Laudator Temporis Acti

Lucian, Dialogues of the Sea Gods 4.3 (Proteus speaking; tr. M.D. MacLeod):

I don't know what else will convince you, Menelaus, if you won't believe your own eyes.

οὐκ οἶδα, ὦ Μενέλαε, ᾥτινι ἂν ἄλλῳ πιστεύσειας τοῖς σεαυτοῦ ὀφθαλμοῖς ἀπιστῶν.

Heraclitus fragment 139 (tr. Jonathan Barnes):

The things we learn of by sight and hearing, those do I prefer.

ὅσων ὄψις ἀκοὴ μάθησις, ταῦτα ἐγὼ προτιμέω.

Id., fragment 101a:

Eyes are more exact witnesses than ears.

ὀφθαλμοὶ τῶν ὤτων ἀκριβέστεροι μάρτυρες.

---

Dear Mike,

Your post on Lucian reminded me of his dismissal of Ctesias together with his own winning disavowal at the beginning of A True Story:

Κτησίας ὁ Κτησιόχου ὁ Κνίδιος, ὃς3 συνέγραψεν περὶ τῆς Ἰνδῶν χώρας καὶ τῶν παρ᾿ αὐτοῖς ἃ μήτε αὐτὸς εἶδεν μήτε ἄλλου ἀληθεύοντος ἤκουσεν.

[…]

γράφω τοίνυν περὶ ὧν μήτε εἶδον μήτε ἔπαθον μήτε παρ᾿ ἄλλων ἐπυθόμην, ἔτι δὲ μήτε ὅλως ὄντων μήτε τὴν ἀρχὴν γενέσθαι δυναμένων. διὸ δεῖ τοὺς ἐντυγχάνοντας μηδαμῶς πιστεύειν αὐτοῖς.

Best wishes,
Eric [Thomson]

In A.M. Harmon's translation:

One of them is Ctesias, son of Ctesiochus, of Cnidos, who wrote a great deal about India and its characteristics that he had never seen himself nor heard from anyone else with a reputation for truthfulness.

[…]

I am writing about things which I have neither seen nor had to do with nor learned from others—which, in fact, do not exist at all and, in the nature of things, cannot exist. Therefore my readers should on no account believe in them.

Related posts:

• Believing One's Own Eyes
• Trust Your Senses