Witches of Thessaly

• iuvenis ego Mileto profectus

  [As] a young man I set out from Miletus
• ad spectaculum Olympicum

  for the Olympic Games,
• cum haec etiam loca ... visitare cuperem

  since I also wanted to visit these areas
• provinciae clarae

  of the famous province
• peragrata tota Thessalia

  Having travelled through the whole of Thessaly
• Larissam perveni

  I arrived at Larissa
• ac dum urbem pererrans

  And while wandering through the city
• tenuato viatico

  with my travelling allowance diminished
• fomenta quaero

  I was looking for remedies
• paupertati meae

  for my poverty
• senem conspicio

  I caught sight of an old man
• medio in foro

  in the middle of the forum
• insistebat lapidem

  He was standing on a stone
• magnaque voce praedicabat

  and was proclaiming in a loud voice
• si quis ... vellet

  [that] if anyone was willing
• mortuum custodire

  to guard a dead man
• magnum praemium accepturum esse

  he would receive a great reward
• et ... inquam

  And I said
• cuidam praetereunti

  to a certain somebody passing by
• "quid hoc ... audio?"

  "what's this I hear?"
• "hic mortui solent aufugere?"

  "Do the dead usually run away around here?
• "tace," respondit ille

  "Be quiet," he replied
• "nam puer ... es"

  "For you are a boy"
• "et satis peregrinus"

  "and a mere stranger"
• "meritoque nescis in Thessalis te esse"

  "and naturally you don't know [that] you are in Thessaly"
• "ubi sagae ora mortuorum semper demorsicant"

  "where witches always bite pieces out of the faces of the dead"
• "quae sunt illis artis magicae supplementa"

  "these are ingredients for them in their magic art"
• contra ego ... inquam

  In reply I said
• "quali custodela ... opus est?"

  "What sort of protection is needed?"
• "iam primum" respondit ille

  "To begin with" he replied
• "totam noctem eximie vigilandum est"

  "the whole night you must stay fully awake"
• "apertis et inconivis oculis"

  "with eyes open and sleepless"
• "semper in cadaver intentis"

  "directed always at the corpse"
• "nec acies usquam devertenda est"

  "Your glance must not be turned away anywhere else"
• "cum illae pessimae sagae"

  "since those very wicked witches"
• "latenter arrepant"

  "creep up secretly"
• "forma in quodvis animal conversa"

  "with their shape changed into any kind of animal"
• "nam ... induunt"

  "for they take the form of"
• "et aves et canes et mures"

  "both birds, and dogs and mice"
• "immo vero etiam muscas"

  "and indeed even flies"