BOOK VII. Lii. 173-176 



recovered from the pyre. This is the law of 



mortals : we are born for thcse and similar accidcnts 



of fortune, so that in the case of a human being no 



confidence must be placcd even in death. Among 



other instances we find that the soul of Hermotimus Disemhodied 



of Clazomenae used to leave his body and roam '""''■'• 



abroad, and in its wanderings report to him from a 



distance many things that only one present at them 



could know of — his body in the meantime being only 



half-conscious ; till fmally some enemies of his named 



the Cantharidae burncd his body and so deprived his 



soul on its return of what may be called its sheath. 



We also read that the soul of Aristeas at Proconnesus 



was seen flying out of his mouth in the shape of a 



raven, witli a great deal of fabulous invention that 



follows this. This inventiveness I for my part also 



receive in a similar Avay in tlie case of Epimenides of 



Cnossus — that when a boy, being weary with the 



heat and with travel, he slept in a cave 57 years, 



and when he woke, just as if it had been on the 



following day, was surprised at the appearance 



of things and the change in them; and afterwards 



old age came on him in the same number of 



days as he had slept years, though nevertheless 



he lived to the age of 157. The female sex 



seems specially hable to this malady, caused by 



distortion of the womb ; if this is set right, the 



breathing is restored. To this subject belongs the 



essay of Heraclides, well known in Greece, about 



the woman recalled to life after being dead for 



seven days. 



Also V^arro records that when he was acting as one liecoi-eryof 

 of the Twenty Commissioners and apportioning lands ^ppaTmUy 

 at Capua a pcrson being carried out on a bier to burial '**"<'• 



62% 



