Delphi Complete Works of Petronius

by Petronius

  [LXXXIX] “But there! I see your attention is riveted on that picture representing the capture of Troy; so I will endeavor to expound the theme in a copy of verses:

  “Still the tenth summer saw the Phrygian host

  A prey to doubt and fear, and Calchas’ faith

  Wavering and weak in spite of oracles,

  When at Apollo’s word, the wooded heights

  Of topmost Ida lent their tallest trees

  To shape the framework of a monstrous horse.

  Within, a vasty cave and secret halls,

  Capacious of an army, hold the flower

  Of all the Greeks, by ten years’ strife enraged;

  Their own thank-offering hides th’ avenging crew!

  Oh! my unhappy country! now we dreamed

  A thousand ships were scattered, and our land

  Freed from the foe. So ran the lying words

  Writ on the horse’s flank, and so the tale

  Of Sinon’s wheedling tongue and traitor’s heart.

  Now through the gates, glad to be free at last,

  The shouting Trojans hailed the pledge of peace,

  While tears relieve the tension of their joy.

  But terror checked their triumph; lo! the priest

  Of Neptune, wise Laocoon, his locks unbound,

  With cries of warning stays the eager crowd!

  His brandished spear he hurled, but foiled by fate,

  The blow falls harmless, and the sight renews

  Their ill-starred confidence in Grecian guile.

  Yet once again he summons all his strength,

  And drives his ax deep in the monster’s side.

  Th’ imprisoned warriors’ groan resounds, and fills

  The wooden hull with terror not its own.

  In vain! the captives ride to capture Troy,

  And end the tedious war by fraud, not force.

  Another marvel! where above the deep

  Tower the sheer cliffs of Tenedos, the surge

  Is lashed to foam, and a fierce roaring breaks

  The silence of the seas, as on a quiet night

  The sound of pulsing oars is borne to land,

  When fleets are passing on the distant main.

  We turn our gaze; and there with rolling coils

  Two water-snakes are sweeping toward the shore;

  Their flanks, like lofty ships, throw back the foam,

  They lash the main, their crests that ride the waves

  Gleam fiery like their eyes, whose lightning flash

  Kindles the deep, the billows hiss and roar.

  All stare aghast. Behold, like priests attired

  In Phrygian robes, there stand Laocoon’s sons,

  Twin pledges of his love, whom in their folds

  The fiery snakes entwine. Each lifts his hands,

  His childish hands, to guard, — alas! in vain, —

  His brother’s head; from love’s unselfishness

  Remorseless death a sharper anguish wins.

  Their sire, too weak to save them, shares their fate.

  Gorged with fresh blood, the monsters drag him down;

  Weltering in gore at his own altar’s side

  The priest a victim dies, in agony

  Beating the ground. Thus from polluted shrines

  The gods of fated Troy were driven away.

  The rising Moon her beam had just displayed,

  Kindling her radiant torch amid the stars,

  When the impatient Greeks unbar the doors;

  And forth on Troy, by sleep and wine betrayed,

  The steel-clad warriors rush, as from the yoke

  Just loosed, a gallant steed of Thessaly

  Darts o’er the course tossing his eager mane.

  They draw their flashing blades and wave their shields

  And ‘havoc!’ cry. One stabs the sleeping sot

  With wine oppressed, one from the altar flames

  Snatches a burning brand and fires the town, —

  And Troy’s own temples arm her foemen’s hands.”

  [XC] Sundry of the public who were strolling in the colonnades now proceeded to pelt the aged reciter with stones. But Eumolpus, who was familiar with the sort of applause his talents usually met with, merely covered up his head and bolted from the Temple. I was afraid he would claim me as a poet. So I started off in pursuit of the fugitive, and came up with him on the seashore. There we halted, directly we were out of range of the missiles, and I asked him, “Now what do you mean by this confounded malady of yours? I have not been a couple of hours in your company, and you’ve talked oftener like a mad poet than a sensible man. I don’t wonder the populace pelts you. I am going to fill my pockets with stones, and every time I see your wits going, I shall bleed you in the head.”

  At this he changed countenance, and “Oh! my young friend,” he said, “today is by no means my first essay; every time I’ve entered a theater to recite some trifle, the audience invariably welcomes me with this kind of treat. However as I am far from wishing to quarrel with you, I undertake a whole day’s fast from poetry.”

  “Very well, then,” said I; “if you’ll abjure your crankiness for today, we’ll dine together.” So saying, I commissioned the housekeeper at my humble rooms to make preparations for our humble meal, and we went off straight to the Baths.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  [XCI] Arrived at the Baths, I catch sight of Giton laden with towels and scrapers, leaning against a wall and wearing a look of melancholy embarrassment on his face. You could easily see he was an unwilling servant; and indeed, to show my eyes had not deceived me, he now turned upon me a countenance beaming with pleasure, saying, “Oh! have pity on me, brother! there are no weapons to fear here, so I can speak freely. Save me, save me, from the murderous ruffian; and then lay upon your judge, now your penitent, any punishment you please, no matter how severe. It will be comfort enough for me in my misery to have perished by your good pleasure.”

  I bad him hush his complaints, that no one might surprise our plans, and leaving Eumolpus to his own devices, — he was engaged reciting a poem to his fellow bathers — I dragged Giton down a dark and dirty passage, and so hurried him away to my lodging. Then after bolting the door, I threw my arms round his neck, pressing my lips convulsively to his tear-stained face. It was long before either of us could find his voice; for my darling’s bosom was quivering like my own with quick-coming sobs. “I am ashamed of my criminal weakness,” I cried, “but I love you still, though you did forsake me, and the wound that pierced my heart has left not a scar behind. What can you say to excuse your surrender to another? Did I deserve so base a wrong?”

  Seeing he was still loved, he put on a less downcast look:

  To chide, to love, — how make these two agree?

  The task beyond e’en Hercules would be.

  Let Love appear, all angry passions cease.

  “Yet,” I could not help adding, “I never meant to refer the choice of whom you should love to any third person; but there! all is forgiven and forgotten, if only you show yourself sincerely penitent.” My words were interspersed with groans and tears; when I had done, the dear boy dried my cheeks with his mantle, saying, “I beg you, Encolpius, let me appeal to your own recollection of the circumstances. Did I desert you, or did you throw me over? I am ready to confess, and it is my best excuse, when I saw you both sword in hand, I fled for safety to the stronger fighter.” Kissing the bosom so full of wise prudence, I threw my arms round his neck, and to let him see he was restored to favor once more, and that my affection and confidence were as strong as ever, I pressed him closely to my heart.

  [XCII] It was quite dark and the woman had completed my orders for dinner when Eumolpus knocked at the door. I called out “How many of you are there?” and immediately proceeded to spy through a chink in the door to see whether Ascyltos had not come too. But seeing my guest was alone, I at once hastened to let him in. He threw himself on my pallet, and directly he observed Giton
moving about in attendance he wagged his head and remarked, “I like your Ganymede; we shall have a good time today.” I was anything but pleased with this indiscreet beginning, and began to fear I had opened my doors to another Ascyltos. Eumolpus grew more and more pressing, and on the lad’s serving him with wine, “I like you better,” he said, “than any of them at the Baths;” and draining his cup thirstily, added he had never been more vexed in his life.

  “I tell you, at the Bath just now, I came very near getting a beating, merely because I tried to repeat a copy of verses to the bathers sitting around the basin. It was just like the Theater — I was turned out of the place. Then I started to look for you in every corner of the building, shouting Encolpius! Encolpius! at the top of my voice. Not far off was a naked youth, who had lost his clothes, and roaring with just the same clamorous indignation after Giton. For me, I was treated like a madman by the very slave lads, who mocked and mimicked me most insolently; he on the contrary was soon surrounded by a thronging multitude, clapping their hands and showing the most awe-struck admiration. The fact is, he possessed virile parts of such enormous mass and weight, the man really seemed only an appendage of his own member. Oh! an indefatigable worker! I warrant, the sort to begin yesterday, and finish tomorrow! Accordingly he soon found a way out of his difficulties; a bystander, a Roman knight, they said, of notorious character, wrapped his own cloak round the poor wanderer, and took him home with him, in order, I imagine, to have the sole enjoyment of so rich a windfall. But I should never have recovered so much as my own clothes from the Bathkeeper, had I not produced some one to vouch for me. So much better does it profit a man to train his member than his mind!”

  During Eumolpus’s narrative I changed countenance repeatedly, now jubilant at my hated rival’s misfortunes, now saddened by his success. I held my tongue, however, pretending to know nothing of the matter, and set to work arranging the dinner table. I had hardly finished this, when our humble repast was brought in; the fare was homely, but succulent and substantial, and Eumolpus, our famished scholar, fell to with a will, extolling the simplicity of the viands in the following lines:

  All things that may our simple wants assuage

  Kind heaven bestows to ease our hunger’s rage;

  Wild herbs and berries from the woodland spray

  Suffice the craving appetite to stay.

  What man would thirst beside a stream, or stand

  To front the wintry blast with fire at hand?

  The law is armed to guard the marriage bed,

  The chaste bride blameless yields her maidenhead.

  Whate’er is needful, bounteous Nature gives;

  Pride only in unbridled riot lives!

  After satisfying his appetite, our philosopher began to moralize, indulging in many criticisms of such as despise familiar things and attach value only to what is rich and rare. To their perverted taste anything that is allowable is held cheap, while they display a morbid predilection for forbidden luxuries.

  [XCIII] Facile success, a rose without a thorn,

  An instant victory, are things I scorn.

  The Phasian bird from distant Colchis brought

  And Afric fowl! are dainties ever sought,

  For these are rarities; not so the goose

  And bright-plumed duck, fit but for vulgar use.

  The costly scar, choice fish from Syrtes’ shore,

  That cost poor fishers’ lives, these all adore;

  The mullet’s out of date. The modern man

  Deserts his wife to woo the courtesan;

  The rose yields place to cinnamon. For naught

  Is held of worth that is not dearly bought.

  “Is this the way,” I cried, “you keep your promise of making no more poetry today? On your conscience, spare us at least, who have never thrown a stone at you. Once let any one of the company drinking under the same roof with us scent out your poetship, he will rouse the whole neighborhood and overwhelm us all in the same ruin. Have some pity on your friends, and remember the picture gallery and the baths.” But Giton, who was all gentleness, remonstrated with me for speaking so, and declared I was doing ill thus to jeer at my elders. He said I was forgetting my duty as a host, and after inviting a man to my table out of compassion, was nullifying the obligation by then insulting him. Other remarks follow, all equally imbued with moderation and good sense, and coming with added grace from so beautiful a mouth.

  [XCIV] “Happy the mother of such a son!” exclaimed Eumolpus. “Go on, good youth, and prosper! Rare indeed is such a combination of wisdom and beauty. Never think all your words have been wasted; you have won a lover! I, I will extol your praises in my verse. I will be your preceptor and your guardian, your companion everywhere, even when unbidden. Nor has Encolpius anything to complain of, who loves another.” The speaker had much to be thankful for to the soldier who had taken away my sword; otherwise the wrath I had conceived against Ascyltos would surely have been wreaked on Eumolpus’s head. Giton saw what was toward, and slipped out of the room, as if to fetch water; and his judicious departure abated the extreme heat of my indignation. My anger cooled a little, and I told Eumolpus, “Sir! I would rather have you talking poetry than entertaining such hopes as these. I am a passionate man, and you a lecherous; our characters, look you, can never accord together. Suppose me stark mad; humor my frenzy, — in other words, leave the house without a moment’s delay.”

  Confounded at this outburst, Eumolpus never stopped to ask my reasons, but instantly left the room, drew the door to after him, and locked me in, to my intense surprise. He carried off the key with him, and hurried away at a run in search of Giton.

  Finding myself a prisoner, I resolved to hang myself and so end my miseries. I had already attached my girdle to the framework of a bed which stood against the wall, and was just fitting the noose round my neck, when the doors were flung open again, and Eumolpus coming in with Giton recalled me to the light of life from the fatal bourne I had so nearly passed. Giton especially, his agony turning to rage and fury, uttered a piercing shriek, and pushing me down headlong on the bed with both hands, “You deceive yourself, Encolpius,” he cried, “if you think you can contrive to die before me. I was first; I have already been to Ascyltos’s lodging to look for a sword. Had I not found you, I was going to hurl myself over a precipice. Now, to show you Death is never far from those who seek him, behold in your turn the sight you intended me to witness.”

  With these words he snatches a razor from Eumolpus’s hired servant, and drawing it once and again across his throat, tumbles down at our feet. Uttering a cry of horror, I fall on the floor beside him, and seek to take my own life with the same weapon. But neither did Giton exhibit the smallest sign of a wound, nor did I myself feel any pain. The fact is, the razor had no edge, coming from a case of razors purposely blunted, with the object of training barbers’ apprentices to a proper confidence in the exercise of their craft; and that was why the servant from whom he snatched the instrument had expressed no sort of consternation, nor had Eumolpus made an effort to hinder the mimic tragedy.

  [XCV] In the midst of this lovers’ fooling, the landlord enters with another course of the dinner, and staring hard at us where we lay sprawling disgracefully on the floor, “Are you all drunk,” he asked, “or runaways, or both? Now who put up that bed against the wall like that? and what do all these underhanded proceedings mean? By great Hercules, you intended, you scamps, to levant in the night, and get out of paying the rent for your room. Not so fast, I say. I’ll let you know it’s no poor widow woman’s the owner of the block, but Marcus Mannicius.” “You threaten, do you,” shouts Eumolpus, and fetches the man a good sharp slap in the face. The latter hurled at his head an earthenware jar, emptied by a succession of thirsty guests, cut open his noisy adversary’s forehead, and darted out of the room. Furious at the indignity, Eumolpus snatches up a wooden candlestick, pursues the fugitive, and revenges his injury with a shower of blows. The whole household comes crowding to
the scene of action, together with a mob of drunken customers. Now was my opportunity for retaliation; so I turn the tables on Eumolpus by shutting the blackguard out, and find myself without a rival and free to do as I please with my room and my night.

  Meanwhile the unfortunate Eumolpus, being locked out, is assaulted by the scullions and miscellaneous tenants of the block. One threatens his eyes with a spit loaded with hissing-hot guts; another snatches a flesh-hook from the kitchen hearth and assumes a fighting attitude. First and foremost, an old hag with sore eyes and a most filthy apron, and mounted on wooden clogs (an odd pair) hauls in a huge dog on a chain, and sets him at Eumolpus, who however made a gallant defense against all assailants with his candlestick. [XCVI] All this we saw through a hole in the door, just made by the wrenching off of the handle of the wicket, and for my own part I wished him joy of his beating.

  Giton on the contrary, with his usual tender-heartedness, was for opening the door and rescuing him from his perilous position. My resentment being still hot within me, I could not hold my hand, but favored the poet’s sympathizer with a good smart box on the side of the head, at which he went and sat down crying on the bed. For myself, I put first one eye, then the other, to the opening, and was regaling myself with the sight of Eumolpus’s sorry plight and mentally patting his assailants on the back, when Bargates, the agent of the block, who had been called away from his dinner, was borne into the heart of the skirmish by a couple of chairmen, for he was disabled by the gout. After a long harangue against drunkards and runaways, uttered in a savage tone and barbarous accent, he said, turning upon Eumolpus, “My prince of poets, you here? and these ruffianly slaves don’t fly at once and stop their brawling!” Then putting his lips to Eumolpus’s ear, “My bedfellow,” he went on, in a more subdued tone, “is a scornful jade; so if you love me, blackguard her in verse, will you, to make her feel ashamed of herself.”