Letter 104: Antiochus lingers in Alexandria like a Lotus-Eater while Procopius calls him toward true Ithaca.

How much hope I have missed in you. I thought that once you had barely escaped the material of medicine, you would come to me at last, either to pursue philosophy as you promised before or simply to see me. Instead, you stretch me tight with longing while you long for Alexander's city and cling to it as if to the land of the Lotus-Eaters. For my part, let that city of Macedon win with all its graces; let it have the Nile and the sea in abundance. If the Muses live there too, then I will join in praising it. But what are these things compared with the quiet here and with the philosophy from you that I have so often hoped for? Shake off the rest as mere chatter. Imitate Odysseus and look toward the true Ithaca. Let nothing stop you: not lotus, not Circe, not Calypso. The greater the contests toward which you are hurrying, the more we must outdo the son of Laertes.

Ἀντιόχωι Ὅσης ἐπὶ σοὶ τῆς ἐλπίδος διήμαρτον. ᾤμην γάρ σε μόλις ἰατρικῆς ὕλης ἀπηλλαγμένον πρὸς ἡμᾶς ἰέναι λοιπόν, εἴτε φιλοσοφήσοντα κατὰ τὰς πρὶν ὑποσχέσεις, εἴτε καὶ μόνον ὀψόμενον· σὺ δὲ κατατείνεις ἡμᾶς τὴν Ἀλεξάνδρου ποθῶν καὶ ὥσπερ Λωτοφάγων γῆς ἀντεχόμενος. ἀλλ' ἐμοῦ μὲν ἕνεκα νικάτω χάρισι πολλαῖς τοῦ Μακεδόνος ἡ πόλις, καὶ Νείλου καὶ θαλάττης ἐχέτω καλῶς. εἰ δὲ καὶ Μοῦσαι ταύτην οἰκοῦσιν, ἔχεις ἐπαινοῦντα κἀμέ. ἀλλὰ τί ταῦτα πρὸς τὴν παρ' ἡμῖν ἡσυχίαν καὶ τὴν σὴν φιλοσοφίαν, ἣν πολλάκις ἠλπίκαμεν; οὐκοῦν τἄλλα καθάπερ τινὰ φλυαρίαν ἀποσεισάμενος μιμοῦ τὸν Ὀδυσσέα πρὸς τὴν ὄντως Ἰθάκην ὁρῶν, καὶ μηδέν σε κωλυέτω, μὴ λωτὸς μὴ Κίρκη μὴ Καλυψώ, ἀλλ' ὅσῳ περὶ μειζόνων ἐπείγῃ τῶν ἄθλων, τοσούτῳ τὸν Λαέρτου νικήσωμεν.