2

reasonably or fittingly: but the mainstays,' if chance so direct, are stretched to the stern, while both the sheetropes are stretched towards the prow; the anchors often are of gold, the figure-head of lead; the parts of the ship below water are ornamented, the parts above unsightly. And, of the sailors themselves, you may see the one who is idle, and unskilful, and without heart for his work, in the position of second or third officer;3 and another, who is a skilful swimmer, and agile in leaping up into the yard-arm, and who is skilled in each thing pertaining to useful navigation, he is just the only one you will see set to bale out the bilge-water. So, too, among the passengers, you will see some worthless fellow seated by the side of the captain, in the most commanding place, and being made much of; and another, some unnatural wretch, or parricide, or swindler, honoured above all the rest, and occupying the highest posts in the vessel; many persons of good taste or feeling crowded into a corner of the ship, and trampled upon by those really inferior to themselves. Consider, in fact, in what manner Sokrates and Aristeides made their voyage, and Phokion, who had not even sufficient bread to eat, nor even were able to stretch their legs upon the bare planks along the hold; while in the midst of how many good things lived a Kallias, a Meidias, and a Sardanapalus rioting, and insulting those under them.

5

1 IIpórovos. In the Greek ship, the two ropes which were fastened to the top of the mainmast, and descended to the prow: the nodes were the ropes which fastened the ends of the square sails to the stern by rings.

2 Χηνίσκος (χὴν a goose). The ἀκροστόλιον, or figure-head, was so called from the ordinary device for the ship's prow. It was usually protected by plates of brass or copper, and in later times of gold, and served, with the uẞolo (rostra, or "beaks"), as a ram against the enemy's ships. The latter were sometimes above and sometimes below the water. Aμоpírηy тpiμopírηy. Lit.: "a commander of two or of three divisions or companies," or "of a second or third part of the ship."

Aristeides suffered exile; and Phokion died (like Sokrates) by the Athenian mode of capital punishment-drinking hemlock, 317 B.C., at the age of eighty-five. See Plutarch. Bio IIap.

5 Meidias was a wealthy Athenian citizen, who owes his fame to his hostility to Demosthenes. The Kallias here referred to, presumably, is the stepson of Perikles, and brother-in-law of Alkibiades, and the host of the guests of Xenophon's Evμróσiov. Lucian's examples of iniquity are not always the most superlatively striking.

Such is the state of matters on board your ship, most sapient Timokles; whence those innumerable shipwrecks. Now if any captain were in command, and observed and ordered each particular thing; in the first place, he would not be ignorant who are the good, and who the bad among the ship's company; in the next place, he would suitably distribute to each his proper post-the better place, up above by his side, to the better men, and the lower place to the inferior; and some of the superior men he would admit to his own table, and appoint them to be of his council; and of the sailors, the most zealous would have been appointed to the care of the forepart of the vessel, or to the captaincy of the forecastle,1 or, certainly, in a place above the rest: while the sluggish and negligent would be corrected a dozen times in the day with the rope's end about his shoulders. So, admirable Sir, this simile of yours of the Ship is in some danger of being completely wrecked, from having chanced upon this incompetent captain.

Momus. This contest proceeds swimmingly for Damis now, and he is being borne onwards full sail to victory.

Zeus. Rightly do you conjecture, Momus, and as for Timokles, he devises no firm and consistent method of argument but these commonplace and vulgar proofs he pumps. out one after the other, all only to be easily overturned.

Timokles. Then, since my comparison of the ship appears to you to be of no such great weight, listen now to the "sacred anchor,' as the proverb has it, which you will not shatter by any possible means.

2

Zeus (all attention). Whatever in the world is he going to say, then?

Timokles. Well, you shall see if I put these arguments into syllogistic sequence, and if you can overturn them anyhow. If there are altars there are also Gods: but there are certainly altars; there are, therefore, Gods. What do you say to that?

1

3

Τοίχου ἄρχων (usually written τοίχαρχος), lit. “ the captain of the rowers at the sides of the ship." See Suidas, sub voce, and cf. Aia). Εταίρων, 14, 3.

2 Τὴν ἱεράν ἀγκυράν—A Greek proverb denoting the last resource or hope. Cf. Lucian, Apárεraι, 13.

"This argument," says Wieland, "is for a 'sheet-anchor' (Nothanker) not the strongest: but it is by no means to be supposed that

Damis (choking with laughter). As soon as ever I have laughed my fill I will reply to you.

Timokles. But you don't seem at all likely to stop grinning. Tell me, however, whereabouts my allegation appears to you ridiculous.

Damis. It's because you don't perceive you suspended your anchor, and that, too, "the sacred one," upon a fine thread. For, in connecting the existence of the Gods with the existence of altars, you imagine you have made your anchorage secure thereupon. So, since you say you have nothing else " more sacred " than this to say, let us at once depart. Timokles. Do you confess, then, you are worsted, as you leave first?

Damis (calmly). Yes, Timokles; for you, like those who are getting the worst of it, you have sought refuge at the altars. So, by the "holy anchor," I am ready to make a treaty of peace with you this moment, with a libation upon the altars themselves, so that we may no longer wrangle on these matters.

Timokles (in a violent rage). You say this to me ironically, you plunderer of tombs,1 you abominable villain, you utterly contemptible wretch, you good-for-nothing slave, you infamous hang-dog-why, don't we know who your father was, and how your mother got her living, and how you throttled your brother, and what a debauched fellow and corrupter of youth you are; you chief of gluttons and of shameless rascals.-(As Damis is retiring)—Don't run off, pray, before you have got some reminders from me to take away with you: indeed, I am ready to slay you this very

Lucian would have put it into the mouth of Timokles, if the Stoics were not accustomed to make use of it. It is quite of a similar character and strength to the brilliant syllogism of Balbus in Cicero's De Nat. Deor. (ii. 4): - - quorum interpretes sunt, eos ipsos esse certe necesse est: Deorum autem interpretes sunt: Deos igitur esse fateamur."

1 Tvμßwpúxε. Lit. "digger into tombs." Cf. Aristoph. Barp. 1147, The tombs, as being often the receptacles of valuable treasures, were a common and rich hunting-ground of robbers, if, at least, we may trust the Romances of the fifth and sixth centuries A.D. Hence the imprecations on desecrators of them, inscribed on many of the slabs. Slaves sometimes were set to keep guard. See Niypivos, 30. For a display of the vituperative powers of the Greek vocabulary see Aristoph. Nɛp. 444-450, and elsewhere.

moment with this potsherd here, superlative villain that you are (throwing the missile at him).

Zeus. One of them, O Gods! is running away in fits of laughter; and the other pursues him with vituperation, as he cannot endure Damis's making merry over him: indeed, he seems actually about to strike him over the head with his potsherd. And we-what are we going to do hereupon? Hermes. The comic poet appears to me to have rightly said,

"Don't own defeat, you've suffer'd then no harm.” 1 For, indeed, what mighty evil is it, if a few men go away convinced of these things? For those who hold the contrary opinion are sufficiently numerous— -the greater part of the Greeks (the mass of the people, and the rabble), and all the nonn-Greek peoples.

Zeus. However, Hermes, that saying of Dareius, which he uttered in the case of Zopyrus, is exceedingly good. So, too, I myself would have wished to have one such as Damis, as an ally, rather than the possession of ten thousand Babylons.

2

1 Οὐδὲν πέπονθας δεινὸν, ἂν μὴ προσποιῇ. A fragment of Menander. Προσποιεῖσθαι, to affect not to notice," is used by Thucyd. iii. 47, and by Theophrastus in a passage in the Xapaкrйpes quoted by Arnold. (Thucydides, i. 496.)

2 Zopyrus, a Persian noble in the army of Dareius besieging Babylon, having voluntarily mutilated himself in a frightful manner, fled to the enemy, pretending that he had escaped from the atrocities of the Persian king. After the betrayal and slaughter of several thousands of his countrymen-with the consent of his master-for the purpose of still further deceiving the Babylonians, he at length found his opportunity for delivering the city to the Persians. Upon which event, the despot is reported to have condescended to remark, that he would have foregone the possession of twenty Babylons rather than that his devoted slave should have inflicted so much injury upon himself. See Herod. iii. 153-160. It is evident that Lucian does not think himself bound, in every case, to repeat with the strictest accuracy the on dits of History.

1

THE CONVICTED ZEUS.1

[Cyniskus, a Cynic philosopher (as his name imports), encouraged by Zeus to ask a favour, protests that his request will be a very modest one and very easy to grant: he is not Zevs 'EXEYXOμEvoc "Zeus Convicted," "Confuted," or "CrossExamined." Of this Dialogue Wieland remarks:-"Never, probably, had any writing a more appropriate title than this, in which Jupiter, in a tête-à-tête, is forced by the straightforward and undaunted Cynic, in a way such as, probably, he had never yet experienced from any son of Earth, to confess the truth. The worst blow, to which dogmas, that are not grounded upon Reason, can be submitted, is when one holds up their mutual contradictions to the light. One spares oneself, by this means, the trouble of refutation, and can calmly see them, like the armed men sown by Kadmus, annihilate themselves. This is the spectacle which Lucian gives us, in this Dialogue, in his best manner.

"The inconsistencies of the Pagan doctrines of a Fate, of the Providence of their Gods, and of the system of Rewards and Punishments after death, appears in it in a light, by whose brilliance Jupiter himself is quite dazed and reduced to silence; or, what is still more humiliating, to so miserable a shift, that Cyniscus himself, at last, out of mere pity, and content with having deprived him, after complete overthrow in open field, of his power, his dignity, and his kingdom, and leading him in triumph mortally wounded, presents him with his life for so long as in the course of Nature it might be expected to last. The questions which he lays before Jupiter had, in fact, been already debated in the Jupiter in Tragedy, between Damis and Timokles, not to the advantage of the party of the Gods. But Lucian, as it seems, held it to be necessary to deliver a last decisive assault. Jupiter had to be driven out altogether from his last lurking-holes, and to be convicted of his wicked deeds so completely, that the most shameless sycophant must blush any longer to undertake his defence. This it is, that Lucian, as it seems to me, in this little Dialogue, in so masterly a way, and with so much fineness of touch, manages to effect, that I know no more complete example of the transformation of the antipodes of reason (as Homer expresses it) 'into earth and water.'

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