THE TWENTY-SEVENTH PAPYRUS

When, at length, we were alone with Love, then, indeed, Golden Helen kissed me.

I, in sooth, had kissed her in the house of blameless Hades, before the combat of the heroes: but she had not returned the sweet embrace. And now she told me the reason: saying that it is an immutable law that an immortal goddess, who kisses a mortal man in honourable love, thereby fulminates him. Wherefore, when (in Egypt) I was warring against the five nations, more than a thousand years before, and when Telegonos wounded me near the blooming groin with his dark arrow, then, sweet Helen (mad with fear and love) kissed me, staying me in her arms in the battle at the mouth of sacred Sihor. Of which arrow-wound, I should not have died: but, of the kiss, her first, I died. So, lest I should again be lost to her, she had not kissed me in the house of shady Hades. But, now that I was immortal, as was she the divine one of goddesses, Golden Helen kissed me.

And, anon, she said: “Lord king and husband of me, seeing that we rejoice in happiness, being immortal and mingled in love, so that we have no desire unsatisfied, let us be merciful to one who hateth us and kind to him who has wronged us: for, indeed, it is not right continually to be enraged in one’s mind.”

But this was a most strange saying, whereat I wondered gravely: for such ways had not been taught to Golden Helen, nor were they known at that time. And then I remembered the grace conveyed by that most mighty magic, the sacred lavation and the Spell of The Three Who are One, which, in a mystery, I had been moved to work upon her before our nuptials. And then I was not affrighted by any more amazement.

But she was embracing my knees, continuing to speak, saying: “Go, now, dear lord and husband, faring immortally to Khalkis in holy Eyboia; and take also sweet white Death with thee. And, having entered to Anthemius Cotta the Roman governour, let the pale god draw from his breast gently the torch of his life, quenching its flickering flame, so that his body may rest from its torments. For he is unfit to continue alive and in health. But, though he would have despitefully used me, I am unwilling that he should writhe much longer in anguish, being irremediably mutilated.”

Thus she spoke: but I kissed the pitiful maid again, rejoicing at the grace which was replenishing her. And, having summoned kindly Death, together we went, faring invisibly from lofty Olympos with the speed of a thought: for we immortals in nowise appear visibly to everybody. But, when we came to Khalkis after the middle of the night, when night is darkest, then I took the divine white child, silent, garlanded with asphodel, by his frosty hand leading him; and, so, we entered the chamber of the Roman governour, plain for all to see.

He lay upon a bed, mangled and shapeless, moaning in the throes of his torments. But, when the slaves, physicians, watching beside him, saw me radiant in silver armour with adornments of rock-crystals and blue moonstones, and the pale young god purer and colder than glittering frost, standing in presence manifest in an aureola of moonbeams, then they fell on their faces and were much afraid.

But I addressed the moribund, saying: “Uneasy Anthemius, know that Queen Helen, daughter of Great Zeys, whom thou didst use despitefully, wills to release thee from these earthly pangs which are but a just penance for thy crimes. Nevertheless, the divine one of goddesses bids thee to enjoy the blessed rest of death, gaining remittance of sufferings.”

Thus I spoke; and I uttered the spell which unchains the soul from the body. And white Thanatos stooped, with his tender young frigid fingers drawing the torch of life from the Roman’s bloody breast; and, blowing upon it, he extinguished its flickering flame. And Anthemius sighed, and was comforted, retiring to the world of shades.

But we returned to the peak of Olympos, before he had reached the netherworld.

Now, when we had dwelled in the palace of Herakles during the full course of the moon, then, indeed, Great Zeys ordained to employ me in a certain duty. For it is the custom on the threshold of the immortals that, whoever shall be raised to the rank of a godly hero and endowed with immortality, must visit in person the courts of strange gods, announcing his own apotheosis and receiving recognition. Wherefore, the cloud-compelling son of Khronos bade me to prepare for my progress: but to astute Hermes was assigned the task of inscribing letters-patent for exhibition to all barbarian theocracies.

For, as do earth-dwelling kings, each having power and dominion over his own people, so also do the gods, each having power and dominion over his own worshippers. And, upon occasions, disputes arise among the various dynasties inhabiting the wide-rolling heavens, and wars and fearful conflicts follow, when the high gods fight among themselves for lordship over the hearts of men. In which quarrels, the divine ones of the Argive race are ever to the fore and very ready at need: seeing that the nations of the Argives are wont to stablish colonies, daughter-cities, in barbarian lands, crossing the unvintaged sea, whereto they carry a sacred fire from their mother-city; and they pray not to the strange gods of the barbarians among whom they dwell, but to the familiar gods of their dear motherland. Furthermore, the strange gods of the barbarians sometimes send solemn embassages of heroes to the king of gods and men, bearing complaints, because their rites go unrecognized by the Argives inhabiting their domains. Then, indeed, Great Zeys, having taken counsel with the olympian immortals, returns a just decision in like manner. At other times, dire complications unexpectedly arise, when the strange gods send plagues (perchance of rats or dragons), or pestilences (perchance of bad blind boils), or even famines, to punish the prepotence or the impiety of their blameless barbarians; and, by chance, one of the Argive colonists perishes by reason of the scourge. Then, indeed, loud-thundering Zeys inflames himself with mighty wrath, when his dear Argive folk fall victims to the clumsiness of the indiscriminating gods of the so-sinful barbarians; and he exacts a compensation. But the immortal gods love not to war overmuch among themselves, their battles being terrific and the issues not unusually thankless.

And it chanced that, at the time when I reached my chair in the college of the immortals and of my blissful nuptials, that there was a matter of feud between us and the theocracy of Juppiter Stator. For the Latin gods, very stolid, very bucolic, were claiming the worship of the whole Argive race throughout the earth. And they, rash and overweening, alleged that, as the fair Argive land had submitted to their bloody Romans, so, also, Olympian Zeys ought to acknowledge as his blooming suzerain their Capitoline Juppiter.

For which cause, long-enduring and tiresome and tedious conversations of high diplomacy were striving to adjust the dispute without appeal to the arbitrament of war. But a regrettable incident was likely to occur at any moment: for Ares, bane of mortals, weary of the arts of peace, paraded himself daily wearing shield and sword; and boldly-steadfast Herakles, weary of the arts of husbandry, was carving a collection of most mind-delighting clubs; and my own sweet cousin, Perseys of the sea, the most renowned of heroes, weary of the arts of love, was all agog to meet monsters more worthy than pterodactyls in deadly strife. Wherefore, the Father and King of gods and men bade me to visit, first, those strange gods who were known not to be unfriendly; and, then, to proceed to Rome: so that, returning to Olympos directly from the court of Juppiter Stator, I might bring back the very latest account of the negociations.

And, having embraced me and Queen Helen, very mighty Zeys gave us our charters fairly written out by cunning Hermes, my grandsire, who first brought letters and the art of writing into the Argive land.

Thus, as an immortal, I began to go about the work of the immortals.