Book 1
1
My dear Pollux, I have some instructions for you as soon as you go up top. It’s your turn for resurrection to-morrow, I believe. If you see Menippus, the Dog A nickname for a Cynic Philosopher. , anywhere (you’ll find him in Corinth at the Craneum or in the Lyceum at Athens, laughing at the Philosophers wrangling with each other), tell him this from me. “Diogenes bids you, Menippus, if you’ve laughed enough at the things on the earth above, come down here, if you want much more to laugh at; for on earth your laughter was fraught with uncertainty, and people often wondered whether anyone at all was quite sure about what follows death, but here you’ll be able to laugh endlessly without any doubts, as I do now—and particularly when you see rich men, satraps and tyrants so humble and insignificant, with nothing to distinguish them but their groans, and see them to be weak and contemptible when they recall their life above.” That’s the message you’ve to give him and one further thing—that he’s to come here with his wallet filled with lots of lupines and any meals dedicated to Hecate he finds at cross-roads, or eggs from sacrifices of purification, or anything of the sort.
2
I’ll deliver your message, Diogenes. But if I could have precise information about his appearance—
2
He’s old and bald, with a decrepit cloak full of windows and open to every wind, a motley of flapping rags; he’s always laughing and Generally mocking those hypocritical Philosophers.
2
If we judge from these details at any rate, he should be easy to find.
2
May I send a piece of advice to these Philosophers also?
2
Yes; no difficulty with that either.
