1. The south of Libya is deep sand and parched earth, desert for the most part, completely infertile, all flat land, devoid of green shoots and grass and growing things and water, except perhaps for a standing pool left by the rain—and this is turbid and stinking, unfit even for a very thirsty man to drink. For this reason the country is uninhabited—for who could live in a land so wild, arid, and barren, oppressed by continual drought? The very heat of the sun, the downright fiery hotness of the air, and the temperature of the seething sand make the country completely inaccessible.
1. Τῆς Λιβύης τὰ νότια ψάμμος ἐστὶν βαθεῖα καὶ γῆ διακεκαυμένη, ἔρημος ἐπὶ πολύ, ἀκριβῶς ἄκαρπος, πεδινὴ ἅπασα, οὐ χλόην οὐ πόαν οὐ φυτὸν οὐχ ὕδωρ ἔχουσα, ἢ εἴ που ἄρα ἐν κοίλοις συνεστηκὸς ὑετοῦ ὀλίγου λείψανον, παχὺ καὶ τοῦτο καὶ δυσῶδες, οὐδὲ πάνυ διψῶντι ἀνθρώπῳ πότιμον. ἀοίκητος γοῦν ἐστι διὰ ταῦτα· ἢ πῶς γὰρ ἂν οἰκοῖτο ἀνήμερος οὕτω καὶ ξηρὰ καὶ ἄφορος οὖσα καὶ πολλῷ τῷ αὐχμῷ πιεζομένη; καὶ τὸ θάλπος δὲ αὐτὸ καὶ ὁ ἀὴρ κομιδῇ πυρώδης καὶ φλογερὸς ὢν καὶ ἡ ψάμμος ὑπερζέουσα παντελῶς ἄβατον τὴν χώραν τίθησι.
2. Only the Garamantes live near by—a slim, agile race, tent-dwellers, living for the most part by hunting. They sometimes cross into the country on hunting forays, generally about the time of the winter solstice, after waiting for rain, when most of the heat has abated and the sand, now damp, can be trodden after a fashion. They hunt for wild asses and the ostrich, monkeys a great deal, and an occasional elephant. Only these animals can stand the thirst and endure for long periods the pressure of the great fierceness of the sun. Nevertheless, as soon as the Garamantes exhaust the food they have brought with them they drive for home, for fear that the sand may heat up again and become difficult and impassable and they and their spoil perish together as though caught in a trap. There is certainly no escape if the sun draws off the moisture and becomes excessively hot—it soon parches the land. Its rays are made keener by the wet and are all the more intense, wetness being fuel to the fire.
2. Γαράμαντες μόνοι πρόσοικοι ὄντες, εὐσταλὲς καὶ κοῦφον ἔθνος, ἄνθρωποι σκηνῖται, ἀπὸ θήρας τὰ πολλὰ ζῶντες, ἐνίοτε οὗτοι ἐσβάλλουσι θηράσοντες ἀμφὶ τροπὰς τὰς χειμερινὰς μάλιστα, ὕσαντα τὸν θεὸν τηρήσαντες, ὁπότε τὸ πολὺ τοῦ καύματος σβεσθείη καὶ ἡ ψάμμος νοτισθείη καὶ ἀμηγέπη βατὰ γένοιτο. ἡ θήρα δέ ἐστιν ὄνων τε τῶν ἀγρίων καὶ στρουθῶν τῶν μεγάλων χαμαὶ τούτων καὶ πιθήκων μάλιστα καὶ ἐλεφάντων ἐνίοτε· ταῦτα γὰρ μόνα διαρκεῖ πρὸς τὸ δίψος καὶ ἀνέχεται ἐπὶ πολὺ ταλαιπωρούμενα ὑπὸ πολλῷ καὶ ὀξεῖ τῷ ἡλίῳ. καὶ ὅμως οἱ Γαράμαντες ἐπειδὰν τὰ σιτία καταναλώσωσιν ἅπερ ἔχοντες ἀφίκοντο, ἀπελαύνουσιν ὀπίσω εὐθὺς δεδιότες μὴ σφίσιν ἡ ψάμμος ἀναφλεγεῖσα δύσβατος καὶ ἄπορος γένηται, εἶτα ὥσπερ ἐντὸς ἀρκύων ληφθέντες καὶ αὐτοὶ ἀπόλωνται μετὰ τῆς ἄγρας. ἄφυκτα γάρ ἐστιν ἢν ὁ ἥλιος ἀνασπάσας τὴν ἰκμάδα καὶ τάχιστα ξηράνας τὴν χώραν ὑπερζέσῃ, ἀκμαιοτέραν τὴν ἀκτῖνα προσβαλὼν ἅτε πρὸς τὴν νοτίδα παρατεθηγμένην· τροφὴ γὰρ αὕτη τῷ πυρί.
3. Yet all the points I have mentioned—the heat, the lack of water, the desert, the infertility—will seem to you less unbearable than what I am going to describe, something that makes that country to be completely avoided. Crawlers of many kinds, of enormous size and in vast numbers, monstrous in shape and deadly poisonous, live in the country. Some of them live underground hiding in holes in the sand; others crawl on the surface—puff-adders, asps, vipers, horned snakes, ox-beetles, darters, double-ended snakes, pythons, and two kinds of scorpions—a big multi-jointed one that crawls on the ground, and a winged one that flies, though its wings are of membrane like those of locusts, cicadas, and bats. The number of these flying, winged creatures make that part of Libya difficult of access.
3. Καίτοι ταῦτα πάντα ὁπόσα εἶπον—τὸ θάλπος, τὸ δίψος, ἡ ἐρημία, τὸ μηδὲν ἔχειν ἐκ τῆς γῆς λαβεῖν—ἧττον ὑμῖν δυσχερῆ εἶναι δόξει τοῦ λεχθησομένου, καὶ δι’ ὃ φευκτέα πάντως ἡ χώρα ἐκείνη. ἑρπετὰ γὰρ ποικίλα μεγέθει τε μέγιστα καὶ πλήθει πάμπολλα καὶ τὰς μορφὰς ἀλλόκοτα καὶ τὸν ἰὸν ἄμαχα ἐπινέμεται τὴν γῆν, τὰ μὲν ὑποβρύχια, φωλεύοντα ἐν μυχῷ τῆς ψάμμου, τὰ δὲ ἄνω ἐπιπολάζοντα—φύσαλοι καὶ ἀσπίδες καὶ ἔχιδναι καὶ κεράσται καὶ βουπρήστεις καὶ ἀκοντίαι καὶ ἀμφίσβαιναι καὶ δράκοντες καὶ σκορπίων γένος διττόν, τὸ μὲν ἕτερον ἐπίγειόν τι καὶ πεζόν, ὑπέρμεγα καὶ πολυσφόνδυλον, θάτερον δὲ ἐναέριον καὶ πτηνόν, ὑμενόπτερον δὲ οἷα ταῖς ἀκρίσι καὶ τέττιξι καὶ νυκτερίσι τὰ πτερά. τοιαῦτα ὄρνεα πολλὰ ἐπιπετόμενα οὐκ εὐπρόσιτον ἀπεργάζεται τὴν Λιβύην ἐκείνην.
4. But the most terrible reptile of all that the sand breeds is the dipsad, a snake not particularly big, resembling a viper. Its bite is strong and its poison is thick, causing immediate and lasting pain. It burns and corrodes and sets on fire and its victims scream as if lying on a pyre. But what is particularly wearing and exhausting is indicated by the reptile’s name. Its victims suffer agonies of thirst, and, strangest of all, the more they drink the greater is their craving for water—their longing increases enormously. It is impossible ever to quench their thirst. Even if you gave them the Nile itself or the whole Ister to drink, you would only add to the burning by watering the disease—like trying to quench a fire with oil.
4. Τὸ δὲ δὴ πάντων ἑρπετῶν δεινότατον ὧν ἡ ψάμμος τρέφει ἡ διψάς ἐστιν, ὄφις οὐ πάνυ μέγας, ἐχίδνῃ ὅμοιος, τὸ δῆγμα βίαιος, τὸν ἰὸν παχύς, ὀδύνας μὲν ἀλήκτους ἐπάγων εὐθύς· ἐκκαίει τε γὰρ καὶ σήπει καὶ πίμπρασθαι ποιεῖ, καὶ βοῶσιν ὥσπερ ἐν πυρᾷ κείμενοι. τὸ δὲ μάλιστα καταπονοῦν καὶ κατατρῦχον αὐτοὺς ἐκεῖνό ἐστιν, ὁμώνυμον πάθος τῷ ἑρπετῷ. διψῶσι γὰρ εἰς ὑπερβολήν, καὶ τὸ παραδοξότατον, ὅσῳπερ ἂν πίνωσι, τοσούτῳ μᾶλλον ὀρέγονται τοῦ ποτοῦ· καὶ ἡ ἐπιθυμία πολὺ πλέον ἐπιτείνεται αὐτοῖς. οὐδ’ ἂν σβέσειάς ποτε τὸ δίψος, οὐδ’ ἢν τὸν Νεῖλον αὐτὸν ἢ τὸν Ἴστρον ὅλον ἐκπιεῖν παράσχῃς, ἀλλὰ προσεκκαύσειας ἐπάρδων τὴν νόσον, ὥσπερ ἂν εἴ τις ἐλαίῳ πῦρ κατασβεννύοι.
5. The doctors say that this is because the thick poison flows more easily when wetted by drinking and becomes more liquid, naturally enough, and so spreads over a greater area.
5. λέγουσιν ἰατρῶν παῖδες ἐκείνην τὴν αἰτίαν εἶναι, παχὺν τὸν ἰὸν ὄντα ἔπειτα δευόμενον τῷ ποτῷ ὀξυκίνητον γίγνεσθαι, ὑγρότερον ὡς τὸ εἰκός καθιστάμενον καὶ ἐπὶ πλεῖστον διαχεόμενον.
6. I myself never saw anyone so affected and I pray I may never see a human being tormented in this way; but then I have never set foot in Libya, I am glad to say. I have heard of an inscription which one of my friends said he himself had read on the tombstone of a man who had died in this way. He said that on a journey from Libya to Egypt his route passed the great Syrtis gulf, the only way he could go. There on the shore right by the water’s edge he found a grave with a stone on it revealing the manner of death. There was a man carved on it looking like Tantalus in the paintings, standing in a lake and scooping up water, obviously to drink it, with the animal, a dipsad, wound round his foot clinging tight; a number of women were fetching water and pouring it over him together. Nearby lay eggs of the ostriches which I said the Garamantes hunted. There was also the inscription, which I may as well add:Such were the sufferings, methinks, of Tantalus too,Never to still hot venom’s racking thirst,Such the jar Danaïd maids ne’er filled,Though ever drawing water with unending toil of carrying.There are four more lines about the eggs and how he was bitten as he took them, but I can no longer remember them.
6. Ἐγὼ μὲν οὖν οὐδένα τοῦτο πεπονθότα εἶδον, μηδέ, ὦ θεοί, ἴδοιμι οὕτω κολαζόμενον ἄνθρωπον, ἀλλ’ οὐδὲ ἐπέβην τῆς Λιβύης τὸ παράπαν εὖ ποιῶν. ἐπίγραμμα δέ τι ἤκουσα, ὅ μοι τῶν ἑταίρων τις ἔλεγεν αὐτὸς ἐπὶ στήλης ἀνεγνωκέναι ἀνδρὸς οὕτως ἀποθανόντος. ἐκ Λιβύης ἔφη ἀπιὼν ἐς Αἴγυπτον παρὰ τὴν μεγάλην Σύρτιν ποιεῖσθαι τὴν πορείαν· οὐ γὰρ εἶναι ἄλλως. ἔνθα δὴ τάφῳ ἐντυχεῖν παρὰ τὴν ἠϊόνα ἐπ' αὐτῷ τῷ κλύσματι, καὶ στήλην ἐφεστάναι δηλοῦσαν τοῦ ὀλέθρου τὸν τρόπον· κεκολάφθαι γὰρ ἐπ' αὐτῇ ἄνθρωπον μέν τινα οἷον τὸν Τάνταλον γράφουσιν ἐν λίμνῃ ἑστῶτα καὶ ἀρυόμενον τοῦ ὕδατος, ὡς πίοι δῆθεν, τὸ θηρίον δὲ—τὴν διψάδα—ἐμπεφυκὸς αὐτῷ περιεσπειρᾶσθαι τῷ ποδί, καί τινας γυναῖκας ὑδροφορούσας ἅμα πολλὰς καταχεῖν τὸ ὕδωρ αὐτοῦ· πλησίον δὲ ᾠὰ κεῖσθαι οἷα τῶν στρουθῶν ἐκείνων οὓς ἔφην θηρᾶν τοὺς Γαράμαντας· γεγράφθαι δὲ πρὸς τοὐπίγραμμα—οὐ χεῖρον δὲ καὶ αὐτὸ εἰπεῖν,Τοῖα παθόντ' οἶμαι καὶ Τάνταλον αἴθοπος ἰοῦμηδαμὰ κοιμῆσαι διψαλέην ὀδύνην.καὶ Δαναοῖο κόρας τοῖον πίθον οὐκ ἀναπλῆσαιαἰὲν ἐπαντλούσας ὑδροφόρῳ καμάτῳ.ἔτι καὶ ἄλλα ἔπη τέτταρά ἐστι περὶ τῶν ᾠῶν, καὶ ὡς ἀναιρούμενος αὐτὰ ἐδήχθη, ἀλλ’ οὐκέτι μέμνημαι ἐκείνων.
7. The neighbouring tribes collect these eggs and prize them, not only for eating. They use the empty shells for utensils and make cups from them (they cannot work in earthenware because the earth is all sand). Any big egg they come across is made into two caps, either half being big enough to fit a man’s head.
7. Συλλέγουσι δὲ ἄρα τὰ ᾠὰ καὶ ἐσπουδάκασι περὶ αὐτὰ οἱ περίοικοι, οὐχ ὡς φαγεῖν μόνον, ἀλλὰ καὶ σκεύεσι χρῶνται κενώσαντες καὶ ἐκπώματα ποιοῦνται ἀπ' αὐτῶν· οὐ γὰρ ἔχουσι κεραμεύειν διὰ τὸ ψάμμον εἶναι τὴν γῆν. εἰ δὲ καὶ μεγάλα εὑρεθείη, καὶ πῖλοι γίγνονται δύο ἐκ τοῦ ᾠοῦ ἑκάστου· τὸ γὰρ ἡμίτομον ἑκάτερον ἀποχρῶν τῇ κεφαλῇ πῖλός ἐστιν.
8. It is there then that the dipsads lie in wait hard by the eggs. When someone approaches they creep out of the sand and bite the poor fellow. Then follow the torments I mentioned just now—continual drinking, increasing thirst without relief.
8. ἐκεῖ τοίνυν λοχῶσιν αἱ διψάδες παρὰ τὰ ᾠά, καὶ ἐπειδὰν προσέλθῃ ὁ ἄνθρωπος, ἐκ τῆς ψάμμου ἐξερπύσασαι δάκνουσι τὸν κακοδαίμονα· ὁ δὲ πάσχει ἐκεῖνα τὰ μικρὸν ἔμπροσθεν εἰρημένα πίνων ἀεὶ καὶ μᾶλλον διψῶν καὶ πιμπλάμενος οὐδέποτε.
9. It is certainly not to rival Nicander the poet that I have given these details, nor to let you see that I have not neglected the natural history of the reptiles of Libya. Doctors would win more approbation for this—they have to know these things so that they can use their skill to resist the disease. No, I think I feel towards you—in the name of friendship do not resent the comparison from animals—as those who are bitten by the dipsad feel towards drinking: the oftener I appear before you the more I long to do so; thirst unquenchable inflames me and I think I shall never be sated with such drink. How could it be otherwise? Where else could I find water so transparent and pure? Forgive me then if my soul too has been bitten with this most sweet and health-giving bite and I dip my head into the spring and take my fill with open mouth. I only pray that your flowing streams may never fail nor your ready, eager listening ever be spilt me while I am still agape and still athirst. As far as my thirst goes, my thirst for you, nothing could stop me drinking for ever. As the wise Plato says, there is never too much of what is fine.
9. Ταυτὶ οὐ μὰ Δία πρὸς Νίκανδρον τὸν ποιητὴν φιλοτιμούμενος διεξῆλθον, οὐδ’ ὅπως ὑμεῖς μάθοιτε ὡς οὐκ ἀμελὲς γεγένηταί μοι φύσεις τῶν Λιβυκῶν ἑρπετῶν εἰδέναι. ἰατρῶν γὰρ ἂν μᾶλλον ὁ ἔπαινος εἴη, οἷς ἀνάγκη εἰδέναι ταῦτα ὡς καὶ ἀμύνασθαι αὐτὰ μετὰ τῆς τέχνης ἔχοιεν. ἀλλά μοι δοκῶ—καὶ πρὸς φιλίου μὴ δυσχεράνητε τὴν εἰκόνα θηριώδη οὖσαν—ὅμοιόν τι καὶ αὐτὸς παθεῖν πρὸς ὑμᾶς οἷον ἐκεῖνοι πάσχουσι πρὸς τὸ ποτὸν οἱ δηχθέντες ὑπὸ τῆς διψάδος. ὅσῳ γὰρ ἂν ἐπὶ πλέον παρίω ἐς ὑμᾶς, τοσούτῳ μᾶλλον ὀρέγομαι τοῦ πράγματος, καὶ τὸ δίψος ἄσχετον ὑπεκκαίεταί μοι, καὶ ἔοικα οὐδ’ ἐμπλησεσθαί ποτε τοῦ τοιούτου ποτοῦ. μάλα εἰκότως. ποῦ γὰρ ἂν οὕτω διειδεῖ τε καὶ καθαρῷ ὕδατι ἐντύχοιμι; ὥστε σύγγνωτε εἰ δηχθεὶς καὶ αὐτὸς τὴν ψυχὴν ἡδίστῳ τούτῳ καὶ ὑγιεινοτάτῳ τῷ δήγματι ἐμφοροῦμαι χανδὸν, ὑποθεὶς τῷ κρουνῷ τὴν κεφαλήν. εἴη μόνον μὴ ἐπιλιπεῖν τὰ παρ' ὑμῶν ἐπιρρέοντα μηδὲ χυθεῖσαν τὴν σπουδὴν τῆς ἀκροάσεως κεχηνότα ἔτι καὶ διψῶντα καταλιπεῖν· ὡς δίψους γε ἕνεκα τοὐμοῦ πρὸς ὑμᾶς οὐδὲν ἂν ἐκώλυε πίνειν ἀεί· κατὰ γὰρ τὸν σοφὸν Πλάτωνα, κόρος οὐδεὶς τῶν καλῶν.