“Do you still mock me,” said I, looking steadily at him, “in this my great woe? Come, Menelaus, have regard to Zeus, the god that protects the guest.” But he knocked upon the lid of the coffin, and said, “Since Clitophon is still an unbeliever, do you, Leucippe, bear me witness if you are yet alive.” As he spoke, he struck the coffin two or three times in different places, and I heard a faint voice come from beneath; a shuddering instantly took hold of me, and I looked hard at Menelaus, thinking him a wizard; then he opened the coffin, and out came Leucippe — a shocking and horrible sight, God wot. Her belly seemed ripped open and deprived of all its entrails, but she fell upon my neck and embraced me; we clung together and both fell to the ground.
18. When I had with difficulty come again to myself, I said to Menelaus, “Tell me, what is this? Is not this Leucippe whom I see, and hold, and hear her speaking? What was it then that I saw yesterday? Either that was a dream, or else this is. But certainly this is a real, living kiss, as was of old Leucippe’s sweet embrace.”
“Yes,” said Menelaus, “and now all these entrails shall be taken away, the wound in her body shall close, and you shall see her whole and sound. But cover your face, I am going to invoke the assistance of Hecate in the task.” I believed him and veiled myself, while he began to conjure and to utter some incantation; and as he spoke he removed the deceptive contrivances which had been fitted to Leucippe’s belly, and restored it to its original condition. Then he said to me, “Uncover yourself”; with some hesitation and full of fright (for I really thought that Hecate was there), I at length removed my hands from my eyes and saw Leucippe whole and restored. Still more greatly astonished, I implored Menelaus, saying; “Menelaus, my best of friends, if you are really a minister of the gods, where am I and what is this I see?” Hereupon Leucippe broke in. “Stop teasing and frightening him, Menelaus,” said she, “and tell him how you cheated the robbers.”
19. So Menelaus began his story. “You know,” said he, “that I am an Egyptian by birth; I told you so before, on the ship; most of my property is near this village, and the chief people here are acquaintances of mine. Well, when we had suffered shipwreck, the tide brought me to the shores of Egypt, and I, with Satyrus, was captured by the robbers who were on guard in this part of it. When I was brought before the robber-chief, some of them at once recognized me, struck off my chains, and bade me be of good cheer and join their company, as a friend ought to do. I begged to have Satyrus too, as being my servant. ‘Yes,’ said they, ‘if you will first prove yourself a courageous companion.’ At this time it happened that they had received an oracle that that they should sacrifice a maiden and so purify the robber-camp, devouring her liver after her sacrifice; they were then to put the rest of her body in a coffin and retire from the spot, and all this was to be done so that the opposing army would have to march over the spot where the sacrifice had taken place. (So that the magic should take them, presumably, as they crossed the place. If, on the other hand, we wish to understand the sentence in the sense that the horror of the cannibal sacrifice was to affright and overawe the enemy, the rendering would be more easily reached if we were to read της θυσίας rb άτοπου, which would then be the subject of νπερβάλοι, and Tó TOW εναντίων στρατοπέδου its object.) Do you now relate the rest, Satyrus; from this point the story is yours.”
20. “When I was brought by force to the robbers’ camp,” said Satyrus, continuing the story, “I wept, master, and lamented when I heard about Leucippe, and implored Menelaus to save the maiden, and some kindly deity assisted us. On the day before the sacrifice we happened to be sitting on the seashore and thinking how we could effect this end, when some of the robbers seeing a ship wandering and ignorant of her course, attacked her; those on board, realising the character of their assailants, tried to put her about, but the robbers being too quick for them, they made preparations to resist. Now there was among the passengers one of those actors who recite Homer in the public theatres: he armed himself with his Homeric gear and did the same for his companions, and did his best to repel the invaders. Against the first comers of the attacking party they made a good fight, but several of the pirate boats coming up, the enemy sank the ship and murdered the passengers as they jumped off. They did not notice that a certain chest fell from the boat and this, after the ship had gone to pieces, was washed ashore near us by the tide. Menelaus found it, and retiring with it — I was with him — expected that there might be something of value in it, and opened it. We saw there a cloak and a dagger; the latter had a handle about a foot (Literally, “four palm-breadths,” which may be taken roughly as three inches each, though perhaps in reality a little more. The δάκτυλος or breadth of the finger (transversus pollex) may in the same way be taken as an inch.) long with a very short blade fitted to it not more than three inches in length. Menelaus took out the dagger and casually turned it over, blade downwards, when the blade suddenly shot out from the handle so that handle and blade were now of equal size; and when turned back again, the blade sank back to its original length. This had doubtless been used in the theatre by that unlucky actor for sham murders.
21. “‘We shall have the help of Heaven,’ said I to Menelaus, ‘if you will shew yourself a good fellow: we shall be able to trick the robbers and save the girl. Listen to my plan. We must take a sheep’s skin, as thin a one as we can get, and sew it into the form of a pouch, about the size of a man’s belly; then we must fill it with some animal’s entrails and blood, sew up this sham stomach so that its contents cannot easily leak out, and fit her to it; by putting a dress outside and fastening it with bands and girdles we can thus hide the whole contrivance. The oracle is extremely useful to us for our stratagem, as it has ordered that she is to be fully adorned and must thus be ripped up through her clothes. You see the mechanism of this dagger; if it is pressed against a body, the blade retreats into the handle, as into a sheath; all those who are looking on think that it is actually plunged into the flesh, whereas it has really sprung back into the hollow of the handle, leaving only this point exposed, which is just enough to slit the sham stomach, and the handle will be flush with the thing struck: when it is withdrawn from the wound, the blade leaps forth from its cavity in proportion as the hilt is raised and deceives the spectators just as when it was plunged in: they think that so much of it penetrated at the stroke as now springs out by its mechanism. This being so, the robbers cannot perceive the trick, for the sheepskin is hidden away: at the blow the entrails will gush forth and we will take them and sacrifice them on the altar. After that the robbers will not approach the body, and we will put it into the coffin. You heard the robber-chief say a little while ago that you must give them some proof of your courage, so that you can now go to him and undertake this service as the proof required.’ After these words I prayed, calling upon Zeus the god of strangers, remembering before him the common table at which we had eaten and our common shipwreck.
22. “‘It is a great undertaking,’ said this good fellow, ‘but for a friend — even if one must perish — danger is noble and death sweet.” I think,’ I added, ‘that Clitophon also is still alive: the maiden told me that she had left him in bonds among the robbers’ captives, and those of the band who had escaped to the robber-chief mentioned that their prisoners had all slipped out of the battle and reached the enemy’s camp: — you will thus be earning his warmest gratitude and at the same time rescue a poor girl from so cruel a fate.’ He agreed with what I said, and Fortune favoured us. So I set about making the preparations for our stratagem, while Menelaus was just about to broach the subject of the sacrifice to the robbers, when the robber-chief by the instigation of Providence anticipated him, saying: ‘It is a custom among us that those who are being initiated into our band should perform the sacred rites; particularly when there is a question of sacrificing a human being. It is time therefore to get yourself ready for to-morrow’s sacrifice, and your servant will have to be initiated at the same time as yourself.
’ ‘Certainly,’ said Menelaus, ‘and we shall try to show ourselves as good men as any of you. But it must be our business to arrange the maiden as may be most convenient for the operation.” Yes,’ said the robber-chief, ‘the victim is wholly your charge.’ We therefore dressed her up in the manner I have previously described, apart from the others, and told her to be of good courage; we went through all the details with her, telling her to stay inside the coffin, and even if she awoke early from sleep, to wait inside until day appeared. ‘If anything goes amiss with us,’ we said, ‘take flight to the hostile camp.’ With these injunctions we led her out to the altar, and the rest you know.”
23. On hearing this story I felt almost out of my senses, and was utterly at a loss how I could make any recompense to Menelaus for his great services to me. I adopted the commonest form of gratitude, falling at his feet, embracing him, and worshipping him as a god, while my heart was inundated with a torrent of joy. But now that all was well in the matter of Leucippe, “What has happened,” I asked, “to Clinias?”
“I do not know,” said Menelaus. “Directly after the shipwreck I saw him clinging to the yard-arm, but I do not know whither he was carried.” I gave a cry of sorrow even in the midst of my joy; for some god quickly grudged me unalloyed happiness; and now he that was lost through my doing, he who was everything to me after Leucippe, he of all men was in the clutches of the sea, and had lost not only his life, (It is usual to explain this passage by referring to the belief common in the ancient world that the souls of those drowned at sea do not find a rest in the next world, but remain wandering about the waves. But ψυχή can mean life, as well as sold, so that the explanation suggested is not absolutely necessary.) but any hope of burial. “Unkindly ocean,” I cried, “thus to deprive us of the full measure of the mercy thou hast shewn us!” We then returned all together to the camp, and entering my tent passed the rest of the night there, and our adventures soon became the common property of the army.
24. At early dawn I took Menelaus to the general and told him the whole story; he was delighted to hear it, and made him one of his companions. To his enquiry as to the size of the enemy’s forces, Menelaus replied that the whole of the village before us was full of desperate fighters, and that the robber-camp was so thickly manned that they must amount to ten thousand. “But these five thousand of ours,” replied the general, are a match for twenty of theirs, and besides that, very shortly another two thousand will arrive of the troops stationed in the Delta and about Heliopolis ready to fight against these savages.” While he was still speaking, a courier arrived, saying that a messenger had arrived from the camp in the Delta with the news that the two thousand would have to wait for five more days; they had been successful in repelling the incursions of the savages, but just as the force was ready to start, their Sacred Bird had arrived, bearing with him the sepulchre of his father, and they had therefore been compelled to delay their march for that space of time.
25. “What bird is that,” said I, “which is so greatly honoured? And what is this sepulchre that he carries?”
“The bird is called the Phoenix was the answer,” he comes from Ethiopia, and is of about a peacock’s size, but the peacock is inferior to him in beauty of colour. His wings are a mixture of gold and scarlet; he is proud to acknowledge the Sun as his lord, and his head is witness of his allegiance, which is crowned with a magnificent halo — a circular halo is the symbol of the sun. It is of a deep magenta colour, like that of the rose, of great beauty, with spreading rays where the feathers spring. The Ethiopians enjoy his presence during his life-time, the Egyptians at his death; when he dies — and he is subject to death after a long period of years — his son makes a sepulchre for him and carries him to the Nile. He digs out with his beak a ball of myrrh of the sweetest savour and hollows it out in the middle sufficiently to take the body of a bird; the hollow that he has dug out is employed as a coffin for the corpse. He puts the bird in and fits it into the receptacle, and then, after sealing up the cavity with clay, flies to the Nile, carrying with him the result of his labours. An escort of other birds accompanies him, as a bodyguard attends a migrating king, and he never fails to make straight for Heliopolis, the dead bird’s last destination. Then he perches upon a high spot and awaits the coming of the attendants of the god (The Sun — worshipped in Heliopolis, the Sun’s City. Pliny’s account is very similar, except that he makes the dying bird construct his own coffin, and be carried by his offspring to a city of the Sun in the direction of Panchaea (Socotra?), an Arabian spice-island in the Red Sea.); an Egyptian priest goes out, carrying with him a book from the sacred shrine, and assures himself that he is the genuine bird from his likeness to the picture which he possesses. The bird knows that he may be doubted, and displays every part, even the most private, of his body. Afterwards he exhibits the corpse and delivers, as it were, a funeral panegyric on his departed father; then the attendant-priests of the Sun take the dead bird and bury him. It is thus true that during life the Phoenix is an Ethiopian by right of nurture, but at his death he becomes an Egyptian by right of burial.”
BOOK IV
1. When the general heard of the amount and equipment of his adversaries’ forces as well as the delay of his own succours, he decided to turn back to the village whence we had set out until the reinforcements should appear. Leucippe and I had a house assigned to us a little beyond the general’s lodging. After entering it, I took her in my arms and desired to exercise the rights of a husband; but as she would not allow me to do so, “How long,” said I, “are we to be deprived of the rites of Aphrodite? Do you take no account of all our mishaps and adventures, shipwrecks, robbers, sacrifices, murders? While we are now in Fortune’s calm, let us make good use of our opportunity, before some other more cruel fate impedes us.”
“No,” said she, “this cannot be now at once. Yesterday, when I was weeping at the thought of my coming sacrifice, the goddess Artemis stood before me in a dream and said, ‘Weep no more; thou shalt not die, for I will be thy helper, but thou must remain a virgin, until I deck thee as bride, and none other than Clitophon shall be thy spouse.’ I was disappointed to hear that our happiness must thus be postponed, but glad for the hopes of the future.” Hearing her dream, I remembered that I too had had a similar vision; during the night just past I thought I saw before me Aphrodite’s temple and the goddess’s image within it; but when I came near to make my prayers, the doors were shut. I was distressed at this, but then a woman appeared exactly like the statue, saying; “At present you cannot enter the temple, but if you wait for a short time, I will not only open it to you but make you a priest of the goddess.” I related this dream to Leucippe and did not continue my attempts to constrain her, and yet, when I considered and compared Leucippe’s own dream, I was not a little disturbed.
2. Meanwhile Charmides (that was the general’s name) cast his eyes upon Leucippe, and this is how the business began. It so happened that some men were chasing a river-beast that is well worth seeing — the Nile-horse, (The whole of this chapter is of course a distorted picture of the hippopotamus.) as the Egyptians call it. It is like a horse, or so the account of it runs, as regards its belly and its feet, except that it has cloven hooves; it is about the size of the largest kind of ox; and it has a tail both short and hairless, as is indeed the rest of its body. Its head is round, and of considerable size, with its cheeks like those of a horse; its nostrils wide and breathing out hot vapour, (Compare Job xli. 19 sqq with this passage.) as from a spring of fire; its jaws enormous as its cheeks, and its mouth gaping open right up to its temples; its eyeteeth crooked, in shape and position like those of a horse, but about three times as big.
3. The general called us to watch the spectacle, and Leucippe was with us. We kept our eyes fixed on the animal, the general kept his on Leucippe, and he was straightway Love’s prisoner. Desiring to keep us by him as long as possible, in order thus to feast his eyes, he span out his conversation about the beast; first he described its appeara
nce and character, and then the way it is captured. It is the greediest of all animals, sometimes taking a whole field of corn at a meal, and it is caught by strategy. “The huntsmen,” he said, “observe its tracks, and then dig a pit, roofing it in with straw and earth; under this arrangement of thatch they place at the bottom a wooden box with its cover open up to the top of the pit, and wait for the beast to fall in. When it arrives, in it tumbles, and the box’ receives it like a trap; the huntsmen then rush out and close the lid and thus gain possession of their prey, since he is so strong that no one can master him by mere force. Not only is he extremely strong, but his hide, as you may see, is of great thickness, and cannot be penetrated by the steel. (“I shoot the hippopotamus with bullets made of platinum,
Because, if I use leaden ones, his hide is sure to flatten ’em.”
The Bad Child’s Book of Beasts.) He is, so to speak, the elephant of Egypt, and indeed in strength he is only second to the Indian elephant.”
4. “Why,” said Menelaus, “have you ever seen an elephant?”
“Certainly,” replied Charmides, “and I have heard from experts the extraordinary circumstances connected with its birth.”
“We,” said I, “have never seen one up to this time, except in a picture.”
“In that case,” he said, “I will describe it to you, as we have plenty of time. The female has a long period of pregnancy; for she takes ten years (Pliny, H.N. viii. 10. “The common sort of men think that they go with young for ten years, but Aristotle that they go but two years.”) to give form to the seed in her womb, and after that period she brings forth, her offspring being thus already old. This is the reason, I imagine, that he grows in the end to such an enormous bulk, is unconquerable by reason of his strength, and is so long-lived and slow to come to his end; they say that he lives longer than the crow in Hesiod. (Although the extant works of Hesiod, as we have them, do not include this allusion, we fortunately have a reference to it in Pliny, and Hesiod’s exact words preserved to us in Plutarch, de defectu oracidorum (Morals, 415 c):
Complete Works of Achilles Tatius Page 8
