The Works of Lucian of Samosata — Volume 01 — John Shaqi
The Works of Lucian of Samosata — Volume 01Lucian, of Samosata
General
The Works of Lucian of Samosata — Volume 01
Lucian, of Samosata
Lucian, of Samosata -- Translations into English
'And if some great moment come to try your friends or country, then
shall all look to you. And to your lightest word the many shall listen
open-mouthed, and marvel, and count you happy in your eloquence, and
your father in his son. 'Tis said that some from mortal men become
immortal; and I will make it truth in you; for though you depart from
life yourself, you shall keep touch with the learned and hold communion
with the best. Consider the mighty Demosthenes, whose son he was, and
whither I exalted him; consider Aeschines; how came a Philip to pay
court to the cymbal-woman's brat? how but for my sake? Dame Statuary
here had the breeding of Socrates himself; but no sooner could he
discern the better part, than he deserted her and enlisted with me;
since when, his name is on every tongue.
'You may dismiss all these great men, and with them all glorious deeds,
majestic words, and seemly looks, all honour, repute, praise,
precedence, power, and office, all lauded eloquence and envied wisdom;
these you may put from you, to gird on a filthy apron and assume a
servile guise; then will you handle crowbars and graving tools, mallets
and chisels; you will be bowed over your work, with eyes and thoughts
bent earthwards, abject as abject can be, with never a free and manly
upward look or aspiration; all your care will be to proportion and
fairly drape your works; to proportioning and adorning yourself you
will give little heed enough, making yourself of less account than your
marble.'
I waited not for her to bring her words to an end, but rose up and
spoke my mind; I turned from that clumsy mechanic woman, and went
rejoicing to lady Culture, the more when I thought upon the stick, and
all the blows my yesterday's apprenticeship had brought me. For a time
the deserted one was wroth, with clenched fists and grinding teeth; but
at last she stiffened, like another Niobe, into marble. A strange fate,
but I must request your belief; dreams are great magicians, are they
not?
Then the other looked upon me and spoke:—'For this justice done me,'
said she, 'you shall now be recompensed; come, mount this car'—and lo,
one stood ready, drawn by winged steeds like Pegasus—, 'that you may
learn what fair sights another choice would have cost you.' We mounted,
she took the reins and drove, and I was carried aloft and beheld towns
and nations and peoples from the East to the West; and methought I was
sowing like Triptolemus; but the nature of the seed I cannot call to
mind—only this, that men on earth when they saw it gave praise, and all
whom I reached in my flight sent me on my way with blessings.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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