by George Moore
Sophocles was about to say more, but a man was standing by, his eyes so plainly fixed upon Rhesos that Sophocles said: Here is the young sculptor whose genius hath invited us hither, Euripides. And whilst Rhesos enjoyed Euripides’s kindly words, he enjoyed also his kindly countenance. His brow, though less commanding than Sophocles’s, is good, he said to himself. A well-turned head, a fine brow and a long, thin nose make a face that I should like to put into marble. The only thing I have against him is his smile, which is a little mechanical; but were it taken away from him we should not see his teeth, shapely and white as they were when he was twenty. A transparently good man, untarnished by vanity, jealousy or envy, worthy of a place on the steps of the throne below Sophocles and Phidias. And whilst watching the many edging forward to behold and to exchange words with the three poets, he continued: Having lived all their fives in noble thoughts and legends it would be strange indeed if their faces were not modelled accordingly. Our thoughts model us; Sophocles and Euripides look out of their tragedies Phidias out of his sculpture, the same dignity, the same candour, the same sweetness, the same eternity. However human their lives may have been in the beginning, their work hath raised them above humanity and they enjoy calm, whilst we remain fretful, frightened by every ache and pain, and of all, by the word death. But not these men. Why should a man in pain dread his pain being taken from him? Phidias answered me. Rhesos fell to considering once more how he might best persuade Phidias to undertake the long journey, but a young youth engaged in animated converse with the group he had gathered round him carried his thoughts from Sicily and raised his wonder who the youth might be. One still in his teens, he said; sixteen or seventeen I judge him to be, yet he imposes himself on the old and middle-aged. His gay voice betrays a light-hearted scoffer, and the swift play of light and shadow over his full, oval face is my surety that a poet is hidden in him.
Not for seven years have we seen thee, Rhesos! — words spoken in his ear without warning. So thou hast come to Aulis, Morikos, for the dedication of the temple? To admire thine Aphrodite, Rhesos, and to see thee, tidings having come across the seas of the work thou hast done in Mitylene, Rhodes, Syracuse, Cos, Chios, Lesbos, Sardis. Some of the places thou hast mentioned are known to me, replied Rhesos, some are unknown. Tell me of thy work, said Morikos. We will find an hour before thy return to Athens to talk of it, Rhesos answered, and of the days when we worked together on the Parthenon, passing jests as we sat carving capital after capital. Thou hast escaped from such menial work, Rhesos; favoured of the Gods thou wert from the beginning. And taking these words to hint at a mournful story, to parry it Rhesos said: Thou, who knowest Athens day by day, canst tell me who the blithe youth may be that telleth stories to the group yonder; from the laughter his sallies provoke I guess them to be sharp and well directed. The youth yonder, said Morikos, is Aristophanes; talked of he is round certain taverns, coming into fame, so it is said, and being but a youth his effrontery is enjoyed. It may be different when he hath written more plays. Plays? Rhesos asked. He cannot be out of his teens! He is not, retorted Morikos. His first play, The Banqueters, is being handed round. Euripides hath read it and will use his influence to get it performed. For his luck Aristophanes should be grateful, said Rhesos, to which Morikos answered: Gratitude in a wit does not save the patron from gibes, and the gibe in fashion is: Here comes Euripides with his little oil-can! Euripides is now beckoning to him, Rhesos continued, and he gains the attention of Euripides and Sophocles and Phidias as easily as he did that of the folk. I would hear him. And advancing through the crowd they heard Aristophanes telling that he had just left a cobbler-poet reading an epitaph to be engraved on the tomb of a wolf in Boeotian hexameters. Speak not ill of Boeotia, said Sophocles. But if Boeotia chooses to write epitaphs in hexameters, may I not demur? How old art thou, Aristophanes? Thou shouldst be able to tell my age, master, by my words. If they are wise I am young; if they are foolish I am old. Impertinent boy! Without answering Aristophanes went in search of the cobbler, and returning with him, he said: — Now, speak for thyself, Thyonicus, and if thou’rt too bashful to speak, let thine hexameters speak for thee.
Great masters of the Athenian drama, said Thyonicus, this youth mocks me. I am used to mockery from the townsfolk, but you, sirs, may hear with different ears, and I will read my hexameters, taking the hazard that happiness may cloud mine eyes and tears and sobs choke my voice:
Stranger, uplift thine eyes to the graven image of Ajax, Hewn by his master, the sculptor Rhesos, out of the high rock. Dreamers both: one dreaming his sculpture from city to city, Ajax seeking his master’s scent from forest to forest.
Rats and rabbits his food, he roamed through the tangled thickets Snuffing, and ere he died he beheld the face of his master.
Tall he stood as he rested his paws on his master’s shoulders, Licking his face. But pity the fate of wolves as of mortals, Stranger, alike in this, that truth and devotion avail not ‘Gainst the appointed hour. This learn in the story of Ajax, Crazy with age and with joy, who fell to the fangs of a panther.
Brave wolf, renowned for ever thou shalt be in Aulis! cried many voices, and in the confusion Sophocles placed the wreath destined for Rhesos on Thyonicus’s brow. For forty years I have hammered soles, cried the happy cobbler, unsuspicious that at every stroke of my hammer the moment was drawing nearer when at the bidding of the divine Fates the father of dramatic poetry would place a laurel crown on my brow! I would give thanks to the Gods, and to thee, Sophocles, their messenger, in appropriate words, and will do so later in an ode. The laurel perishes leaf by leaf, said Aristophanes, but the sole endures if it be well hammered. Somebody cried that Kebren was beckoning them to the temple, and the company moved forward, leaving Milon and Thyonicus in each other’s arms.
Modesty is very winning, said Sophocles. Like courage, Aristophanes replied, and surprised at the interruption Sophocles continued: A treacherous smile played about thy lips whilst Thyonicus read his verses. A smile is enough for halting hexameters! the boy answered. A kind word is never out of place, said Euripides, even when hexameters limp. Thou hast brought thy little oil-can, master. And thou the vinegar, Aristophanes! Didst come to Boeotia to sprinkle it? Why should I come to Boeotia to sprinkle vinegar? What then is thy errand? asked Sophocles. I came in search of a comedy. And mayhap will return to Athens without one. Not so, replied the boy. I have found my comedy in Thyonicus. Then tell it, marvellous boy, and enliven the end of our journey. The title? asked Euripides. The title, master? The Apes. And the chief character? Have I not said, master, that I found my comedy in Thyonicus, wherefore he is the chief character, not the Thyonicus we have left behind but the Thyonicus of the future. Twenty-five years hence he will be a venerable old man with a beard and a staff, the aspects of a false prophet. Thou believest not then in prophets? asked Sophocles. Thou railest against the prophets as well as the Gods? The two go together, Aristophanes answered. But let us hear how the prophet appears to thee in the years to come. I have told his appearance, master, and his character coincides with it, which is as it should be. The laurel wreath hath swollen him with pride, and in the fullness of his age he believes himself to be a compendium, an abridgment, a summary of all available knowledge, and itches to dispense his wisdom to all and sundry. Perceiving the necessity of his wisdom on every side, he stops by the river bank to reprove the washer women for their lack of skill in washing; he undertakes to teach them how to wash the clothes properly. And when they are fully instructed he continues his walk along the river bank, pondering on the folly of the river, which might easily have taken a different course to its very great advantage. Aulis hath become almost uninhabitable through the orations of Thyonicus the prophet, and the townsfolk come before the magistracy to ask: How long? How long? How long?
The first complainant is the schoolmaster, whose school hath been emptied by Thyonicus’s preaching that learning is unnecessary, in fact a hitch and a hindrance to many a man. Any gifts we may have, Thyonicus contends,
we bring into the world with us, and we should leave life to sharpen them; the schoolmaster’s teaching only serves to blunt. A dangerous creed indeed! the three magistrates murmur, and the schoolmaster continues: All we can do, says this childless man, is to teach our children a few little habits, no more. The magistrates debate the question and promise the school master that if Thyonicus can be proved to have acted against the law in anything, he shall be punished, and the schoolmaster bows and gives way to the butcher, the next complainant. The man Thyonicus who hath emptied the school will also empty my shop, says the butcher, for he teaches that men, women, and children should abstain from animal food, and I have come to ask you, sirs, what will become of mankind; for if man abstains from eating the animals about him, the animals will eat him! Swine are prolific, and our forests will be overrun. My knife will blunt in its sheath. Prometheus, says a magistrate, stole fire from heaven, but from whom did Thyonicus steal the thought that the animals should eat man rather than man the animals? From another prophet, cries a townsman, one Daridoeus, who prophesied the destruction of towns along the Hellespont and raised up a wave in Aulis. Yes, yes, reply the magistracy, we remember. Prophets rise up like waves, and Aulis would be free from prophets. Now, sir, we would hear thy complaint. Before I tell my complaint, the townsman answers, I would remark that it was not Daridceus alone who inspired Thyonicus to speak against animal food, but the apes whom his sayings have lured from their forests. They would not have us eat animal food because they do not eat it themselves. At this moment another character in the comedy will rush in, his garments so filthy that doors have to be opened to let out the smell, and when the breeze hath carried it away the sickened magistracy listen to his tale. And the tale he tells is that the filth of his garments is not due to his own uncleanliness but to Thyonicus’s apes, who hide themselves in the trees and drop filth upon all and sundry who have spoken against their master. I spoke against this pestilential fellow, wherefore I became a mark for every ape, and they being very clever at dropping their filth upon any to whom they owe a grudge have covered me, as you see, sirs, till my condition is that of a porker wallowing for days in a dirty sty. I tried dodging and ducking, but they are clever marksmen; not a shot missed. This, the magistracy will agree, brings the case against Thyonicus to a head! And the apes being clever at climbing, the filthy man continues, doors and windows do not keep them out; all secrets are known to them. But do the apes speak? ask the magistracy. They speak, sirs, in rudiments, no more, but they are so very clever that it suffices for their wants and purposes. They cannot all be very clever? Yes, all, without exception! cries the witness. And what wouldst thou have us do? the magistracy ask, and he answers: Thyonicus is waiting in the street, hoping to get a verdict from you in his favour. Thyonicus is sent for, and during the little while before his coming a dispute arises as to whether the apes shall be admitted or excluded. The magistracy decide that the stench would be unbearable and that the trial must be held in secret When Thyonicus enters he is questioned on all the points, and without hesitation he admits that he is given to talking on every subject and believes that if the world would listen to him all the difficulties of life would be smoothed away by his wisdom. Then comes the question of the apes, whom he hath lured from their forests. Thyonicus will object, saying that he did not employ any lure, that the apes were attracted by his ideas. The world, he says, is attracted only by words: I preach ideas, and the apes understand ideas better than men; wherefore they came out of their forests to listen, to learn, to protect me against my enemies, who are numerous. The poets are especially anxious to destroy me, for I have given up writing verses and now expend myself in ideas. But our testimony is before thee, Thyonicus, cry the magistracy, the man who is covered with filth, showerings from the apes that have hidden themselves in the trees. He should have kept in the middle of the road, Thyonicus answers. To keep in the middle of the road is my advice to all men. And the apes? he is asked. O, the apes climb trees, for they are very clever; all are very clever and dispense my ideas. But the apes have no words, say the magistracy; we have heard to-day that they speak only in rudiments. Rudiments are all that is necessary in this world, replies Thyonicus; the rest is vanity, lies, subterfuge. Rudiments are my doctrine; let us get back to rudiments. The apes understand this, for they are clever, O, very clever. But Homer contains much more than rudiments, Thyonicus, and if what we hear be true, that thy method is always to speak of thyself and Homer, it would seem that thou admirest Homer. In the days of my youth I may have admired him, Thyonicus answers, but now I admire only myself, for truth — We do not need to hear about truth, say the magistracy; we need peace in the town of Aulis.
The news that the case is going against Thyonicus reaches the street, and the howling of the apes prevents a decision being given. The officers of the court are sent out to quell the animals, and they return in tatters and very filthy, and it is not until Thyonicus himself goes to the door and asks them to be still that the apes are reduced to silence. The magistracy confer a little while, and then the chief magistrate says that quiet and peace being more necessary than truth in Aulis, Thyonicus must be bound over never to speak of Homer again, to which he answers: But I do not speak of Homer; I abjure Homer. All the magistrates stand up. This is blasphemy! they say. If Homer be not a God, he is very near to the Godhead. As if mere verses could bring him near to the Godhead! Thyonicus replies, and the magistracy answer: We cannot enter into an argument regarding the merits of prose and verse. All we need is peace in our town, and our decision is that thou must choose whether thou wilt drink hemlock, which brings an easy death — we recommend it to thee — or cease from ribald attacks upon Homer, whom the Greeks reverence even as a God. After walking about the council chamber deep in thought, Thyonicus replies: My life is more important than Homer’s verses, wherefore I choose to live and will for the future abstain from talking of myself unduly. And this message being given to the apes, a howl of execration is raised by them, and the ushers, torn and filthy, enter the court and say that the animals have returned to their original forests. And I — to what original forest shall I return? Thyonicus asks, and the magistracy answer: To thy last, for thou wert an excellent sandal-maker till philosophy overtook thee.
Now, masters of the drama, thou hast heard my comedy, cried the marvellous boy, and before I begin the composition it will be of advantage to me to hear how it strikes you. As somewhat slender, said Sophocles. But thou knowest well the value of the pen, master; it is the pen that inspires, and as soon as I return to Athens I shall enrich my comedy with many touches I have not been able to tell you of. And thou, Euripides — hast no word for me? I have indeed, replied Euripides. It is all very clever — Master, speak not the words very clever, which apply only to apes! cried the marvellous boy. Thou hast always thy little oil-can. And seeing that they were now almost within earshot of Kebren, standing on the steps of the temple to welcome them, Sophocles begged all to remember that they were about to enter the temple of the Goddess.
CHAPTER XXII
IS RHESOS IN the temple, Timotheus? No, lady. I have looked everywhere, Earine continued, and inquired of different stragglers, but none hath seen him. What can have induced him to hide himself, and on such a day as this? The last I saw of him was when Thyonicus began to read his verses. Rhesos’s eyes filled with tears for his dead wolf, and ashamed of them he must have wandered, always given more to solitude than to company. My business is to look after him, and I would have kept him in my sight if on the way hither Aristophanes had not begun to tell the story of his comedy to the tragic poets, and everybody’s ears were open, trying to catch a phrase here and there. What pushing and jostling there was, my peplos nearly torn off my back, the man whose foot was upon it being none too polite. But we patched up the peplos and the quarrel and fell to talking of Aristophanes, agreeing that the title, The Apes, was the very title that his humour would suggest, one that Rhesos would apprehend and enjoy. I never thought of it before, but there is somethi
ng of Rhesos in Aristophanes and something of Aristophanes in Rhesos. But where is Rhesos? If I do not find him Aristophanes will take his absence from the banquet as a theme to improvise upon; and I do not wish to deprive Rhesos’s fellow citizens, who are not mine, from seeing and admiring him in the moment of his triumph. The people always like heroes, whether they be generals, architects, or sculptors. The sight of a man who hath lifted himself above his fellows lifts them, too, and our day of rejoicing will be a sad day if — What art thou saying, lady Earine? That Rhesos hath run away and will not be at the banquet? It is not possible. Now, what did I tell thee? Here he comes down the hillside!
