6
Nay, but they are holy, and wonderful is their nature. First, they are nought but seed of man, and if thou open a bean while it is still green, thou wilt see that it resembleth in structure the member of a man; and again, if thou cook it and set it in the light of the moon for a fixed number of nights, thou wilt make blood. But more than this, the Athenians are wont to choose their magistrates with beans.The offices were filled by lot, and beans were used for lots. This appears to be Lucian’s own contribution to the Pythagorean mysticism, but the other particulars are not very remote from the actual teachings of the Neo-Pythagoreans, Cf. Porphyr. Vit. Pythag., 44.
6
You have explained everything duly and sacerdotally. Come, strip, for I want to see you unclothed. Heracles! His thigh is of gold! He seems to be a god and not a mortal, so I shall certainly buy him. (Yo Hermes.) What price do you sell him for?
6
Ten minas.
6
I'll take him at that figure.
6
Write down the buyer’s name and where he comes from.
6
He appears to be an Italian, Zeus, one of those who live in the neighbourhood of Croton and Tarentum and the Greek settlements in that quarter of the world. But there is more than one buyer; about three hundred have bought him in shares.A reference to the brotherhood founded by Pythagoras in Magna Grecia, which wielded great political power until it was extirpated in a general revolt about fifty years after the death of Pythagoras.
6
Let them take him away; let us bring on another.
7
Do you want the dirty one over yonder, from the Black Sea?Diogenes, chief of the Cynics, came from Sinope.
7
By all means.
7
You there with the wallet slung about you, you with the sleeveless shirt, come and walk about the room. I offer for sale a manly philosophy, a noble philosophy, a free philosophy; who'll buy?
7
Crier, what’s that you say? Are you selling someone who is free?
7
That I am.
7
Then aren’t you afraid he may have the law on you for kidnapping or even summon you to the Areopagus?
