Two or three days after my arrival I met with the poet Homer, and
both of us being quite at leisure, asked him several questions, and
amongst the rest where he was born, that, as I informed him, having
been long a matter of dispute amongst us. We were very ignorant
indeed, he said, for some had made him a Chian, others a native of
Smyrna, others of Colophon, but that after all he was a Babylonian,
and amongst them was called Tigranes, though, after being a hostage
in Greece, they had changed his name to Homer. I then asked him
about those of his verses which are rejected as spurious, and
whether they were his or not. He said they were all his own, which
made me laugh at the nonsense of Zenodotus and Aristarchus the
grammarians. I then asked him how he came to begin his "Iliad" with
the wrath of Achilles; he said it was all by chance. I desired
likewise to know whether, as it was generally reported, he wrote the
"Odyssey" before the "Iliad." He said, no. It is commonly said he
was blind, but I soon found he was not so; for he made use of his
eyes and looked at me, so that I had no reason to ask him that
question. Whenever I found him disengaged, I took the opportunity
of conversing with him, and he very readily entered into discourse
with me, especially after the victory which he obtained over
Thersites, who had accused him of turning him into ridicule in some
of his verses. The cause was heard before Rhadamanthus, and Homer
came off victorious. Ulysses pleaded for him.

I met also Pythagoras the Samian, who arrived in these regions after
his soul had gone a long round in the bodies of several animals,
having been changed seven times. All his right side was of gold,
and there was some dispute whether he should be called Pythagoras or
Euphorbus. Empedocles came likewise, who looked sodden and roasted