The Life of Severus

He stayed a certain time at Menouthis and offered a considerable number of sacrifices to the demons. But that was of no use to him. His wife's sterility also persisted there. Having believed he saw in a dream Isis lying beside him, he heard declared by those who interpreted dreams there and who served the demon represented by Isis that he should unite himself with the idol of that goddess, and then have commerce with his wife; that thus a child would be born to him. Our philosopher gave credence to a deception so gross, as the priest who had advised him from the beginning recognized at the end, and he united himself with the stone which represented Isis, and, after the stone, he united himself with his wife. She remained sterile despite that. In the end, the priest advised him to go, but only with his wife, to the village of Astu, to stay there a certain time, then to take for his child the one who had been born to the priestess, a compatriot of his, a short time before. For the gods and the destinies, he said in his extravagance, wanted him to do this. Asklepiodotos followed this advice as well, went with his wife, without anyone accompanying them, to the mother of this child. He gave her a certain sum of money and took her child. Then he returned to Alexandria, boasting that a sterile woman had given birth after all this time. It followed that all those who were given over to the madness of the pagans glorified themselves greatly in this fable, as in a true thing.