CHAPTER XIII.
The House of Pasicles.
“For now at least the soil is free,
Now that one strong reviving breath
Has chased the eastern tyranny
Which to the Greek was ever death.”
Lord Houghton.
Most conspicuous among the few houses left in the city after the departure of the Persians was one that stood at no great distance from the Acropolis. It was a typical home of the upper-class Athenian citizen. Its narrow stone front with a massive door and its two closely barred windows at the second story did not present a very imposing aspect, but if one desired admittance and felt disposed to make use of the polished bronze knocker with which the door was equipped, his impressions of inhospitality were immediately dispelled by the appearance of a slave who courteously bade him enter.
Looking down a short hallway one beheld an open court surrounded by a colonnade and in the center of this court stood an altar to Zeus. It was here on pleasant days that the family assembled for worship, partook of its meals, entered into friendly discussions or played games. The women’s apartments were above, theirs being the barred windows which looked out on the narrow winding street. The kitchen and servant quarters occupied the rear, but by far the most interesting room was that which adjoined the court to the left; the library. As if by a miracle this room remained intact. Its shelves were filled with hundreds of rolls of manuscript, some slightly charred but undamaged by fire. At intervals about the room, upon marble pedestals stood statuettes of the muses, for this was the library of a poet, and could he not thus readily summon the muse he desired?
If one were able to tell the time of day by the shadow-pointer in the nearby public square, he would know that it was shortly past the noon hour. Four men were seated in the library, three of them young, the fourth, slightly past middle-age, was the master of the house, the poet Pasicles.
As he sat facing his friends, surrounded by his beloved muses and scrolls, he appeared the personification of dignity and aristocracy. His features were clearly and delicately cut, his face thin, his forehead high and intellectual. The folds of a white linen chiton draped the long lines of his figure. The three younger men were Cimon, Polygnotus and Zopyrus. The soft notes of a flute came from the direction of the court.