Arignote
Arignote
An early ghost story told by the ancient Greek writer Lucian (second century C.E.). The story relates that at Corinth, in the Cranaüs quarter, there was a certain house that no one would inhabit, because it was haunted by a specter. A man named Arignote, well versed in the lore of Egyptian magical books, shut himself in the house to pass the night and began to read peacefully in the court. Soon the specter made its appearance, and in order to frighten Arignote, it first took the form of a dog, then that of a bull, and finally that of a lion. But Arignote was not at all disturbed. He admonished the specter by a magic spell that he found in his books, and he commanded it to go to a corner of the court, where it disappeared. On the following day the spot to which the specter had retreated was dug up, and a skeleton was found. When it was properly buried, the ghost was not seen again. This anecdote is an adaptation of the adventure of Athenodorus, which Lucian had read in Pliny.