*
Melaina woke the next morning, refreshed and encouraged. She smiled and rolled over on her back, excited to talk to Theognotus. All her fears had been unwarranted. But the priest didn't appear as early as promised, and she was dressed and waiting, rolled sheepskin at her feet, when he entered followed by the Hierophant and Myrrhine.
He'd already read Myrrhine's dreams, and her mother looked devastated.
"Mother!" cried Melaina. "What happened?"
Myrrhine dropped to her knees before Melaina. "Continued disappointment," she said. "The god came to me but didn't cure my barrenness. He said I would have children, but not from my own womb, and that I would not raise them."
"I'm sorry. It's indeed a heartbreaking plight."
"Mine's an old complaint. The world has heard it too long. I'll get over it." She looked up at Melaina and managed a smile. "Now we must hear from you."
They gathered around, Theognotus' mood cloaked, expressionless.
Melaina's smile was irrepressible. "You were right!" she said. "I slept well, had only one dream."
"Aha!" he said.
"But," she added, holding his attention, "not what I expected."
"Just the dream," he encouraged, "I'll interpret. Make me earn your grandfather's drachmas." He clasped his hands before him.
"Well, the serpent came to me, as you said he might. He was going to touch me, black tongue flitting in and out, but someone stopped him. An intruder, not threatening to me or the serpent, but he interfered. He picked up the serpent just as it reached me."
The priest seemed at a loss. "The intruder, describe him."
"Oh, he was a fine young man, friendly, compassionate, hardly had a beard. His hair was in tresses, their masses falling upon the shoulders. He had a double row of locks on the forehead. The face was strong and broad, a stout chin. Strong, muscular, naked. He scooped the serpent into his arms lovingly. It coiled, writhed about his forearm."
"Anything further?"
Melaina thought, then remembered a last detail. "A stately stag stood behind him."
"Of course! Apollo, accompanied by his sister. The deer is an unmistakably sign of Artemis." He looked first at the Hierophant, then Myrrhine. "We've never had a patient visited by the father." He turned back. "Anything you haven't told us?"
She looked away sheepishly. "He kissed me, then walked off."
The priest jumped to his feet. "Extraordinary! A clear sign of this young woman's importance to the gods." He paced about wringing his hands. "I only wonder why Artemis appeared as a deer instead of in human form. A rebuff, I'd guess."
"But why did Asklepios not cure me?"
"Perhaps he did. Asklepios is only a representation of his father's healing power. Apollo's kiss may have done it. The interest the gods have taken in you should make your husband very proud."
"Oh, she's not married," responded Myrrhine. "She wishes to remain virgin."
"A little late for that," replied Theognotus. "She's pregnant."
"What!"
"I knew it the instant I first saw her, and thought that was why you worried so about the epilepsy. It complicates pregnancy considerably."
"No! No, I can't be," said Melaina. "It's not possible!"
"How long since you've had the flow?"
She was slow to answer. "Three months…. But that's due to the south wind. The physician said it could make my flow irregular."
The priest smiled. "But not absent entirely. Your abdomen is already distended. The greenness below your eyes, characteristic facial splotches, freckles. You said yourself, that you recently experienced sickness after rising."
"I just can't be."
"How about you eating ashes, and earth?"
"I was starving! The fast!"
"During pregnancy women are close to Gaia, Earth goddess. They've been plowed and seeded same as a field of grain, and so crave earth. "Did you lay with a man?"
Melaina looked at her mother knowing what the answer must be. "No," she said, but her denial hung in the air like a dark cloud. "At least, I don't believe I did."
"Oh, dear mother Demeter!" said Myrrhine.
"'Twas the last seizure I had at Eleusis. I thought it but a vision."
The Hierophant dropped to one knee before her. "Explain yourself, granddaughter. This is very important."
"The night before you brought the physician to examine me."
"At the winter solstice," added her grandfather.
Melaina's thoughts raced forward, calculating a strategy to omit the episode with Sophocles. "I was tired and went to bed early, didn't sleep well with the lightning and thunder, and woke with someone in the room, in bed with me." She realized how this sounded and raised her arms imploring them. "An apparition! I'm sure of it."
"A man?" asked the Hierophant.
"A vision. No not a vision, just the presence of a man. I was on the threshold of a seizure, and you know the confusion I suffer."
"No, I don't. Tell me," said Theognotus.
"I see the gods, see the world, as they do. It's crowded with people not really there."
Myrrhine spoke up. "I witnessed this seizure. So did the Hierophant. Remember?" she said turning to him.
"This is true," the Hierophant said to Theognotus. "Both of us walked into her room just as the seizure finished with her. She was in bed alone."
"At first, I thought some animal was under the covers with her, killing her," said Myrrhine. "But when I pulled them back, it was just Melaina, alone."
"That tells all," said Theognotius. "The gods evaporate before the eye. Great Zeus! She has a god for a husband! Her seizures are caused by divine possession."
"No!" cried Melaina. "It was a presence without substance. Nothing could come of it."
All the while she was wondering desperately if it had been Sophocles. Before, she'd wracked her memory out of curiosity, now the answer was crucial. She'd also wondered about Kallias. Could he have raped her? She didn't dare say any of this aloud. Slandering Sophocles would be intolerable, and she realized how her mother esteemed Kallias, though Melaina herself harbored a secret dislike of him.
She cried, "I am a virgin! Artemis is my life." Her face contorted. "I just can't be pregnant!"
"This masculine presence, what was his appearance, demeanor?" demanded Theognotus.
She spoke through tears. "I know nothing of his appearance. Except that he was bearded as are all men. Thick chest. But these I only sensed. I saw nothing. All was shrouded in Erebos, the lightless dark of the depths."
Theognotus turned to her mother. "What the woman sees during intercourse determines in part the appearance of the child," he said. "Women who view monkeys while conceiving have children resembling such both in body and soul. The darkness wiped her sight clean allowing the god to write only his own vision on the child." He questioned her again. "His actions. Was there nothing telling?"
Melaina's cheeks turned bright crimson, and she had to straighten herself to get the answer out, cleared her throat. "When he had his great pleasure, his warm seed flowed into my womb like liquid gold. I felt consumed by fire."
Theognotus remained quiet a moment, measuring the weight of her words. His response came in a whisper. "Those were the words of Perseus' mother when Zeus lay with her." He turned to Myrrhine again. "Your daughter carries a divine child. In the dream last night, Apollo kissed her. She belongs to him, as does the child, the pure seed of the god."
"Check her virginity," said the Hierophant. "If she's physically intact, she can't be pregnant."
"Unless it was a god," replied Theognotus. "But virginity can't be verified physically. Rumors of a thin membrane blocking the entrance to the vagina are not to be believed. I've questioned many midwives. The ones who believe it exists don't agree on the location. Some say it's at the entrance, some midway to the womb and others believe it's even further inside. Most deny its existence. Only the gods can determine virginity, and they've already spoken. She's with child."
The Hierophant's disposition grew grave. Melaina remembered her discussion of virginity with her mother and realized that she could be banished. This has gone too far, she thought. I've got to tell them about Sophocles. But what if it wasn't him? I really don't believe it was, more likely Kallias. He was the one prowling about that night, and Sophocles gave no hint of anything between us in the days following. Oh, it had to be just a phantom produced by the seizure. I must remain silent.
"Just think," said Theognotus, speaking to himself, "a divine conception! The sanctuary will be famous throughout the Mediterranean. We won't be able to keep patients away."
"How could the god do this to me?" asked Melaina.
The Hierophant summed it up. "The gods give us our lot in life, a yoke about our necks."
"Divine Artemis! Do not be angry or destroy me, but forgive. I acted unwillingly!" cried Melaina.
The Mysteries, A Novel of Ancient Eleusis Page 51