THE SCENE: In this imaginative episode from a 2nd century fantasy novel, the author puts forward the very plausible idea that, in a sea made out of milk, it would only be natural to come across islands made out of cheese.
THE TEXT: Not long after this, we entered a sea of milk, in which we observed an island, white in colour, and full of vines. The island was one great cheese, quite firm, as we afterwards ascertained by eating it, and three miles round. The vines were covered with fruit, but the drink we squeezed from it was milk instead of wine. During our stay there, the ground itself served us for bread and meat, and the vine-milk for drink.
– A True Story, Lucian of Samosata, 2nd Century AD
