Athena’s Son
Jeryl Schoenbeck
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Printed in the USA
Cover design by New York Graphics
Library of Congress Control Number: 2011943304
Copyright © 2011 Jeryl Schoenbeck
All rights reserved.
ISBN-13: 978-0615563121
ISBN-10: 0615563120
For Linda
.
Historical background
Archimedes (287-212 BC). Considered by many historians to be the greatest scientist of the ancient world, he invented and improved many of the first machines, including levers and pulleys. He was born in Syracuse on the island of Sicily. He traveled to Alexandria to study science, mathematics, and mechanics and would have been 12 during the setting of this story. All of the science that Archimedes employs in this story is authentic: he used it, discovered it, or envisioned it during his lifetime.
Pharaoh Ptolemy II (309-246 BC). Second pharaoh of the Ptolemaic Dynasty, he built the Pharos Lighthouse and expanded the Library of Alexandria. The Ptolemys were Macedonian, not Egyptian, and the mix of Greek and Egyptian culture made Alexandria a unique and vibrant city. The Ptolemaic Dynasty lasted 275 years and was Egypt’s last pharaohs, ending with the death of Cleopatra in 30 BC.
Berenike (286-246 BC). Daughter to Pharaoh Ptolemy II. Not much is written about her early years, but she would have been about the same age as Archimedes.
Callimachus (305-240 BC). He worked at the Library of Alexandria and developed the first library catalogue.
Herophilos (335-280 BC). Founded the Medical School of Alexandria. One of the first doctors to use the scientific method in medicine. He was also one of the first to perform autopsies and dissections on humans, which he used to explain how the heart works by pumping blood throughout the body. He also studied the human brain and was the first to discover our brains were used for intellect; previously physicians believed the heart was used for thinking.
School of Alexandria. It was built by Pharaoh Ptolemy I and contained the largest collection of books in the ancient world. It was part of the Museum of Alexandria. The name “museum” comes from the Greeks who called it the “House of Muses” and rather than a museum in the modern sense, it was a place of learning. There is no clear record of when the Library was destroyed, but it possibly burned down during the time Rome ruled Egypt. Along with the Library went most of the written works of the ancient world.
Pharos Lighthouse. One of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, it was started by Pharaoh Ptolemy II in 280 BC and when completed, may have been taller than the Great Pyramid at Giza, the only Ancient Wonder that still stands. The lighthouse was destroyed by a series of earthquakes in the 1300s AD.
Chapter 1
A pair of yellow eyes was watching one of the last workers gather his tools. The eyes were large, almond shaped, and would have belonged to a dog, except they were too big for a dog. The setting sun glazed two long fangs an ominous orange tint. The amber eyes blinked deliberately, sensing that death was near for this man.
The sculptor decided to stay late and finish working on a piece he started three days ago. Djedhor was one of the many artists hired to carve images of the gods out of stone for Pharaoh Ptolemy’s Great Lighthouse. He could work undisturbed in the evening after most of the other men left. The noise, dust, and swarming bodies were too much of a distraction for a sculptor. Besides, the evening was cooler.
The sun god Ra took his blazing orb below the horizon in the west, the direction of death. He would rise tomorrow in the east, representing new life.
Djedhor chipped away at the soft limestone as it took the shape of Isis, goddess of Egypt. After he finished carving her, a painter would carefully paint her so she would appear lifelike. Isis was the most popular of the Egyptian gods, the caring goddess who was a vital link between the gods and man. She helped the deceased make an easy transition into the afterlife, ruled by her husband, Osiris. Djedhor had no idea how soon Isis would be assisting him.
The staccato chipping of Djedhor’s chisel masked the footsteps behind him. His forearms were taut with muscle as his left hand gripped the bronze chisel and his right swung the wooden maul. His left hand deftly moved the chisel along as it shaved the curve of Isis’ slim waist.
He smiled as he thought about his own young wife’s waist. It was rounded and full, carrying his first child. He remembered the leek soup she had promised him when he got home. Hopefully there would be a bit of chicken in it if she was able to trade one of his simple carvings at the marketplace. In only one more month the baby would be born. Sadly, the child would never see his father.
Djedhor stopped chiseling to brush away some stone flakes. The footsteps made a faint crunch on some dry esparto grass. He turned to see who was still working this evening. It was no worker.
Djedhor’s eyes went wide, he tried to stand. There was a quiet gust of wind and Djedhor exhaled painfully. His eyes quickly glassed over and his hand reached for his chest, his heart was beating unnaturally. He slumped over, knocking down the unfinished Isis with him.
The amber eyes watched Djedhor writhe on the ground until the sculptor’s ka left him for the afterlife. Two arms picked up Djedhor’s corpse, laid it on a nearby slab of limestone block, and crossed its still-warm arms across his body. Next, a hand took a small amulet of a scarab beetle from where it was tucked in its kilt, and carefully laid it on the corpse. The turquoise amulet gleamed an ethereal blue in the evening light.
Suddenly the quiet night was wrenched awake with a piercing sound, like a kheft—a demon—screeching. The yellow eyes narrowed, a soft growl throbbed in its throat, and left. The only evidence was a body and the abnormally large tracks of a jackal.
Chapter 2
This was going to be just another problem to fix for Archimedes.
He grabbed the rope handles of a wooden box and dragged it out from behind some crates. His alchemy kit contained the materials needed to bring his ideas to life and it was too valuable to be left sitting around on a cargo ship.
The key clicked in the lock and he opened the lid only a couple of inches, then slid his hand in and secured the safety latch. The latch held back a thin wire blade that would whip down and cut the finger off anyone stupid enough to open the lid all the way.
He removed the top tray that contained his chemicals. The small green bottles rattled in the wooden slots when he set it down. The second tray held a selection of bronze gears and wooden pulleys. He put that tray next to the chemicals and pulled out the third tray that had his inventions in various states of completion.
Finally, he reached into the box and sorted through his tools. He pushed aside the saw and took out the mallet.
The dank air in the hold of the Calypso was hard to breathe and a lamp flickered weakly trying to get its share of oxygen. He hammered the last of two sharp pins through a narrow board torn from a discarded crate. Two pins were facing up on a similar board. The bronze pins were donated by Farrokh, a merchant who was also traveling to Egypt.
Traveling by cargo ship was slow, but cheap. Calypso was one of the hulking ships that plied their trade across the Mediterranean Sea. The craft was old but solid, sluggish but steady. It smelled of fish, sweat, and sea. It was all Archimedes’ parents could afford after paying tuition for the School of Alexandria.
In 276 BC, Alexandria was the cultural crossroads of the M
editerranean and the school was the finest university in the world. In addition, Alexandria had the world’s largest library, with writings from Aristotle to Xerxes.
Archimedes was the youngest student ever accepted to attend the school because while the other children were adding 1 and 3 to make 5, he was showing his teachers how to do geometry. Other 12-year-old boys threw rocks; Archimedes wondered if the heat of the sun could be harnessed as a weapon. The scholars in Alexandria heard about the inventive boy and convinced him to leave Syracuse behind.
When the bulky ship waddled out of the port of Syracuse, the captain tossed an offering of wine overboard to Poseidon. It must have been cheap wine. The heavy oak beams groaned against Poseidon’s temper and the salt spray spit through any available crack.
A rogue wave crashed against the side of the ship and a dull thud reverberated in the hold. Archimedes nervously inspected the planks surrounding him. He pulled a leather cord from around his neck with a simple wood amulet of an owl tied to it. He rubbed it between his finger and thumb and prayed to Athena to ask her uncle Poseidon to calm his seas. The ship swayed with the surge of the sea and his stomach still felt like live eels were squirming in it.
Soon after the Calypso left port, Archimedes became violently seasick and could only curl up inside a coil of rough rope, staying as near to the railing as possible so he could empty his stomach. It seemed the volume of vomit he expelled exceeded the amount of liquid and solids he ingested. Can a body really throw up more than it consumes? Does the human body defy physics?
A sailor named Pollux had given Archimedes seawater, telling him it would help his sour stomach. Immediately after gulping the warm brine, his insides cramped up so tight he couldn’t even get to the railing to throw up anymore.
Pollux was a bully and a problem.
Tall and lean, Pollux had the leather skin and vulgar qualities of someone who made his living as a sailor. He was hard and wiry from the grueling work aboard ship and his black beard parted to show the pink scar of an old brawl.
In port, Pollux roamed the streets looking for people to cheat or empty homes to rob. On a ship, he ransacked the cargo, hunting for anything easy to steal. That is why he chose the fat, slow trade vessels. There was plenty of loot and plenty of time to steal it.
Pollux took every opportunity to torment Archimedes. He gave vicious elbows in his side or spit thick gobs on his tunic. When Pollux couldn’t pick the lock on Archimedes’ alchemy kit, Pollux scratched yer ded in the lid with his knife. Pollux didn’t only use the knife to misspell words. Any chance he could he pulled it out and warned Archimedes that young boys shouldn’t go swimming with their throat cut because it attracted sharks.
Fortunately for Archimedes, a merchant named Farrokh offered some comfort the past two days. He was going to Alexandria with a cargo of Greek jewelry and olive oil. Farrokh told Archimedes that he caught Pollux lurking around his wares stored below and after checking the inventory, found the crates open and several trinkets missing. That was when Archimedes asked Farrokh if he could borrow some of the bronze pins.
On the deck above, Archimedes heard muffled shouts of the sailors taking measurements of the depth. It was dark down in the hold, but Archimedes could have made the trap in the black of Hades’ underworld. He would have preferred the sun and fresh air, but the small rats were down here.
Thanks to Farrokh’s pins, the new trap was fixed.
The first trap failed because it would either crush the rats or only injure them, letting them crawl away and die somewhere else.
The improved trap worked like the jaws of a cat. It was about two feet long and one hand wide. A short rod sawed from a broken oar was perpendicular between the two boards with the needles. Archimedes improved the trap by moving the rod closer to the end of the boards.
The trap used a mechanical principle Archimedes was very familiar with—leverage. Leverage could also be used to trap humans using greed as bait.
He palmed the rock he pilfered from the ballast in the hold of the ship. The weight provided the power and multiplied the force to snap the lever down. Leverage multiplied one stone into the power of five. Archimedes pushed aside the small twig that held the trap.
Crack!
The stone dropped, the board spun over the rod, and the four bronze pins met in a swift metallic bite. Dust billowed from the filthy floor and he waved aside the gritty air to view the results. The faint orange flame reflected in Archimedes’ mischievous brown eyes.
It was time to fix a problem.
Chapter 3
Gold.
It was all Farrokh would talk about this morning. The argument started during breakfast when Archimedes told him that an education is the most valuable thing in the world. Farrokh said it was gold.
They were on the deck sharing a meal of flatbread and spiced lamb that Farrokh supplied. “Gold bought this ship, gold bought the cargo, and gold paid for your precious education!” Farrokh said.
Their conversation became heated and louder, and the word gold caught the attention of Pollux. That’s what Pollux loved about merchants and traders; they could never keep their mouth shut about their money. Instinctively he slapped his thigh to make sure his knife was sheathed and he casually moved closer to the conversation.
“Look at the lighthouse! It was paid for with gold and is made to bring in more gold,” Farrokh said. He was standing near the railing, his vividly colored robe and billowing pants fluttering in the breeze. The morning fog made the lighthouse appear as a gray stone stump rising from the flat jade shore of the Egyptian delta. “The reason Pharaoh Ptolemy built it is to guide ships filled with gold or grain to shore and make Egypt richer.”
“And who is building that marvelous structure?” Archimedes challenged. “It’s engineers, who went to school and were taught to construct a building that will be over 400 feet high. What about the Great Pyramid in Giza? Right now it is the tallest building in the world, built by Egyptian engineers to last thousands of years. Educated men built those.”
Farrokh was about to interrupt, but Archimedes kept going. “Hold on, Farrokh. How do you know how much precious gold you have? You count it, right? Someone had to teach you to keep track of your wealth. Someone taught you how to be a merchant. Sure, money is important, but an education makes you rich, and I don’t mean with gold.”
Gold. Every time the word was mentioned it was like rash spreading on Pollux and he had to scratch it, soon. He checked to make sure no one was watching and then he crept closer and sat behind a barrel of water to listen.
“Well, either way, let’s hope the lighthouse will get finished,” Farrokh said.
“What do you mean?” Archimedes asked. He chewed on some lamb and swallowed. A spice he did not recognize was warm and fragrant in his mouth.
“I heard that the lighthouse is cursed,” Farrokh said. “Every week they find another dead worker. They are saying the deaths are no accident. There is no wound and no blood, only the body of a healthy laborer. Many men are walking off the job because they think an Egyptian god is killing the men.”
Archimedes paused to gnaw on the stiff lamb and swallowed. “The only mystery to those deaths is why anyone would believe in a curse.”
“Do not question the gods, Archimedes. I pray to my Persian gods, but it doesn’t matter if they are Persian or Greek or Egyptian, they control our lives.” Farrokh said.
“My father told me the same thing. But at school, I was taught that we control our own lives by using logic. So now I’m not sure if my father is right or school is.” Archimedes shrugged. “There is an old saying in Greek: ‘Along with Athena, move also your hand’. It means to pray to the gods, but you should rely on your own efforts.”
He lifted the small wooden owl from under his tunic and held it up. “My father gave me this because he saw an owl on the day I was born. The owl is the symbol of Athena, the goddess of wisdom and war.” Archimedes tucked the amulet back under his robe. “I may be smart, but I’m no warr
ior.”
“You place a lot of value on the wooden amulet?” Farrokh asked.
“More than anything I own. My tools can be replaced and my ideas can’t be lost. But a gift from a loved one is priceless,” Archimedes said.
“Let me show you what I think is priceless,” Farrokh said. He shot a glimpse over his shoulder. He reached under his robe and slowly withdrew a beautiful gold necklace intertwined with rubies and pearls.
Pollux caught his breath. He never saw anything so expensive. The gold chain was braided like a cord with gold plates about the size and thickness of a fingernail hanging from it. Between each plate alternated rubies and the pearls. Each portion of the necklace reflected a different color of the morning sun.
“I bought this beautiful necklace in Greece,” Farrokh said. He glanced over his shoulder again because he thought he heard the scrape of footsteps nearby. He leaned closer to Archimedes. “Then I bring it to Egypt and propose to a curious shopper that the necklace they are holding may have once been owned by Helen of Troy.”
“You mislead people?” Archimedes asked.
“Mislead? No. I only suggest what they want to hear. The jewelry is only metal and gems. The value is what the buyer perceives it to be. Take the lighthouse for example,” Farrokh waved his hand toward the distant shore. “You perceive it as a great accomplishment in design and construction. For a trader like me, that same beacon means more ships and more profit. The same stones, but different perceptions. One necklace made of wood, the other gold, but both are priceless to their owners.”
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