is his own account of his triumphant return to his
fellow townsmen at the age of forty -- being al-
ready rich and famous. In this he says that in his
boyhood his parents sought to make him follow the
family trade of stone-cutting from which he was
saved by a vision. A Sibyl appeared to him, who
was the genius of general cultivation, and invited
him to step into a chariot. She exhorted him as
follows: 'They say that some men become im-
mortal. I shall bring this to pass with you; for
although you yourself depart from life, you will
never cease to associate with men of education or
to converse with men of eminence. When I had
mounted, she plied whip and reins and I was car-
fled up into the heights and went from the East to
the very West, surveying cities and nations and
peoples, sowing something broadcast over the
earth like Triptolemus. I do not now remember
what it was that I sowed; only that men, looking
up from below, applauded, and all those above
whom I passed in my flight speeded me on my way
with words of praise.'

Now, whether Lucian recounted his vision as
a fact or as a parable, it is certain that his Sibyl
prophesied nothing which the ensuing eighteen

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