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They say that the following incident happened to the Italian Euthynoüs.The story comes from Crantor’s Consolatio, according to Cicero. He was the son of Elysius, of Terina, a man foremost among the people there in virtue, wealth, and repute, and Euthynoüs came to his end suddenly from some unknown cause. Now it occurred to Elysius, as it might have occurred to anybody large property and estate. Being in perplexity as to how he might put his suspicions to the test, he visited a place where the spirits of the dead are conjured up, and having offered the preliminary sacrifice prescribed by custom, he lay down to sleep in the place, and had this vision. It seemed that his own father came to him, and that on seeing his father he related to him what had happened touching his son, and begged and besought his help to discover the man who was responsible for his son’s death. And his father said, It is for this that I am come. Take from this person here what he brings for you, and from this you will learn about everything over which you are now grieving. The person whom he indicated was a young man who followed him, resembling his son Euthynoüs and close to him in years and stature. So Elysius asked who he was; and he said, I am the ghost of your son, and with these words he handed him a paper. This Elysius opened and saw written there these three lines: Verily somehow the minds of men in ignorance wander; Dead now Euthynoüs lies; destiny so has decreed. Not for himself was it good that he live, nor yet for his parents.Mullach, Frag. Philos. Graec. iii. p. 148; Cf. Cicero, Tusculan Disputations, i. 48 (115). Such, you observe, is the purport of the tales recorded in ancient writers.
