[11] See a very full description of the magnificent temple of Diana in Anthon's "Lemprière."
[12] "Nec tamen Fama volucris, pigrâ pennarum tarditate cessaverat; sed protinus in patriâ, Deæ providentia adorabile beneficium, meamque ipsius fortunam memorabilem, narraverat passim."—Apul. Met. xi.
[BOOK VIII.]
Just as we were sitting down and beginning to converse upon the various events which had taken place, Thersander, accompanied by several witnesses, arrived in a great bustle, and addressing himself to the priest in a loud voice said, "I warn you, in the presence of these witnesses, that you have acted illegally in setting at liberty a prisoner condemned to death; besides which, what right have you to detain my slave, a lewd woman, who is insatiable in her appetite for men?" Exasperated by this language, and not enduring to hear her called a slave and accused of lewdness, I interrupted him, "You are trebly a slave[1] yourself, and the rankest lecher who ever existed, where as she is free born, and pure and worthy of her guardian goddess!"—"Dare you vent your insolence on me, convicted felon that you are?" exclaimed he, accompanying his words with a couple of blows, which, given with all his might, caused the blood to flow from my nose in streams; in his haste to deal me a third, he struck me on the mouth, and my teeth inflicting a severe wound upon his fingers avenged the insult offered to my nostrils. Uttering a cry of pain, he drew back his hand, and did not offer any further violence; while, pretending not to notice that he was hurt, I filled the temple with outcries at the usage which I had received. "Whither," I exclaimed, "shall we henceforth flee to escape the hands of violence? Where shall we seek sanctuary, if Diana is despised? Lo! I have been attacked in the very temple, and struck in front of the holy curtain![2] I had supposed that such acts could take place only in some howling wilderness, with no human witness to behold them; but you—abandoned wretch that you are!—exercise your brutality in the very presence of the gods! Temples are wont to afford an asylum, even to the guilty; but I, who am wholly innocent and a suppliant of the goddess, have suffered violence before the altar,—nay, before the eyes of the goddess! The blows inflicted on me have virtually fallen upon Diana herself! Nor has your drunken fury been content with blows, you have even dealt wounds, such as one receives in battle, and you have defiled the sacred pavement with human blood! Who ever poured out such drink offerings to the Ephesian goddess? Barbarians do so, and so do the Tauri, and blood is sprinkled upon the altars of the Scythian Diana;[3] but you have made a savage Scythia of the polished Ionia, and the gore fit only for Tauris is seen to flow at Ephesus! Why not proceed yet farther, and draw your sword against me? Though what need is there of swords, the work of a weapon has already been accomplished by your naked hand! Yes! your blood-stained and homicidal hand has done deeds fit only for a scene of murder!"
Attracted by my outcries, a crowd of those who were in the temple flocked together, who rated him soundly for his conduct, and the priest himself said, "Are you not ashamed to exhibit such behaviour openly and in the temple?" Encouraged by their presence, "Men of Ephesus!" I said, "you see how foully I have been treated. Yes! I, a free man and a native of no mean city, have had a plot contrived against my life by this wicked man, and have been preserved only by the intervention of Diana, who has brought to light the falsehood of the charge against me. It behoves me now to go forth in order to cleanse my face; I may not do so within the temple, lest the holy water should be defiled by the blood of violence." Thersander was with difficulty forced out, and muttered to himself as he departed: "Your fate is already sealed, and ere long the law shall have its due; as for this strumpet who would fain pass for a virgin, she shall undergo the ordeal of the syrinx." When at last we were rid of him, I went out and cleansed my face; it was now supper-time, and the priest entertained us very hospitably.
I could not summon up courage to look Sostratus in the face, from a recollection of what had been my conduct towards him, and he perceiving this, and guessing my feelings, was equally unwilling to look towards me; Leucippe also sat with downcast eyes, so that the supper was altogether a very solemn affair. When however the wine circulated, and reserve began to disappear under the influence of Bacchus, patron of freedom and ease,[4] the priest, addressing Sostratus, said, "My worthy guest, will you not favour us with your own history?—it must, I imagine, contain some interesting passages, and the listening to such subjects adds zest to the wine." Sostratus readily availed himself of the opportunity to speak, and replied, "My own story is a very simple one; you are already acquainted with my name and country, and when I have added that I am uncle to this young man and father to the maiden, you have heard all.—Do you, son Clitopho, (turning to me) lay aside all bashfulness and relate whatever you have to say worth hearing; the grief and vexation which I have endured is to be attributed to Fortune not to you; besides, to tell of past troubles when one has escaped from them, is a source of pleasure rather than of grief."[5]
Upon this, I detailed all the events which had occurred since leaving Tyre—the voyage, the shipwreck, our being cast upon the coast of Egypt, our falling among the buccaneers, the carrying off of Leucippe, the adventures of the false stomach contrived by Menelaus, the passion conceived for her by the commander, the discovery of the love potion by Chæreas, Leucippe's second rape by corsairs, and the wound received by me of which I exhibited the scar. When I approached the subject of Melitta, I related the story in such a manner as to give an exalted idea of my own continence, yet without being guilty of any falsehood. I spoke of her violent passion for me, her urgent but unsuccessful entreaties to obtain its gratification, her munificent promises, her grief at being disappointed, our subsequent voyage to Ephesus, the supper, my sharing her bed, and (invoking at the same time Diana's name) my rising from her side as pure as one female would from another, my being seized and put in prison, my false accusation of myself; this and every other matter I detailed down to the appearance of the Sacred Embassy, suppressing only the disgrace of my connexion with Melitta.[5]
"Leucippe's adventures," said I, in continuation, "are stranger even than mine. She has been sold to slavery, has been compelled to labour in the field, has been despoiled of the honours of her head,[6] of which you can see the tokens;" and then passing on to the conduct of Sosthenes and Thersander, I entered much more into detail than I had done, when speaking of myself. My object in doing this, was to gratify Leucippe, in the hearing of her father. "She has endured every ill in her person," said I, "excepting one, and to avoid that one, she has submitted to all the others; and has continued, to this day, father (addressing Sostratus), pure as when first you sent her from Byzantium. It is no merit in me to have abstained from consummating the object for which we fled; the merit is entirely on her side for having preserved inviolate her chastity in the midst of villains, nay, against that arch villain, the shameless and violent Thersander. Our flight from home was caused by mutual love; but I can assure you, father, that during the voyage we were quite platonic, our intercourse was no other than that of a brother and a sister; and if there be such a thing as virginity in men, I am still a virgin as regards Leucippe; she, long since bound herself by a vow to Diana.[7]
"Queen of love," ejaculated I, "be not wroth nor deem thyself to have been slighted by us! we were but unwilling to celebrate our nuptials in the absence of the maiden's father; he has now happily arrived; be thou present therefore, and smile propitiously upon us." The priest had listened open-mouthed to my story, and Sostratus had been shedding tears during the recital of his daughter's sufferings. "Now that you have heard the account of our adventures," said I to our host, "I have a favour to ask of you. What did Thersander's parting words refer to, when he made mention of the syrinx?"—"You have a right to make the inquiry," replied he; "and I am both able and willing to comply with your request. It will be some return for the narrative with which you have just favoured us. You see the grove in the rear of the temple; in it is a cave, entrance into which is forbidden to women in general, but is permitted to maidens who have preserved their purity. A little within the doors a syrinx is suspended; perhaps you Byzantians are already acquainted with the nature of this instrument; should it be otherwise, I will give you a description of it, and will likewise relate the legend of Pan, with which it is connected.