single man.”
Lars Alsir ventured to suppose that I had some friend to whom I wished to present it. He sent for me nevertheless, and of course I was not far away.
Kydippe smiled her most radiant smile, greeted me shyly and said, “Oh, Turms, I am so enchanted with this necklace. Won’t you give it up for my sake?”
I pretended to be embarrassed and said that I had already promised it to another. She laid her hand on my arm and breathed into my face. “I believed you to be a serious man,” she said. “It was that which attracted me to you so that I have been unable to forget your oval eyes. I am truly disappointed in you.”
I whispered that such matters could not be discussed before curious servant girls. Quickly she sent them into the yard and then we were three, she, Lars Alsir and I.
“Sell it to me,” pleaded Kydippe. “Otherwise I must consider you a frivolous man who pursues notorious women, for only a bad woman would accept such an expensive gift from a strange man.”
I pretended to hesitate. “How much will you pay for it?”
Lars Alsir considerately turned his back. Kydippe fingered her pouch and said unhappily, “Alas, I have perhaps only ten coins and grandfather already accuses me of wastefulness. Won’t you sell it to me cheaply?”
“That I will, Kydippe,” I said. “I will sell it to you for one silver coin if you will also allow me to kiss your mouth.”
She pretended to be deeply shocked. “You don’t know what you are asking. No man has yet kissed my mouth except my father and grandfather. Grandfather has warned me and said that a girl who allows a man to kiss her is lost. Don’t even suggest it, Turms.”
“It is true that I intended to give that necklace to a certain frivolous woman, but it would be easier for me to forget her if I could but kiss your innocent mouth.”
Kydippe hesitated. “Will you promise not to tell anyone? I want those beautiful golden beads so badly, but even more I would desire to rescue you from evil temptation if I could only believe that thereafter you would think only of me.”
I swore secrecy. Kydippe ascertained that Lars Alsir’s back was still turned, parted her lips for my kiss and even pushed her gown aside. Then suddenly she drew back, straightened her gown, took a silver coin from her purse and reached for the necklace.
“Take your drachma,” she said coldly. “Grandfather was right. But you did not affect me in any way, and, frankly, it was as though I had kissed the wet nose of a calf.”
She was shrewder than I and I had gained nothing with the kiss. Instead, I owed Lars Alsir for the expensive necklace. That should have served as a lesson, but I saved the silver coin and trembled each time I handled it.
I prayed in vain to Aphrodite. I was certain that she had rejected me but in truth the goddess was preparing an entirely different snare for me in which Kydippe was merely the bait.
When the spring winds began to blow Dorieus called me aside and said, “Turms, I have thought much during these months and my decision has been made. I intend to travel to Eryx, by land so that I may acquaint myself with the entire western region. Tanakil will accompany me, for the goldsmiths of Eryx know how to make teeth of ivory and gold. People will believe her if she says that she is on her way to sacrifice to Aphrodite because of her widowhood. Mikon and Aura likewise are going, and naturally I would want you also to see the grain city of Segesta and the land of Eryx.”
I barely noticed his grimness, for I was thinking of Kydippe. “Your plan is excellent,” I said eagerly. “I also have matters for Aphrodite of Eryx. After all, she is the most famous Aphrodite of the western sea. Let us leave immediately.”
On the following day we departed for Eryx by horse, donkey and litter. We left our shields at Tanakil’s house and took with us only the traveler’s necessary weapons to defend ourselves against robbers and wild beasts. With my senses inflamed by Kydippe I was prepared for the journey and thought that my wish would be fulfilled with the aid of Aphrodite of Eryx. But the goddess was more cunning than I.
Book Four
The Goddess of Eryx
1.
I, the Turms who journeyed from Himera to Eryx, was a different being from the man who danced in the storm on the road to Delphi. A man changes slowly during every phase of his life until he realizes with a start that it is difficult for him to remember and recognize his former self. Thus life is a series of rebirths, and the beginning of each new phase is like a sudden leap over a chasm which stretches insurmountably behind one so that there is no return to the past.
The soft mist of the spring clouds wreathed the Sicilian crags, and the gentle spring rains fell on the thick Sicilian forests and flooded the dried rivers as we wandered from Himera westward toward Eryx. Because of Tanakil’s comfortable beds and banquet table we had grown flabby during the winter months and it was a pleasure for Dorieus and me and even Mikon to exert ourselves and feel our muscles again swelling with strength.
We followed the road taken by the pilgrims, and the Siccani who lived in the woods did not molest us. They respected the goddess while retaining their primitive customs and called themselves the first inhabitants of the land.
After we had journeyed through the almost impossible mountains and the endless woods and were approaching the smiling valleys of Segesta, we saw a pack of sinewy hunting dogs pursuing game. The highborn hunters were dressed in the Greek manner and claimed that their dogs were descended directly from Krimisos, the canine deity who had married the nymph Segesta.
When they had continued on their way Mikon looked at the fields around us and remarked, “The blood of many peoples has made these fields fertile. Phocaeans also are buried here. Let us follow Dionysius’ suggestion and make an offering.”
Nor was it necessary for us to do so secretly, for the Segestans themselves had erected altars to the men who had attempted to conquer their land. Pointing to the monuments at the edge of the grain fields they said proudly, “Many have attempted to come here but few have returned.”
Their fathers and forefathers had been in the habit of burying the bodies of the vanquished in the fields, but they said reassuringly, “We are living in civilized times and no longer have to go to war for Eryx. If someone were to attack us, Carthage would consider it reason for war, and certainly no one would be bold enough to seek a quarrel with Carthage deliberately.”
When we had made our sacrifice at the altar of the Phocaeans, Dorieus began to look around inquiringly. “If they erect altars to heroes, where then is the altar to my father? He should have the most splendid altar of all, for did he not come here to conquer the land as the descendant of Herakles?”
Fortunately the Segestans did not understand his dialect. When I asked them about a monument to Dorieus of Sparta, they shook their heads.
“It is true that we conquered a great number of Spartans but they were hardly worth remembering and we did not note their names. However, with them came Philip of Croton, a many-time winner of the Olympic games and the fairest of his contemporaries. Even dead he was so beautiful that we erected a temple to him and every fourth year honor his memory by holding games.”
They indicated the large monument and the stadium before it. At first Dorieus could not say a word, then his face darkened and his shoulder straps snapped in rage.
“That is nonsense!” he shrieked. “My father Dorieus was the winner of laurel wreaths at Olympia and the fairest of his contemporaries. How could any Crotonian have competed with him?”
The Segestans fled his rage and Mikon and I had difficulty in calming him.
When he could again breathe easily Dorieus said, “Now I realize why my father’s spirit did not give me peace and why the sheep’s bones so unfailingly pointed westward. The earth is trembling beneath my feet, for these hills, these valleys and fields are the legacy of Herakles and thus my father’s and my land. But I no longer covet it merely
