[E] A stater was about 20 drachmae—at that time a considerable sum. An archon received for his daily pay only 2 drachmae.
But Aphrodite did not allow herself to be mocked.
Behind Callippides’ house lay a garden which was in a very neglected condition, so overgrown with weeds that there was scarcely an avenue or path, and the statue of Hermes in front of the house had fallen and rested on one side. An old stone seat under a tall leafy plane-tree was in better preservation, and here Callippides used to seek coolness and shade during the burning heat of noon.
While resting there one day, half drowsily turning the leaves of a yellow roll of manuscript, he heard a door in the next house open and saw a young female slave come out to spread a carpet over a prettily-carved aiōra (swing) which was hung in the shadiest place between the pillars of the house. Directly after a little girl seven or eight years old, dressed in white, came skipping out and was lifted on to the rug by the slave. But the swing had scarcely been set in motion before it began to rock unsteadily and the child, growing impatient, leaned back in the seat and shouted:
“No, Chloris, not you! Stop, stop! My sister knows how to do it a great deal better.” Then the little one began to scream with all her might: “Melitta, Melitta!”
The sycophant, whose profession required him to know everything, remembered at the child’s call that the young girl who bore this name must be a daughter of General Myronides, who had recently inherited the next house, and that she was reputed to be amechanōs kalē, irresistibly pretty. So it was not without eager expectation that he awaited her coming. Then he heard a young girl’s voice inside the house, singing:
“Amid the vines, amid the leaves
Peer forth the lustrous grapes....”
The singer approached, and Callippides’ heart throbbed faster.
But he was not taken by surprise when the door opened. Rumor had told the truth; for she was beautiful, fairer than any woman he had ever seen—half child, half maiden, like Polycleitus’ bewitching basket-bearers.[F]
[F] Basket-bearers. This was the name given to a chosen band of citizens’ daughters who, at the Panathenaic Festival, took part in the great procession of the whole Athenian population. They carried on their heads baskets containing offerings. A representation in marble of these beautiful Attic virgins was the sculptor Polycleitus’ most famous work.