"The Buried Classic" from Ancient Greece,
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Web Publication by
Mountain Man Graphics, Australia
in the Southern Spring of 1995
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And having embraced Apollonius and declared that he would be esteemed a god by the many, not merely after his death, but while he was still alive, they turned back to their place of meditation, though ever and anon they turned towards him, and showed by their action that they parted from him against their will.
And Apollonius keeping the Ganges on his right hand, but the Hyphasis on his left, went down towards the sea a journey of ten days from the sacred ridge. And as they went down they saw a great many ostriches, and many wild bulls, and many asses and lions and pards and tigers, and another kind of apes than those which inhabit the pepper trees, for these were black and bushy-haired and were dog-like in features and as big as small men. And in the usual discussion of what they saw they reached the sea, where small factories had been built, and passenger ships rode in them resembling those of the Tyrrllenes. And they say that the sea called Erythra or "red" is of a deep blue colour, but that it was so named from a king Erythras, who gave his own name to the sea in question.
HAVING reached this point, Apollonius sent back the camels to Iarchas together with the following letter:
Apollonius to Iarchas and the other sages greeting.
I came to you on foot, and yet you presented me with the sea;
but by sharing with me the wisdom which is yours,
you have made it mine even to travel through the heavens.
All this I shall mention to the Hellenes;
and I shall communicate my words to you as if you were present,
unless I have in vain drunk the draught of Tantalus.
Farewell, ye goodly philosophers."
"The Buried Classic" from Ancient Greece,
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Web Publication by
Mountain Man Graphics, Australia
in the Southern Spring of 1995
| |