Chap. 53.] PEESOIfS WHO HAVE COME TO LIFE AGAIN. 211 
connesus,^ the soul of Aristeas was seen to fly out of his mouth, 
under the form of a raven 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.^ The female 
sex appear more especially disposed to this morbid state,^ on 
account of the misplacement of the womb f when this is once 
corrected, they immediately come to themselves again. The 
volume of Heraclides* 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. 
9^ See B. V. c. 44. 
98 We have an account of Aristeas in Herodotus, iv. 13, but somewhat 
different from that here given ; Aristeas is also mentioned by ApoUonius 
in his Hist. Mirab., and A. Gellius, E, 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 body 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, he 
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 
interceptioni 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. 
* We have an account of Heraciides in Diogenes Laertius ; he was a 
native of Pontus, and a pupil of Aristotle. — B. 
P 2 
