“Gyges. Darius, Zopyrus and he are my best friends. We have sworn never to part, and to give up our lives for one another, and that is why I came to-day, so early and quite in secret, to help my friend Gyges, in case he should need me.”
“Then you rode here for nothing.”
“No, by Mithras, that indeed I did not, for this ride brought me to you. But now you must tell me your name.”
“I am called Sappho.”
“That is a pretty name, and Gyges sings me sometimes beautiful songs by a poetess called Sappho. Are you related to her?”
“Of course. She was the sister of my grandfather Charaxus, and is called the tenth muse or the Lesbian swan. I suppose then, your friend Gyges speaks Greek better than you do?”
“Yes, he learnt Greek and Lydian together as a little child, and speaks them both equally well. He can speak Persian too, perfectly; and what is more, he knows and practises all the Persian virtues.”
“Which are the highest virtues then according to you Persians?”
“Truth is the first of all; courage the second, and the third is obedience; these three, joined with veneration for the gods, have made us Persians great.”
“But I thought you worshipped no gods?”