EPIMENIDES

flourished 6th century BC, ? Cretan seer, reputed author of religious and poetical writings. He conducted purificatory rites at Athens about 500 BC according to Plato (about 600 according to Aristotle). All surviving fragments, including a line quoted by St. Paul (Titus 1:12), are attributable to other sources. Stories of his advanced age (157 or 299 years), his miraculous sleep of 57 years, and his wanderings outside the body have led some scholars to regard him as a legendary figure of a shamanistic type.