Latin: Sagae Thessalae

Answer 1

When, as a young man, I had set out from Miletus for the Olympic Games, since I also wanted to visit these areas of the famous province, I travelled through the whole of Thessaly and reached Larissa. And while I was wandering through the city searching for remedies for my poverty as my travelling allowance had dwindled, I caught sight of an old man in the middle of the forum.

Answer 2

He was standing on a stone and proclaiming in a loud voice that if anyone wanted to guard a dead man, he would recieve a great reward. And I said to someone passing by, ‘What’s this I hear? Are the dead here accustomed to running away?”

Answer 3

“Be quiet!” he replied. “For you are a boy and a mere stranger, and naturally you don’t know that you are in Thessaly, where witches always bite piece out of the faces of the dead, which they are extra ingredients for their magic art.”
In reply I said, “What sort of protection is needed?”

Answer 4

“To begin with,” he replied, “you must stay fully awake for the whole night with open and sleepless eyes always looking at the corpse, and you must not turn away your glance anywhere, since those terrible witches may creep up secretly, with their shape turned into any animal. For they take the form of birds and dogs and mice, and indeed even flies.”

Answer 5

Once I knew these things, I made my soul bold and at once going up to the old man I said, “Stop shouting now. A guard is ready and present.”
Scarcely had I finished when he at once led me to a certain house where he pointed out a weeping woman dressed in dark clothes.

Answer 6

She got up and led me into a bedroom. There she uncovered with her hand a body wrapped in white sheets. When she had anxiously shown his individual features, she went out.

Answer 7

Left alone in this way for the comforting of the corpse, my eyes rubbed and ready for guard duty, while I was soothing my spirit with songs, I stayed awake until the middle of the night.

Answer 8

But then my fear increased when a weasel, suddenly creeping in, stopped opposite me and fixed its eyes on me. Such great self confidence in such a small animal disturbed my mind. At last, I spoke to it in this way, “Go away, you wicked beast, before you quickly feel my strength! Go away!”

Answer 9

At last, awoken by first light and terrified by a great fear, I ran over to the corpse and with the light held near and his face uncovered, I took a careful look at everything: nothing way missing. Look, his poor wife burst in weeping: after inspecting the corpse, she handed over the reward without any delay.

Answer 10

“For the sake of your honor,” he said, “for the sake of public duty, citizens, help a murdered citizen and severely punished the vilest crime of that evil and wicked woman. For this woman and no other had poisoned a wretched young man, my sister’s son, to please her lover and to steal the inheritance.”

Answer 11

She, pouring forth tears as piously as she could and calling all the gods to witness, denied such a great crime. Therefore that old man said: ‘Let us put the judgement of the truth to divine providence.

Answer 12

Zatchlas is here, a very well known Egyptian prophet, who has promised me that, in return for a large reward, he will bring the spirit of that corpse back from the dead for a short time and will bring the body back to life.”

Answer 13

I pushed myself into the crowd, and standing on a stone behind the beir itself, I began to watch everything with curious eyes. Now the chest of the corpse was being raised with a swelling, now the body was being filled with a spirit. The corpse both got up and spoke out:

Answer 14

“Why, I beg, do you recall me, after the cups from Lethe, swimming in the Stygian pools, to the duties of a short lived life? Stop now, I pray, stop and allow me my peace.”

Answer 15

This voice was heard from the body, but the prophet somewhat more forcefully said, “Why not tell the people everything about your death?”
He replied from the beir and with a deep groan spoke thus to the people:

Answer 16

“Murdered by the evil arts of a new bride and sentenced to a poisoned wine cup, I gave my warm bed over to an adulterer. I will give you very clear proof of the truth and I shall reveal what absolutely nobody else has discovered or predicted.”

Answer 17

Then pointing his finger at me, he said, “For when this most keen witted guard of my body was keeping an alert watch for me, certain witches, eager for my remains, appeared, with the way they looked having been changed.

Answer 18

When they had not been able to deceive his determined effort, finally they cast a mist of sleep and buried him in a deep slumber.

Answer 19

Then they began to wake me by name and they did not stop until my sluggish joints and my cold limbs were struggling slowly to the obedience of the magic art.

Answer 20

This man, however, who was alive, and only dead in a deep sleep, by chance has the same name as me. Therefore he unwittingly arose to his name and, stepping mechanically in the manner of a lifeless ghost, went to the door.

Answer 21

Although the door of the bedroom had been closed carefully, through a certain hole he suffered mutilation instead of me with first his nose and then soon his ears cut off. Then the witches attached wax to him shaped in the manner of the cut off ears, and arranged a nose similar to the one that had been cut off.

Answer 22

And now the poor man stands here, having earned his reward not for hard work but for mutilation.” Terrified by these words I began to examine my appearance. I grabbed my nose with my hand: it followed; I grasped my ears: they fell off. And while the crowd were identifying me with fingers pointed and nods, I fled between the feet of those standing around, dripping with cold sweat.

Answer 23

And afterwards, thus maimed and thus ridiculous, I was not able to return to my homeland, but I hid the wounds of my ears with my hair let down on both sides and indeed I covered the disgrace of my nose decently with this piece of cloth.