Lucian, Contemplantes, ed. Austin Morris Harmon, 6

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Χάρων

ὁρῶ γῆν πολλὴν καὶ λίμνην τινὰ μεγάλην περιρρέουσαν καὶ ὄρη καὶ ποταμοὺς τοῦ Κωκυτοῦ καὶ Πυριφλεγέθοντος μείζονας καὶ ἀνθρώπους πάνυ σμικροὺς καί τινας φωλεοὺς αὐτῶν.

Ἑρμῆς

πόλεις ἐκεῖναί εἰσιν οὓς φωλεοὺς εἶναι νομίζεις.

Χάρων

οἶσθα οὖν, ὦ Ἑρμῆ, ὡς οὐδὲν ἡμῖν πέπρακται, ἀλλὰ μάτην τὸν Παρνασσὸν αὐτῇ Κασταλίᾳ καὶ τὴν Οἴτην καὶ τὰ ἄλλα ὄρη μετεκινήσαμεν;

Ἑρμῆς

ὅτι τί;

Χάρων

οὐδὲν ἀκριβὲς ἐγὼ γοῦν ἀπὸ τοῦ ὑψηλοῦ ὁρῶ· ἐδεόμην δὲ οὐ πόλεις καὶ ὄρη αὐτὸ μόνον ὥσπερ ἐν γραφαῖς ὁρᾶν, ἀλλὰ τοὺς ἀνθρώπους αὐτοὺς καὶ ἃ πράττουσι καὶ οἷα λέγουσιν. ὥσπερ ὅτε με τὸ πρῶτον ἐντυχὼν εἶδες γελῶντα καὶ ἤρου γε ὅ τι γελῴην, ἀκούσας τινὸς ἥσθην εἰς ὑπερβολήν.

Ἑρμῆς

τί δὲ τοῦτο ἦν;

Χάρων

ἐπὶ δεῖπνον, οἶμαι, κληθείς τις¹ ὑπό τινος τῶν φίλων ἐς τὴν ὑστεραίαν, μάλιστα ἥξω, ἔφη, καὶ μεταξὺ λέγοντος ἀπὸ τοῦ τέγους κεραμὶς ἐμπεσοῦσα οὐκ οἶδʼ ὅτου κινήσαντος ἀπέκτεινεν αὐτόν. ἐγέλασα οὖν οὐκ ἐπιτελέσαντος τὴν ὑπόσχεσιν. ἔοικα δὲ καὶ νῦν ὑποκαταβήσεσθαι, ὡς μᾶλλον βλέποιμι καὶ ἀκούοιμι.

Contemplantes. Lucian. ed. Austin Morris Harmon. Medford, MA. Perseus 4.0.

Sponsored by Perseus Project, Tufts University.

Funding provided by The National Endowment for the Humanities; Harvard Library Arcadia Fund; Google Digital Humanities Awards Program.

Current edition Perseus

Χάρων ἢ Ἐπισκοποῦντες (Greek) (Lucian, Vol. 2. Harmon, Austin Morris, editor. London: William Heinemann, Ltd.; Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1915.)

Translations (2)

Charon, or the Inspectors Perseus (Lucian, Vol. 2. Harmon, Austin Morris, editor. London: William Heinemann, Ltd.; Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1915.) — 6 focus

CHARON

I see a quantity of land with a great lagoon encircling it, mountains, rivers bigger than Cocytus and Pyriphlegethon, tiny little men, and things which look like their hiding-places.

HERMES

Those things which you take to be hiding-places are cities.

CHARON

Do you know, Hermes, we haven’t accomplished anything, but have moved Mount Parnassus, Castaly and all, Mount Oeta and the rest of them for nothing.

HERMES

Why?

CHARON

I can’t see anything plainly from on high. What I wanted was not just to look at cities and mountains as in a picture, but to observe men themselves, what they are doing and what they are saying. For instance, when we first met and you saw me laughing and asked what I was laughing at, I had heard something which amused me vastly.

HERMES

What was it?

CHARON

A man who had been invited to dinner, I take it, by one of his friends for the next day replied “Certainly I shall come,” and even as he spoke a tile from the roof which someone had dislodged fell on him and killed him. I had to laugh at him because he did not keep his promise—I_ think I shall go down a little, so as to see and_ hear better.

Charon Perseus (The Works of Lucian of Samosata, Vol. 1. Fowler, Henry Watson and Fowler, Francis George, translators. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1905.) — 6 focus

Charon

I see a vast stretch of land, and a huge lake surrounding it, and mountains, and rivers bigger than Cocytus and Pyriphlegethon; and men, tiny little things! and I suppose their dens.

Hermes

Dens? Those are cities!

Charon

I tell you what it is, Hermes; all this is no use. Here have we been shifting about Parnassus (Castalia and all complete), and Oeta, and these others, and we might have spared ouiselves the trouble!

Hermes

How so?

Charon

Why, I can make nothing out up here. These cities and mountains look for all the world like a map. It is men that I am after; I want to see what they do, and hear what they say. That is what I was laughing about just now, when first you met me, and asked me what the joke was. I had heard something that tickled me hugely.

Hermes

And what might that be?

Charon

One of them had been asked by a friend to dinner, I think it was, the next day. ‘Depend on it,’ says he, ‘I'll be with you.’ And before the words were out of his mouth, down came a tile—started somehow from the roof—and he was a dead man! Ha, ha, thought I, that promise will never be kept.— So I think I shall go down again; I want to see and hear.

Notes on the current edition

Χάρων ἢ Ἐπισκοποῦντες

1. τις ς, Herwerden: not in best MSS.

Lucian Contemplantes 6

ed. Austin Morris Harmon

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Ἑρμῆς

πόλεις ἐκεῖναί εἰσιν οὓς φωλεοὺς εἶναι νομίζεις.

Χάρων

οἶσθα οὖν, ὦ Ἑρμῆ, ὡς οὐδὲν ἡμῖν πέπρακται, ἀλλὰ μάτην τὸν Παρνασσὸν αὐτῇ Κασταλίᾳ καὶ τὴν Οἴτην καὶ τὰ ἄλλα ὄρη μετεκινήσαμεν;

Ἑρμῆς

ὅτι τί;

Ἑρμῆς

τί δὲ τοῦτο ἦν;

Current edition Perseus

CHARON

I see a quantity of land with a great lagoon encircling it, mountains, rivers bigger than Cocytus and Pyriphlegethon, tiny little men, and things which look like their hiding-places.

HERMES

Those things which you take to be hiding-places are cities.

CHARON

Do you know, Hermes, we haven’t accomplished anything, but have moved Mount Parnassus, Castaly and all, Mount Oeta and the rest of them for nothing.

HERMES

Why?

HERMES

What was it?

Charon

I see a vast stretch of land, and a huge lake surrounding it, and mountains, and rivers bigger than Cocytus and Pyriphlegethon; and men, tiny little things! and I suppose their dens.

Hermes

Dens? Those are cities!

Charon

I tell you what it is, Hermes; all this is no use. Here have we been shifting about Parnassus (Castalia and all complete), and Oeta, and these others, and we might have spared ouiselves the trouble!

Hermes

How so?

Hermes

And what might that be?

Notes on the current edition

Stable identifiers

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Search the Perseus Catalog for:

Ἑρμῆς πόλεις ἐκεῖναί εἰσιν οὓς φωλεοὺς εἶναι νομίζεις.

Χάρων οἶσθα οὖν, ὦ Ἑρμῆ, ὡς οὐδὲν ἡμῖν πέπρακται, ἀλλὰ μάτην τὸν Παρνασσὸν αὐτῇ Κασταλίᾳ καὶ τὴν Οἴτην καὶ τὰ ἄλλα ὄρη μετεκινήσαμεν;

Ἑρμῆς ὅτι τί;

Ἑρμῆς τί δὲ τοῦτο ἦν;

Current edition Perseus

CHARON I see a quantity of land with a great lagoon encircling it, mountains, rivers bigger than Cocytus and Pyriphlegethon, tiny little men, and things which look like their hiding-places.

HERMES Those things which you take to be hiding-places are cities.

CHARON Do you know, Hermes, we haven’t accomplished anything, but have moved Mount Parnassus, Castaly and all, Mount Oeta and the rest of them for nothing.

HERMES Why?

HERMES What was it?

Charon I see a vast stretch of land, and a huge lake surrounding it, and mountains, and rivers bigger than Cocytus and Pyriphlegethon; and men, tiny little things! and I suppose their dens.

Hermes Dens? Those are cities!

Charon I tell you what it is, Hermes; all this is no use. Here have we been shifting about Parnassus (Castalia and all complete), and Oeta, and these others, and we might have spared ouiselves the trouble!

Hermes How so?

Hermes And what might that be?

Notes on the current edition

Stable identifiers

Ἑρμῆς

πόλεις ἐκεῖναί εἰσιν οὓς φωλεοὺς εἶναι νομίζεις.

Χάρων

οἶσθα οὖν, ὦ Ἑρμῆ, ὡς οὐδὲν ἡμῖν πέπρακται, ἀλλὰ μάτην τὸν Παρνασσὸν αὐτῇ Κασταλίᾳ καὶ τὴν Οἴτην καὶ τὰ ἄλλα ὄρη μετεκινήσαμεν;

Ἑρμῆς

ὅτι τί;

Ἑρμῆς

τί δὲ τοῦτο ἦν;

CHARON

I see a quantity of land with a great lagoon encircling it, mountains, rivers bigger than Cocytus and Pyriphlegethon, tiny little men, and things which look like their hiding-places.

HERMES

Those things which you take to be hiding-places are cities.

CHARON

Do you know, Hermes, we haven’t accomplished anything, but have moved Mount Parnassus, Castaly and all, Mount Oeta and the rest of them for nothing.

HERMES

Why?

HERMES

What was it?

Charon

I see a vast stretch of land, and a huge lake surrounding it, and mountains, and rivers bigger than Cocytus and Pyriphlegethon; and men, tiny little things! and I suppose their dens.

Hermes

Dens? Those are cities!

Charon

I tell you what it is, Hermes; all this is no use. Here have we been shifting about Parnassus (Castalia and all complete), and Oeta, and these others, and we might have spared ouiselves the trouble!

Hermes

How so?

Hermes

And what might that be?