The King Must Die (21 page)

He was a priest of Paian Apollo, and perhaps he had foreknowledge. The old religion is dear to the Daughters of Night; and whoever else is glad, they do not like to see it changed. Their hand fell on him, as it fell on me.

In Thrace, where he was killed, they keep the old custom for all his trying. Even in Eleusis; it dies very hard and its shadows linger. At any summer's end there, you will see the people of town and village gathered on the hill-slopes, sitting to watch the herdboys mime their old tales of the deaths of kings.

But that was after. Meanwhile, the men of the army tossed up their helmets and waved their spears, and begged me to lead them to the city. So I mounted my horse again, with the Guard about me; the Eleusinians followed after, singing paeans, and shouting, "Theseus is King!"

I did not ride straight up to the Palace. I took the lower road, that leads to the cave and to the wrestling ground.

All the women had run out chattering, and questioning the men; the slopes began to be full of people, just as on the day when first I came. I called two of the chief men and said to them, "Command the Queen to come down to me. Let her come of herself if she will do it; if not, bring her by force."

They went up. At the top of the steps, some of the priestesses stopped them; I should have known, if I had been older, that two men were not enough. I sent four more, to keep up each other's courage. They shouldered through, and went in. Then I waited. And I knew why I had chosen this place of meeting; to see her come down the steps as Kerkyon had come down to me, and the King before to him: every year for years uncounted a man in his flower of youth, charmed from his strength like the bird by the dancing serpent, to wrestle and to die.

Soon I saw the men returning; but they were alone. I was angry at this; if I had to go up myself, the people would lose their show. But when the men came near, I saw them pale. And the chief of them said to me, "Theseus, she is dying. Are we to bring her as she is, or not?"

I heard all about me voices passing the word along; it was like the sound of benches being dragged about in an empty hall. "Dying?" I said. "Is she sick? Or has someone harmed her? Or did she lay hands upon herself?"

They all shook their heads; but they did not all speak at once. Eleusinians love strong events, and know how to display them. They turned to the eldest, who had a good carrying voice. He said, "None of these, Theseus. When the word came to her that we were bringing you home as High King from the border, she tore her hair and clothes, and went down to the Goddess, and cried to her for a sign. What sign she wanted they did not know, but she cried three times, beating her hands upon the earth. Then rising up at last, she had milk brought and set it down for the House Snake; but he would not come for it. So she called a flute-player to make the music snakes dance to, and at last he came. When he was listening to the music, and had begun to dance, she cried out again to the Goddess, and took him into her hand. And he struck his teeth into her arm, and ran back into his hole as quick as water poured into a jar. In a little she fell down, and now she is dying."

There was quiet all around. You could have heard a whisper.

I said, "Bring her here. If I go to her within walls, it will be put about that I killed her. The people must be witnesses." I felt in their deep silence that they approved. "Put her on a litter, and do not hurt her. Let two of her women come, in case she needs anything; but keep the others back."

So I and the people waited again; but Eleusinians are patient, when there is a sight to see. At last I saw the litter coming on the terrace above; four men bearing it, two women walking beside; and behind, kept back by warriors with crossed spears, the priestesses all in black, with bleeding faces and dishevelled hair, wailing aloud. The steps of the stair were not too steep for the litter.

Every year, since time out of mind, a dead king had been carried down them, lying on his bier.

They came down, and brought her before me, and stood the feet of the litter on the ground. It was made of gilded cornel-wood, with lapis set in.

She was tossing, and breathing fast; her hair fell down over the gilded litter and swept the ground. Her face was white as new ivory, with a smudge of green under the eyes, and her mouth looked blue. There was a cold sweat upon her, and the woman beside her wiped her brow with a cloth stained with the paint from her lips and eyes. I would not have known her, but for her hair. She looked old enough to be my mother.

She had meant me greater harm than men I had given to kites upon the field, and gladly stripped of their spoil. Yet her ruin smote me, more than when the torch is set to some great hall of kings, with pictured walls and painted columns and hangings woven on the loom, and the flames rise up to the colored rafters, and the roof falls in with a roar. I remembered the morning sky in the high window, her laughter by the midnight lamp, and her proud walking under the fringed sunshade.

I said to her, "We are in the hand of moira, from the day we are born. You did as you must, and so did I."

She tossed upon the litter, and felt her throat. Then she said hoarsely, but loud enough to be heard (for she was an Eleusinian), "My curse failed. You came with the omens. Yet I am guardian of the Mystery. What could I do?"

I said, "A hard choice was laid on you."

She said, "I chose wrong. She has turned her face away."

"Truly," I said, "her ways are dark. But it was ill done to set my father's hand to my death.".

She half rose on one arm, and cried, "A father is nothing! A man is nothing! It was to punish your pride."

Then she fell back, and one of the women held a wine-flask to her mouth.

She drank, and closed her eyes, and rested; I set my hand on hers, and found it damp and cold. She said, "I felt a new thing at the gates. Kerkyon before you presumed too much. Even my brother... Then a Hellene came. The myrtle grove shall hatch the cuckoo's chick.... Are you even nineteen, as you said you were?"

I answered, "No. But I was bred in a house of kings."

She said, "I crossed her will, and she treads me in the dust."

"It is time and change," I said. "Only the happy gods are free of them."

She turned upon the litter, for because of the poison she could not be quiet. The eldest of her children, a dark girl of eight or nine years, slipped through the guard and ran to her weeping, and taking hold of her asked if it was true she was going to die. She made herself still and stroked the child and said she would soon be better, and made the women take her away. Then she said, "Put me on a fast ship with my children, and let me go to Corinth. I have kindred there to care for them. I want to die on the Sacred Mountain, if I can get so far."

I gave her leave. Then I said to her, "Though I shall change the sacrifice, I will never root out the Mother's worship here. We are all her children."

She had closed her eyes, but now she opened them. "Children and men want everything for nothing. Life will have death, and you will not change it."

They picked the litter up, and began to bear it away, but I put my hand out to stay them. Bending down, I said, "Tell me before you go: are you with child to me?" She turned her head and answered, "I took the medicine. He was only a finger long, but you could see he was a man. So I did right. There is a curse upon your son."

I signed to the bearers, and they carried her toward the ships. To the women behind I said, "Take her her jewels, and anything else she asks for." They began to run about all in confusion, in their black robes, their solemn mourning forgotten; it was like an ants' nest when the spade cuts it through, for there was no precedent. On the slopes around, the women of the city were talking like starlings. It is the custom of the Shore People for all the girls and women to be in love with the King, who is for ever young since when one goes there is another. So now they did not know what to think.

I was looking after the litter, when a tall gray-haired woman with a big gold necklace walked up to me, freely as Minyan women do to men, and said, "She has fooled you, boy. She will not die. If you want her life, you had better go after her." I did not ask why she hated the Queen, but only said, "Death was in her face, if I ever saw it." The woman said, "Oh, I daresay she is sick. But she took broth of snakeshead in her youth, and was bitten by young serpents, to make her venom-proof. It is the custom of the sanctuary. She will be in pain a few hours more; then she will sit up and laugh at you." I shook my head. "We had best leave that to the Goddess; it's ill meddling between mistress and handmaid."

She shrugged her shoulders. "You will need a new Priestess. My daughter is of the Kin, and a girl to please any man. Look, there she is."

I raised my brows at her. I could have laughed aloud, seeing the pale biddable girl, and the mother all ready to rule Eleusis. I turned from her toward the Queen's women, still running and scolding up and down the stairs. But one, less busy, stood by the rock-cleft, taking a last look at it. It was she who had lain there on the wedding night, weeping the dead King.

I went up and took her wrist and led her out, while she hung back in fear, remembering, I suppose, how she had hated me, and had let me see it. "Here is your Priestess," I said to the people. "One who does not rejoice in slain men's blood. I shall not lie with her; only a god's seed can quicken the corn. But she shall offer sacrifice, and take omens, and be nearest to the Goddess." And I said to her, "Do you agree?" She stared at me confused; then said like a child, because surprise had made her simple, "Yes. But I will never curse anyone; even you." It made me smile. Yet, ever since it has been the custom.

Later that day I appointed my chief men, from those who had been resolute in defying the women. Some of these would have had me put down women from every office in the land. Though I tended myself to extremes as young men do, yet I did not like this; it would bring them all together to work women's magic in the dark. One or two, who had pleased my eye, I should have been glad to see about me. Only I had not forgotten Medea, who had fooled a man as wise as my father was. And there were the old grandmothers, who had run a household for fifty years, and had more sense than many a warrior with his mind only on his standing; but besides their magic, they had too many kindred, and would have managed the men. So I thought again about what I had seen in Eleusis of women's rule, and chose from those sour ones who took their pleasure in putting the others down. And these did more than the men to keep their sisters from rising up again. A few years later, the women of Eleusis came begging me to appoint men in their stead. Thus I was able to make a favor of it.

On the second night after I took the kingdom, I gave a great feast to the chief men of Eleusis, in the royal Hall. The meat I provided from my booty of the war; and there was plenty too to drink. The men rejoiced at. having snatched their freedom, and toasted the good days ahead. As for me, victory is sweet on the tongue, and to lead men, and be no one's dog. And yet, the feast lacked something; without the women it seemed a rough, up-country thing. Men drank themselves stupid, and threw bones about, and made fools of themselves boasting of what they could do in bed, as they would never have dared if the women had been there to laugh at them. It was more like being on campaign than feasting in a king's hall, which is why I have never made a custom of it. But that night it served my turn.

I called for the harper; and he sang, of course, of the Isthmus war. He had had time to work it up, and made a rousing thing of it. They were full already of themselves and of good wine; by the time they were full of the song too, they were spoiling for battle. So then I told them of the Pallantids.

"I have news," I said, "that they are planning war. Once let them hold the Citadel of Athens, and no one will be safe between there and the Isthmus. They will rend the Attic plain like wolves on a dead horse; and those who are left hungry will look to us. That horde, if it gets through to Eleusis, will not leave an ear standing, a sheep running, a jar unbroken, or a girl unravished. Lucky for us if we can fight them across the Attic fields, and not our own. They have great spoil in their house on Sounion Head, and I will go surety you get fair shares. Then, after the victory, you will hear men say in Athens, 'These Eleusinians are warriors. We were fools if we ever thought of them lightly. If we can get men like that for hearth-friends and kindred, it will be the best piece of work we ever did.'"

Next morning, at the Assembly, I spoke better. But no one will ever be found to say so. They were so drunk, and so big-headed with having mastered the women, that they could not have been more pleased with this speech if Apollo and Ares Enyalios had made it up between them.

So, when two days later my father sent word that there was smoke upon Hymettos, I sent for the Palace scribe, and made him write, and sealed it with the royal ring. The letter said, "Aigeus son of Pandion, from Theseus at Eleusis. Honored Father, the gods all bless you with long life. I am coming to the war, and bringing my people. We shall be a thousand men."

3

The war in Attica lasted nearly a month. It was the longest war since the time of Pandion my father's father. As all men know, we scoured the Pallantids off the land. We took South Attica, pulled down their stronghold on Sounion Head, and raised the high altar to Poseidon there, which is seen from ships at sea. And we took the Silver Hill hard by it, with the slaves who worked the mine, and fifty great ingots of smelted silver. So the kingdom was doubled, and the plunder very rich. The men of Eleusis went home as well-found as the men of Athens, with cattle and women and weapons and everything we took. I had cause for pride in my father's bounty. It was true, as Medea had said, that he had a name for being close-fisted; but he had always had the next war to think of. I can testify before anyone that he opened wide his hand to me.

We lived well that winter, for we had got in our crops before the war, and taken Pallas' too. All the feasts were richly kept. When there was a festival in Athens, the Eleusinians came to see, and turn about; there were many hearth-friendships made, and many marriages. Because I had brought the kingdom safety and wealth, they thought in Eleusis that the Goddess favored me; and with my father's counsel to help, I began to get things in order. Sometimes I went my own way, because I knew the people better. But I never told him so.