The Life of Polycrates and Other Stories for Antiquated Children (5 page)

“
Bring me water—mixed with wine,” the poet cried out to the pantry slave, “Instantly boy! And bring also,

“
. . . Auge . . .”

“
. . . A woman with thick ankles is a whore.”

“
The groans of Auge are far sweeter in tone than a harp.”

“
Very Anacreontic,” said lushy Anacreon as his eyes followed a train of Sicilian slaves winding into the room laden with baskets heaped high with purple-hued apples from Corinth, Tithrasian figs and Carystian nuts; golden bowls filled with dainties, fish steeped in Cleonaean vinegar, pink shrimps swimming in saffron-coloured broth, fried daffodils, chickens glazed with honey and meat suffocated with caper sauce.

“
My cook, Echoiax, when growing up,” Polycrates said, “never played with hoops and balls as other children did, but with cloves of garlic and roasted giblets and even as a baby demanded that his mother’s milk be boiled with Lampsacene honey before he would condescend to drink it.”

Polycrates, ensconced in a pile of purple cushions, ate a plate of rape dressed with new wine and raisins, two roasted crabs and a good portion of batter-fried piglet raised on milk; cercope, monkey grasshoppers, to further stimulate the appetite; stuffed crayfish and an eel with green garlic sauce.

“
Watch those twenty-four white beasts,” said Heracles, standing on one leg, with one hand uplifted, himself outstretched in the posture of Hermes, “and watch the red one lick them all.”

“
He can certainly eat a great deal,” Maeandrius commented.

“
It is fine,” Telesarchus, a citizen, said. “If he gets sick he will vomit gold.”

XVIII.

Polycrates, hearing of the glory Theodorus had given the Spartans, sent a letter recalling him to Samos with promises of great reward. The artist returned home and was given audience with the tyrant, who sat eating fruit and listening to his daughter, shallow-eyed long-necked Eriphyle, recite with stressed euphony the poems of Sappho: (
this dust was unmarried Timas . . . who when she perished, all her virgin friends groomed with sharpened steel their lovely curls, and to her tomb brought and strew those hairs
) . . . . . . That malleable and ductile, that precious yellow metallic element was hauled out, commissions piled one on top of the next: for statues, for temples, to re-build the Heraion in grand style. . . . A chest of coins from Lydia set in the middle of the room . . .

“
Father,” Eriphyle said (her own hair more gold than the gold, quince-coloured, dyed so with
chrusoxylon, more commonly called Scythian wood), “it seems to me that you are moving far too quickly. It is true that we have heard marvellous things of this man; but here he is, at his first interview with you, his cup of wine barely tasted, and he has already received charges enough to last him more than a lifetime. Would it not be best if, before intrusting him with such a number of important tasks, before trusting such a quantity of precious metal into his hands, you tried his ability with some smaller project?”

“
But daughter, I have seen his work in Delphi
¹¹
, and we all know what he has done for the Lacedaemonians.”

“
You have seen what he can do, or is reputed to have done, in foreign parts, but we do not yet know what he can do in Samos.”

“
Well . . .” said Polycrates.

Theodorus bowed to the tyrant, more gracefully still to Eriphyle, and then, plucking a single coin from the treasure, said: “Allow me to borrow this for a short time, to give you some slight demonstration of my skill.” He drained his wine and took his leave and three days later returned.

To Eriphyle he presented a golden fly, in exact proportions and likeness to the real insect. To Polycrates, a ring of sardonyx set in gold, a ring of truly marvellous workmanship and unsurpassed beauty, its band intertwined vine tendrils across which satyrs leaped lightly forth and played on pipes of reeds, and its gem engraved with a lyre seal.

Theodorus, together with his father Rhoecus, under the patronage of Polycrates, invented a spectacular method of ore smelting and hollow casting. On his own he invented the water level, the lock and key, the lathe, the carpenter’s rule and square; and through these tools was able to greatly advance his art. . . . . . . He cast a statue of Polydor which was installed in the temple of Ares and then, at a later date, a statue of Polycrates’ cook, Echoiax, in the attitude of a valiant warrior, wielding pot and ladle, which was sent as an offering to Delphi. He also cast a miniature of himself in bronze, a perfect likeness; in his right hand he held a file, while on the extended fingers of his left sat a chariot drawn by four horses, a masterpiece of chasing, so small that the very fly that he had made would have been able to cover it with its wings. . . . . . . Then later, he made a golden vine with grapes of purple sapphires for Pythios, the son of Atys and grandson of Croesus, which that famous extravagant gave to Darius
¹²
. . .

. . . . . . in Ephesus he built a system of central heating into the Temple of Diana; and on Samos, together with his father, he rebuilt the Heraion, constructed the greatest temple in the world, with one-hundred and twenty-three large columns in the circular court and ten in the great open entrance hall.

. . . . . . The sacred road leading to the Heraion Polycrates had paved with stones and lined with monuments, temples and statues; four broad-shouldered youths by the sculptor Geneleos
¹³
, each fifteen feet high; in front of the temple was seated Aeaces in marble and two statues in wood of Amasis, which that king had sent by boat all the way from Egypt. Also on the road was the tomb of Radine and Leontichos, where all those jilted in their sentiments would go to pray, and this he had embellished . . . . . . Then there were the . . . Panaimon, Proastion . . . Apollon Pythaeus, built by Mnesarchos, the father of Pythagoras, designed by Theodorus who also, together with his brother, carved the statue of the god, Telecles signing the right foot, Theodorus the left. . . . . . . Demeter Enelcyses . . . and the temple of Hermes Charetodotus, during whose name-day it was allowed for all Samians to steal . . . . . . . the city decorated to profusion with flowers, those diverse blooms Samos was famous for, lateritious crocus all the way to yellow; orchids, cliff rose, hyacinth, white water lily, dark red tulip and three-coloured chamomile; amaryllis and soft narcissus fed on dew; haymeadows and sea daffodil; tiny pink-flowered and long-stalked cyclamen called Chelonion with its tubers shaped like turtles; lily and rose-chalice and moist anemone, and dark-glowing violet; liontooth and ox-eye . . . . . . . . . Tauropoleion . . . . . . . . .

. . . the Bouleuterion, an assembly hall . . . . . . . . . theatre . . . . . . the people of Samos dedicated a gymnasium to Eros and called the festival held in his honour the Eleutheria. . . . . . . And, in order to counteract the tendencies of the youth, distract their minds away from their male companions, he had constructed an area in the middle of the city which he called the Laura, a place meant to compete in splendid dissipation with the Ancon of Sardis, and in it he let be established many houses of prostitution, restaurants and food stands which sold victuals calculated to gratify intemperance and promote enjoyment, and other shops where every apparatus of luxury was sold; pavonine garments . . . golden ornaments and silver footed stools . . . female flutists and harpers played in the street from daybreak . . . and in numerous companies the young men and old would pace lazily along, their hair dripping with sweet smelling oil, bodies richly clad in long and soft purple garments, those garments usually reserved only for kings and which were worth eight times their weight in silver . . . and spent their time at dice, filling their bellies with meat, drinking Chian wine in Spartan cups, and singing loose songs to the music of the noisy enneachord . . .

XIX.

Contents of Eriphyle’s dressing case:

Item:
Excrementa of Egyptian crocodiles, for the complexion

Item:
Oesipum, for
embellishing and cleaning the complexion

Item:
A comb made of Libyan ivory

Item:
Ointment of orris

Item:
A depilatory ointment, made from the boiled and crushed bones of a spoonbill, mixed with fly dung, oil of ben, sycamore juice, storax gum, and cucumber

Item:
A perfume of crocus-oil

Item:
Bdellium

XX.

Epistle:

Polycrates ran his fingers through his beard, touched his lips to the signet-ring made by Theodorus, and knew. The next day he went out to sea in one of his ships and, when he was well into deep water, took the ring from his finger and cast it far from him. That night, back at his palace, he wept and pulled a handful of hairs from his beard; for throwing the ring away had been like fratricide, only he felt greater sorrow now than he had when he had murdered his brother, because at that time he had gained a kingdom, while now the only thing he had to show for his action was a naked finger.

“
But you should feel happy,” suggested Ibycus, “since, as you believe, by this action you have staved off the jealousy of the gods.”

“
Have I; or have I simply been prey to the jealousy of Amasis? I have always propitiated the gods, and they have always favoured me. And, after all, it was not them who suggested I do myself harm.”

XXI.

Cold-eyed, lank-haired Maeandrius, son of Maeandrius, brother of Lycaretus and sneak-thief Charilaus, was intelligent, of a thin, unmuscular form, well versed in the basics of flattery, clear-headed and of the supple morals suitable to one who wishes to please his master. The oily accents of his voice were glossed with silver. He was subservient to his betters, bold with his equals and contemptuous of those of lower position.

“
A man wishes to see you,” Maeandrius said. “He is at the gate and insists.”

“
Does he appear to be in a violent state of mind?”

“
On the contrary, he seems to be quite well disposed.”

With Polycrates’ consent, a fisherman was shown into the chamber, followed by four stout lads bearing an enormous epinephelus on a stretcher.

“
My lord,” said the fisherman with an awkward bow, “this morning I offered my usual crust of bread and drop of wine to Artemis of the Fishing-Nets, and today she has been good to me, letting me win this trophy of the sea. Though I know I could sell it for an attractive sum to some rich man or to one of the better eateries in the Laura, I have refrained from such a temptation, and have carried it here instead, as a gift to you Polycrates,—for it is a fish worthy of your magnitude.”

Polycrates, lover of cold-blooded aquatic vertebrates, thanked the fisherman, promised him a gift of a Sardian net, and dismissed him . . . an invitation to return that evening for supper . . . . . . good fortune could not be thrown off and <
epinephelus. brought from anticamera of the abyss. properly prepared as sweet to the palate as some pretty nulipara. or effeminate
. . . > . . .