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.
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.
There he encountered a tribe called the Issedones, who told him of still more fantastic and northerly peoples: the one-eyed Arimaspi, who battle gold-guarding griffins; and the Hyperboreans, among whom Apollo lives during the winter.
Neil Gaiman's Sandman comics refer to this story: Aristeas was a poet who lived around 700 BC, and was transformed into one of many ravens who have acted as both adviser and assistant to the Endless known as Dream.