Lucius is travelling through Thessaly, in Greece.

By chance he meets a lady called Byrrhaena, who

invites him to a dinner party. At the party, Lucius is asked what he thinks of Thessaly; he replies that he
is impressed but worried by stories he has heard about the local witches, who are in the habit of cutting
pieces of esh from corpses. One of the guests laughingly points to a man hidden away at a table in the
corner of the room, saying that he has su ered this fate while still alive. The man, whose name is
Thelyphron, is urged by Byrrhaena to tell Lucius his story. He reluctantly agrees.
iuvenis ego Mileto profectus ad spectaculum Olympicum,
As a young man having set out from Miletus to the Olympic Games,

cum haec etiam loca provincae clarae visitare cuperem,

since I wanted to visit these places of the famous province as well,

peragrata tota Thessalia Larissam perveni. ac dum urbem

I travelled through the whole of Thessaly and reached Larissa. And while wandering
through the city,

pererrans tenuato viatico paupertati meae fomenta quaero,

my travel money having diminished, I looked for a remedy for my poverty

medio in foro senem conspicio. insistebat lapidem magnaque

and catch sight of an old man in the middle of the forum. He was standing on a stone

voce praedicabat, si quis mortuum custodire vellet,

and proclaiming with a loud voice that if anyone wanted to guard a dead man,

magnum praemium accepturum esse. et cuidam

he would receive a big reward. I said to someone passing by

praetereunti ‘quid hoc’ inquam ‘audio? hic mortui solent

'What’s this I hear? Do the dead here usually

aufugere?’
run away?'
‘tace,’ respondit ille. ‘nam puer et satis peregrinus es, meritoque nescis in Thessalia te esse, ubi sagae
ora mortuorum semper demorsicant, quae sunt illis artis magicae supplementa.’
contra ego ‘quali custodela’ inquam ‘opus est?’
‘iam primum’ respondit ille ‘ totam noctem eximie vigilandum est apertis et inconivis oculis semper in
cadaver intentis, nec acies usquam devertenda est, cum illae pessimae sagae latenter arrepant, forma in
quodvis animal conversa. nam et aves et canes et mures, immo vero etiam muscas, induunt.’