Lucian of Samosata, De Morte Peregrini, Austin Morris Harmon (Translator), 21

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[21] And now, they say, he is playing the mountebank over that very thing, digging a pit, collecting logs, and promising really awesome fortitude.¹

“What he should have done, I think, was first and foremost to await death and not to cut and run from life; but if he had determined to be off at all costs, not to use fire or any of these devices out of tragedy, but to choose for his departure some other form of death out of the myriads that there are. If, however, he is partial to fire as something connected with Heracles,. why in the world did he not quietly select a wellwooded mountain and cremate himself upon it in solitude, taking along only one person such as Theagenes here for his Philoctetes?² On the contrary, it is in Olympia, at the height of the festival, all but in the theatre, that he plans to roast himself— not undeservedly, by Heracles, if it is right for parricides and for atheists to suffer for their hardinesses.³ And from that point of view he seems to be getting about it very late in the day; he ought long ago to have been flung into the bull of Phalaris⁴ to pay the fitting penalty instead of opening his mouth to the flames once for all and expiring in a trice. For people tell me that no other form of death is quicker than that by fire; you have only to open your mouth, and die forthwith.

De Morte Peregrini. Lucian of Samosata. Austin Morris Harmon (Translator). United States. Perseus 5.0.

Funding provided by National Endowment for the Humanities.

Current edition Perseus

The Passing of Peregrinus (English) (Lucian, Vol. 5. Harmon, Austin Morris, editor. London: William Heinemann, Ltd.; Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1936 (printing).)

Editions (1)

Περὶ τῆς Περεγρίνου Τελευτῆς Perseus (Lucian, Vol. 5. Harmon, Austin Morris, editor. London: William Heinemann, Ltd.; Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1936 (printing).) — 21 focus

[21] καὶ νῦν αὐτὰ ταῦτα θαυματοποιεῖ, ὥς φασι, βόθρον ὀρύττων καὶ ξύλα συγκομίζων καὶ δεινήν τινα τὴν καρτερίαν ὑπισχνούμενος.

ἐχρῆν δέ, οἶμαι, μάλιστα μὲν περιμένειν τὸν θάνατον καὶ μὴ δραπετεύειν ἐκ τοῦ βίου· εἰ δὲ καὶ πάντως διέγνωστό οἱ ἀπαλλάττεσθαι, μὴ πυρὶ μηδὲ τοῖς ἀπὸ τῆς τραγῳδίας τούτοις χρῆσθαι, ἀλλʼ ἕτερόν τινα θανάτου τρόπον, μυρίων ὄντων, ἑλόμενον¹ ἀπελθεῖν. εἰ δὲ καὶ τὸ πῦρ ὡς Ἡράκλειόν τι ἀσπάζεται, τί δή ποτε οὐχὶ κατὰ σιγὴν ἑλόμενος ὄρος εὔδενδρον ἐν ἐκείνῳ ἑαυτὸν ἐνέπρησεν μόνος, ἕνα τινὰ οἷον Θεαγένη τοῦτον Φιλοκτήτην παραλαβών; ὁ δὲ ἐν Ὀλυμπίᾳ τῆς πανηγύρεως πληθούσης μόνον οὐκ ἐπὶ σκηνῆς ὀπτήσει ἑαυτόν, οὐκ ἀνάξιος ὤν, μὰ τὸν Ἡρακλέα, εἴ γε χρὴ καὶ τοὺς πατραλοίας καὶ τοὺς ἀθέους δίκας διδόναι τῶν τολμημάτων. καὶ κατὰ τοῦτο πάνυ ὀψὲ δρᾶν αὐτὸ ἔοικεν, ὃν ἐχρῆν πάλαι ἐς τὸν τοῦ Φαλάριδος ταῦρον ἐμπεσόντα τὴν ἀξίαν ἀποτετικέναι, ἀλλὰ μὴ ἅπαξ χανόντα πρὸς τὴν φλόγα ἐν ἀκαρεῖ τεθνάναι. καὶ γὰρ αὖ καὶ τόδε οἱ πολλοί μοι λέγουσιν, ὡς οὐδεὶς ὀξύτερος ἄλλος θανάτου τρόπος τοῦ διὰ πυρός· ἀνοῖξαι γὰρ δεῖ μόνον τὸ στόμα καὶ αὐτίκα τεθνάναι.

Translations (1)

The Death of Peregrine Perseus (The Works of Lucian of Samosata, Vol. 4. Fowler, Henry Watson and Fowler, Francis George, translators. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1905.) — 21 focus

[21] That is what all this mystification is about, this digging of pits we hear of, and collecting of firewood; these glowing accounts of fortitude hereafter to be shown. Now, in the first place, it seems to me that a man has no business to run away from life: he ought to wait till his time comes. But if nothing else will serve, if positively he must away,—still there is no need of pyres and such-like solemn paraphernalia: there are plenty of ways of dying without this; let him choose one of them, and have done with it. Or if a fiery end is so attractively Heraclean, what was to prevent his quietly selecting some well-wooded mountain top, and doing his cremation all by himself, with Theagenes or somebody to play Philoctetes to his Heracles? But no; he must roast in full concourse, at Olympia, as it might be ona stage; and, so help me Heracles, he is not far out, if justice is to be done on all parricides and unbelievers. Nay, if we look at it that way, this is but dilatory work: he might have been packed into Phalaris’s bull years ago, and he would have had no more than his deserts,—a mouthful of flame and sudden death is too good for him. For by all I can learn burning is the quickest of deaths; a man has but to open his mouth, and all is over.

Notes on the current edition

The Passing of Peregrinus

Thanks to Paul Graindor, the date of the Olympiads mentioned in connection with Peregrinus can now be determined. He has deduced from the apparent ages of the children represented in the exedra erected ty Herodes on the comlotion of his aqueduct that this took place in a.d. 153 (Hérode Atticus et Sa Famille, pp. 87-88). His deduction finds support in the text of Lucian as soon as we recognise that Lucian is talking about four different Olympiads, not three. The first is that on which Peregrinus criticised the aqueduct, which will be the year of its completion, a.d. 153. At the nezt (τὴν ἑξῆς, A.D. 157) he withdrew his criticism. The Olympiad just after which he announced his intention of cremating himself need not and cannot be identical with the one of a.D. 157; it is called by the speaker the last, or previous (τὴν ἐμπρόσθεν), and the text clearly implies a lapse of time. It must therefore be the one of a.d. 161. Then comes the fourth, on which the cremation took place, dated by Eusebius in a.d. 165.

Philoctetes had helped Heracles to cremate himself on Mt. Oeta by kindling the pyre for him.

As the cremation actually took place at Harpina, two miles away from Olympia, and on the day after the festival closed, it may be that religious scruples (cf. § 26) caused Peregrinus to modify an original plan which involved its taking place at Olympia itself while the festival was in progress.

See Phalaris I, 11-12 (Vol. I, pp. 17 ff.).

Lucian of Samosata De Morte Peregrini 21

Austin Morris Harmon (Translator)

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