Three thousand stadia {153} from the earth to the moon, my first resting-place; from thence up to the sun about five hundred parasangas; and from the sun to the highest heaven, and the palace of Jupiter, as far as a swift eagle could fly in a day. FRIEND. What are you muttering to yourself, Menippus, talking about the stars, and pretending to measure distances? As I walk behind you, I hear of nothing but suns and moons, parasangas, stations, and I know not what. MENIPPUS. Marvel not, my friend, if I utter things aerial and sublime; for I am recounting the wonders of my late journey. FRIEND. What! tracing your road by the stars, as the Phoenicians {154} do! MENIPPUS. Not so, by Jove! I have been amongst the stars themselves. FRIEND. You must have had a long dream, indeed, to travel so many leagues in it. MENIPPUS. It is no dream, I assure you; I am just arrived from Jupiter. FRIEND. How say you? Menippus let down from heaven? MENIPPUS. Even so: this moment come from thence, where I have seen and heard things most strange and miraculous. If you doubt the truth of them, the happier shall I be to have seen what is past belief. FRIEND. How is it possible, most heavenly and divine Menippus, that a mere mortal, like me, should dispute the veracity of one who has been carried above the clouds: one, to speak in the language of Homer, of the inhabitants {155} of heaven? But inform me, I beseech you, which way you got up, and how you procured so many ladders; for, by your appearance, I should not take you for another Phrygian boy, {156} to be carried up by an eagle, and made a cup-bearer of. MENIPPUS. You are an old scoffer, I know, and therefore I am not surprised that an account of things above the comprehensions of the vulgar should appear like a fable to you; but, let me tell you, I wanted no ladders, nor an eagle's beak, to transport me thither, for I had wings of my own. FRIEND. This was beyond Daedalus himself, to be metamorphosed thus into a hawk, or jay, and we know nothing of it. MENIPPUS. You are not far from the mark, my friend; for my wings were a kind of Daedalian contrivance. FRIEND. Thou art a bold rogue indeed, and meant no doubt, if you had chanced to fall into any part of the ocean, to have called it, as Icarus {157a} did, by your own name, and styled it the Menippean Sea. MENIPPUS. Not so; his wings were glued on with wax, and when the sun melted it, could not escape falling; but mine had no wax in them. FRIEND. Indeed! now shall I quickly know the truth of this affair. MENIPPUS. You shall: I took, you must know, a very large eagle {157b} and a vulture also, one of the strongest I could get, and cut off their wings; but, if you have leisure, I will tell you the whole expedition from beginning to end. FRIEND. Pray do, for I long to hear it: by Jove the Friendly, I entreat thee, keep me no longer in suspense, for I am hung by the ears. MENIPPUS.