Gregory

by Panos Ioannides

  They were not the dragging footsteps of Roxana… Who was it then?

  Certainly one of the secret agents must have recognized him; perhaps that money-changer; he had followed him and now he was in his house and was preparing some imaginative ‘accident’ for him…

  He hid behind the fence, waiting for something to happen which would help him to untangle his thoughts and reach a decision. Inside the movement and the coming and going of the lamp passed from room to room. They must be searching for incriminating evidence. They would not find the slightest. He had not brought anything with him that could give him away!…

  This foresight of his might yet prove to be his salvation, it was not impossible that they would be convinced that he was an Argive-Salaminan and withdraw quietly and discreetly…

  The door opened. The light of the lamp cut through the darkness. A young woman followed the lighted path and stood just a few paces from him and began to cut carnations and thick sprays of pyracanth. He gave a sigh of relief, gave her time to return and followed her into the house. He found her putting the flowers into the amphorae. Hearing his footsteps she turned and smiled at him. She was tall and lithe, and her face was the most beautiful he had ever seen, despite the fact that he had worked at the palace of Menelaos before Paris arrived…

  “Greetings”

  “Greetings”

  ‘No! Her name was not Helen; it was Corinna. She was the granddaughter of old Roxana, who was unwell and had asked her to help the tenant until she was back on her feet… Yes, she had laid the table and cooked the food the previous evening.

  Unfortunately she had not been able to stay and look after him then, as she had been obliged to return early to her sick grandmother. Today, though, as the old woman was feeling better she could stay a little while longer…’

  Talthyvios made her share his humble supper and his cheap wine, which proved to be stronger for him, and listen to his chatter:

  “I have always lived in life’s shadow. As a child they sent me to inferior teachers. As a youth I was desired by inferior pederasts. I was always second or third in life. Never first! As a man I was never loved by the youths and girls that I loved. I doubt if I was ever loved. My sole stroke of luck was tonight’s. A short while ago, seeing the light, I was convinced that it was thieves and murderers. But it was you, in my house, alone, with no one around to contend for you… Stay with me Corinna. Share my bed. Even for a little while. For just once in my life!”

  She regarded him gravely and left the room without replying. He fell on the sofa, drained. What was all that foolishness he had spouted, that emetic self-pity? No, it was no longer worth the effort even to feel sorry for his plight! For things that were well known!

  He was about to refill his goblet when he thought he heard a voice:

  “Come”.

  He raised the goblet without attaching any importance to what he supposed to be a delusion. But the invitation was repeated a second time.

  Walking unsteadily, he went in search of the voice. It came from the kitchen… No! From the cellar… From the bathroom…

  Not there either! The bedroom? He pushed aside the woven curtains.

  He found her standing naked beside the wooden bed, enveloped in the warmth composed by the curves of her body. Then he saw her bend her body, her brown nipples lowered, brushed the sheepskin and her waist bent to the edge…

  The next day Talthyvios awoke late in the afternoon and he no longer had the time or the inclination to go down to the market for the clerical cloak and vestments. For the same reason, he did not make it the following day, nor the one after. Suddenly, without any warning, without any prelude, he found himself experiencing his most flourishing erotic spring; he had no right to sully it in any way. In any case, he had plenty of time; there was no hurry. At the moment he had more serious and urgent problems: it was necessary to find ways, herbs, Phoenician potions, to convince Corinna that he was as experienced as she was! If he was slightly deficient it was because of his excitement and numbness at the insufferable knowledge that he was the lover of the most divine of mortals, the most passionate of Paphians. Yes, he must tell her this tonight, after first swallowing at one gulp the potion that the wily herbalist had sold him at such a high price…

  But to his misfortune, returning from his regular afternoon walk he found not the girl but her grandfather. He was a tall old man, well built, with eyes that shone beneath his black eyebrows. Talthyvios’ disappointment was evident and he barely managed, out of politeness, to nibble a little of the game the old man offered him along with the wine. He asked if old Roxana was better and learned that Corinna and the old woman were fine.

  She was unable to come as they were moving house; yes, they had found a new house, in another neighbourhood very close to the palace and at a reasonable rent… They invited him to visit them tomorrow; and if he wanted to move in with them, they would be greatly honoured. No, he should not even consider the expenses. He would not pay any more than now. In fact, they saw no reason why he should pay at all. Both Roxana and Corinna loved him like their own. He himself would help him move, if he agreed. And tonight he would keep him company. And since he could not, of course, be such good company as Corinna, they would go to bed early. Anyway, what would they talk about? Everyone knew the news already… Had he not heard? But of course, the negotiations with the Amathusians had recommenced from the point at which they had been broken off before the war. The signing of the agreement was a matter of days… It was strange that he had not heard about it! The town had been buzzing all day. And the markets, had never been busier! Especially now that the Aphrodisia celebrations were approaching! To give him an idea, he alone had sold forty wooden phalluses and sixty pigeons in one day!

  In the new house, where the two old people had him as tenant and sole occupant - they had both disappeared and only Corinna came every evening, bringing him hot food, wine, clean tunics and her ardent passion - Talthyvios lived isolated in his unexpected good fortune.

  And the days passed without any change in the blissful routine; sleep until midday, food, exercise or a walk, according to his disposition, return, Corinna a curvaceous erotic chord ready to sing under his fingers and his body, which was continually growing more experienced and communicative, conversation, food, sleep until midday, another meal and the golden cycle continued unimpeded, making up for a youth ‘which he had spent in life’s shadow’…

  As for his plan, the more closely he examined it, the more difficult he considered its implementation and the less eager he became to leave Corinna and risk his life in seeking out Chalcanor and the other fools who had let themselves be captured alive.

  All this time, the only change that occurred in the ‘golden cycle’, unsettling him somewhat, was the unannounced invasion one morning of an army of workers from the Metharme furniture makers, who delivered the new furniture: expensive reception sofas, heavy bedding for the winter which was approaching, a new double-bed, a table with carved chairs for common banquets, sofas for banquets with an erotic outcome, silver-plated mirrors, all types of Assyrian cloth for curtains and purple sheepskins.

  Disconcerted, he asked who would pay for all this, and the foreman told him not to worry because everything was taken care of…

  After they had finished tidying up, under his close supervision, he offered them a copper coin each. They refused.

  “But for your trouble”

  “Everything is paid for”

  “A silver coin?”

  “Silver?”

  The old man who pocketed the silver coin spoke with an accent. He asked him; he was an Amathusian, but now that there was peace he worked here, where there was more to be earned.

  “How are things in Amathus? How did the people take the treaty?”

  The old man frowned.

  “Why bring that up, master? Do you want me to lose my job?”

  Talthyvios thrust his hand into his tunic again. And with two more silver coins the old man forgot h
is fears and earned a month’s wages:

  “Pestilence and hunger were all that Amathus had to offer her inhabitants after the humiliating peace they had imposed on her! By force! Her turncoat nobles! The people knew it, they had suspected it, but what could they do? Wasn’t it always the same story? Of course, it was their misfortune to be neighbours… Every time the Paphians got into a fix, they started a war to get out of it … They have been doing it for years… He himself had experienced such carnage twice. This latest war and the other, when Cinyras had thought the best way of getting rid of his enemies was a war with Amathus… He started it and along with the Amathusians, he slaughtered those of his own people who had not forgotten late Tamirades… It was the same now! He got into a quarrel with the Argives and the Amathusians had to pay for the damage.”

  “We know him well”, the old man burst out. “Whenever his thousand and one tricks don’t work, he takes it out on us… A peaceful, docile people he knows he can trample on… I know! Now I’ll lose everything, but that’s the way I am… I always have been… Once I start I cannot stop. My tongue is rooted in my heart, you see…”

  Two days after the delivery of the furniture, Talthyvios received a visit from his old friends: Chalcanor, Stasinos and Cypragoras! Alive! He found them, on his return from the market, waiting for him on the sofas, around the laid table… He had seen the aristocratic carriages outside and had not known what to suppose; he had feared that this time the game was up, since only courtiers and secret agents could maintain such four-horse carriages…

  He entered with a heavy heart and, strangely, his mood did not change at all when he realized who they were. He stared at them speechless, unable to believe his eyes. How was it possible Did he really see the men he had planned to liberate or ghosts? And if it was them, what was the meaning of those fine clothes and the fat of easy living that had accumulated at the nape of their necks, their bellies and their heads and that clearly Cypriot haughtiness of manner?

  Cypragoras was the first to break the silence.

  “Stasinos happened to catch sight of you outside the Sanctuary, but he did not hail you as he was accompanying the Queen herself!… He set his men to work though and they spotted you the following day. Thus we discovered where you live. And all the… juicy details! You rogue!”

  “I was looking for you, too…” Talthyvios managed to stammer. “I had planned to come to the palace to…”

  “Why didn’t you come? I cannot imagine you being here for days without seeking us out!”

  “Really, when did you arrive?” ask Chalcanor, laughing.

  They all imitated him. The noise they made was something that Talthyvios was not used to. And so aimless. As though…

  “Just yesterday,” he replied concealing his emotions. “Until I got settled…”

  He embraced them and kissed them one by one. No, they were not the men who had once bid him farewell at the port. They had been youths, ‘with eyes and tongues rooted in their hearts’. These here were strangers, three…

  He motioned them to sit down again.

  “You were not expecting us, so we decided to bring some appetizers,” explained Stasinos.

  “You shouldn’t have gone to the trouble,” said the host. “We have everything.”

  “You have made yourself very comfortable even if you did arrive only yesterday,” said Chalcanor, laughing loudly again.

  “Gold always works wonders,” he replied, and smiled meaningfully.

  “To your health. And welcome,” Cypragoras raised his goblet.

  The four goblets were raised and clinked, emitting a brief musical phrase so well known in Paphos and in Cyprus, three vowels which formed a word that was so familiar: Cinyras… They sat down again and threw themselves on the wild boar they had brought with them, starting a real battle over the eyes.

  Cypragoras emerged the victor. He devoured one; the other he generously offered to the ‘householder’.

  “But I am not a householder. I am a tenant…”

  “A tenant? He is a tenant lads!” laughed Stasinos. “Did you hear that?”

  Their double chins and the folds of their bellies shook.Talthyvios was annoyed.

  “Will you explain what all this means?” he asked, coldly and severely now. “How did you find me? I know you were imprisoned… That is what they told me…”

  It was their turn to be surprised. ‘Imprisoned, them? In the Tombs? What would courtiers of Cinyras be doing in the cells? That is where they throw the adversaries, not the collaborators and the officers! And in any case, he was the last person who should be surprised at their good fortune.’

  “Wasn’t it you who first spoke up for us? To Cinyras? What do you suppose, that we are not grateful for what you did?”

  “I did nothing…”

  “You did everything.”

  And the second battle over the wild boar began. The prize this time, the testicles. Chalcanor won them. He sniffed them, half closing his eyes in pleasure, and began to chew them slowly, after first dedicating them to ‘unfortunate Adonis…’

  Talthyvios exploited the opportunity to enquire discreetly about Zenon and Nicea; and why they had not come. Chalcanor had his mouth full… Cypragoras answered with alacrity:

  “It is better not to speak of those fools… Do you know that they preferred accidents to the Court? Did you imagine that they were so narrow-minded? One of them, Zenon, drowned; Nicea was crushed…”

  But seeing Corinna enter the room he got up, embraced her and tenderly calling her ‘Amalthea’ drew her onto the sofa.

  IV

  “Talthyvios? Good, innocent Talthyvios?” said Agamemnon a few months later to Odysseus.” Haven’t you heard the news? We sent him to Paphos to overthrow Cinyras and now he is Chief Counsellor in his Court! He has entrusted him with the responsibility for improving relations with Argos!… And in exchange for his services, which are judged substantial, he has granted him his own mine, four ships and a ten-bedroom wing at the Sanctuary of Aphrodite.”

  Agamemnon flushed with rage as he spoke, ‘from envy’ his interlocutor thought. And with a sardonic grin:

  “For personal or commercial use?” he asked.

  “If the Gods do not wreak vengeance on that vile fellow, I’ll be compelled to dirty my own hands with his blood,” replied Agamemnon, following his own train of thought.

  “If you are speaking of Cinyras,” Odysseus disagreed, with his permanently playful disposition, “I think it would be wiser to have such an ingenious man as a friend rather than an enemy…”

  He paused for a moment and then added with a faint smile:

  “So that is how our good Talthyvios turned out! And to imagine that I always considered him to be incompetent…”

  From the short story collection

  Chronaka, I.M. Publications, Nicosia 1972

  Translated by David Bailey

  Gregorios and Efthymios

  He had no doubt; if they recognised him they would unhesitatingly kill him by the most repulsive of deaths.

  “The initiation is secret and it’s held in a secret place. Not even the Pope, when he asked, was admitted… Years ago, some sacrilegious person, hired by Rome, hid in the Temple. He was thrown alive into the latrine…”

  After this statement by the Grand Frère, they were convinced that any attempt to prevail upon the head of the Temple would be both futile and dangerous. For both of them.

  “Why did they kill him?” Gregorios dared only to ask the Grand Frère.

  “Because the truth he would learn would kill many… The truth we do not understand kills us…”

  “Don’t try,” Efthymios begged his friend, when they were out on the street again.

  “I’ll try,” he said “if things work out…”

  “And if they see you?”

  “If they see me…”

  After the Mass in the Catholic cathedral, where the first “benedictus” was pronounced over the novice by the Pope’s legate, who was none othe
r than Grand Frère Gianis Templar, the procession unwound itself into the street. The church, the Temple, was built on the bank of the Pedios river, beneath the walls of Don Lonardo.

  Efthymios followed the procession, next to the choir. The simplest thing would be to take the place of one of the youths. They were all of his age, between 16 and 20, and all Cypriots. In a white robe and hood he would be unrecognisable… Much wiser though, not to risk it… What would he gain? If everything was holy and good, as the Grand Master of the Temple and Gregorios had depicted, he would ask, tomorrow indeed, to be initiated too. And he would find out… Or his friend would tell him in detail. Why should he risk their lives now?

  He smiled at Gregorios who was looking at him, sideways, anxiously, and vanished into the dark passage-way, the remains of an old fortification which gave onto the Gate of Lonardo. And while he was drawing breath, relieved and determined to forget all that he had planned, fortune set a trap for him, foolhardiness overcame him. As they went by, a draught blew out all the candles simultaneously, as well as the twin torches in the hollows of the rotten walls; and the hymn became incoherent whispers. A caravan of camels, loaded with colourful merchandise which was making its swaying entry into Nicosia, took fright; the cries and the running of the frightened animals scattered the choir. This was the chance he had been waiting for; in the darkness he tripped up the first youth who bumped into him, gagged him with his robe and deftly bound his hands and feet with the hempen rope from his knee breeches. Then he dragged him and rolled him into an embrasure which the soldiers had used as an escape route, lest a passer-by should see him and set him free.

  So there he was, with the bronze cross in his hand and the extinguished candle, chanting with the choir boys who gradually reassembled in order: