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In the first place, imagine that the earth you see is very small, far less than the moon, [ mean; so that when I suddenly peered down I was long uncertain where the big mountains and the great sea were, and if I had not spied the Colossus of RhodesThe Colossus of Rhodes had been lying prostrate for several centuries at the time this dialogue was written. It stood upright for only 56 years (ca. 283-2278.¢.). Consequently the allusion is thought to come from Menippus. and the lighthouse on Pharos, I vow I shouldn’t have known the earth at all. But as it was, the fact that they were high and prominent and that the ocean glinted in the sun showed me that what I saw was the earth. But as soon as I had concentrated my gaze fixedly, the life of man in its entirety disclosed itself to me, and not only the nations and cities but the people themselves as clear as could be, the traders, the soldiers, the farmers, the litigants, the women, the animals and, in a word, all the life that the good green earth supports.A reminiscence of Homer; cf. Il. 2, 548; Od. 4, 229; 9, 357- 2 Od. 16, 187
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What you say is completely beyond belief and self-contradictory, for you told me just now that you had to look for the earth because it was diminished by the intervening distance, and that if the Colossus hadn’t given you your bearings, perhaps you would have thought you were looking at something else. How is it, then, that you have suddenly turned into a Lynceus and can make out everything on earth— the men, the animals and very nearly the nests of the mosquitoes?
