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
At the third hour after sunrise a distinguished assemblage of peoplegathered at the landing place east of the Temple of Poseidon in the greatharbour of Alexandria.
Its members belonged to the upper classes, for many had come in carriagesand litters, and numerous pedestrians were accompanied by slaves bearingin delicately woven baskets and cornucopias a laurel wreath, a papyruscrown, or bright-hued flowers.
The most aristocratic among the gentlemen had gathered on the westernside of the great sanctuary, between the cella and the long row of Doriccolumns which supported the roof of the marble temple.
The Macedonian Council of the city was already represented by several ofits members. Among their number was Archias, Daphne's father, a man ofmiddle height and comfortable portliness, from whose well-formed,beardless face looked forth a pair of shrewd eyes, and whose quickmovements revealed the slight irritability of his temperament.
Several members of the Council and wealthy merchants surrounded him,while the grammateus Proclus first talked animatedlv with othergovernment officials and representatives of the priesthood, and then withArchias. The head of the Museum, who bore the title of "high priest,"had also appeared there with several members of this famous centre of theintellectual life of the capital. They shared the shade of this part ofthe temple with distinguished masters of sculpture and painting,architecture and poetry, and conversed together with the gracefulanimation of Greeks endowed with great intellectual gifts.
Among them mingled, distinguishable neither by costume nor language,a number of prominent patrons of art in the great Jewish community.Their principal, the alabarch, was talking eagerly with the philosopherHegesias and the Rhodian leech Chrysippus; Queen Arsinoe's favourite,whom at Althea's instigation she had sent with Proclus to receive thereturning traveller.
Sometimes all gazed toward the mouth of the harbour, where the expectedship must soon pass the recently completed masterpiece of Sostratus, thetowering lighthouse, still shining in its marble purity.
Soon many Alexandrians also crowded the large platform in front of theTemple of Poseidon, and the very wide marble staircase leading from it tothe landing place.
Beneath the bronze statues of the Dioscuri, at the right and left of thetopmost step, had also gathered the magnificent figures of the Phebi andthe younger men from the wrestling school of Timagetes, with garlands ontheir curling locks, as well as many younger artists and pupils of theolder masters.
The statues of the gods and goddesses of the sea and their loftypedestals, standing at the sides of the staircase, cast upon the marblesteps, gleaming in the radiance of the morning sun, narrow shadows, whichattracted the male and female chorus singers, who, also wearing beautifulgarlands, had come to greet the expected arrival with solemn chants.
Several actors were just coming from rehearsal in the theatre ofDionysus, east of the Temple of Poseidon, of which, like all the stagesin the city, Proclus was chief manager.
A pretty dancing girl, who hung on the arm of t