When I was a young man, I set out from Mileto to the Olympic Games, since I wanted to visit the places of the famous province as well, after I travelled through the whole of Thesali , I reaches Larissa. While I was wondering through the city, and while I was looking for remedies for my poverty because my travel allowance was stretched, I caught sight of the old man in the middle of the forum. He was standing on a stone and proclaiming with a loud voice, “if anybody would want to guard a dead body, they would receive a large reward.” And to someone passing by I said, “What’s this I hear, the dead here are accustomed to flee”

“Be quiet” the old man replied “for you are a boy and a mere foreigner, and naturally you don’t know that you are in Thessaly, where witches always bite pieces out of the faces of the dead, which are extra ingredients for their magic arts.” In reply I said “what sort of protection is needed?”
“First of all” he replied “you must stay fully awake for the whole night, with your eyes open and unsleeping always fixed on the corpse nor must your gaze ever turn away, since these really evil witches creep up secretly, their shaped changed into any animal. For they take the form of birds and dogs and mice and indeed even flies”

With these words having been understood, I strengthened my spirit, approaching the man I said “now stop shouting, your guard here is ready.” I had scarcely finished when he immediately led me along to a certain house where he showed me a woman weeping, having been wrapped in dark clothes. She got up and led me to a bedroom. There with her hand she revealed the body covered in splendid cloths. When she showed me anxiously the individual items, she left.

Thus left alone to the comfort the corpse, after having rubbed my eyes and readied them for guard duty, while I was soothing my mind my singing, I stayed awake until the middle of the night. But then my dread increased when suddenly creeping in a weasel stopped opposite me and fixed its eyes upon me. Such a great self-confidence in such a small animal disturbed my mind. At last in this way I said to it
“Go away you wicked beast, before you experience my strength soon. Go away!” the weasel turned its back and immediately went out from the bedroom. Without delay, such a deep sleep suddenly overwhelmed me that not even the God Apollo himself could easily distinguish between the two of us lying there, who was more dead. At last, having been awoken at dawn and utterly scared with great terror, I ran to the corpse, and bringing a light near and revealing his face, I examined everything carefully, nothing was missing. Look, the miserable wife burst in weeping; with the corpse having been inspected, she paid me my reward without hesitation.

“for the sake of your honour” he said “citizens do the sake of the public duty, help a murdered citizen and avenge severely the extreme crime of that evil and wicked women. For this woman, and not any other, killed the miserable young man, my sister’s son using poison, in order to please her lover and for the sake of money from the inheritance. That woman, after tears having been poured out, as solemnly as she could, swearing to all the Gods, as denying such a great crime.

Therefore the old man said “let us place a decision of truth in the divine province. Zachtlas, a very famous Egyptian prophet is here, who promised me that in return for a big reward, he would bring back the spirit of that corpse from the dead for a short time and bring the body back to life. I pushed myself into the crowd and I was watching all with curious eyes, standing on a rock behind the bier itself. Now the chest of the corpse rose with a swell, the body was being filled with the spirit.

“Why I beg do you bring me back, after drinking from the waters of Lethe and as I know embark onto the Stygiian pools, for the duties of a short-lived life?”

He replied from the bier and addresses the people with a deep groan as follows:
“Having been murdered by the evil art of my new bride and having been sentenced to a poisoned cup, I returned to the warm bed of my adulterer. I will give you clear proof of the truth and I will show you what no-one else could find out or predict.”

Then, pointing me out with his finger he said
“For when this keen witted guard of my body was holding an intensive vigil for me, some witches appeared eager for my remains having changed their form. When they were not able to deceive his determined diligence, finally they threw upon him a cloud of deep sleep that buried him into a deep slumber. Then they began to wake me by name and they didn’t stop until my sluggish joints and cold limbs struggled slowly to obey the commands of their magic art. But this man, who was alive and dead only with sleep by chance has the same name as me. Therefore he got up unwillingly at his name, and walking of his own accord in the manner of a lifeless ghost, he went towards the door.
Although the doors of the bedroom had been locked carefully, with the nose first and soon the ears having been cut off, through a certain hole he suffered mutilation instead of me. Then the witches applied wax to him having been formed into the shape of the having been cut off ears and obtained a nose similar to the one that had been cut off. And now he is standing here miserably, having earned a prize not of hard work but of mutilation.”

With these words having been said, terrified I began to test my form: my hand grasped my nose; it came off, I grasped my ears; they fell off. And while the crowd was pointing at me with fingers pointing and nods of the head, I escaped amongst the feet of the bystanders, dripping with a cold sweat. I wasn’t able to return to my country after being maimed in this way and ridiculed, I hid the wounds of my ears with my hair having grown long on both sides, I covered up my disgrace of a nose with small cloth decently.

	Created by Konrad O'Neill almost 11 years ago

Cambridge IGCSE Latin (Sagae Thessalae) Note on Translation, created by Konrad O'Neill on 10/07/2013.

Translation