 I thought it'd be fun to read some ghost stories from Antiquity. Of course, whenever I talk about Magic Witch Crafter Ghost in Antiquity, we're headed to Daniel Ogden's indispensable source book, Magic Witch Crafter Ghost in the Greek and Roman Worlds. Plenty of the younger Book 7 of his letters collection. This is circa around early 2nd century, like turn of the century, this is like 102 common era. So it's really, really early. It's a story that isn't just found in Plenty, it's actually found in Lucian as well. Lucian tells the same basic story in his beloved Sudes, which is a text of where this guy goes to this house and hears all these fantastic tales and he doesn't believe any of it. He's kind of like a skeptic about it. And one of these tales is a ghost story about a Pythagorean philosopher who goes and lives in a haunted house. And this haunted house story is attested quite well. It's told like three times. That's a lot of attestations for antiquity. So as Ogden says, the best attested traditional haunted house story from antiquity is found in three examples. The four Lucian that had been first told in Ladon by Plautus in Plenty of the Younger. The tale is evidently Greek in origin, as its setting indicates, and Plautus' Mostalaria was an adaptation of a Greek play entitled Phasma, probably by Philemon. The three versions of the tale are detailed below. And so he's going to talk about Phelopsudes, which is Lucian's story. It's actually the one with the most detail. Here is basically a synopsis of this story that's told in Phelopsudes 29. So Heronatus, the Pythagorean philosopher, he finds out that there's his ghost in his haunted house. So he's going to lay in there and prove what a great, brilliant guy he is. You know, as Ogden continues, as Pythagorean, Heronatus is particularly well-suited to the manipulation of ghosts and souls. The physical description of the ghost is comparable to Apollaeus' description of the female ghost sent to kill the miller. It is also remarkably similar to the Pythagorean himself. That's long hair and a squalid appearance. And the two are therefore accordingly implied to be acing. And this is very important when Heronatus is in the haunted house. He actually has these Egyptian books, right? And these Egyptian books, I mean, it's strongly implied there is something akin to the PG of the Greek magical papyri. Ogden continues, the Egyptian books from which Heronatus sustains himself are doubtless supposed to be akin to the formularies of Grykko Egyptian magical papyri. As often, a lamp is associated with the materialization of a ghost. Materialization of a ghost with a lamp is something we also see in another sense in Cupid and Psyche. Psyche's trapped in this palace, right? Pretty much because, you know, Cupid has stolen her away, but she can't see him. So every night he comes and he plays with her, let's just say. Her sisters come to visit and they're like, well, we hear he's a serpent, so they want her to kill Cupid, but she doesn't know what Cupid looks like. It's very strange, she's never seen Cupid, but for some reason she has a lamp and she shines the lamp on Cupid and she can see that it's Cupid. But yeah, lamps are associated with materialization of ghosts. The ghost shape-shifting is reminiscent of Proteus's attempts to evade Menelaus. So remember our boy Menelaus and Proteus? Proteus just wants to vibe with his seals, right? In Odyssey 4, Menelaus won't let him be. Plenty of the Younger's version for the most part of this ghost story runs quite tightly parallel to this account, but emits some features that are found in Lucian and includes others. The school of his philosopher hero, Anodorus, goes unspecified. His ghost wears iron chains, which it rattles menacingly, and its body and found is also wearing it. Such chains have become a familiar attribute of the ghost in the Western tradition, but are somewhat of a curiosity of ancient terms, since ghosts were held to be terrified of iron and general. Obdin continues, Plenty of the Younger's ghost is also portrayed as beckoning to the philosopher with its finger. This appears to be a narrative misdirection. The reader is supposed to think that it is beckoning the philosopher down to the underworld. In fact, it just wants to take him to the site where it's bones lay. So this is a very fun story. If you're unfamiliar with Plenty of the Younger's epistles, basically Plenty lived in the mid to late 1st to early 2nd century common era, and he has these collections of epistles, right? If I can't remember how many books there are, apparently there are 10. They're incomplete, but as with any kind of manuscript history from antiquity, it's very spotty and we don't really have too many. This is book 7, epistle 27 to his friend Sera. So Plenty Ghosts, our leisure offers us the opportunity for me to play the pupil and you the master. So what I should very much like to know is whether you believe ghosts exist and have a form peculiar to them in some supernatural power, or whether they are insubstantial and illusory, acquiring shape merely from our fear. Here now the second story, which I shall recall as I heard. So this is the famous haunted house story, that you have so much attestation of in antiquity. Surely it is more terrifying and no less astonishing than the first. At Athens there was a sprawling roomy house, which was notorious and plagued, in the silence of the night the clink of metal was heard. Then to one of Keener hearing, the distant rattle of chains was initially audible, and then resounded from close at hand. A specter appeared, an old man bowed with emaciation and filth, with a flowing beard and bristling hair. He wore fetters on his legs and chains on his wrists, which he kept rattling. So this guy's has chains, he's like rattling them around, you know, the classic ghost deal. As a result, the residents were kept awake in terror, all through the grim and dread mints. Their lack of sleep induced illness, and then as their fear grew, for even during the day, though the ghosts had retired, the recollection of it roamed before their eyes, and their fear survived longer than the causes of it. The house was then abandoned and condemned to lie empty, left holy to that specter. It was put up for sale in case anyone unaware that monstrous evil wished to buy or rent it. So the ghost basically has been haunting it to the extent that everybody, the servants and the owners included, are petrified and they just like abandoned it. But not to the point where they're just going to leave it without renting it out. So some poor mark will go rent it, right? So enter Athenodorus. Athenodorus is the equivalent of the Pythagorean philosopher Erinatus in Philip's Sudei's in Lucian's text. They're basically the same guy except no philosophical school is specified for Athenodorus. Plenty continues. The philosopher Athenodorus visited Athens. He read the advertisement and on hearing the price, he was suspicious because it was so cheap. So on making inquiries, he learned the whole story. And in spite of it, or rather all the more because of it, he rented the house. And the day began to draw in, he ordered a couch to be laid for him in the front of the house. He asked for tablets, a pen and a lamp, and consigned all his servants to begin a part of the house. So the tablet he's probably using is like a wax tablet. This is what people usually use in antiquity to write things down. So he's got a stylus, he's got a tablet. He's got his lamp right because you need a lamp to see ghosts. Athenodorus concentrated his brain and eyes and hands upon his writing for fear that if his mind was unoccupied, he would imagine the presence of the apparitions which he had heard of and arousing himself of teeth fears. So he's kind of practicing an a stoic technique. A lot of stoicism deals with controlling or reaction to sense impressions. So that's kind of what Athenodorus is doing. At first the knight was as silent there as elsewhere, but then there was the clank of metal in the movement of chains. The philosopher did not raise his eyes or abandon his pen, but he fortified his mind and stopped his ears. Then the noise intensified and drew nearer. Now it was audible at the threshold, and now within the threshold he looked back and saw and recognized the specter as it had been described to him. It stood there, signaling with a finger as though summoning him. You know so that's my favorite part that the ghost is like coming here pretty much. This guy's like yeah hold on one second I'm still writing. So the ghost signaled with a finger as though summoning him. In response to Athenodorus gestured with his hand that it should wait a little. And again he bent over his tablets and his pen so he just goes back to like writing. So he's like flexing his stoic palm on this ghost right. The ghost rattled its chains over his head as he wrote. He again looked back at the ghost which was signaling as before. Without lingering he picked up his lamp and followed. The specter proceeded with heavy steps as though burdened with his chains. After diverging into the courtyard of the house it suddenly glided away and left him as he was accompanying. Now left alone he plucked some plants and leaves and marked the spot with them. So he marks the spot the ghost led him to. Athenodorus is so gangster he just decides to go back to bed. I'll deal with it in the morning. Never mind that this ghost has just led me to this weird spot in the yard. But you know it's just how top notch how much of a boss Athenodorus is. So the next day Athenodorus approached the magistrates advising them to bid the place to be dug up. Bones were unearthed there and circled and entwined with chains. The corpse had rodent with its time in the earth and had left the bones uncovered and worn away with the chains. They were gathered and buried at public expense. Thereafter the house was free of the shades which had been duly bearded. This is what Ogden talked about in the Necromancy episode. This is the ultimate example of laying a ghost. This ghost is a spirit that is unrestful because it hasn't been laid properly. It hasn't been buried properly. So they retrieved the bones. The bones still have the chains that the ghost has. And then they bury it at public expense. They give it a proper funeral. The ghost is laid. The shade's gone. That's how it works. Remember the episode we did on the Oracea trilogy where Ogden Memnon's ghost is haunting everybody and Clytemnestra makes this attempt to lay the ghost by pouring libations out to it at its grave. But it didn't work right. But she tried. And this is what I find really, really interesting. This next part that Pliny the Younger says here. He's like, these details are a test by other persons. And I believe them. So I ask you to apply your learning to these questions. For it merits your sustained and deep thinking. I am surely not unworthy to receive the benefit of your abundant knowledge. But though as usual you may present the arguments on both sides. You must come down more strongly on one or the other. So as to lead me in no doubt and uncertainty. For my purpose in consulting you is to foreclose my vassalation. Farewell. Think about Luke and how he's like, everybody attests to this. Everybody saw this, you know, so there's no way I could be lying. So it's the same thing kind of here that Pliny the Younger's doing. So it's a short letter, but it's very entertaining. There's a longer version in Lucian, of course. And Philopsudes like I said. Philopsudes deserves its own episode. I'm going to save that for another day. But yeah, that was Pliny the Younger. Great story. I recommend it.