Nikander

“ GATHERING THE THREADS Nikander had spoken of the Medes but in a voice so low that none but Theria heard.
Theria, Nikander knew, would not give way to fear. However, she did give way to curiosity. She questioned Medon, but Medon would tell her nothing. “Your father has forbidden us, Missy,” was his word. She plied Olen with questions, but Olen backed away from them with a skill which slaves acquire. As for Baltè, she could only say:
“Oh, darling, it is tribes and tribes of men, all the men in the world coming against our Greece. And the king at their head is a god. ”

“ He surely would not give you over to the sculptor’s trade.”
“No,” answered Eëtíon. Then on the defensive, “But after all, Nikander, is there any nobler way of honouring the gods than by beautiful sculpture? What would Delphi be without its statues and its songs?”
“Oh, but Eëtíon, this is hand craft. See, your hands are soiled even now. Song is the work of the mind alone.”
“But you use the hand to play the lyre,” said Eëtíon, quickly hiding his dirty hands in his himation.
“Apollo presides over song,” retorted Nikander. “No such god fosters sculptor work.” ”

“ Wives! what silly, miserable creatures. Hetairai! what undoing of mankind. And behind all the gibing was the curious hating fear. Nikander knew that Melas would not stop short of harming Theria to keep her from being nominated. Keenly Nikander heard the argument.
“I’ve followed you, Timon, in most of your proposals,” said another priest, “but now, by the gods, this is too much! But say, old fellow, you are joking, you know you are.”
“It seems to me you insult all the able young men of Delphi,” said Glaucos.
“What young man have we in Delphi who has seen Apollo face to face?” retorted Timon. ”

“ Eëtíon blushed like a boy. “In the new city,” he pleaded, “surely my fault will be overlooked.”
“As leader in the new city,” responded Nikander, “you should set an example to all.”
“Isn’t that rather an undertaking, Nikander?” sighed the rueful artist.
But Theria took Eëtíon’s brown, skilful hand in hers.
“Nay, Father,” she said defensively. “Deny him not. He is a born sculptor, his gift is from the gods. We cannot stop it. As for me, I have been inquiring among the colonists. I have found several bronze workers, and workers of marble. These shall be Eëtíon’s helpers.” ”

“ Oh,” Nikander added, “I was as unwilling as you are to acknowledge this power in my daughter. Like you I thought it insulted my sons who should have it in her stead. But hers is the gift of mind. I have been taught that, obstinately fighting. I have been punished until I saw.”
“Punished by herself?” sneered Melas.
“No, by some unrelenting god,” he answered with the love of Theria shining in his eyes.
“Remember,” spoke Timon again. “She has seen Apollo. We want Delphi kept alive in the hearts of her colonists. Could we do better than send one who has beheld the god?” ”

“ She is too splendid, too free-minded.”
“She shall certainly never go upon the tripod,” responded Nikander. “I will promise you that.”
Eëtíon paced the room in bitter distress. “How could you make her priestess?” he said, forgetting all kindness. “How could you take away her last chance for action and noble living? You don’t deserve to be Theria’s father.”
“Indeed I do not,” was Nikander’s sorrowful rejoinder. He laid quieting hands upon the youth.
[227]
“We are in dark days, Eëtíon. Perhaps not one of us will be alive to-morrow. Let us not grieve over what may not in any case come to pass.” ”

“ No kinsman shall be so dear as you.”
Now the only shadow on Nikander’s joy was his anxiety for Lycophron. Dear gods, where might his son be now? Even if Delphi survived the onslaught of the Persians this sorrow would remain. Nikander could never speak his son Lycophron’s name.
A slave brought their breakfast, and as they ate the figs and bread and milk they began to talk seriously of Delphi’s plans of escape. Many citizens had already carried their household treasures up the mountain to the Korykian cave. ”

“ Did he dare stand in Theria’s way, to deprive her of this gift? Was it not her right, her fate from the gods? Nikander hid his face from the Council. They would never understand this emotion of his—this dependence upon a girl-child.
But what were the priests saying? With quick concern Nikander looked up again.
“It’s not only foolish, Timon; it’s dangerous!” Melas spoke. “Give a woman power like that, she’ll go mad with it.”
Melas was one of those Greeks, a numerous class, who hated women with a curious active hatred which seemed almost bred of fear. They laughed at it all, of course. ”

“ But Nikander took her in his arms, loving her as he had never thought to do.
“My dear Melantho,” he said. “I begin to think I am the stupidest man in Delphi. Of course you shall stay.”
It was no easy matter to care for two helpless women at such a time, but Nikander was glad that Melantho was to stay. As for Baltè, nations might rise or fall, she had one care only, to watch her nurseling. And now Baltè was busy with new plans. She had long ago given up her sieve and taken it back to the kitchen where she gave it a kick of scorn. ”

“ Fair he was, tall, blue-eyed, [54] strong, something un-Greek about him. Nikander did not even see Theria this time. He was too absorbed in Themistokles.
Their talk was first about the new play at Athens. Themistokles had just heard the first great drama. His heart was afire with the excitement of it.
“It is new, utterly new and powerful,” he exclaimed. “Prometheus, it is called. Our Æschylus has outdone himself. The very gods come down upon the stage. And actors! We have never had such actors, Nikander. But it is the greatness of the play which creates them—the greatness of the play!” ”

“ She would die before she reached the tripod.”
“She might not. You know very well, Nikander, that on the edge of death the Pythia often prophesies best.”
Timon took Nikander’s arm.
“I am sorry, cousin,” he said, “but you know that what Kobon says is true. This is no time for a man to think of his own household. She might save the very shrine.”
[218]
“She cannot save it,” said Nikander stubbornly. “She has not spoken for four days. She is beyond all speech. Aristonikè is not so ill as she.” ”

“ As soon as Melantho came to replace her Theria turned to attend Eëtíon’s wounds. She knelt before him, binding up his bleeding ankle, then carefully washed the deep gash in his shoulder where the sword had grazed over the top of his shield. Her heart sang with the task.
Nikander, perhaps because he was an older, more skilful warrior, had received only scratches. Indeed the fight had not been long. The Persians had been conquered by the god ere ever man struck one blow. ”

“ Could a man have done more than that? Is it any wonder that I love her?”
Nikander felt it his duty to dissuade the youth from a love so hopeless—but he suddenly had no word to say. That love seemed so sweet and right and pure. He was proud that this daughter of his had called it forth.
The youth went on:
“We of Argos are worshippers of Hera. There is a [228] saying among us that the ‘Souls who follow Hera desire a love of royal quality.’ Hera cherishes the lawful union of man and woman.”
Nikander’s head bowed lower. He had forgotten this further obstacle that Eëtíon was a metic. ”

“ Or even to quarrel with,” he added whimsically.
“But the gods themselves worship my god. They know the One who is above them and controls.”
“Moira?” asked Nikander in a low voice. “Inexorable Fate?”
“No, Nikander, not Fate, but Love—creating all things—healing all things. Love—the First—the Source.”
Parmenides’s eyes shone with eerie light. He was fairly launched now. He began to recite his philosophy. ”

“ To my children’s children will the curse run unless Apollo will clean me.”
How Theria loved her father as he leaned toward the man laying his hand upon the shaking shoulder, fearless of the terrible curse which could run so quickly from man to man.
“The Son of Leto will hear you,” Nikander said. “Our god is pitiful of those whose hearts are clean. Do not fear. To-morrow you shall consult the god. I shall see that you go in first of them all to the Oracle. Your case is needy.” ”

“ Men are too troubled now to think. His absence will not be marked. Our words will be believed, if any of us, after the Persian onslaught, be left alive for beliefs or doubtings. Can we do anything further for you, Nikander?”
“No,” said Nikander quietly. “May the Son of Leto bless you for saving my son’s honour. I must go now and tell his mother.”
Dryas, who had been playing the lyre at Theria’s bedside, had stopped playing when his father withdrew. He sat awestruck, waiting.
Presently Melantho’s death-wail for Lycophron sounded through the house. ”

“ Our Catanian neighbours in their raid upon us killed all our leading citizens. They carried away our wealth and destroyed everything. Inessa is ruined beyond repair. Oh, no doubt the god means to destroy me also, and takes this way of making me worthy of death.”
Nikander quieted the young man as was his wont, then bade him wait in Delphi until the priests should think and advise with each other over the problem. ”

“ Eëtíon has purchased citizenship in Delphi, but he is still metic, a foreigner. Of course, you will not marry him.”
Nikander voiced the pride that was in every Greek citizen—the pride and the isolation. No man could take full citizenship in a city not his own. No marriage with a foreigner (born say fifty miles distant) was counted legal by any government. This fact, instinctive in Theria’s mind, had steeled her heart against the Argive. ”

“ Theria was utterly broken down. She could only moan, “But he told me the truth. He told me in order to save them. He told me because he loves my house and you and he wants to save us from ruin.”
“Great Paian, what a heap of sins on one girl’s head! She has deceived on the tripod, not once, but twice. She has a lover—she a priestess of Apollo. Now she has fled the Pythia House (which she ought never to have left) to bring a monstrous lie against her brothers.” To Nikander the shock of all this was terrible beyond belief. But worst of all, he feared that the vile tale about his sons was true. ”

“ Just as prayers to the gods are not always answered. And when the oracles are not clear, surely it is because the Son of Leto wishes us to use our own wisdom in the interpretation thereof.
“These oracles to Argos and Crete came forth in confused utterance and could have been interpreted into splendid words of courage to those states. We could have forced them to join the League.”
[130]
Nikander’s voice began to ring with his message. He forgot it was only to his daughter, Theria, that he was speaking. She meanwhile thrilled and quivered with the sudden enlightenment. ”

“ She would have entered with him into every struggle for Delphi’s honor if her father had only allowed her. How wistful she was when she met him returning from Council. What a sly little puss in her questioning, finding out his problems which he did not mean to tell! Nikander [212] smiled, but in his smiling found himself blinded with tears.
Dryas was sure that it was anxiety for Lycophron which unmanned his father thus.
Long after nightfall the two came home again. The slaves brought supper, and all unwilling they sat down to eat. ”

“ Nothing?”
“Nothing to save their city, my child. Even Themistocles says that in that case the citizens must flee to the isle of Salamis.” Nikander was by this time lost in the subject uppermost in his heart. “But the Athenian fleet would fight. They are very confident [158] of their fleet in Salamis Bay. They can tempt the Persians into the small bay where skill will count more than numbers. The crowding of the Persian ships might—— But, child, why do I tell you this? I have the habit of it because you never tell what is told you. ”

“ Nikita, who subsequently bore the name of Nikon, was born of obscure parentage, in the district of Nijni-Novgorod, in 1613. In early life he felt an imperative call to enter the Church, and secretly left his home to become a monk. At his father's earnest entreaty he returned, married, and was ordained a parish priest; his children died in infancy, and this affliction seemed to him a summons from on high to renounce the world. He persuaded his wife to enter a convent, and took upon himself vows of strictest reclusion in the Solovetsk monastery, on the shores of the White Sea. ”

“ He did not raise hand against Hito, but stood like a rock against the fat one's futile pummellings. For to strike a superior meant, for a slave, instant and lawful death. Hito would none the less maintain that he had been struck, but Nicanor could not help that. So that Hito battered until his fists were sore; and Nicanor stood and took it silently, with set jaws and eyes gleaming like a wolf's in his dark face. He could not hope to keep Hito there much longer. The latter, wearied at length and puffing, sat on the edge of that grim bridal bed and cursed Nicanor by all the evil gods. ”

“ Nicanor spoke aloud, with a laugh that jarred on the heavy stillness.
"When friend Hito gains wind enough after his gambollings to remember that lean lady of his, she should be far enough away to snap her fingers at him. So, the rat is trapped at last. Now to see whether he can fight or no; for if he cannot, he'll have no chance to try again." ”

“ Nicanor asked boldly.
Hito slipped an arm about the slave's broad shoulders and patted him.
"Because thou art a man after mine own heart," he said smoothly. "Because I love thee and thy bold eyes and thy dare-devil recklessness, and would make a friend of thee. Why else? Now, then, to-morrow thou shalt bring the girl to me. I am minded for an hour's sport with the tiger-cat. My fingers itch for that lean throat of hers. After, I will give her to thee if it please thee—and then we'll see what the rack will leave of her beauty." ”