Part 6

The next day Thyamis the pirate leader although he was warned in a dream that having Chariclea, he would not have her, announced to his band his intention of marrying her. She pretended to consent, but asked that their marriage be postponed until they reached Memphis so that there she could resign her priesthood of Diana. Thyamis accepted this condition. Theagenes was horrified until Chariclea explained that this agreement was made only to secure more time for their plans for safety. A hostile band of brigands was now seen approaching. Thyamis had Cnemon hide Chariclea in a secret cave. When the terrible battle began to go against him, Thyamis rushed back to the cave and killed a woman in the dark whom he believed Chariclea. In battle he was then taken alive. The victorious brigands fired the huts on the island but did not find the cave. Cnemon and Theagenes, who had escaped in little boats, returned to the island. When Cnemon conducted Theagenes to the cave by its secret entrance, they found in its dark gloom the body of a dead woman. Theagenes believing it Chariclea burst into lamentation and planned suicide. But Cnemon took away his sword, got a torch lighted and found that the woman was Thisbe and in her dead hand was a letter. They soon found Chariclea alive.

After the first joy of reunion Chariclea wished to know who the dead woman was. Cnemon revealed that she was Thisbe and related all her story: how after her plot against him, Arsinoe, a rival courtesan whose lover Nausicles she had stolen, revealed Thisbe’s machinations against Demaeneta; how Cnemon’s father was exiled on the ground of complicity and Thisbe fled. The letter in Thisbe’s hand proved to be to Cnemon, a petition to save her from the pirates who had stolen her. Just then Thermuthis, her pirate captor, arrived to reclaim her, only to find her dead. The sword in her wound proved to him that she was slain by Thyamis.

Theagenes and Chariclea, Cnemon and Thermuthis now started out in separate pairs towards Chemmis, a rich city on the Nile, to get food. The menace of Thermuthis was conveniently removed as he died from the bite of an asp. Near Chemmis Cnemon met an old man who entertained him at his home. He proved to be Calasiris, the foster-father of Theagenes and Chariclea. This he revealed to Cnemon in a long narrative of his own life: how though a priest of Isis he had gone into voluntary exile to break off the wiles of a courtesan; how he had sojourned at Delphi, attending the ceremonies and talking with the philosophers. One, Charicles, related how in his own travels in Egypt he had had intrusted to him by an Ethiopian merchant a beautiful child. The merchant had found her exposed with a bag of jewels and an inscribed fillet. These too he gave to Charicles making him promise to guard her freedom and wed her to a free man. He had named her Chariclea and brought her up in Greece but now, though she was very beautiful, she refused to marry.

Calasiris also described to Cnemon the sacrifice to Neoptolemus offered by the Aenianians and the Delphic oracle which he had heard there.

“Delphians, regard with reverential care, Both him the goddess-born, and her the fair; “_Grace_” is the sound which ushers in her name, The syllable wherewith it ends, is “_Fame_.” They both my fane shall leave, and oceans past, In regions torrid shall arrive at last; There shall the gods reward their pious vows, And snowy chaplets bind their dusky brows.”[108]

Calasiris at the urgent request of Cnemon described all the ceremonies attendant on the sacrifice to Neoptolemus: the hecatomb and the other victims, the Thracian maidens bearing offerings, the hymn to the Hero, the dance, the procession of the fifty armed horsemen led by Theagenes, the radiant appearance of Chariclea in a chariot. All this description was the brilliant setting for the meeting of Theagenes and Chariclea, for when Theagenes took from the priestess’ hand the torch to light the sacrificial pyre, in them both the flame of first love was kindled.

The next day Chariclea lay abed very ill in her apartment in the temple. Calasiris feared it was due to “_fascinatio_.” Calasiris after meeting Theagenes had a vision in which Apollo and Diana consigned Theagenes and Chariclea to his care and bade him take them to Egypt. The next morning Theagenes confessed to Calasiris his love and besought his aid. Charicles begged him to heal his daughter. This enabled him to talk to her.

Chariclea recovered sufficiently the next day to attend the contest of the men in armor and to award the palm to the victor, Theagenes. But her passion and her illness increased after this second meeting and Calasiris was again summoned to treat her. Her disease was diagnosed as love and Calasiris persuaded her father to let him see the fillet found with the exposed baby. Calasiris was able to read the inscription on it. It was a letter from her mother, Persinna, queen of the Ethiopians, revealing that she had borne a white daughter because at her conception she had been looking at a picture of Andromeda; then fearing the charge of adultery she had exposed her baby with the fillet and the jewels. All this Calasiris told to Chariclea. Calasiris then made a plot with her by which she was to pretend to become affianced to Alcamenes, the nephew of Charicles, as her foster-father wished. Charicles was delighted although he was nervous because of a dream in which an eagle from the hand of Apollo bore his daughter away. He gave her all the jewels.

Then Calasiris persuaded some Phoenician merchants to take him and two friends on their ship as far as Sicily; and he ordered Theagenes and his young friends to kidnap Chariclea. She consented to the plan after Theagenes had bound himself by an oath never to force her love. After they were off, Charicles roused the city to pursuit of them. Calasiris after telling of the arrival of the Phoenician ship at Zacynthos interrupted his narrative to rest. Nausicles returned to the house and unknown to the others had brought Chariclea with him.

(Here the author himself gave a résumé of the adventures of Theagenes and Chariclea from the time they parted with Cnemon. In the cave the lovers had a long talk and made an agreement as to what they would do in case fortune again separated them: they would inscribe on temple, statue, herm or boundary stone, Theagenes the name Pythicus, Chariclea Pythias; the direction in which each departed; to what place or people; also the time of writing. For recognition if they met disguised they decided to use as signs Chariclea’s ring and Theagenes’ scar from a boar. Their watchwords were to be a lamp for her, a palm-tree for him. They sealed this covenant in kisses, then left the cave taking Chariclea’s sacred robes, her bow and quiver and her jewels.

Soon they met an armed band and were taken prisoners. The commander was Mithranes, an officer of Oroondates, viceroy of Egypt. Nausicles had persuaded him for pay to make this expedition to the island in search of his Thisbe. Nausicles on seeing Theagenes and Chariclea cleverly pretended that Chariclea was Thisbe, the object of his quest. Mithranes demanded Theagenes as his prize and despatched him to Oroondates as a fine youth for service with the Great King.)

The next day Calasiris and Cnemon heard all Nausicles’ story from himself, saw Chariclea and made a plan to ransom Theagenes. After Nausicles had celebrated a sacrifice in the temple of Hermes, the god of gain, Calasiris on request continued his narrative of the voyage from Delphi. At Zacynthos a deaf old fisherman Tyrrhenus gave them lodging. The Tyrian merchant who won the victory at the Pythian games now sued for Chariclea’s hand. Tyrrhenus discovered an ambush of pirates waiting for the Phoenician ship to sail. Calasiris without revealing this persuaded the Tyrian captain to sail that night. The pirate crew under Trachinus pursued them and engaged them in a terrible battle so finally the Phoenicians had to surrender. Trachinus demanded marriage with Chariclea and she deceitfully promised her hand if he would spare Calasiris and “her brother” Theagenes. With difficulty the pirates maneuvered the boat to land near the mouth of the Nile. Trachinus told Calasiris that he proposed to marry Chariclea that day. Calasiris, ingenious as ever, persuaded him to let Chariclea go on the ship to attire herself for the wedding and be left undisturbed there. Calasiris then plotted with Pelorus, second in command of the pirates, telling him Chariclea loved him. Pelorus since he had been the first to board the Phoenician ship demanded, as his right of first choice of the booty, the girl. A terrible battle ensued in which Trachinus was killed, Pelorus wounded by Theagenes and put to flight and Theagenes badly wounded. In the morning Egyptian pirates arrived and carried them both off. Calasiris had spent his days mourning for them until this present recovery of Chariclea.

The next day Calasiris, Cnemon and Nausicles set out to find Theagenes. An acquaintance informed Nausicles that Mithranes had sent his troops on an expedition against the men of Bessa, commanded by Thyamis, because they had stolen a captive Greek youth. So Nausicles and his friends returned to Chemmis and told all to Chariclea. Nausicles gave a farewell dinner-party since the season favorable for navigation compelled him to sail for Greece. Cnemon after a struggle with himself decided to go with him and was permitted to marry his daughter, Nausiclea.

Calasiris and Chariclea disguised as beggars started for Bessa to seek Theagenes. Near Bessa they found many corpses lying on the ground. An old woman told them there had been a battle between Mithranes’ forces and the men of Bessa in which the men of Bessa had been victorious and Mithranes had been killed. The victors had now set out to Memphis against Oroondates. The old woman had lost her son in battle. That night Calasiris and Chariclea secretly watched her magic rites by which she raised him to give her news of her other son. The shade also revealed that there were two witnesses to her wicked necromancy; that Chariclea should be happily reunited with Theagenes and that his own mother would meet her death by the sword. This soon happened, for she fell on an upright sword on the battle-field.

Calasiris and Chariclea arrived at Memphis just as Thyamis and his brigands began a siege of it. The people of Memphis in the absence of Oroondates consulted the queen Arsace about the wisdom of going out to attack the enemy. Thyamis had been driven into exile by the slanders of his brother Petosiris who swore there was an amour between Thyamis and Arsace. Petosiris had then succeeded his brother in the priesthood of Isis. Arsace after looking at the enemy from the wall ordered a single combat between Thyamis and Petosiris to decide the war. In this combat Petosiris was forced to flee. As he was running around the city walls the third time, Calasiris arrived and saw the combat between his two sons that an oracle had foretold. Rushing between them he ended the contest.

Chariclea discovered Theagenes and suddenly threw her arms about him. Her hero disgusted at her beggar’s rags threw her off and did not recognize her until she whispered: “Pythias, have you forgotten the torch?” Then he took her to his arms, while Arsace and the other watchers on the wall marvelled at the scene as though it were on the stage. So peace was made by the father and the lovers were reunited. All went to the temple of Isis. Calasiris restored his son Thyamis to the priesthood.

Arsace had fallen madly in love with Theagenes on seeing him twice and confided this to her aged maid, Cybele. This maid on going to the temple of Isis to offer prayers for her mistress learned that Calasiris had died there during the night and that no one except the priests could enter the temple for seven days on account of the funeral rites. Thereupon Cybele craftily secured permission to entertain the two young Greeks who were staying there in Arsace’s palace and took them home. When they found that they were in the palace, they became suspicious for they had noticed the queen’s interest in Theagenes the day before. So at Chariclea’s suggestion, Theagenes said they were brother and sister. Cybele went to Arsace’s apartment to tell her all, locking the guests in their room. In her absence, her son Achaemenes came home, listened at their door and from their talk and from a glimpse at Theagenes realized that this was the very youth who had been taken from him by Thyamis.

As the days passed, Arsace tried to win the love of Theagenes first through subtle allurement, then through open confession of her passion and at last through domination. Achaemenes finally told Arsace who they were so the queen informed Theagenes that they were now her slaves as they had been the captive slaves of Mithranes and he must obey her. Then in the presence of Cybele Theagenes promised himself to Arsace on condition that she would never give Chariclea to Achaemenes, who had demanded her. He confessed that Chariclea was not his sister but his fiancée. On hearing this Achaemenes rode away to inform Oroondates of all.

Oroondates was engaged in a campaign against Hydaspes, King of the Ethiopians, who had got possession of Philae. On hearing Achaemenes’ report Oroondates despatched his eunuch Bagoas with fifty horsemen to Memphis to bring Theagenes and Chariclea to his camp. He sent two letters to this effect to Arsace and to his chief eunuch. Achaemenes he kept with himself.

In Memphis Thyamis had been unable to procure the release of the young Greeks from Arsace. Moreover the frustrated queen had begun to try imprisonment and torture on Theagenes. When he was still obstinate, Cybele advised getting rid of Chariclea to free his heart and she prepared to poison the girl. Fortunately a maid exchanged the goblets. Cybele herself drank the poison and expired, but with her last breath she declared Chariclea had murdered her. So Arsace threw the girl into the prison where Theagenes was and had her tried. In the court-room Chariclea pleaded guilty, for this was the plan that she and her lover had agreed on in the prison, that they might die together. The Supreme Council ordered that she be burned alive. Chariclea was saved by a miracle, for the flames on the pyre refused to touch her person. Arsace then consigned her again to prison on the ground that she was a witch.

In prison, Chariclea and Theagenes had a long talk about the dream-visions they had each seen. To each Calasiris had appeared and given a metrical prophecy. To Chariclea he had said:

“Bearing Pantarbè, fear not flames, fair maid, Fate, to whom naught is hard, shall bring thee aid.”

And to Theagenes:

“From Arsace, the morrow sets thee free— To Aethiopia with the virgin flee.”[109]

Chariclea interpreted these oracles to mean that her jewel, the Pantarbè, was protecting her; and that on the next day they would be freed from Arsace and go to Ethiopia.

Meanwhile Bagoas arrived at Memphis and Euphrates on receiving the letter of Oroondates sent Theagenes and Chariclea off secretly with Bagoas. On their journey they received first the news that Arsace had killed herself and second that Oroondates had gone to Syene. Later on the way they were seized by a band of Troglodite Ethiopians who took Bagoas and the two Greeks to their king, Hydaspes. He planned to save them as victims to be sacrificed to the gods.

Hydaspes was besieging Syene. Oroondates had got inside the city before the blockade and was directing the defense. But Hydaspes used a new weapon against him, inundation. His army dug a great trench around Syene with earth-works encircling it. This trench he connected with the river Nile by a long canal, fifty feet wide, banked by high walls. When the works were finished, he cut away the embankment between his canal and the Nile and let the river in. Syene became an island city and the pressure of the water on the walls threatened inundation. So Oroondates and the people of Syene had to sue for peace. This was granted, and Hydaspes built up again the embankment between his canal and the Nile and proceeded to drain off the water.

During the festival of the overflowing of the Nile Oroondates and his army slipped away in the night, bridging the mud swamps about Syene by planks, and went to Elephantine, which revolted with him against Hydaspes. In the new battle Hydaspes was again victorious and took Oroondates prisoner, but the Ethiopian was a generous conqueror and sent Oroondates back to be again viceroy of his province.

Hydaspes on his way home stopped two days at Philae and from there sent home letters announcing his victory to Persinna and the Gymnosophists. Persinna recalled a dream that she had brought forth a full-grown daughter and interpreted the daughter as this victory. The people assembled for the celebration at the island city of Meroe and according to their traditions demanded human sacrifice of foreign captives of war. The prisoners now underwent the test of chastity by ascending the altar of fire and of course Theagenes and Chariclea passed the test.

The Gymnosophists through their leader Sisimithres refused to witness human sacrifice and foretold that this one would never be consummated. Chariclea begged them to stay and hear her case. (She had recognized Sisimithres’ name as that of the one who had given her to Charicles at Catadupa). Chariclea declared that she was a native, not a foreigner, and produced her fillet and her jewels, among them the mystic ring, Pantarbé. Sisimithres narrated his part in her story. Hydaspes was puzzled over how he could have a _white_ child, but Sisimithres explained that Persinna at the time of conception had fixed her eyes on a picture of the naked, white Andromeda. When the picture was brought in as evidence, Chariclea’s resemblance to its Andromeda was found startling. Moreover a birthmark of a black ring around Chariclea’s arm attested her black blood.

The people now refused to have Chariclea sacrificed, but the fate of Theagenes still hung in the balance. Chariclea begged that if he were to be sacrificed, she might perform the deed. (Apparently she planned to carry out a kind of suicide pact.) Hydaspes thought his daughter was insane and sent her into a tent with her mother while he received ambassadors and their gifts of victory. His nephew Meroebus brought a mighty athlete. Hydaspes as a joke gave him in return an elephant, but also promised him the hand of Chariclea. The Axiomitae presented a giraffe, an animal so strange that it terrified some of the natives. Moreover, one bull and two horses broke their fetters and dashed madly around the inside of the circle of guards. Theagenes mounted another horse, pursued the bull, wore it out and finally downed it. The enchanted spectators now demanded that he be matched with the champion Meroebus. Him too he vanquished. Oroondates crowned Theagenes as victor, but nevertheless prepared to sacrifice him.

At that moment ambassadors from Syene arrived with a letter from Oroondates. He begged that a young woman captive be sent to him with her father who was one of the ambassadors. This was Charicles. He recognized Theagenes and accused him of having stolen his daughter at Delphi. Theagenes revealed that Chariclea was the one demanded. Sisimithres told the rest of the story. Chariclea rushing out of the tent begged Charicles to forgive her elopement. Persinna told Hydaspes that she had learned that Chariclea was betrothed to Theagenes.

Sisimithres speaking not in Greek but in Ethiopian for all the people to hear ordered Hydaspes to submit to the will of the gods who had saved the two young lovers and who did not approve of human sacrifice and exhorted him to end human sacrifices forever. So Hydaspes asked the people to observe the will of the gods and to sanction the marriage of Theagenes and Chariclea. This they did. Then Hydaspes consecrated the two as priest and priestess of the Sun and the Moon and on their heads he placed the mitres which he and Persinna had worn as symbols of their offices. Thus was fulfilled the oracle:

“In regions torrid shall arrive at last; There shall the gods reward their pious vows, And snowy chaplets bind their dusky brows.”

Then a great procession escorted them to Meroe there to fulfill the more mystic parts of wedlock.

In this brief re-telling of Heliodorus’ long story, certain striking features of his structure appear. Geography and ethnography are important as in the other novelists. The eastern basin of the Mediterranean is the center of the adventures, the district which for centuries was the scene of the conflict for power between many nations. As in Xenophon, many geographical details are given, often with little accuracy.[110] As Maillon points out, imagination and fantasy falsify the historical and geographical allusions. Heliodorus gathers everything that can satisfy the taste for the strange and the marvellous. At a time when the critical spirit was so little developed in the historians, a writer of romance would naturally produce marvellous narratives and vague descriptions. Heliodorus confuses the Ethiopia of Herodotus with that of the Ptolemies and imagines an Ethiopian empire which did not exist during the domination of Egypt by the Persians.[111] As in Chariton, the superiority of the Greeks over the barbarians is part of the author’s faith.

In the development of the plot Heliodorus makes his set more unified, less cinematic than Xenophon had done. The scene of action lies almost entirely in Egypt with a shift to Ethiopia for the final climax. This Egyptian set is to be sure varied by different local scenes: the Nile, an island village in its delta, towns such as Chemmis, Memphis, Syene and Philae, the battle-fields of Bessa and Elephantine, but nearly the whole plot develops in Egypt. The exceptions are in the sub-plot presented in Cnemon’s narrative of his life-history which is laid in Athens, and in Calasiris’ long account of his visit to Delphi. These however are clearly set off as insets in the unity of the Egyptian scene.

The plot itself is an original combination of epic and dramatic structure. The other writers of Greek romance begin at the beginning with a detailed account of the hero and heroine, their family, their background. Heliodorus in true epic style plunges us _in medias res_ with his startling opening scene of a seascape where a ship rides at anchor, treasure-laden but not manned, where the shore is littered with the remains of a banquet, but strewn with corpses, where a young man lies wounded with a beautiful maiden dressed as a goddess ministering to him. The reader is as amazed and puzzled at the sight as are the pirates who are peering down from the hills.

Another epic part of the structure is that the narrative of events does not proceed in a straight line but zigzags back and forth while a new arrival contributes his part to the development of the plot, or the author himself gives a retrospective résumé of past events to explain the present. Calasiris’ long narrative is the best illustration of this resumptive method but Cnemon, Achaemenes, Sisimithres and Charicles all contribute their share of résumés.[112] In general, Heliodorus uses résumés with great effect to clarify his complicated plot. Sometimes he merely suggests a summary of events (V. 16, 5); sometimes he gives a full succinct recapitulation of events (II. 14, 1-2); sometimes his heroes recount their adventures to complain of them (V. 11).[113]