s tomb: this refers to a story that Pausanias relates (9. 38. 3) about the people of Orchomenus. When suffering from a plague they consulted the Delphic oracle, and were told that they must bring the bones of Hesiod from Naupactus to Orchomenus, and that a crow would guide them to his tomb—as indeed it did.
Such was the end … a man who: these words are a likely echo of part of the final sentence of Plato’s Phaedo, referring to the death of Socrates.
Troas: probably not ‘the Troad’ area generally, but the port Alexandria Troas on its coast: see C. P. Jones, CPh. 80 (1985), 42.
Alcibiades: the brilliant Athenian statesman and general, who was also a pupil and lover of Socrates.
Aeacus: one of the judges of the dead in the underworld.
the Doctor from Cos: Hippocrates (fifth century BC), the most celebrated Greek doctor.
Hesiod: Works and Days 289 ff.
Hesiod: Works and Days 40: Lucian has the same quotation at The Dream 3.
like Zeus’ golden rope in Homer: Iliad 8. 19: the golden rope by which Zeus, to illustrate his omnipotence, says he could if he wished draw up all land and sea to himself.
the Great Mysteries, or the Panathenaea: two of the most famous festivals in Greece. The Eleusinian Mysteries were celebrated in honour of Demeter and Persephone, and the Panathenaea in honour of Athena.
Aornos, which Alexander took by storm in a few days: a mountain fortress stormed by Alexander the Great in 327–326 BC, during his eastern campaign in the Indus river area: see Arrian, Anabasis 4. 28, N. G. L. Hammond, A History of Greece (Oxford, 1967), 630.
Heracles … became a god: see Peregrinus, note to p. 75.
with a cup as big as Nestor’s: this refers to a famous description in the Iliad (11. 632 ff.) of old Nestor’s elaborate drinking cup.
Pythian Apollo treat you like Chaerephon: Chaerephon was a disciple of Socrates, who on consulting the Delphic oracle, was told that Socrates was the wisest of men: Plato, Apology 21a.
Margites: see Lovers of Lies, note to p. 163.
Pheidias or Alcamenes or Myron: all three were celebrated Greek sculptors of the fifth century BC.
the faults Momus found in Hephaestus: see Nigrinus, note to p. 70.
keener sight than Lynceus: see Charon, note to p. 16.
But no heed did I pay: a recurrent Homeric phrase: e.g. Iliad 5. 201, Odyssey 9. 228.
the poet Hesiod: see note to p. 89.
going where our feet take us: a fairly familiar expression in both Latin and Greek authors: e.g. Theocritus 13. 70, Horace, Odes 3. 11. 49.
cross the Aegean or Ionian Sea on a mat: we find the expression elsewhere in Euripides fr. 397 N and Aristophanes, Peace 699.
Homer’s archer … cut the cord when he should have hit the dove: the episode occurs during the archery contest at the funeral games for Patroclus: Iliad 23. 865 ff.
They do not see my helmet’s front: Iliad. 16. 70: Achilles referring to the fact that he is currently out of the fighting.
Hestia: see Lovers of Lies, note to p. 164.
Stay sober and remember to be sceptical: from Epicharmus (fr. 250 Kaibel), a Sicilian comic writer of the early fifth century BC.
those five years of silence: this refers to the five years of silent study which the students of Pythagoras had to undergo before they were admitted to his presence: Diogenes Laertius 8. 10.
dancing in the dark: for the proverb see Leutsch—Schneidewin i. 74 (Zenobius).
Tithonus: a lover of Eos, the Dawn. She prayed to Zeus to make him immortal, but forgot to ask that he be ageless too. So he grew older and older and more shrivelled, and in some accounts was at last changed into a grasshopper. For one version see the Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite, 218 ff.
nothing that concerns Dionysus: ‘Nothing to do with Dionysus’ was apparently the complaint of theatre audiences when playwrights began to write on themes unrelated to the god, and so to the traditional beginnings of Greek tragedy. See Leutsch—Schneidewin i. 137 (Zenobius), and elsewhere in Lucian, Dionysus 5.
a youth with both parents alive: this reflects the practice of Greek cult, in which having both parents alive was a qualification for a boy to take part in some religious rites: see Dunbar on Aristophanes, Birds 1737.
the more you empty the fuller it is: for the proverb see Trag. Adesp. 89 N, Leutsch—Schneidewin i. 26 (Zenobius) and 198 (Diogenianus). For the opposite image of the Danaids see Timon, note to p. 32.
blaming the blameless, as the poet says: Iliad 13. 775: Paris replies to a bitter accusation from Hector.
the court of the Areopagus: see Timon, note to p. 40.
my treasure is but ashes: see Timon, note to p. 38.
fighting over a donkey’s shadow: yet another proverbial saying, meaning something not worth fighting about: see Plato, Phaedrus 260c, Aristophanes, Wasps 191 (with MacDowell’s note). A scholiast derives it from a story about a man who hired a donkey, and sat in the donkey’s shadow to take a rest. The owner complained that he had hired the donkey and not the donkey’s shadow, and took him to law about it.
Hippocentaurs and Chimaeras and Gorgons: bizarre and incredible creatures from myth. Hippocentaurs (‘Horse-centaurs’) were half-horse and half-man; the Chimaera was a triple-bodied creature, part-lion, part-snake, and part-goat; the Gorgons were three terrible sister monsters (for details see the OCD entry), with whom Medusa was sometimes linked.
Medea fell in love with Jason in a dream: in Apollonius’ account of the story Medea’s love for Jason is caused by an arrow shot by Eros (3. 281 ff.), and later she has a troubled dream about him (3. 617 ff.). Lucian seems to conflate the two episodes.
Euclides’ archonship: Euclides was archon at Athens in 403–402 BC, when the democracy was re-established and a complete political amnesty agreed between the moderates and the democrats.
how a crocodile carried off a boy … grow horns: these are favourite logical conundrums of the Stoics. In the crocodile conundrum the man has to tell the crocodile correctly what the crocodile has decided to do about returning the boy. The one about horns runs as follows: ‘If you have not lost something, you have it; but you have not lost horns, therefore you have horns’ (Diogenes Laertius 7. 187). Quintilian (1. 10. 5) notes the ‘horns’ and ‘crocodile’ fallacies. Lucian has the ‘horns’ again at Dialogues of the Dead 1. 2, and the ‘crocodile’ at Sale of Lives 22; and Seneca also refers to the ‘horns’ (Letters 49. 8).
in that fable Aesop tells: sea-waves were proverbially uncountable. This fable is in Aesop’s Fables (Oxford World’s Classics edn.), no. 491 (= Perry 429).
drink hellebore, for the opposite reason to Chrysippus: a favourite jibe of Lucian’s against Chrysippus, alleging that he repeatedly had to take hellebore to stave off insanity: see also A True History 2. 18, Sale of Lives 23.
clean up that Augean stable: a reference to one of the more unpleasant of Heracles’ twelve labours.
Arrian: first half of the second century AD from Bithynia, a public figure and historian, who wrote a history of Alexander the Great and who was responsible for preserving a record of Epictetus’ teaching. We know nothing about Tillorobus.
the Cercopes … Eurybatus or Phrynondas or Aristodemus or Sostratus: the Cercopes were two mischievous gnomes who pestered Hercules until captured by him. Eurybatus was a proverbial scoundrel, of whom there are different stories: one account says he was one of the Cercopes. Phrynondas, another byword for rascality, lived at Athens during the Peloponnesian War and became a type-name for a rogue. Aristodemus was a more shadowy Athenian, pilloried for his indecency by Aristophanes (fr. 231 Kock). Sostratus must be another pattern of wickedness, but he cannot be clearly identified.
Rutilianus: P. Mummius Sisenna Rutilianus was an important public figure, who had been consul in 146 and later governor of Upper Moesia and of the province of Asia.
Many a drug compounded for good and many for ill: Odyssey 4. 230, describing the supply of drugs Helen had acquired from Egypt.
Apollonius of Tyana: Tyana was in Cappadocia and Apollonius was a Neopythagorean who lived in the first century AD and was a very distinguished itinerant philosopher and teacher. Our main source for his life is his biography by Philostratus.
Cocconas: literally ‘pomegranate-seeds’, or something similar, but the name probably has an indecent suggestion, e.g. ‘testicles’.
Olympias: the mother of Alexander the Great. There was a legend that Zeus was his father, having visited Olympias in the form of a snake.
the war begins here: the opening words of Thucydides 2.
Clarus: a famous oracle and sanctuary of Apollo near Colophon in Ionia.
Branchidae: the priestly clan who looked after another celebrated sanctuary of Apollo at Didyma, which was also itself called Branchidae. Didyma is a few miles from Miletus, so we have a cluster of three well-known shrines of Apollo, Clarus, Didyma, and Miletus, in this corner of Asia Minor.
telling fortunes with a sieve (as they say): a reference to koskinomanteis, ‘sievediviners’. We are not told how this method of divination worked, but it was regarded as disreputable: see Artemidorus’ treatise on dreams, Oneirokritika 2. 69.
Podalirius: a son of Asclepius and one of the doctors in the Greek army at Troy (Iliad 11. 833): his home was at Tricca in Thessaly.
For his name … a noble protector: this is an example of an ingenious lexical game played mainly by Greek epigrammatists, and involving ‘isopsephs’, the interchange of letters and the numbers they represent. Here the numbers 1, 30, 5, 60 stand for αλεξ, the first four letters of Alexander’s name. In addition, the Greek form of his name, Alexandros, is concealed in the first four syllables of the last line, andros alex-.
the frenzied followers of the Great Mother: a reference to the frenzied rites associated with the worship of Cybele, the great Mother goddess of Anatolia.
Twice born when other men are born but once: adapted from Odyssey 12. 22.
Coronis, nor even a crow: a pun on Koronis and korone, the Greek for ‘crow’.
a Democritus: that is, a man of towering intellect like Democritus, the great fifth-century BC philosopher of atomism. Note the reference to him again in 50.
Metrodorus: a distinguished and favourite pupil of Epicurus.
Amphiaraus: one of the legendary Seven who fought against Thebes.
Bruttium pitch: the forests of Bruttium in southern Italy produced high-quality pitch which was used in ship-building, and was a major source of revenue to Rome.
Christians: Christian communities had long been established in Pontus and Bithynia, as we know from the New Testament (1 Peter 1. 1) and Pliny the Younger (letter to Trajan, 10. 96).
Lepidus: a priest of Amastris, as we learn from an inscription (CIG 4149), and an important Epicurean opponent of Alexander: cf. section 43.
Severianus: the Roman governor of Cappadocia, who invaded Armenia in 161 and was utterly defeated by Osroes.
Mallus: the famous shrine in Cilicia, founded by Amphilochus: see section 19.
Selene … to fall for good-looking men in their sleep: an allusion to the story that the Moon, Selene, fell in love with the beautiful youth Endymion in his sleep. Hence the sardonic term ‘Endymion-Alexander’ in section 39.
the great plague: brought back from the east by the army of Lucius Verus in 165/6, and it spread from the eastern empire as far as Rome.
Eumolpidae and Ceryces: these are both titles of officiating priests at the Eleusinian Mysteries: Lucian gibes at Alexander’s attempt to imitate the famous rites. On the Eumolpids see Demonax, note to p. 158.
Epicurus’ Basic Doctrines: this book, Kuriai Doxai, survives and is a collection of maxims which, as Lucian says, cover Epicurus’ main doctrines.
squills: scilla hyacynthoides, used in purification rites to avert evil by scourging ritual scapegoats: see Gow or Dover on Theocritus 7. 107.
the Marcomanni and the Quadi: two connected German tribes with whom Marcus Aurelius was at war in 168–74. They had made inroads into Italy as far as Aquileia (mentioned below).
Croesus: king of Lydia (c.560–546 BC): he consulted the Delphic oracle about attacking the Persians, and the oracle’s defence of its ambiguity is given in Herodotus 1. 91.
Morphen … phaos: this and the following oracle appear to be deliberate gibberish, though they contain some Greek words—perhaps a later scribe’s partial attempt to translate the ‘Scythian’. (‘Morphen’ is ‘shape’, ’eis skian’ ‘into the darkness’, ‘leipsei phaos’ ‘you will leave the light of day’.)
Xenophon: presumably an attendant, but otherwise unknown.
Eupator: king of the Bosporus in the time of Marcus Aurelius.
Timocrates: see Demonax, note to p. 153.
Podalirius: a punning allusion, linking the name with the Greek word for foot or leg, the root of which is pod-.
Sostratus: a rather shadowy figure, perhaps the same as the man described by Philostratus (Lives of the Sophists 1.2). Lucian’s treatise on him is lost.
Agathoboulos … Timocrates of Heraclea: Demonax had quite a galaxy of teachers. Agathoboulos of Alexandria and Demetrius (who worked mainly in Rome) were famous Cynics; the ex-slave Epictetus (in Rome and then Nicopolis) was one of the most influential Stoics of his time; and Timocrates of Heraclea was another celebrated teacher of mainly Stoic beliefs. Lucian also mentions Agathoboulos in Peregrinus 17 and Timocrates in Alexander 57.
rush into this with unwashed feet: a proverbial expression meaning ‘unprepared’. Lucian has it again in Pseudologista 4.
the man of Sinope: Diogenes the Cynic, who came from Sinope on the Black Sea.
Persuasion sat on his lips: from Eupolis, fr. 94. 5 Kock: cf. Nigrinus, note to p. 64.
Anytus and Meletus: two of Socrates’ accusers.
the Eleusinian Mysteries: the most famous of the secret cults which were a feature of Greek life, linked with the deities Demeter and Dionysus. Demonax’s refusal to be initiated into them might have been in imitation of Diogenes, who similarly refused: Diogenes Laertius 6. 39.
your former victim: Socrates.
Favorinus: a celebrated sophist from Arelate (Arles) who taught Herodes Atticus. He was a eunuch: hence Demonax’s quip.
the sophist from Sidon: he is unknown.
if Pythagoras summons, I shall keep silence: part of the strict discipline of the Pythagoreans was maintaining silence.
Arcesilaus: because ‘Arcesilaus’ suggests ‘arkos’, a Greek word for ‘bear’.
Peregrinus Proteus: the Cynic philosopher who is the subject of Lucian’s treatise, for which see translation and notes.
you’re not doglike: the Cynics were so called because the name in Greek means ‘behaving like a dog’.
the great Herodes: Herodes Atticus of Athens (c.101–177) was the most celebrated and influential sophist of his time. Polydeuces seems to have been a young relative he was particularly attached to.
the Asclepieion: a shrine of Asclepius, the god of healing. The one at Athens dated from 420 BC.
one … is milking a he-goat and the other is holding a sieve for him: Proverbial expressions: Diogenianus 7.
95
Agathocles the Peripatetic: this is our only reference to him.
Cethegus: M. Cornelius Cethegus; this episode is probably a few years before his consulship in 170, so Lucian anticipates in calling him ‘consular’.
Apollonius: the Stoic of Chalcedon or Chalcis, who was invited to Rome by the emperor Antoninus Pius to be tutor to his adopted son, the future emperor Marcus Aurelius. Demonax links him jokingly with his namesake, Apollonius of Rhodes, whose poem Argonautica describes Jason’s search for the Golden Fleece: the suggestion is that this Apollonius is after gold too.
Regilla: the wife of Herodes Atticus, whose mourning for her death was widely noted, like his grief for Polydeuces (note to p. 157).
Eumolpus: a mythical figure associated with Eleusis as one of its rulers and involved in the Mysteries there. He was subsequently said to have been king of Thrace. (See the entry in OCD.)
Polybius: possibly the grammarian Polybius of Sardis; in which case he typifies someone who does not practise what he claims to teach.
Admetus: not otherwise known.
Charon: by this quip Demonax seems to mean he is already marked out for departure to the underworld, i.e. death is in sight. Charon was conventionally represented as the ferryman of the souls of the dead, but the remark here suggests other views which the Etruscans held of Charon as a more monstrous and sinister figure: see Austin on Virgil, Aeneid 6. 298 ff.
Stop treating him as your social equal: the Spartans used whipping regularly to train their youth in toughness and endurance.
Danae, but not the daughter of Acrisius: for Danae see Timon, note to p. 30. Her father’s name Acrisius means ‘lawless’: hence the pun.
Hyperides: no Cynic Hyperides is know, but the name is chosen as it could mean ‘Son of Cudgel’ (hyperos in Greek).
the Painted Stoa: the Stoa Poikile, or painted colonnade, built about 460 BC, and so called because it was decorated with pictures by the celebrated painter Polygnotus and other artists. It gave its name to the Stoic philosophy because the early Stoic masters taught there. Cynegirus was a brother of the poet Aeschylus: he lost his hand fighting at Marathon.
Rufinus the Cypriot: he appears only in this passage.
Herminus: a Peripatetic philosopher eminent as a teacher and a writer, but nothing of his work survives.
the Altar of Pity: see Timon, note to p. 39.
The idler and the toiler both come to death alike: Iliad 9. 320 (Achilles addressing Odysseus).
Thersites: in the Iliad Thersites is a common soldier in the Greek army, the only rank-and-filer to be at all characterized. He is an unattractive figure, ugly and foul-mouthed, and he attacks Agamemnon with bitter insults (Il. 2. 212 ff.).
Aristippus: of Cyrene, a close friend of Socrates. Either he or a grandson of the same name founded the ‘Cyrenaic’ school of philosophy, of which the main tenet was that the pleasures of the senses are man’s highest goal.
Now ends … your going: these lines are listed as Carmina Popularia 19 in Page, Poetae Melici Graeci (Oxford, 1962): see the other references given there.
Ctesias of Cnidos: a late fifth-century Greek historian who wrote treatises on Persia and India of which fragments survive. See A True History 1.3, where Lucian also alludes to the fabulous nature of his works.
a bull or a swan to gratify a passion: a bull for the sake of Europa and a swan in order to visit Leda.
a bird or a bear: familiar examples are the legends of Procne (nightingale) and Philomela (swallow), and Callisto (bear): Ovid, Met. 6.424 ff., 2.405 ff.
Mormo and Lamia: these were bogies or demon-figures whose names were used to frighten children.
Erichthonius: an early Attic hero and king of Athens. He was said to be the son of Hephaestus, whose seed fell to earth from which the boy was subsequently born. The story is reflected in his name Erichthonius, chthon meaning ‘earth’.
the Thebans’ tale … a serpent’s teeth: a reference to the legend of Cadmus, who killed a dragon and sowed its teeth, from which sprang a harvest of armed men.
a Coroebus or a Margites: proverbial types of the gullible fool. Coroebus is otherwise unknown; Margites is the hero of a lost comic epic attributed to Homer.
Triptolemus: see The Dream, note to p. 11.
Boreas: the north wind, who was said to have carried off his bride Oreithyia, daughter of King Erechtheus of Athens.
In Hestia’s name: Hestia was the goddess of the hearth, so calling on her means ‘by all you hold sacred at home’.
knocking out one nail with another: a proverbial expression describing an attempt to deal with a problem which leaves you where you were before. Lucian uses it elsewhere at Pro Lapsu 7, and see Aristotle, Politics 1314a5.
Asclepius: the god of healing. His son served as army doctor on the Greek side in the Iliad (e.g. 4. 193 ff.).
Hyperborean: a legendary race who lived in the remote north of the world.
the Syrian from Palestine: an unknown exorcist. Some have seen a reference here to Jesus, but this is improbable, if only because of the present tenses used. However, this section may well contain some shots at Christianity.
the Forms: a reference to Plato’s famous doctrine of the ideai, or the perfect archetypal ‘forms’, of which the objects of our everyday experience are imperfect imitations.
Demetrius: a sculptor from Alopece in Attica (fifth/fourth century BC), famous for the realism of his portraits.
Myron’s: see The Dream, note to p. 9.
Polyclitus: see Peregrinus, note to p. 76.
Critius and Nesiotes: Greek sculptors (early fifth century BC), who worked together. Their most famous pieces were bronze statues of the Tyrannicides, Harmodius and Aristogiton, which were set up in the Athenian agora in 477.
Pellichus: presumably this is the father of Aristeus, a commander who took part in the Corinthian expedition against Corcyra in 435 BC (Thucydides 1. 29).
Talos: Tychiades correctly describes Talos, the mythical bronze sentinel who patrolled and guarded the island of Crete: Apollonius Rhodius 4. 1638 ff.
Daedalus’ handiworks … runs away from his pedestal: for Daedalus see introduction to Icaromenippus. Here a runaway statue might be credited to Daedalus as he was said to have first created figures which could move their limbs and walk.
Plato and his teaching about souls: discussions about the soul are found mainly in Plato’s dialogues Phaedo, Meno, and Phaedrus.
Tantalus and Tityus and Sisyphus: these three famous sinners and their punishments are a familiar feature of the landscape of Hades.
an Epimenides: see Timon, note to p. 28.
Plato’s book on the soul: see note to p. 173. Here the Phaedo primarily is referred to, where we find the main discussion on the soul’s immortality.
Maltese puppy: a small white dog, which was the most popular pet in the Graeco-Roman world: see OCD s.v. ‘Pets’.
Democritus of Abdera: see Peregrinus, note to p. 76.
the statue of Memnon … the rising sun: there were two colossi at Thebes identified as Memnon, a legendary king of Ethiopia, but in fact representing Amenhotep III. At dawn the stones were said to respond musically to the rising sun, and as Memnon was the son of Eos, the Dawn, he was fancifully said to be greeting his mother. (For more details see Courtney on Juvenal 15. 5.)
Pancrates: may be a real character, as there is papyrus evidence of a magician called Pachrates of the previous generation, who greatly impressed the emperor Hadrian: see C. P. Jones, Culture and Society in Lucian, 49–50.
Amphilochus in Mallus: see Alexander, note to p. 140.
Patara: an important city in Lycia, where there was a celebrated temple and oracle of Apollo.
Lysimachus: ruler of the Macedonian kingdom, 285–281 BC.
O Love, you rule o’er gods and men: many fragments of this lost play survive: this one is listed as 136. 1 Nauck.
War is the father of all things: see Icaromenippus, note to p. 48.
the man of Sinope: Diogenes the Cynic (c.400–c.325 BC).
Philip was reported to be already approaching: Philip II, king of Macedon (359–336 BC) and father of Alexander the Great, who spent much of his reign building up the power of Macedon by conquests.
Craneion: a wealthy and fashionable suburb of Corinth.
from this billowing spray: Homer, Odyssey 12.219, referring to the whirlpool Charybdis.
a possession for ever: Thucydides thus refers to his own history (1. 22. 4).
Zeus draws up … shatter to bits: see Hermotimus, note to p. 89. For Homer’s description of agamemnon see Iliad 2. 478–9.
Nicostratus: a celebrated athlete, who was a double victor in wrestling and pancratium at the Olympic Games in AD 37. Quintilian reports meeting him (2. 8. 14); and see also Pausanias 5. 21. 10, Tacitus, Dialogus 10. 5.
Argus: a monster with many eyes. When Zeus changed Io into a heifer to hide her from Hera, Argus was set by Hera to watch over the heifer.
Heracles in Lydia: after Heracles killed Iphitus in a fit of madness, an oracle decreed that he could be purified of the crime if he was sold into servitude. Omphale, queen of Lydia, bought him and set him menial women’s tasks: see Sophocles, Trachiniae 248 ff., Apollodorus 2. 6. 2–3. Lucian refers to the sandal-slapping again at Dialogues of the Gods 15.
Aristoboulos: a technician attached to the army of Alexander the Great, who wrote a now lost history of Alexander. During his Indian expedition (327–325 BC) Alexander’s most formidable opponent was the local prince Porus, who so impressed Alexander, that after eventually defeating him Alexander reinstated him in his kingdom.
the engineer … on other business as before: this story is reported elsewhere, e.g. Plutarch, Alexander 72, who gives the engineer’s name as Stasicrates.
Thersites: see Demonax, note to p. 160.
and a far greater man pursuing: slightly adapted from Homer, Iliad 22. 158: Achilles pursuing Hector before killing him.
Crepereius Calpurnianus of Pompeiopolis: the reality of this man is disputed: see C. P. Jones, Culture and Society in Lucian, appendix A. There is similar uncertainty about the other three named historians, Callimorphus, Antiochianus, and Demetrius.
the sort of plague … where it happily stayed: these are echoes of Thucydides’ account of the great plague at Athens (2. 17 and 48).
write in Ionic: he would have thought this appropriate, as the great Greek doctor Hippocrates wrote in the Ionic dialect.
I am going to speak … Oxyrhoes: these are mostly adaptations of phrases from Herodotus, e.g. 2.40. 1, 1. 8. 2, 1. 7. 2.
Vologeses’: Vologeses III (see introductory note), who reigned in Parthia from 148 to 192.
Severianus: see Alexander, note to p. 139.
The mountain was in labour: the first words of a Greek proverb: ‘The mountain laboured and then brought forth a mouse’ (Diogenianus 8. 75). Horace famously gave it Latin form in his Ars Poetica 139, where the point is a similar warning against pompous preambles which cannot be matched by the sequel.
Darius and Parysatis had two sons: the opening words of Xenophon’s Anabasis.
Europus … a colony of Edessa: in fact Europus was situated on the Euphrates.
Thucydides … that celebrated war: Thucydides 2. 34 ff.: the celebrated speech by Pericles honouring the Athenian dead.
like Ajax: the death of Ajax was portrayed in a famous scene in Greek Tragedy: Sophocles, Ajax 815 ff.
the Zeus of Olympia: the celebrated statue which was considered to be Pheidias’ masterpiece, made about 430 BC.
The ears are more untrustworthy than the eyes: a quotation from Herodotus 1. 8.
no doubt while taking a stroll from Craneion to Lerna: that is, he imagined it all and never went near Sura.
Nicaea, after the victory: the Greek word for victory is nike.
the Oxydraci: an Indian people living by the river Indus. Muziris was a port on the west coast of India (later Cranganore): Pliny, NH 6. 104.
they contrive … an ill-timed tongue, as they say: a fragment from an unknown choral poet which had become proverbial: see Page, Poetae Melici Graeci, 1020. Lucian has it again at A Professor of Public Speaking 18.
Atthis: a reference to a type of history of Attica called Atthis, which was popular about 350–250 BC: the names of several ‘atthidographers’ are known to us.
Momus: see Nigrinus, note to p. 70.
create a Titormus from a Conon or a Milo from a Leotrophides: clearly two pairs of a strong-man and a weakling. Titormus and Conon are hard to trace; but Milo is presumably the famous athlete (late sixth century BC), and Leotrophides was a poet notable for his thin and feeble appearance, and satirized by Aristophanes: see Dunbar on Aristophanes, Birds 1405–7.
Antiochus, son of Seleucus: see Icaromenippus, note to p. 52.
Theagenes the Thasian or Polydamas of Scotussa: celebrated victors at the Olympic Games in the fifth century BC–Polydamas can be dated to 408.
Philip’s eye was put out by Aster of Amphipolis: this incident is noted too in Plutarch, Moralia 307 d.
Cleitus was brutally murdered at the banquet: a Macedonian noble who served in Alexander’s army, and was killed by Alexander in a drunken brawl, c.328/7 BC.
Cleon: one of the most famous of Athenian politicians and demagogues of his time, mainly active in the 420s BC.
Athens … the disaster in Sicily: this refers to an episode in the Peloponnesian War, when Athens launched an expedition to Sicily which turned out a disastrous failure (415–413 BC). Demosthenes and Nicias were both Athenian generals who lost their lives in the expedition. Much of Thucydides’ seventh book deals with the affair, with a full account of the incidents Lucian alludes to.
Clotho the Spinner … Atropos the Unchanging: ‘Spinner’ and ‘Unchanging’ translate the Greek names of these two Fates.
Artaxerxes’ doctor: Ctesias of Cnidos, a Greek doctor who served Artaxerxes II of Persia (late fifth century BC), and wrote a history of Persia.
Onesicritus: see Peregrinus, note to p. 81.
fearless … as the comic poet: perhaps from Menander: see fr. 717 K (with Körte’s note).
Thucydides … the present: for these allusions see Thucydides 1. 22.
like Zeus in Homer, … the Mysians: Iliad 13. 4–5.
Brasidas leaping forward, or a Demosthenes beating back his attack: Brasidas and Demosthenes were respectively Spartan and Athenian generals, and the clash referred to here was at Pylos in 425 BC (Thuc. 4. 11–14).
so that events will not be forgotten in the passage of time: Herod. 1. 1.
Tantalus, Ixion, Tityus: famous sinners, whose equally famous punishments were a familiar feature in accounts of the underworld.
Parthenius or Euphorion or Callimachus: these were all Hellenistic writers, whose story-telling technique and interest in narrative detail are contrasted with Homer’s more austere style. Parthenius of Nicaea (first century BC) was an influential elegiac poet, who is said to have taught Virgil. Euphorion of Chalcis (third century BC) apparently specialized in mini-epics on mythological themes. Callimachus of Cyrene (c.305–c.240 BC) was one of the most innovative and influential poets of his time. His best-known poem was Aetia (‘Causes’), of which fragments survive, and of his other works there are six hymns, which are extant.
Theopompus: of Chios (fourth century BC) wrote historical works of which we have fragments. The historian Polybius (8. 9–11) is similarly critical of his harsh accusations.
that architect from Cnidos: Sostratus (named below), who around 280 BC built the famous Pharos lighthouse at Alexandria for Ptolemy II. It was regarded as one of the wonders of the world. See also Pliny, NH 36. 83.
Ctesias: see Lovers of Lies, note to p. 163.
Iambulus: author of a now lost description of a journey through Ethiopia to the Island of the Sun, full of fantastic details. He is a totally shadowy figure, but we have excerpts from his work in Diodorus Siculus (2. 55–60).
Alcinous: king of the Phaeacians, at whose court Odysseus gives an extended account of his adventures (Odyssey 9–12).
Daphne … when Apollo is about to catch her: see Ovid, Met. 1. 452 ff.: she was running away to escape Apollo’s attentions, and by divine help was turned into a bay tree (Greek daphne).
Endymion: the moon king’s name is that of the beautiful youth Endymion, who was loved by the moon: see Apollodorus 1. 7. 5.
Sarpedon: son of Zeus and leader of the Lycian force at Troy. He was killed by Patroclus and mourned by his father with a rain of blood: Iliad. 16. 459 ff.
belly of the leg: Lucian’s fanciful derivation of the Greek word for calf of the leg, gastroknemia, literally ‘belly of the leg’: i.e. where the leg swells out.
comets, where long-haired men are admired: English ‘comet’ derives from Greek kometes, ‘long-haired’, alluding to the ‘tail’ of the comet.
Cloudcuckoo-city: the city of the birds in Aristophanes’ play (Birds 819).
Momus: see Nigrinus, note to p. 70.
Galatea: and Tyro (below) appropriately named, as in Greek gala is ‘milk’ and tyros ‘cheese’.
Rhadamanthus: traditionally a ruler and judge in the underworld in many authors. (See the OCD entry.)
Ajax, son of Telamon: see How to write History, note to p. 191.
hellebore: commonly prescribed as an antidote for madness.
Helen … the Amazon and the daughters of Minos: Theseus carried off Helen when she was a child (Plutarch, Thes. 31). The Amazon was Antiope or Hippolyte; the daughters of Minos were Ariadne and Phaedra.
Aristides the Just: an Athenian soldier and statesman, and archon in 489/8 BC.
Minoan: presumably the name is intended to point to the Cretan association through Rhadamanthus.
Eunomus of Locris, Arion of Lesbos, Anacreon, and Stesichorus: Eunomus was a lyre-player of uncertain date. The others were famous lyric poets of the seventh and sixth centuries BC. Stesichorus was said to have been blinded for writing scurrilous verses about Helen, but recovered his sight when he wrote a recantation (Palinodia) of what he had said.
Ajax of Locris: this Ajax was the son of Oileus, and sometimes called the ‘Lesser’, to distinguish him from the son of Telamon (cf. note to p. 221). He was an unpleasant character, whose most dramatic crime was the rape of Cassandra at the altar of Athena during the sack of Troy: the most familiar account is Virgil, Aeneid 2. 403 ff.
both Cyruses … Hylas: this is a very mixed bunch. The Cyruses were kings of Persia; Anacharsis was a sixth-century prince of Scythia, who was numbered among the Seven Sages, and in Lucian’s dialogue of that name has a discussion with Solon on the subject of athletics; Zamolxis was a Thracian god, or alternatively a man who introduced mystery rites into Thrace (see How and Wells on Herodotus 4. 94); Numa was traditionally the second king of Rome, who was credited with the introduction of laws and religious rites; Lycurgus was allegedly the founder of the Spartan constitution and social system, but traditions differ about his dates; Phocion (fourth century BC) was a distinguished general and statesman, who was much involved in the struggle against Macedon; Tellos was an Athenian mentioned by Solon to Croesus as the happiest man he had ever seen (Herodotus 1. 30: cf. Charon 10); Periander was tyrant of Corinth, c.625–585 BC; Nestor was the venerable father-figure on the Greek side at Troy, in which Palamedes too served (Palamedes was also credited with the invention of the alphabet). Hyacinthus, Narcissus, and Hylas form a group of beautiful young men who came to a tragic end: Hyacinthus was loved by Apollo and killed by a discus; Narcissus famously fell in love with his own reflection in water, and pined away and died; Hylas was page to Heracles on the voyage of the Argonauts, in the course of which he went to fetch water from a spring, but was pulled in by the water-nymphs who fell in love with his beauty.
his imaginary city … laws he drew up himself: a reference to Plato’s most famous dialogue, the Republic.
Aristippus and Epicurus: Aristippus of Cyrene (fifth—fourth centuries BC) and Epicurus (341–270 BC) are coupled as having both proclaimed pleasure as the goal of life; but the Cyrenaics preached a fairly blatant form of hedonism, while the Epicureans argued for a pleasure which was much more reasoned and carefully defined.
Aesop the Phrygian: the fabulist (traditionally sixth century BC), though he came not from Phrygia but from Thrace. His own fables do not survive.
Lais: a famous Corinthian courtesan (fifth century BC), among whose lovers was allegedly the philosopher Aristippus: Lucian may be making a mischievous substitution here.
Stoics … still climbing the steep hill of virtue: see Hermotimus passim.
hellebore: see Hermotimus, note to p. 128.
Homer … topic of the keenest interest at home: this was a indeed burning issue, and seven cities claimed the honour of being his birthplace.
hostage … changed his name: the Greek for ‘hostage’ is homeros.
the grammarians Zenodotus and Aristarchus: these were two distinguished scholars of the third and second centuries BC respectively, who were heads of the Library at Alexandria, and did important work on the text of Homer. Zenodotus was responsible for the division of the Iliad and the Odyssey into twenty-four books each.
Thersites: see Demonax, note to p. 160.
the cycles of his soul, His right side was entirely of gold: a variation on the legend that Pythagoras had a golden thigh: see Sale of Lives 6. In illustration of his doctrine of metempsychosis Pythagoras claimed to have been the Trojan Euphorbus in a former incarnation (see below).
Empedocles … his body thoroughly roasted: see Peregrinus, note to p. 74.
Caranus: the text is uncertain and ‘Caranus’ is a conjecture. Perhaps we should read ‘Capros’, an Olympic victor in 212 BC (see C. P. Jones, Culture and Society in Lucian, 55).
Epeius: a boxer in Homer who won his match at the funeral games for Patroclus (Iliad 23. 664 ff.). Areius is unknown, but presumably a real character.
Hesiod won the prize: this reflects an old tradition. There is extant an anonymous text, The Contest of Homer and Hesiod, recounting a contest between them, in which Hesiod is declared the victor.
Phalaris of Acragas … Pityocamptes: a group famous for their brutality. Phalaris was tyrant of Acragas in the sixth century, who roasted his enemies alive in a bronze bull. Busiris was a mythical Egyptian king, who sacrificed all strangers who came to Egypt. Diomedes was a mythical Thracian who fed strangers to his horses. Heracles’ eighth labour was to capture these horses. Sciron was a brigand who operated near Megara, and kicked his victims over a cliff to their death. Pityocamptes means ‘pine-bender’, and refers to another brigand on the Isthmus of Corinth called Sinis, who tied his victims to two pine trees, which were then released and tore them apart.
Sing to me now … shades of the heroes: a line loosely reminiscent of the opening line of the Odyssey.
boiled beans … he loathed beans: this recalls the Pyanepsia, an Athenian festival in honour of Apollo at which beans were eaten. Pythagoras ordered his disciples, for obscure reasons, to abstain from eating beans.
Calypso’s island: Calypso was a nymph living on the island of Ogygia, where Odysseus spent seven years with her.
not to stir the fire with a sword: this is a Pythagorean injunction (Diogenes Laertius 8. 17) of uncertain meaning. The others here seem to be Lucianic inventions.
Dear to the blessed gods … homeward made his way: these lines adapt recurrent phrases in the Odyssey referring to Odysseus’ home-coming (e.g. 1. 82).
Timon of Athens: the notorious misanthrope: see Timon passim.
Homer, hasn’t given full details: the reference is to Penelope’s famous description of the two gates, of horn and of ivory, through which dreams pass (Od. 19. 560 ff.).
Antiphon: a fifth-century sophist and interpreter of dreams, fragments of whose works survive.
the cave, just as Homer described it: in Odyssey 5. 55 ff.
And as they thus their woodland voyage pursued: the poet Antimachus came from Colophon and flourished around 400 BC. This line is listed as fr. 62 Kinkel (= 106 Wyss).
I’ll tell you in the following books: Lucian appropriately signs off with another lie.
a witch who is skilled in Thessalian spells … moon: Thessalian witches were notorious for their skills, and pulling down the moon is often quoted as an example of their power: cf. 4. 1.
the Thesmophoria: an important Greek festival for women in honour of Demeter.
the Admiralty Court: this translates nautodikai, a board of officials who presided over trials in cases involving merchants.
A common use of magic in the ancient world, at least in our literary sources, was in the cause of love, and here a girl invokes magic to bring back her errant lover. The piece strongly recalls Theocritus, Idyll 2, and may be modelled on it.
Thessalian women: cf. 1, note to p. 235.
Piraeus: the port of Athens.
the Ceramicus: the Potter’s Quarter in Athens.
the Dipylon Gate: an impressive double gateway at Athens in the Potter’s Quarter: cf. 10. 2.
a magic wheel: a familiar tool in incantations, this was a spoked disc or wheel with a cord threaded onto it, and increasing or relaxing the tension on the cord caused the wheel to spin. (See Gow on Theocritus 2. 17.)
Dear Lady Adrasteia: an alternative name for Nemesis, a goddess who personified retribution and punished excessive good fortune or presumption in mortals. The point of the invocation here is not very clear: possibly she is deprecating the goddess’s wrath from her friend’s good fortune by saying that she deserves it (see Macleod’s Loeb note here). So below she stops herself boasting about her daughter, with a covert apology to Adrasteia (3).
the earthly Aphrodite … the heavenly Aphrodite of the Gardens: the ‘earthly’ and ‘heavenly’ Aphrodites are distinguished as representing respectively physical love of the body and love of the soul: see Plato, Symposium 180e ff. Aphrodite of the Gardens refers to a statue by the celebrated sculptor Alcamenes (second half of the fifth century BC), in some gardens outside the walls of Athens: see Pliny, NH 36. 16.
If only my father …: the son cannot quite bring himself to say ‘would die’.
the two goddesses: Demeter and Persephone.
the Areopagite: a member of the Areopagus, a very ancient court at Athens.
I find … a bit of a pig: the exact meaning of this is unclear, but the general sense must be that she thinks Chaereas physically attractive and the farmer repulsive.
the Painted Hall: see Icaromenippus, note to p. 160.
the Academy: a gymnasium in Athens where Plato established his school in the early fourth century BC.
written by a Scythian: the Scythians were proverbially a harsh and uncouth people, so the meaning is that the letter is rude and discouraging: cf. Aelian, Epistulae 14.
help Dromo to run him down: the translation tries to reproduce a pun in the Greek on the name Dromon (‘runner’) and the verb syndramein (‘to run’). Cf. 4. 2 for graffiti in the Ceramicus.
I’m shut out and stand weeping before the door: the setting of this dialogue reflects a common situation in Greek and Latin love poetry, especially Latin elegy, that of the exclusus amator, the lover shut out on a cold doorstep and complaining bitterly to his mistress within or to a hard-hearted janitor.
donkey playing the lyre to himself: this proverbial expression, describing a ludicrous effect or situation, is found also in Lucian’s The Mistaken Critic 7, and elsewhere, and it seems to be the basis of a Greek fable: Phaedrus App. 14 (Aesop’s Fables, Oxford World’s Classics edn., no. 404 = Perry 542).