Home -> Articoli -> Fantasmi greci

The ghost and Athenodoros

by Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti

It is a letter written to Sura by Pliny the Younger .
Dear friend, that is a terrifying and extraordinary fact and I am now relating it exactly as it was told to me. In Athens there was a well built and large house, but it had an ill repute. In the silence of the night one began to hear the sound of irons trained around the rooms and, little by little, the noise came nearer and nearer until a strong rattle of chains became evident. Immediately after this a ghost appeared: An old man exhausted, thin and squalid, with a long beard and shaggy hairs. He was shaking the fetters that tied his feet and hands. For this reason the tenants of the house couldn’t pass a single calm night and, awake, spent them in terror. Then, by lack of sleep, they fell ill and even died of sheer fright. In fact, also by day when the ghost was not more there, they always remembered him, and still believed to see it. Thus the terror lasted more than what had caused it.
For this reason the house was empty, deserted and left in the power of this holy terror. Of course, in the hope that someone who did not know such a problem could wish to buy or rent it, the residence was still on the market. It was then that Ahtenodoros, the philosopher, came to Athens. He read the poster, heard how much they wanted and, as the modest sum requested made him suspicious, he inquired about it and was set apart of everything. However not only he didn’t change his mind but on the contrary he considered it a very good reason to rent it. When the night was falling he ordered his servants to prepare his bed in the front part of the house and, wanting to write, asked them waxed tablets, stylus and light. Then he sent all his people in the most inner part of the house. Afterward, for what concerned him, he concentrated all his attention on his work avoiding what an idle mind could create before his eyes and, deranging his mind, create the phantom that had been described.
At first there was only the silence of the night; then began the racket of irons and the rattle of chains, but Athenodoros didn’t lift his eyes from the waxed tablets and didn’t leave his stylus; on the contrary hearing what happened he strengthened his spirit. Then the sound more and more reinforced; it neared; now it was heard as if it was at the door and, just after that, as inside the room. The philosopher looked up; the ghost was there and he recognized the figure that had been described to him. The spectre stood erect and made a sign with his finger as if calling him, on the contrary with his hand Athenodoros intimated his unwanted guest to wait another moment and again occupied himself with the waxed tablets and the stylus, but the ghost shook with greater violence his fetters on the philosopher head and seeing that the phantom was still agitating his finger and asking him to be followed, Athenodoros took the light and went with him. The spirit walked slowly as if he was weighted down by the chains and thus he reached the courtyard. Here he suddenly disappeared leaving Athenodoros all alone. Then the philosopher signed the place of the disappearance with uprooted grass and leaves. The day after he went to the magistrates and asked them to send someone to dig the place and here they found human bones circled by chains that the decay of the body and the long stay in the soil had left at the shackle naked and eroded. The poor remains were collected and publicly buried. Then, as they had been set in a tomb with all the due rites, the house was free.