A Libyan Myth

A Libyan Myth (Ancient Greek: Λιβυκὸς Μῦθος, romanized: Libykos Mythos, Oration 5 in modern corpora) is a short speech or speech-fragment by Dio Chrysostom, telling the story of a mythical creature from Libya, perhaps Lamia, as an allegory for human passions, especially lust.

In On Kingship IV (73), Dio writes: [Diogenes of Sinope said] "Haven't you heard the Libyan myth?"

and [Alexander the Great] said that he had not heard it, so then Diogenes recounted it enthusiastically and charmingly, wishing to encourage him, just as nannies do with children, when they give them a smack, and then encourage and please them by recounting a myth.The text of the myth does not actually appear in On Kingship IV, but context indicates that it is the same story as in A Libyan Myth.

[5][6] The work begins with a short prologue (1-4) explaining that myths can be useful and beneficial, when they have allegorical meanings added to them, like fruit-bearing branches grafted onto a barren plant.

[7] Dio explains the allegorical meaning: So then, this myth might perhaps be able to show sufficiently what kind of thing the passions are, namely that they are irrational and beastly, since by offering some pleasure or other and carrying the unintelligent off with trickery and witchcraft, they destroy them tragically and pitifully...In the second section (18-23), Dio recounts two attempts to wipe out the monsters.

Once again, Dio explains the allegory, which is about the elimination of passion from an individual's soul, which is "like a forbidding land full of difficult monsters."

Two young men take her for a local hetaera (courtesan), but "putting her snake part forward" she kills them, leaving behind a corpse which rapidly putrefies.

[12][11] The representation of the Libyan landscape as inhospitable and dangerous is common in ancient Greek and Roman depictions of Libya, which Dio explains to be a metaphor for the human soul.

[16] The same tradition lies behind the account of Cato the Younger's journey through the Libyan desert in book 9 of Lucan's De Bello Civili, generally understood as (serious or parodic) allegory for the Stoic effort to overcome vice and passion.