Zabareian Lachanas, may you with these luxuriate,
more than Kroisos with his treasures, and Midas with his gold,
[…]
more than long-ago, before his changes, high-minded
Proteus, and Periklymenos, and both Thetis and Mestra,
and by both living and dying, Kastor and Polydeukes,
and Aithalides son of Hermes, and Aristeas also,
Aristeas the wise, son of Kaustrobios,
Theseus and Protesilaos, Alkestis and Eurydike.
and by stopping storms and droughts and foreknowing all things,
both Thales and Pythagoras with Anaxagoras,
and Empedokles son of Meliton, also called wind-checker.
Author: Ioannes Tzetzes
Title of Work: Histories (or Chiliades)
Location in Work: 4.472-473 and 518-526
Date of Work: c. 1155 CE
Original Language: Greek (Byzantine Attic)
Original Text:
Ζαβαρειῶτα Λαχανᾶ, τούτοις καὶ γὰρ ἁβρύνῃ
[...]
ἤπερ τὸ πpὶν μεταλλαγαῖς ἐφρόνουν πάλαι μέγα
Πpωτεὺς καὶ Πεpικλύμενος, ἡ Θέτις τε καί Μήστρα·
τῷ δ’ αποθνήσκειν τε καὶ ζῆν Κάστωρ καὶ Πολυδεύκης
καί Αιθαλίδης ὁ Ἑρμοῦ καὶ Ἀριστέας ἅμα,
ὁ Ἀριστέας ὁ σοφός ὁ του Καϋστροβιου,
Θησεὺς καὶ Πρωτεσιλαος, Ἄλκηστις, Εύρυδικη·
τῷ παύειν δ’ ὄμβρους καὶ αὐχμοὺς καὶ προγινώσκειν πάντα
Θαλῆς καὶ Πυθαγόρας τε σὺν τῷ Ἀναξαγόρᾳ,
Ἐμπεδοκλῆς Μελίτωνος ὁ καὶ κωλυσανέμας·
Reference Edition: Leone, Tzetzae Historiae
Source of Date of Work: Grünbart, Byzantinisches Gelehrtenelend
Commentary:
This is an extract from a didactic text that Tzetzes apparently used to teach students how to write an encomium and how to compare the subject to characters from ancient myths and legends. Lachanas was a contemporary example subject, and the characters of myth and legend to which he was compared were divided into thematic sections. The section excerpted here includes examples of shape-changers (Proteus, Periklymenos, Thetis and Mestra), the resurrected and the prophetic.
The inclusion of Aristeas among the resurrected is similar to a text by Proklos. This could be referring either to Herodotos’ story of Aristeas dying in a fuller’s shop and then being spotted in Kyzikos, or to Aristeas’ alleged appearance in Metapontion long after his natural life, although the latter did not involve reanimation of his body.
Aithalides was an Argonaut in Apollonios of Rhodes’ Argonautica (1.641) who lived alternately in Hades and on earth and never forgot anything. According to Diogenes Laertios (8.1.4-5) Aithalides was reincarnated into Euphorbos of the Iliad, Hermotimos of Klazomenai and Pythagoras. Hermotimos was also mentioned together with Aristeas in a text by Proklos of Lykia, who seemingly referred to this legend by stating that Hermotimos was seen among the living after his death.
Aristeas was also mentioned together with Pythagoras by Iamblichos, Apollonios the paradoxographer, Maximus of Tyre and Clement of Alexandria. Iamblichos also listed Aristeas and Empedokles among known Pythagoreans, although Aristeas’ life was usually set earlier than Pythagoras. Aside from Iamblichos’ book on Pythagoras and Pythagoreans, Diogenes Laertios (8.1) and Porphyry wrote biographies. For testimonies and fragments of texts attributed to him, see DK Pythagoras (14). See also Huffmann, Pythagoreanism and Guthrie, Pythagorean Sourcebook.
The Athenian hero Theseus was rescued by Herakles from Hades after Theseus was imprisoned there while helping his friend try to abduct Persephone (Diodoros of Sicily, 4.26 and 4.63; pseudo-Apollodoros, Library, 2.5.12/122; briefly mentioned in Euripides, Herakles, 609).
Protesilaos was the first Greek to die in the siege of Troy, and according to a later story he was brought back to life by Hermes for three hours at his widow’s behest (Lucian, Dialogues of the Dead, 28; Hyginus, Fabulae, 103-104; Eustathiοs, On the Iliad, 1.325).
Alkestis was a Thessalian princess bride who sacrificed herself to save her husband and was brought back to life by Herakles, or sent back by Persephone (Euripides, Alkestis; pseudo-Apollodoros, Library, 1.9.15/104 and 2.6.2/129).
Eurydike was the wife of Orpheus whom he tried but failed to bring back from Hades (Plato, Symposion, 179d-e; Virgil, Georgics, 4.453-527; pseudo-Apollodoros, Library, 1.3.2/14-15).
Thales was a legendary early sage whom Herodotos claimed (1.74.2) predicted a solar eclipse, and Anaxagoras was a pre-Sokratic philosopher credited by Pliny the Elder (Natural History, 2.149) with predicting a meteor strike.
Empedokles was a mid-5th century philosopher from the Greek colony of Akragas in Sicily. He was also mentioned together with Aristeas in works by Iamblichos, who assigned Empedokles a similar wind-blocking epithet, and by
Gregory of Nazianzos and Clement of Alexandria. For late legends of his life see Diogenes Laertios (8.2). On his philosophy, Kingsley and Parry, Empedocles. For testimonies and fragments of texts attributed to him, DK Empedokles (31).
Concordance: EGEP Aristeas T5b; EGF Aristeas T5b; PEG Aristeas T6; Bolton, Aristeas T&F 13b