Chap. 53.] PEKSOKS WHO HAVE COME TO LIFE AGAIN. 21 1 



connesus, 97 the soul of Aristeas was seen to fly out of his mouth, 

 under the form of a raven ; 98 a most fabulous story, however, 

 which may be well ranked with the one that follows. It is 

 told of Epimenides" of Cnossus, that when he was a boy, being 

 fatigued by heat and walking, he fell asleep in a cave, where he 

 slept for fifty-seven years ; and that when he awoke, as though 

 it had been on the following day, he was much astonished at the 

 changes which he saw in the appearance of every thing around 

 him : after this, old age, it is said, came upon him in an equal 

 number of days with the years he had slept, but his life was 

 prolonged to his hundred and fifty-seventh year. 1 The female 

 sex appear more especially disposed to this morbid state, 2 on 

 account of the misplacement of the womb ; 3 when this is once 

 corrected, they immediately come to themselves again. The 

 volume of Heraclides 4 on this subject, which is highly esteemed 

 among the Greeks, contains the account of a female, who was re- 

 stored to life, after having appeared to be dead for seven days. 



97 See B. v. c. 44. 



98 We have an account of Aristeas in Herodotus, iv. 13, hut somewhat 

 different from that here given ; Aristeas is also mentioned hy Apollonius 

 in his Hist. Mirab., and A. Gellius, B. ix. c. 4. B. He was an epic poet, 

 who flourished in the time of Croesus and Cyrus. Herodotus mentions a 

 story that he reappeared at Metapontum, in Italy, 340 years after his death. 

 He is generally represented as a magician, whose soul could leave, and re- 

 enter his hody at pleasure. 



99 A poet and prophet of Crete. The story was, that being sent by his 

 father to fetch a sheep, he went into a cave, and fell into a sleep, from which 

 he did not awake for fifty-seven years. On awaking, he sought for the sheep, 

 and was astonished on finding everything altered. On returning home, lie 

 found that his young brother had in the meantime become an aged man. 

 His story is only equalled by the famous one of the Seven Sleepers of Da- 

 mascus, who fell asleep in the time of the Decian persecution of the Chris- 

 tians, and slept in a cave till the thirtieth year of the reign of the Em- 

 peror Theodosius, 196 years. It is not improbable that it is to this story 

 about Epimenides, that we are indebted for the amusing story of Eip Van 

 Winkle, by Washington Irving. 



1 We have the life of Epimenides by Diogenes Laertius, who gives an 

 account of this long-continued sleep. It is also mentioned by other writers, 

 but there is some difference in their statements as to its length. B. 



2 According to the interpretation of Dalechamps, " spiritus et animae 

 interception! ac privationi," "the interception and privation of the breath 

 and faculties ;" Lemaire, vol. iii. p. 208. B. 



3 He probably alludes to what are known among us as hysteria, or hys- 

 terical affections. 



4 We have an account of Heraclides in Diogenes Laertius ; he was a 

 native of Pontus, and a pupil of Aristotle. B. 



P 2 



