Philip and Myrtle were given the fifth and sixth positions.
At last, each initiate was called individually to enter the Hieron. Inside, sitting on bleachers to the left and right of the cella, they saw former initiates, serving as witnesses. Seated in front of them were the Cabiri priests who were not directly involved in the ceremony.
The main ceremony was underway. It consisted of an act of purification, called a lustration, and a personal sacrifice. While four other initiates entered the Hieron before them, Philip and Myrtle stood silently, awaiting their call.
During the confession ceremony, Philip was in front of Myrtle. Once, while the remaining mystai stood outside the Hieron, Philip attempted communication with Myrtle, only to be silenced by a nearby priest. Then he saw the great Hieron doors open and the king of Macedon was called to enter. Entering the cella, he was led to the front-right corner of the chamber. There, he was asked to remove his white robe. Philip had heard that nudity was part of the ceremony and complied. He smiled a private smile and was pleased that he had arranged to go before Myrtle in the mystai line. Standing there nude, he was asked to kneel. A priest took water from a pure gold amphora and poured it over the king's body. The water, just drawn from the mountain stream, was ice cold and it sent shivers through the muscular back and legs of the humbled monarch. The chief priest then raised his hand and spoke.
"As Gaea's waters from the earth's center flow over you, Philip, your bodily sins are washed away. The punishing cold tells you of a death that will surely come. Yet you are still of this life. Through this ceremony, the Cabiri deign to give you the warmth of life, for life flows from death. So it is with man."
Philip was directed to rise and was given a purple robe that had somehow been heated. The robe's warmth fought the icy chill that infused his body.
Finally, the presiding priest wrapped an impressive red and purple sash around the king's waist. "During times of great danger, Philip, wear this fillet given to you by the underworld Cabiri. It protects you most while on the sea, for that is how you came to this place. You must call the Cabiri by their secret names to be delivered from danger. If your heart is pure, you will be given these names soon."
Philip was led to a row of wooden benches, just below the seated former initiates and priests. Huddled there, he smiled as he watched a priest move to the Hieron door. His eyes grew wider as he saw the priest open the door and call the next initiate. Myrtle was led to the front corner of the chamber. She walked slowly behind the priest, pleased that she had arranged to have the King of Macedon go before her. For she had also been told that the Samothracian mystery initiation, as was true of most of the mystery initiations, required disrobing.
The chief priest leading the princess was pleased as well. He had collected a tidy sum from both of the royal worshipers. The same result would have occurred even if only one of them had paid him. Such was the power of the priesthood.
Olympias disrobed in a single, deft move. Identical words were spoken over the nude, kneeling princess. Philip watched her with wide eyes and a throbbing heart. As the frigid water encountered her pale skin, he watched for a reaction. Except for her erect nipples, Myrtle's flesh reacted even less than his did. While she was being robed and fitted with her fillet, the princess looked directly at him. She smiled an almost imperceptible smile that only he saw. Then she was seated at the opposite end of the wooden bench from Philip, where six mystai now sat.
Philip heard little of the remaining ceremony. All he could think about was what he had just seen. He would have this woman. Have her not just as a concubine or treaty symbol, but also as queen. She would deliver him a son, worthy to be the successor of Philip of Macedon.
When the last of the fourteen initiates completed the lustration ceremony, a priest came to the center of the chamber and swore the group to secrecy for the rest of their lives. They agreed not to commit a variety of crimes ranging from poisoning another human being to aiding in an abortion. The last sacrament saw each initiate coming to the cella where the abaton was found. The abaton was a ceremonial symbol that recalled the abode of the chthonian Cabiri gods. Centered in its middle was a hole, large enough for a large man to enter. Priests helped the first initiates, one at a time, into the hole.
Then it was Philip’s turn. The subterranean chamber Philip descended into was large enough only for three priests and himself. Waiting in the hole, a new and fearsome priest approached Philip. He wore a huge mask that had images of four terrible gods on it. On a wall directly behind him was an enormous stone phallus. It stood erect, pointing threateningly. Beautifully cut to show intricate detail, it was painted in three colors, and even displayed tufts of dark, pubic hair.
The priest behind the mask then spoke. "You have entered a doorway to the Cabiri underworld, Philip. It is the home of gods that all humans fear and dread. Yet the Cabiri can give gifts. They give gifts of safety during times of great danger, gifts of life over death."
The priest handed Philip a single stalk of wheat. The stalk kernel was laden with seeds. Then a wine-filled chalice was given to him. "The gods have decreed that the wheat plant must die to produce these abundant seeds. Yet, the seeds are the beginning of life for a new plant. Each plant must also repeat the cycle. So it is with mankind. Take now the seeds and crush them. Put them into the wine and drink them with the blood of life. For it is through death that you gain life."
Suddenly, barely audible moaning sounds were heard as Philip complied. The cave walls seemed to anguish. They were accompanied by the subtle presence of a pungent, nauseating smell. The priest waited for the odor to permeate Philip's nostrils and then moved his arms around the small cave, assaulting the wide-eyed king’s senses.
"You will now learn the names of the Cabiri that you hear and smell. I may repeat the names only three times. You must remember them for the rest of your lives. Say each name after me. Aierus, Axiocersa, Axiocersus, Cadmilus."
King Philip of Macedon said the words and was then helped from the abaton orifice. After giving a sacrifice of small birds to the gods, he was taken out of the Hieron. Although Philip tried to wait for Myrtle, it was not allowed. He was given over to attendants who led him back to his quarters in the village below the sanctuary.
The last act of the initiation required individuals to be alone with their thoughts the night following the ceremony. They could not eat and were strictly forbidden from seeing anyone.
Philip could not sleep that night. As he tossed and turned on his small cot, his mind was filled with images of the naked beauty of his queen to be. He tried to understand the opposing emotions that Myrtle brought out in him. He would never tolerate these feelings when he assessed the character of a man. Men were simple: either you liked them or you didn’t.
Only briefly did he consider forgetting Myrtle and moving on to some well-born, wide-hipped woman who would give him an heir. That was impossible now. Myrtle would be his queen. He thought that this might be emotional hubris, for romantic love in the Greek world was widely held to be a form of mental illness. He rejected the idea quickly. At last, just before sunrise, he found peace. He rolled over and fell into a deep sleep.
He wanted to dream of Myrtle, but he didn’t.
CHAPTER 10
Even to Philip, Athens was the cultural, political, and social center of Hellas. He had gained admiration for the city and what it stood for while he was still a hostage in Thebes. Events emanated from Athens that had repercussions everywhere that Greek was spoken. Standards of education, life-style, commerce, and contentious democracy were set by the proud polis. Her fifth-century empire, collapsed by the disastrous defeat at the hands of Sparta, was still the talk of intellectuals, politicians, and would-be unifiers of Hellas.
Athens's influence was also seen in the scores of colonies that she had established throughout the Aegean. These Ionian island colonies were originally founded as Athenian outposts of trade, culture, and political influence. Over the years, they had wanted loose affiliati
on with the mother city. Yet they often engaged in independence movements, attempting to break what had become oppressive formal ties. The colonies had, for decades, fallen under the enormous sphere of influence of Persia, and Athens wanted them back in their new confederacy.
Now Mausolus, the nominal Persian governor of Caria, was urging them to rebel from Athenian control and abandon Athens's new confederation. Athenian legislators, concerned that the city’s dream of renewed domination of Hellas was disintegrating, began debating legislative actions that they hoped would meet the challenges facing the overextended city. The building housing the Athenian ecclesia was located on a low hill, the Pnyx, just west of the Acropolis. For weeks the boule had been meeting, endlessly debating the course of action that the city should take to meet the latest crises. Decision day was at hand, and a final vote was scheduled that would become the boule recommendation to the ecclesia.
Unusually, Demosthenes and Aeschines agreed on what must be done. Both men requested permission to speak on the recommendation and Demosthenes was chosen to speak first. The session fell silent as he mounted the three high steps of the speaker's platform. "Athens is again in peril," he began softly. "Yet peril is a sword with two edges. One edge, limited only by our national resolve, represents our ability to reestablish our past confederation. Instead of just reading and talking about Athens's past glory, we can again expand Athenian power and influence. Many of you will grow rich if that expansion is successful. The other sword edge can be put to our necks. Some of our allies—Euboea, the strategic islands of Chios, Cos, Rhodes, and critical Byzantium, at the mouth of the Pontus—are in open revolt. Decisive military action must be taken against these challenges. Later, Strategos Phocian will present specifics of these military actions. Do not shirk your responsibilities, boule members. I urge that you support this, the first of my two motions today."
Demosthenes' voice increased in volume until he was nearly screaming. Well-practiced body actions, learned while watching actors in the amphitheater, punctuated every major point. His hands, arms, and face dramatized every word and phrase. Here was a speaker who would not be ignored, as every fiber of his being rushed to support the oratorical spectacle.
"Movement of our army and navy will take months. Thus, my second motion regards Athens's agricultural lifeblood, the grain route. For hundreds of years we have sailed grain-laden merchant ships from the Pontus to our port at Piraeus. Every leader of Athens has sworn to protect that grain route. Now, because of the death of King Cotys of Thrace, his kingdom has been divided into three regions. His sons rule precariously these attenuated entities and their longevity is doubtful. Threatening also is the barbarian Philip. We all trust, and it is our common understanding, that the strategoi have taken secret actions that will minimize the Macedonian's challenge. My second motion, then, is to send delegations immediately to each of the three Thracian sons of King Cotys and seal an alliance with that weakest point in our confederacy. It is only when we have calmed Byzantium and created a buffer between it and Philip that our grain routes will be safe. We can do no less in these urgent times. I yield now to a citizen who normally speaks against my proposals. Able Aeschines will support my two motions and then you will hear from Phocion. Heed these words, Athenians. Your future hangs in the balance."
There was scattered applause and shouts of support for Demosthenes' words. Aeschines waited for quiet, then slowly climbed the speaker's platform and started to speak. "Demosthenes is correct when he says that we rarely find ourselves on the same side of any issue. But the grave conditions that confront us require both unanimous and quick action. You all know that generally I eschew military actions to solve the many problems that confront the Greek poleis. But we have tried that possibility. Thebes has not responded to our diplomatic overtures, and they continue to undermine the status of Euboea in our confederation. The island colonies in Ionia want independence from Persia and us. This, after we have given them the best that our city has to offer. Make no mistake, citizens—while the Persian, King Mausolus, continues his disruptive actions, we will have no peace. I've met the man and he is formidable. The full power of our army and navy must now descend on these rebellious allies."
There was applause and shouts of agreement for Aeschines' words. Demosthenes sat in the front row and examined the orator. If he only could achieve the natural spontaneity that the great speaker projected so easily when he addressed the boule. Although judged an excellent speaker, Demosthenes had to work days to achieve the same results. The gods were capricious in giving men gifts. Aeschines had been blessed with a quick, extemporaneous speaking style that appeared rehearsed in its perfection. Demosthenes had been forced to rote-memorize his speeches, so they sounded as natural as the man who continued.
"Demosthenes has presented a second motion before this body. I support it. Our agents in Thrace tell us that the sons of Cotys are not able to stand up to the challenges that confront them. Philip, left to his designs, will devour the three weak kingdoms and all of Thrace. He must be shown his limits. An immediate alliance with Cotys’s sons will be a clear announcement to the Macedonian that he can advance no farther than Amphipolis, the city he now besieges. War rarely accomplishes anything of lasting value. It only breeds a new war. Let our response be firm and quick. But when we have brought our allies back into the confederation, let us show magnanimity. Athens must stand for more than raw power, for are we not the School of Hellas? When we have prevailed, as we will, let us build a future together that will embrace all the poleis. For Persia has agents in our midst. If they continue to purchase disunity, we will have no chance when they come at us for a third time. So let us proceed, but with wisdom and unity. Split into competing units, we will be consumed by the Persian Great King, Artaxerxes Ochus. Is there any doubt that he is watching and listening? When this unpleasant business in completed, let Hellas, including Philip, drive the Persians back to their high plateau. Only fifty years ago, Xenophon proved what ten thousand Greek soldiers could do to the best army the Persians can put in the field. A unified Greece force can duplicate that heroic effort. Only then can we achieve all that we can be. These are my words. Let us hear from Phocion, then we will vote."
Phocion, the current strategos, addressed the boule. He described combined army and naval actions that he felt would bring the rebellious allies back into the confederacy. He estimated that these actions would take nearly a year, since the full power of Athens could not be focused on any one of the widely separated rebels at a given time. The military plan appeared sound to the boule members and it passed with only a few dissenting votes.
The body then took up Demosthenes' second motion, the recommendation to seek an alliance with the three young kings of Thrace. It passed unanimously and the boule's actions were sent to the ecclesia for what would be near automatic approval.
As Demosthenes left the legislative chamber, he was troubled with Aeschines' last remarks. Although a true and patriotic supporter of Athens, he was in sympathy with Persia and her Great King. He envisioned Hellas being led by Athens but not beyond its present borders or beyond the borders of the breakaway confederacy members. It would be national suicide to confront the Persians in their territory, he felt. Absorption of the Greek Ionian colonies, control of Euboea, and protecting the Pontus grain routes were one thing, but Aeschines and Phocion were going too far when they suggested a unified Greek campaign against Persians. He decided to initiate secret contacts with the Artaxerxes Ochus before events got out of control.
Persia was the world's first imperialistic empire. In the distant past, it had stretched from Egypt through Tyre, Sidon and Byblos, along the Eastern Mediterranean coast and into the vast, high plateaus of Asia Minor. It was so expansive that after Great King Darius’s death, semi-independent governors called satraps, or protectors of the kingdom, were established to administer the Great King's will. A Royal Road, twelve and a half thousand stadia long, connected the far-off Persian administrative capital, Susa, with the Me
diterranean seaport, Ephesus. This distance was greater than most Greeks could imagine. Only by relating that it would take a man three months to walk it on foot could they understand its great length.
Ruled by a series of feudal kings, Persia was easily the wealthiest and most powerful dynasty with which the Greeks had to contend. On two separate occasions she had invaded Greece and attempted to subjugate it. Great King Darius had crossed the Bosporus, forded the Danube River, and moved as far west and northwest as Macedonia and Paeonia, only to be forced to withdraw. Darius later made another attempt to conquer Hellas, but was defeated by ten thousand Athenians at the Battle of Marathon.
One year after Philip's accession, Artaxerxes Ochus was elevated to the Persian throne. Vicious, even by Persian standards, he aimed to unify his enormous empire by whatever methods necessary. His greatest weapon in these actions was gold, for the Great King had more gold than any single ruler in the ancient world. He knew from experience that Greeks, including the democratic Athenians, were susceptible to bribery. His agents were everywhere and it was through them that Ochus started to maneuver.
The Great Kings had, for generations, used three royal cities to rule the empire that they had created. Ecbatana, high in the Zagros Mountains, was the northernmost capital. It was used as a refuge during the intolerable heat of summer that made the more southern and lower elevation sites uninhabitable. Parsa, which the Greeks later named Persepolis, was the southernmost of the capitals. It lay north of the Persian Gulf, nestled in a large valley. Parsa was the empire's religious center and the burial place for all Persian Great Kings. It was sometimes used as the capital during the coldest winter months and was the most beautiful city in the world, although it was nearly unknown to the Greeks. Midway between the other two capitals was Susa. It was the kingdom's administrative center and, because of its central location, the primary residence of most Great Kings. It was in Susa that the royal court was established. All roads in the empire radiated out from the impressive capital. The main road of the empire, the Royal Road, had its terminus in this most important of the three capitals.
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