Kitap 2
41
When we had sailed a distance of two hundred furlongs from the nest, great and wonderful signs manifested themselves to us. The gooseneck In ancient ships the gooseneck was an ornament on the stem, or (as here) on the stern, Nowadays it is a device for fastening a spar to a mast. suddenly grew feathers and started cackling, the sailing-master, Scintharus, who was already bald, became the owner of long hair, and what was strangest of all, the ship’s mast budded, branched, and bore fruit at the summit! The fruit consisted of figs and black raisin-grapes, which were not yet ripe. A parody on the experience of the Pirates who carried off Dionysus (Hymn. Hom. 7, 38). On seeing this, we were disturbed, as well we might be, and offered a prayer to the gods on account of the strangeness of the manifestation.
