Nitetis sighed, and the queen Ladice exclaimed, "On the contrary, that

very fact proves that you understand but poorly how to appreciate woman's
nature!  You can have no idea, Bartja, what a woman feels on finding that
her husband--the man who to her is more than life itself, and to whom she
would gladly and without reserve give up all that she treasures as most
sacred--looks down on her with the same kind of admiration that he
bestows on a pretty toy, a noble steed, or a well-wrought wine-bowl.
But it is yet a thousand-fold more painful to feel that the love which
every woman has a right to possess for herself alone, must be shared with
a hundred others!"

"There speaks the jealous wife!"  exclaimed Amasis.  "Would you not fancy
that I had often given her occasion to doubt my faithfulness?"

"No, no, my husband," answered Ladice, "in this point the Egyptian men
surpass other nations, that they remain content with that which they have
once loved; indeed I venture to assert that an Egyptian wife is the
happiest of women.

[According to Diodorus (I. 27) the queen of Egypt held a higher
position than the king himself.  The monuments and lists of names
certainly prove that women could rule with sovereign power.  The
husband of the heiress to the throne became king.  They had their
own revenues (Diodorus I. 52) and when a princess, after death, was
admitted among the goddesses, she received her own priestesses.
(Edict of Canopus.)  During the reigns of the Ptolemies many coins
were stamped with the queen's image and cities were named for them.
We notice also that sons, in speaking of their descent, more
frequently reckon it from the mother's than the father's side, that
a married woman is constantly alluded to as the "mistress" or "lady"
of the house, that according to many a Greek Papyrus they had entire
disposal of all their property, no matter in what it consisted, in
short that the weaker sex seems to have enjoyed equal influence with
the stronger.]

Even the Greeks, who in so many things may serve as patterns to us,
do not know how to appreciate woman rightly.  Most of the young Greek
girls pass their sad childhood in close rooms, kept to the wheel and
the loom by their mothers and those who have charge of them, and when
marriageable, are transferred to the quiet house of a husband they do
not know, and whose work in life and in the state allows him but seldom
to visit his wife's apartments.  Only when the most intimate friends and
nearest relations are with her husband, does she venture to appear in
their midst, and then shyly and timidly, hoping to hear a little of what
is going on in the great world outside.  Ah, indeed! we women thirst for
knowledge too, and there are certain branches of learning at least, which
it cannot be right to withhold from those who are to be the mothers and
educators of the next generation.  What can an Attic mother, without
knowledge, without experience, give to her daughters?  Naught but her
own ignorance.  And so it is, that a Hellene, seldom satisfied with
the society of his lawful, but, mentally, inferior wife, turns for
satisfaction to those courtesans, who, from their constant intercourse
with men, have acquired knowledge, and well understand how to adorn it
with the flowers of feminine grace, and to season it with the salt of a
woman's more refined and delicate wit.  In Egypt it is different.  A
young girl is allowed to associate freely with the most enlightened men.
Youths and maidens meet constantly on festive occasions, learn to know
and love one another.  The wife is not the slave, but the friend of her
husband; the one supplies the deficiencies of the other.  In weighty
questions the stronger decides, but the lesser cares of life are left
to her who is the greater in small things.  The daughters grow up under
careful guidance, for the mother is neither ignorant nor inexperienced.
To be virtuous and diligent in her affairs becomes easy to a woman, for
she sees that it increases his happiness whose dearest possession she
boasts of being, and who belongs to her alone.  The women only do that
which pleases us! but the Egyptian men understand the art of making us
pleased with that which is really good, and with that alone.  On the
shores of the Nile, Phocylides of Miletus and Hipponax of Ephesus would
never have dared to sing their libels on women, nor could the fable of
Pandora have been possibly invented here!"

[Simonides of Amorgos, an Iambic poet, who delighted in writing
satirical verses on women.  He divides them into different classes,
which he compares to unclean animals, and considers that the only
woman worthy of a husband and able to make him happy must be like
the bee.  The well-known fable of Pandora owes its origin to
Simonides.  He lived about 650 B. C.  The Egyptians too, speak very
severely of bad women, comparing them quite in the Simonides style
to beasts of prey (hyenas, lions and panthers).  We find this
sentence on a vicious woman: She is a collection of every kind of
meanness, and a bag full of wiles.  Chabas, Papyr.  magrque Harris.
p.  135.  Phocylides of Miletus, a rough and sarcastic, but
observant man, imitated Simonides in his style of writing.  But the
deformed Hipponax of Ephesus, a poet crushed down by poverty, wrote
far bitterer verses than Phocylides.  He lived about 550 B. C.  "His
own ugliness (according to Bernhardy) is reflected in every one of
his Choliambics." ]

"How beautifully you speak!"  exclaimed Bartja.  "Greek was not easy to
learn, but I am very glad now that I did not give it up in despair, and
really paid attention to Croesus' lessons."

Who could those men have been," asked Darius, "who dared to speak evil of
women?"

"A couple of Greek poets," answered Amasis, "the boldest of men, for I
confess I would rather provoke a lioness than a woman.  But these Greeks
do not know what fear is.  I will give you a specimen of Hipponax's
Poetry:

"There are but two days when a wife,
Brings pleasure to her husband's life,
The wedding-day, when hopes are bright,
And the day he buries her out of his sight."

"Cease, cease,"  cried Ladice stopping her ears, that is too had.  Now,
Persians, you can see what manner of man Amasis is.  For the sake of a
joke, he will laugh at those who hold precisely the same opinion as
himself.  There could not be a better husband.

"Nor a worse wife," laughed Amasis.  "Thou wilt make men think that I am
a too obedient husband.  But now farewell, my children; our young heroes
must look at this our city of Sais; before parting, however, I will
repeat to them what the malicious Siuionides has sung of a good wife:

"Dear to her spouse from youth to age she grows;
Fills with fair girls and sturdy boys his house;
Among all women womanliest seems,
And heavenly grace about her mild brow gleams.
A gentle wife, a noble spouse she walks,
Nor ever with the gossip mongers talks.
Such women sometimes Zeus to mortals gives,
The glory and the solace of their lives."

"Such is my Ladice! now farewell!"

"Not yet!"  cried Bartja.  "Let me first speak in defence of our poor
Persia and instil fresh courage into my future sister-in-law; but no!
Darius, thou must speak, thine eloquence is as great as thy skill in
figures and swordsmanship!"

"Thou speakst of me as if I were a gossip or a shopkeeper,"--[This
nickname, which Darius afterwards earned, is more fully spoken of]--
answered the son of Hystaspes.  "Be it so; I have been burning all this
time to defend the customs of our country.  Know then, Ladice, that if
Auramazda dispose the heart of our king in his own good ways, your
daughter will not be his slave, but his friend.  Know also, that in
Persia, though certainly only at high festivals, the king's wives have
their places at the men's table, and that we pay the highest reverence to
our wives and mothers.  A king of Babylon once took a Persian wife; in
the broad plains of the Euphrates she fell sick of longing for her native
mountains; he caused a gigantic structure to be raised on arches, and the
summit thereof to be covered with a depth of rich earth; caused the
choicest trees and flowers to be planted there, and watered by artificial
machinery.  This wonder completed, he led his wife thither; from its top
she could look down into the plains below, as from the heights of
Rachined, and with this costly gift he presented her.  Tell me, could
even an Egyptian give more?"

[This stupendous erection is said to have been constructed by
Nebuchadnezzar for his Persian wife Amytis.  Curtius V.  5.
Josephus contra Apion. I.  19.  Antiquities X. II. 1.  Diod. II. 10.
For further particulars relative to the hanging-gardens, see later
notes.]

"And did she recover?"  asked Nitetis, without raising her eyes.

"She recovered health and happiness; and you too will soon feel well and
happy in our country."

"And now," said Ladice with a smile, what, think you, contributed most
to the young queen's recovery?  the beautiful mountain or the love of the
husband, who erected it for her sake?"

"Her husband's love," cried the young girls.

"But Nitetis would not disdain the mountain either," maintained Bartja,
"and I shall make it my care that whenever the court is at Babylon, she
has the hanging-gardens for her residence."

"But now come," exclaimed Amasis, "unless you wish to see the city in
darkness.  Two secretaries have been awaiting me yonder for the last two
hours.  Ho! Sachons! give orders to the captain of the guard to accompany
our noble guests with a hundred men."

"But why? a single guide, perhaps one of the Greek officers, would be
amply sufficient."

"No, my young friends, it is better so.  Foreigners can never be too
prudent in Egypt.  Do not forget this, and especially be careful not to
ridicule the sacred animals.  And now farewell, my young heroes, till we
meet again this evening over a merry wine-cup."

The Persians then quitted the palace, accompanied by their interpreter,
a Greek, but who had been brought up in Egypt, and spoke both languages
with equal facility.

[Psamtik I. is said to have formed a new caste, viz.: the caste of
Interpreters, out of those Greeks who had been born and bred up in
Egypt.  Herod. II. 154.  Herodotus himself was probably conducted by
such a "Dragoman."]

Those streets of Sais which lay near the palace wore a pleasant aspect.
The houses, many of which were five stories high, were generally covered
with pictures or hieroglyphics; galleries with balustrades of carved and
gaily-painted wood-work, supported by columns also brightly painted, ran
round the walls surrounding the courts.  In many cases the proprietor's
name and rank was to be read on the door, which was, however, well closed
and locked.  Flowers and shrubs ornamented the flat roofs, on which the
Egyptians loved to spend the evening hours, unless indeed, they preferred
ascending the mosquito-tower with which nearly every house was provided.
These troublesome insects, engendered by the Nile, fly low, and these
little watch-towers were built as a protection from them.

The young Persians admired the great, almost excessive cleanliness, with
which each house, nay, even the streets themselves, literally shone.  The
door-plates and knockers sparkled in the sun; paintings, balconies and
columns all had the appearance of having been only just finished, and
even the street-pavement looked as if it were often scoured.

[The streets of Egyptian towns seem to have been paved, judging from
the ruins of Alabastron and Memphis.  We know at least with
certainty that this was the case with those leading to the temples.]

But as the Persians left the neighborhood of the Nile and the palace, the
streets became smaller.  Sais was built on the slope of a moderately high
hill, and had only been the residence of the Pharaohs for two centuries
and a half, but, during that comparatively short interval, had risen from
an unimportant place into a town of considerable magnitude.

On its river-side the houses and streets were brilliant, but on the hill-
slope lay, with but few more respectable exceptions, miserable, poverty-
stricken huts constructed of acacia-boughs and Nile-mud.  On the north-
west rose the royal citadel.

"Let us turn back here," exclaimed Gyges to his young companions.  During
his father's absence he was responsible as their guide and protector, and
now perceived that the crowd of curious spectators, which had hitherto
followed them, was increasing at every step.

"I obey your orders," replied the interpreter, "but yonder in the valley,
at the foot of that hill, lies the Saitic city of the dead, and for
foreigners I should think that would be of great interest."

"Go forward!"  cried Bartja.  "For what did we leave Persia, if not to
behold these remarkable objects?"

On arriving at an open kind of square surrounded by workmen's booths,
and not far from the city of the dead, confused cries rose among the
crowd behind them.

[Artisans, as well among the ancient as the modern Egyptians, were
accustomed to work in the open air.]

The children shouted for joy, the women called out, and one voice louder
than the rest was heard exclaiming: "Come hither to the fore-court of the
temple, and see the works of the great magician, who comes from the
western oases of Libya and is endowed with miraculous gifts by Chunsu,
the giver of good counsels, and by the great goddess Hekt."

"Follow me to the small temple yonder," said the interpreter, "and you
will behold a strange spectacle."  He pushed a way for himself and the
Persians through the crowd, obstructed in his course by many a sallow
woman and naked child; and at length came back with a priest, who
conducted the strangers into the fore-court of the temple.  Here,
surrounded by various chests and boxes, stood a man in the dress of a
priest; beside him on the earth knelt two negroes.  The Libyan was a man
of gigantic stature, with great suppleness of limb and a pair of piercing
black eyes.  In his hand he held a wind-instrument resembling a modern
clarionet, and a number of snakes, known in Egypt to be poisonous, lay
coiling themselves over his breast and arms.

On finding himself in the presence of the Persians he bowed low, inviting
them by a solemn gesture to gaze at his performances; he then cast off
his white robe and began all kinds of tricks with the snakes.

He allowed them to bite him, till the blood trickled down his cheeks;
compelled them by the notes of his flute to assume an erect position and
perform a kind of dancing evolution; by spitting into their jaws he
transformed them to all appearance into motionless rods; and then,
dashing them all on to the earth, performed a wild dance in their midst,
yet without once touching a single snake.

Like one possessed, he contorted his pliant limbs until his eyes seemed
starting from his head and a bloody foam issued from his lips.

Suddenly he fell to the ground, apparently lifeless.  A slight movement
of the lips and a low hissing whistle were the only signs of life; but,
on hearing the latter, the snakes crept up and twined themselves like
living rings around his neck, legs and body.  At last he rose, sang a
hymn in praise of the divine power which had made him a magician, and
then laid the greater number of his snakes in one of the chests,
retaining a few, probably his favorites, to serve as ornaments for his
neck and arms.

The second part of this performance consisted of clever conjuring-tricks,
in which he swallowed burning flax, balanced swords while dancing, their
points standing in the hollow of his eye; drew long strings and ribbons
out of the noses of the Egyptian children, exhibited the well-known cup-
and-ball trick, and, at length, raised the admiration of the spectators
to its highest pitch, by producing five living rabbits from as many
ostrich-eggs.

The Persians formed no unthankful portion of the assembled crowd; on the
contrary, this scene, so totally new, impressed them deeply.

They felt as if in the realm of miracles, and fancied they had now seen
the rarest of all Egyptian rarities.  In silence they took their way back
to the handsomer streets of Sais, without noticing how many mutilated
Egyptians crossed their path.  These poor disfigured creatures were
indeed no unusual sight for Asiatics, who punished many crimes by the
amputation of a limb.  Had they enquired however, they would have heard
that, in Egypt, the man deprived of his hand was a convicted forger, the
woman of her nose, an adulteress; that the man without a tongue had been
found guilty of high treason or false witness; that the loss of the ears
denoted a spy, and that the pale, idiotic-looking woman yonder had been
guilty of infanticide, and had been condemned to hold the little corpse
three days and three nights in her arms.  What woman could retain her
senses after these hours of torture?--[Diodorus I. 77.]

The greater number of the Egyptian penal laws not only secured the
punishment of the criminal, but rendered a repetition of the offence
impossible.

The Persian party now met with a hindrance, a large crowd having
assembled before one of the handsomest houses in the street leading to
the temple of Neith.  The few windows of this house that could be seen
(the greater number opening on the garden and court) were closed with
shutters, and at the door stood an old man, dressed in the plain white
robe of a priest's servant.  He was endeavoring, with loud cries, to
prevent a number of men of his own class from carrying a large chest out
of the house.

"What right  have you  to rob my master?" he shrieked indignantly.
"I am the guardian of this house, and when my master left for Persia (may
the gods destroy that land!) he bade me take especial care of this chest
in which his manuscripts lay."

"Compose yourself, old Hib!"  shouted one of these inferior priests, the
same whose acquaintance we made on the arrival of the Asiatic Embassy.
"We are here in the name of the high-priest of the great Neith, your
master's master.  There must be queer papers in this box, or Neithotep
would not have honored us with his commands to fetch them."

"But I will not allow my master's papers to be stolen," shrieked the old
man.  "My master is the great physician Nebenchari, and I will secure his
rights, even if I must appeal to the king himself."

"There," cried the other, "that will do; out with the chest, you fellows.
Carry it at once to the high-priest; and you, old man, would do more
wisely to hold your tongue and remember that the high-priest is your
master as well as mine.  Get into the house as quick as you can, or to-
morrow we shall have to drag you off as we did the chest to-day!"  So
saying, he slammed the heavy door, the old man was flung backward into
the house and the crowd saw him no more.

The Persians had watched this scene and obtained an explanation of its
meaning from their interpreter.  Zopyrus laughed on hearing that the
possessor of the stolen chest was the oculist Nebenchari, the same who
had been sent to Persia to restore the sight of the king's mother, and
whose grave, even morose temper had procured him but little love at the
court of Cambyses.

Bartja wished to ask Amasis the meaning of this strange robbery, but
Gyges begged him not to interfere in matters with which he had no
concern.  Just as they reached the palace, and darkness, which in Egypt
so quickly succeeds the daylight, was already stealing over the city,
Gyges felt himself hindered from proceeding further by a firm hand on his
robe, and perceived a stranger holding his finger on his lips in token of
silence.

"When can I speak with you alone and unobserved?"  he whispered.

"What do you wish from me?"

"Ask no questions, but answer me quickly.  By Mithras," I have weighty
matters to disclose."

"You speak Persian, but your garments would proclaim you an Egyptian."

"I am a Persian, but answer me quickly or we shall be noticed.  When can
I speak to you alone?"

"To-morrow morning."

"That is too late."

"Well then, in a quarter of an hour, when it is quite dark, at this gate
of the palace."

"I shall expect you."

So saying the man vanished.  Once within the palace, Gyges left Bartja
and Zopyrus, fastened his sword into his girdle, begged Darius to do the
same and to follow him, and was soon standing again under the great
portico with the stranger, but this time in total darkness.

"Auramazda be praised that you are there!"  cried the latter in Persian
to the young Lydian; "but who is that with you?"

"Darius, the son of Hystaspes, one of the Achaemenidae; and my friend."

The stranger bowed low and answered, "It is well, I feared an Egyptian
had accompanied you."

"No, we are alone and willing to hear you; but be brief.  Who are you and
what do you want?"

"My name is Bubares.  I served as a poor captain under the great Cyrus.
At the taking of your father's city, Sardis, the soldiers were at first
allowed to plunder freely; but on your wise father's representing to
Cyrus that to plunder a city already taken was an injury to the present,
and not to the former, possessor, they were commanded on pain of death to
deliver up their booty to their captains, and the latter to cause
everything of worth, when brought to them, to be collected in the market-
place.  Gold and silver trappings lay there in abundance, costly articles
of attire studded with precious stones  .  .  ."

"Quick, quick, our time is short," interrupted Gyges.

"You are right.  I must be more brief.  By keeping for myself an
ointment-box sparkling with jewels, taken from your father's palace, I
forfeited my life.  Croesus, however, pleaded for me with his conqueror
Cyrus; my life and liberty were granted me, but I was declared a
dishonored man.  Life in Persia became impossible with disgrace lying
heavily on my soul; I took ship from Smyrna to Cyprus, entered the army
there, fought against Amasis, and was brought hither by Phanes as a
prisoner-of-war.  Having always served as a horse-soldier, I was placed
among those slaves who had charge of the king's horses, and in six years
became an overseer.  Never have I forgotten the debt of gratitude I owe
to your father; and now my turn has come to render him a service."

"The matter concerns my father? then speak--tell me, I beseech you!"

"Immediately.  Has Croesus offended the crown prince?"

"Not that I am aware of."

"Your father is on a visit to Rhodopis this evening, at Naukratis?"

"How did you hear this?"

"From himself.  I followed him to the boat this morning and sought to
cast myself at his feet."

"And did you succeed?"

"Certainly.  He spoke a few gracious words with me, but could not wait to
hear what I would say, as his companions were already on board when he
arrived.  His slave Sandon, whom I know, told me that they were going to
Naukratis, and would visit the Greek woman whom they call Rhodopis."

"He spoke truly."

"Then you must speed to the rescue.  At the time that the market-place
was full."

[The forenoon among the Greeks was regulated by the business of the
market.  "When the market-place begins to fill, when it is full,
when it becomes empty."  It would be impossible to define this
division of time exactly according to our modern methods of
computation, but it seems certain that the market was over by the
afternoon.  The busiest hours were probably from 10 till 1.  At the
present day the streets of Athens are crowded during those hours;
but in Summer from two to four o'clock are utterly deserted.]

"Ten carriages and two boats, full of Ethiopian soldiers under the
command of an Egyptian captain, were sent off to Naukratis to surround
the house of Rhodopis and make captives of her guests."

"Ha, treachery!"  exclaimed Gyges.

"But how can they wish to injure your father?"  said Darius.  "They know
that the vengeance of Cambyses--"

"I only know," repeated Bubares, "that this night the house of Rhodopis,
in which your father is, will be surrounded by Ethiopian soldiers.  I
myself saw to the horses which transport them thither and heard Pentaur,
one of the crown-prince's fan-bearers, call to them, 'Keep eyes and ears
open, and let the house of Rhodopis be surrounded, lest he should escape
by the back door.  If possible spare his life, and kill him only if he
resist.  Bring him alive to Sais, and you shall receive twenty rings of
gold.'"

[It is no longer a matter of question, that before the time of the
Persians, and therefore at this point of our history, no money had
been coined in Egypt.  The precious metals were weighed out and used
as money in the shape of rings, animals, etc.  On many of the
monuments we see people purchasing goods and weighing out the gold
in payment; while others are paying their tribute in gold rings.
These rings were in use as a medium of payment up to the time of the
Ptolemies.  Pliny XXXIII.  I.  Balances with weights in the form of
animals may be seen in Wilkinson.  During the reigns of the
Ptolemies many coins were struck.]

"But could that allude to my father?"

"Certainly not," cried Darius.

"It is impossible to say," murmured Bubares.  "In this country one can
never know what may happen."

"How long does it take for a good horse to reach Naukratis?"

"Three hours, if he can go so long, and the Nile has not overflowed the
road too much."

"I will be there in two."

"I shall ride with you," said Darius.

"No, you must remain here with Zopyrus for Bartja's protection.  Tell the
servants to get ready."

"But Gyges--"

"Yes, you will stay here and excuse me to Amasis.  Say I could not come
to the evening revel on account of headache, toothache, sickness,
anything you like."

"I shall ride Bartja's Nicaean horse; and you, Bubares, will follow me on
Darius's.  You will lend him, my brother?"

"If I had ten thousand, you should have them all."

"Do you know the way to Naukratis, Bubares?"

"Blindfold."

"Then go, Darius, and tell them to get your horse and Bartja's ready!
To linger would be sin.  Farewell Darius, perhaps forever!  Protect
Bartja!  Once more, farewell!"




CHAPTER VIII.

It wanted two hours of midnight.  Bright light was streaming through the
open windows of Rhodopis' house, and sounds of mirth and gaiety fell on
the ear.  Her table had been adorned with special care in Croesus' honor.

On the cushions around it lay the guests with whom we are already
acquainted: Theodorus, Ibykus, Phanes, Aristomachus, the merchant
Theopompus of Miletus, Croesus and others, crowned with chaplets of
poplar and roses.

Theodorus the sculptor was speaking: "Egypt seems to me," he said, "like
a girl who persists in wearing a tight and painful shoe only because it
is of gold, while within her reach he beautiful and well-fitting slippers
in which she could move at ease, if she only would."

"You refer to the Egyptians' pertinacity in retaining traditional forms
and customs?"  asked Croesus.

"Certainly I do," answered the sculptor.  "Two centuries ago Egypt was
unquestionably the first of the nations.  In Art and Science she far
excelled us; but we learnt their methods of working, improved on them,
held firm to no prescribed proportions, but to the natural types alone,
gave freedom and beauty to their unbending outlines, and now have left
our masters far behind us.  But how was this possible? simply because the
Egyptians, bound by unalterable laws, could make no progress; we, on the
contrary, were free to pursue our course in the wide arena of art as far
as will and power would allow."

"But how can an artist be compelled to fashion statues alike, which are
meant to differ from each other in what they represent?"

"In this case that can be easily explained.  The entire human body is
divided by the Egyptians into 21 1/4 parts, in accordance with which
division the proportion of each separate limb is regulated.  I, myself,
have laid a wager with Amasis, in presence of the first Egyptian
sculptor, (a priest of Thebes), that, if I send my brother Telekles, in
Ephesus, dimensions, proportion and attitude, according to the Egyptian
method, he and I together can produce a statue which shall look as if
sculptured from one block and by one hand, though Telekles is to carve
the lower half at Ephesus, and I the upper here in Sais, and under the
eye of Amasis."

[These numbers, and the story which immediately follows, are taken
from Diodorus I. 98.  Plato tells us that, in his time, a law
existed binding the Egyptian artists to execute their works with
exactly the same amount of beauty or its reverse, as those which had
been made more than a thousand years before.  This statement is
confirmed by the monuments; but any one well acquainted with
Egyptian art can discern a marked difference in the style of each
epoch.  At the time of the ancient kingdom the forms were compressed
and stunted; under Seti I. beauty of proportion reached its highest
point.  During, and after the 20th dynasty, the style declined in
beauty; in the 26th, under the descendants of Psammetichus, we meet
with a last revival of art, but the ancient purity of form was never
again attained.]

"And shall you win your wager?"

"Undoubtedly.  I am just going to begin this trick of art; it will as
little deserve the name of a work of art, as any Egyptian statue."

"And yet there are single sculptures here which are of exquisite
workmanship; such, for instance, as the one Amasis sent to Samos as a
present to Polykrates.  In Memphis I saw a statue said to be about three
thousand years old, and to represent a king  who built the great Pyramid,
which excited my admiration in every respect.  With what certainty and
precision that unusually hard stone has been wrought! the muscles, how
carefully carved! especially in the breast, legs and feet; the harmony of
the features too, and, above all, the polish of the whole, leave nothing
to be desired."

"Unquestionably.  In all the mechanism of art, such as precision and
certainty in working even the hardest materials, the Egyptians, though
they have so long stood still in other points, are still far before us;
but to model form with freedom, to breathe, like Prometheus, a soul into
the stone, they will never learn until their old notions on this subject
have been entirely abandoned.  Even the pleasing varieties of corporeal
life cannot be represented by a system of mere proportions, much less
those which are inner and spiritual.  Look at the countless statues which
have been erected during the last three thousand years, in all the
temples and palaces from Naukratis up to the Cataracts.  They are all of
one type, and represent men of middle age, with grave but benevolent
countenances.  Yet they are intended, some as statues of aged monarchs,
others to perpetuate the memory of young princes.  The warrior and the
lawgiver, the blood-thirsty tyrant and the philanthropist are only
distinguished from each other by a difference in size, by which the
Egyptian sculptor expresses the idea of power and strength.  Amasis
orders a statue just as I should a sword.  Breadth and length being
specified, we both of us know quite well, before the master has begun his
work, what we shall receive when it is finished.  How could I possibly
fashion an infirm old man like an eager youth? a pugilist like a runner
in the foot-race? a poet like a warrior?  Put Ibykus and our Spartan
friend side by side, and tell me what you would say, were I to give to
the stern warrior the gentle features and gestures of our heart-ensnaring
poet."

"Well, and how does Amasis answer your remarks on this stagnation in
art?"

"He deplores it; but does not feel himself strong enough to abolish the
restrictive laws of the priests."

"And yet,"  said the Delphian, "he has given a large sum towards the
embellishment of our new temple, expressly, (I use his own words) for the
promotion of Hellenic art!"

"That is admirable in him," exclaimed Croesus.  "Will the Alkmaeonidae
soon have collected the three hundred talents necessary for the
completion of the temple?  Were I as rich as formerly I would gladly
undertake the entire cost; notwithstanding that your malicious god so
cruelly deceived me, after all my offerings at his shrine.  For when I
sent to ask whether I should begin the war with Cyrus, he returned this
answer: I should destroy a mighty kingdom by crossing the river Halys.
I trusted the god, secured the friendship of Sparta according to his
commands, crossed the boundary stream, and, in so doing, did indeed
destroy a mighty kingdom; not however that of the Medes and Persians, but
my own poor Lydia, which, as a satrapy of Cambyses, finds its loss of
independence a hard and uncongenial yoke."

"You blame the god unjustly," answered Phryxus.  It cannot be his fault
that you, in your human conceit, should have misinterpreted his oracle.
The answer did not say 'the kingdom of Persia,' but  'a kingdom' should
be destroyed through your desire for war.  Why did you not enquire what
kingdom was meant?  Was not your son's fate truly prophesied by the
oracle? and also that on the day of misfortune he would regain his
speech?  And when, after the fall of Sardis, Cyrus granted your wish to
enquire at Delphi whether the Greek gods made a rule of requiting their
benefactors by ingratitude, Loxias answered that he had willed the best
for you, but was controlled by a mightier power than himself, by that
inexorable fate which had foretold to thy great ancestor, that his fifth
successor was doomed to destruction."

"In the first days of my adversity I needed those words far more than
now," interrupted Croesus.  "There was a time when I cursed your god and
his oracles; but later, when with my riches my flatterers had left me,
and I became accustomed to pronounce judgment on my own actions, I saw
clearly that not Apollo, but my own vanity had been the cause of my ruin.
How could 'the kingdom to be destroyed' possibly mean mine, the mighty
realm of the powerful Croesus, the friend of the gods, the hitherto
unconquered leader?  Had a friend hinted at this interpretation of the
ambiguous oracle, I should have derided, nay, probably caused him to be
punished.  For a despotic ruler is like a fiery steed; the latter
endeavors to kick him who touches his wounds with intent to heal; the
former punishes him who lays a hand on the weak or failing points of his
diseased mind.  Thus I missed what, if my eyes had not been dazzled, I
might easily have seen; and now that my vision is clearer, though I have
nothing to lose, I am far more often anxious than in the days when none
could possibly lose more than I.  In comparison with those days, Phryxus,
I may be called a poor man now, but Cambyses does not leave me to famish,