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The birthplace of Aristeas, the poet who sung of these things, I
have already mentioned. I will now relate a tale which I heard
concerning him both at Proconnesus and at Cyzicus. Aristeas, they
said, who belonged to one of the noblest families in the island, had
entered one day into a fuller's shop, when he suddenly dropt down
dead. Hereupon the fuller shut up his shop, and went to tell
Aristeas' kindred what had happened. The report of the death had
just spread through the town, when a certain Cyzicenian, lately
arrived from Artaca, contradicted the rumour, affirming that he had
met Aristeas on his road to Cyzicus, and had spoken with him. This
man, therefore, strenuously denied the rumour; the relations,
however, proceeded to the fuller's shop with all things necessary for
the funeral, intending to carry the body away. But on the shop being
opened, no Aristeas was found, either dead or alive. Seven years
afterwards he reappeared, they told me, in Proconnesus, and wrote
the poem called by the Greeks The Arimaspeia, after which he
disappeared a second time. This is the tale current in the two cities above-mentioned.
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