This eBook was produced by David Widger <widger@cecomet.net>
[NOTE: There is a short list of bookmarks, or pointers, at the end of thefile for those who may wish to sample the author's ideas before making anentire meal of them. D.W.]
By Georg Ebers
The crowds on the road were now homeward bound, and they were all in suchwild, high spirits that, from what was to be seen and heard, it couldnever have been supposed that they had come from so mournful a scene.They took the road by the sea leading from the Nekropolis to Eleusis,wandering on in the glowing moonlight.
A great procession of Greeks had been to Eleusis, to celebrate themysteries after the manner of the Greek Eleusis, on which that ofAlexandria was modeled. The newly initiated, and the elder adepts, whoseduty it was to superintend their reception, had remained in the temple;but the other mystics now swelled the train of those who were coming fromthe city of the dead.
Here, indeed, Serapis took the place of Pluto, and much that was Greekhad assumed strange and Egyptian forms: even the order of the ceremonieshad been entirely changed; still, on the African, as on the Attic shore,the Greek cry went up, "To the sea, O mystics!" and the bidding toIakchos: "Be with us, O Iakchos!"
It could be heard from afar, but the voices of the shouters were alreadyweary, and most of the torches had burned low. The wreaths of ivy andmyrtle in their hair were limp; the singers of the hymn no longer kepttheir ranks; and even Iambe, whose jests had cheered the mourningDemeter, and whose lips at Eleusis had overflowed with witticisms, wasexhausted and silent. She still held in her hand the jar from which shehad given the bereaved goddess a reviving draught, but it was empty andshe longed for a drink. She was indeed a he: for it was a youth inwoman's dress who played the rollicking part of Iambe, and it wasAlexander's friend and comrade Diodoros who had represented the daughterof Pan and Echo, who, the legend said, had acted as slave in the house ofMetaneira, the Eleusinian queen, when Demeter took refuge there. Hissturdy legs had good reason to be as weary as his tongue, which had knownno rest for five hours.
But he caught sight of the large vehicle drawn by four horses, in whichthe vast corn-measure, the kalathos, which Serapis wore as hisdistinguishing head-gear, had been conveyed to Eleusis. It was emptynow, for the contents had been offered to the god, and the four blackhorses had an easy task with the great wagon. No one had as yet thoughtof using it as a conveyance back to the town; but Diodoros, who was bothingenious and tired, ran after it and leaped up. Several now wanted tofollow his example, but he pushed them off, even thrusting at them with anewly lighted torch, for he could not be quiet in spite of his fatigue.In the midst of the skirmishing he perceived his friend and Melissa.
His heart had been given to the gentle girl ever since they had beenplaymates in his father's garden, and when he saw her, walking alongdowncast, while her brother sported with his neighbor's daughters, hebeckoned to her, and, as she refused to accompany him in the wagon, henimbly sprang off, lifted her up in his arms, made strong by exercise inthe Palaestra, and gently deposited her, in spite of her struggles, onthe flat floor of the car, by the side of the empty kalathos.
"The rape of Persephone!" he cried. "The second performance in one.night!"
Then the old reckless spirit seized A