"O Maya"s son, how beautiful are the Athenian women!"
"And virtuous too, my Radiant," answered Hermes; "they are under Pallas" tutelage."
The Silver-arrowed G.o.d became silent, and listening looked into s.p.a.ce.
In the mean while the twilight was slowly quenched, movement gradually stopped. Scythian slaves shut the gates, and finally all became quiet.
The Ambrosian night threw on the Acropolis, city, and environs, a dark veil embroidered with stars.
But the dusk did not last long. Soon from the Archipelago appeared the pale Selene, and began to sail like a silvery boat in the heavenly s.p.a.ce. And then the walls of the Acropolis lighted again, only they beamed now with a pale-green light, and looked even more like a vision in a dream.
"One must agree," said Apollo, "that Athena has chosen for herself a charming home."
"Oh, she is very clever! Who could choose better?" answered Hermes.
"Then Zeus has a fancy for her. If she wishes for anything she has only to caress his beard and immediately he calls her Tritogenia, dear daughter; he promises her everything and permits everything."
"Tritogenia bores me sometimes," grumbled Latona"s son.
"Yes, I have noticed that she becomes very tedious," answered Hermes.
"Like an old peripatetic; and then she is virtuous to the ridiculous, like my sister Artemis."
"Or as her servants, the Athenian women."
The Radiant turned to the Argo-robber Mercury: "It is the second time you mention, as though purposely, the virtue of the Athenian women.
Are they really so virtuous?"
"Fabulously so, O son of Latona!"
"Is it possible!" said Apollo. "Do you think that there is in town one woman who could resist me?"
"I do think so."
"Me, Apollo?"
"You, my Radiant."
"I, who should bewitch her with poetry and charm her with song and music!"
"You, my Radiant."
"If you were an honest G.o.d I would be willing to make a wager with you. But you, Argo-robber, if you should lose, you would disappear immediately with your sandals and caduceus."
"No, I will put one hand on the earth and another on the sea and swear by Hades. Such an oath is kept not only by me, but even by the members of the City Council in Athens."
"Oh, you exaggerate a little. Very well then! If you lose you must supply me in Trinachija with a herd of long-horned oxen, which you may steal where you please, as you did when you were only a boy, stealing my herds in Perea."
"Understood! And what shall I get if I win?"
"You may choose what you please."
"Listen, my Far-aiming archer," said Hermes. "I will be frank with you, which occurs with me very seldom. Once, being sent on an errand by Zeus--I don"t remember what errand--I was playing just over your Trinachija, and I perceived Lampecja, who, together with Featusa, watches your herds there. Since that time I have no peace. The thought about her is never absent from my mind. I love her and I sigh for her day and night. If I win, if in Athens there can be found a virtuous woman, strong enough to resist you, you shall give me Lampecja--I wish for nothing more."
The Silver-arrowed G.o.d began to shake his head.
"It"s astonishing that love can nestle in the heart of a merchants-patron. I am willing to give you Lampecja--the more so because she is now quarrelling with Featusa. Speaking _intra parentheses_, both are in love with me--that is why they are quarrelling."
Great joy lighted up the Argo-robber"s eyes.
"Then we lay the bet," said he. "One thing more, I shall choose the woman for you on whom you are to try your G.o.dly strength."
"Provided she is beautiful."
"She will be worthy of you."
"I am sure you know some one already."
"Yes, I do."
"A young girl, married, widow, or divorced?"
"Married, of course. Girl, widow, or divorcee, you could capture by promise of marriage."
"What is her name?"
"Eryfile. She is a baker"s wife."
"A baker"s wife!" answered the Radiant, making a grimace, "I don"t like that."
"I can"t help it. It"s the kind of people I know best. Eryfile"s husband is not at home at present; he went to Megara. His wife is the prettiest woman who ever walked on Mother-Earth."
"I am very anxious to see her."
"One condition more, my Silver-arrowed, you must promise that you will use only means worthy of you, and that you will not act as would act such a ruffian as Ares, for instance, or even, speaking between ourselves, as acts our common father, the Cloud-gathering Zeus."
"For whom do you take me?" asked Apollo.
"Then all conditions are understood, and I can show you Eryfile."
Both G.o.ds were immediately carried through the air from Pnyx, and in a few moments they were over a house situated not far from Stoa. The Argo-robber raised the whole roof with his powerful hand as easily as a woman cooking a dinner raises a cover from a saucepan, and pointing to a woman sitting in a store, closed from the street by a copper gate, said:
"Look!"
Apollo looked and was astonished.
Never Attica--never the whole of Greece, produced a lovelier flower than was this woman. She sat by a table on which was a lighted lamp, and was writing something on marble tables. Her long drooping eyelashes threw a shadow on her cheeks, but from time to time she raised her head and her eyes, as though she were trying to remember what she had to write, and then one could see her beautiful eyes, so blue that compared with them the turquoise depths of the Archipelago would look pale and faded. Her face was white as the sea-foam, pink as the dawn, with purplish Syrian lips and waves of golden hair. She was beautiful, the most beautiful being on earth--beautiful as the dawn, as a flower, as light, as song! This was Eryfile.
When she dropped her eyes she appeared quiet and sweet; when she lifted them, inspired. The Radiant"s divine knees began to tremble; suddenly he leaned his head on Hermes" shoulder, and whispered:
"Hermes, I love her! This one or none!"