CHAPTER XLI
THE BRIGHTNESS OF HELIOS
The day that disloyal Thebes surrendered came the tidings of the crowningof the Hellenes' victories. At Mycale by Samos the Greek fleets haddisembarked their crews and defeated the Persians almost at the doors ofthe Great King in Sardis. Artabazus had escaped through Thrace to Asia incaitiff flight. The war--at least the perilous part thereof--was at end.There might be more battles with the Barbarian, but no second Salamis orPlataea.
The Spartans had found the body of Mardonius pierced with five lances--allin front. Pausanias had honoured the brave dead,--the Persian had beencarried from the battle-ground on a shield, and covered by the red cloakof a Laconian general. But the body mysteriously disappeared. Its fate wasnever known. Perhaps the curious would have gladly heard what Glaucon onhis sick-bed told Themistocles, and what Sicinnus did afterward. Certainit is that the shrewd Asiatic later displayed a costly ring which thesatrap Zariaspes, Mardonius's cousin, sent him "for a great service to thehouse of Gobryas."
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On the same day that Thebes capitulated the household of Hermippus leftTroezene to return to Athens. When they had told Hermione all that hadbefallen,--the great good, the little ill,--she had not fainted, thoughCleopis had been sure thereof. The colour had risen to her cheeks, thelove-light to her eyes. She went to the cradle where Phoenix cooed andtossed his baby feet.
"Little one, little one," she said, while he beamed up at her, "you havenot to avenge your father now. You have a better, greater task, to be asfair in body and still more in mind as he."
Then came the rush of tears, the sobbing, the laughter, and Lysistra andCleopis, who feared the shock of too much joy, were glad.
The _Nausicaae_ bore them to Peiraeus. The harbour towns were in blackruins, for Mardonius had wasted everything before retiring to Boeotia forhis last battle. In Athens, as they entered it, the houses were roofless,the streets scattered with rubbish. But Hermione did not think of thesethings. The Agora at last,--the porticos were only shattered, fire-scarredpillars,--and everywhere were tents and booths and bustle,--the briskAthenians wasting no time in lamentation, but busy rebuilding and makinggood the loss. Above Hermione's head rose a few blackened columns,--allthat was left of the holy house of Athena,--but the crystalline air and thered Rock of the Acropolis no Persian had been able to take away.
And even as Hermione crossed the Agora she heard a shouting, a wordrunning from lip to lip as a wave leaps over the sea.
In the centre of the buzzing mart she stopped. All the blood sprang to herface, then left it. She passed her fingers over her hair, and waited withtwitching, upturned face. Through the hucksters' booths, amid theclamouring buyers and sellers, went a runner, striking left and right withhis staff, for the people were packing close, and he had much ado to clearthe way. Horsemen next, prancing chargers, the prizes from the Barbarian,and after them a litter. Noble youths bore it, sons of the Eupatrid housesof Athens. At sight of the litter the buzz of the Agora became a roar.
"The beautiful! The fortunate! The deliverer! _Io! Io, paean!_"
Hermione stood; only her eyes followed the litter. Its curtains were flungback; she saw some one within, lying on purple cushions. She saw thefeatures, beautiful as Pentelic marble and as pale. She cared not for thepeople. She cared not that Phoenix, frighted by the shouting, had begun towail. The statue in the litter moved, rose on one elbow.
"Ah, dearest and best,"--his voice had the old-time ring, his head theold-time poise,--"you need not fear to call me husband now!"
"Glaucon," she cried. "I am not fit to be your wife. I am not fit to kissyour feet."
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They set the litter down. Even little Simonides, though a king among thecurious, found the Acropolis peculiarly worthy of his study. Enough thatHermione's hands were pressing her husband, and these two cared notwhether a thousand watched or only Helios on high. Penelope was greetingthe returning Odysseus:--
"Welcome even as to shipmen On the swelling, raging sea; When Poseidon flings the whirlwind, When a thousand blasts roam free, Then at last the land appeareth;-- E'en so welcome in her sight Was her lord, her arms long clasped him, And her eyes shone pure and bright."
After a long time Glaucon commanded, "Bring me our child," and Cleopisgladly obeyed. Phoenix ceased weeping and thrust his red fists in hisfather's face.
"_Ei_, pretty snail," said Glaucon, pressing him fast by one hand, whilsthe held his mother by the other, "if I say you are a merry wight, thenurse will not marvel any more."
But Hermione had already heard from Niobe of the adventure in themarket-place at Troezene.
The young men were just taking up the litter, when the Agora again brokeinto cheers. Themistocles, saviour of Hellas, had crossed to Glaucon. Theadmiral--never more worshipped than now, when every plan he wove seemedperfect as a god's--took Glaucon and Hermione, one by each hand.
"Ah, _philotatoi_," he said, "to all of us is given by the sisters aboveso much bliss and so much sorrow. Some drink the bitter first, some thesweet. And you have drained the bitter to the lees. Therefore look up atthe Sun-King boldly. He will not darken for you again."
"Where now?" asked Hermione, in all things looking to her husband.
"To the Acropolis," ordered Glaucon. "If the temple is desolate, the Rockis still holy. Let us give thanks to Athena."
He even would have left the litter, had not Themistocles firmly forbidden.In time the Alcmaeonid's strength would return, though never the speed thathad left the stadia behind whilst he raced to save Hellas.
They mounted the Rock. From above, in the old-time brightness, the noondaylight, the sunlight of Athens, sprang down to them. Hermione, looking onGlaucon's face, saw him gaze eagerly upon her, his child, the sacred Rock,and the glory from Helios. Then his face wore a strange smile she couldnot understand. She did not know that he was saying in his heart:--
"And I thought for the rose vales of Bactria to forfeit--this!"
They were on the summit. The litter was set down on the projecting spur bythe southwest corner. The area of the Acropolis was desolation, ashes,drums of overturned pillars, a few lone and scarred columns. The works ofman were in ruin, but the works of the god, of yesterday, to-day, andforever were yet the same. They turned their backs on the ruin. Westwardthey looked--across land and sea, beautiful always, most beautiful now, forhad they not been redeemed with blood and tears? The Barbarian wasvanquished; the impossible accomplished. Hellas and Athens were their own,with none to take away.
They saw the blue bay of Phaleron. They saw the craggy height of Munychia,Salamis with its strait of the victory, farther yet the brown dome ofAcro-Corinthus and the wide breast of the clear Saronian sea. To the leftwas Hymettus the Shaggy, to right the long crest of Daphni, behind themrose Pentelicus, home of the marble that should take the shape of thegods. With one voice they fell to praising Athens and Hellas, wisely orfoolishly, according to their wit. Only Hermione and Glaucon kept silence,hand within hand, and speaking fast,--not with their lips,--but with theireyes.
Then at the end Themistocles spoke, and as always spoke the best.
"We have flung back the Barbarian. We have set our might against theGod-King and have conquered. Athens lies in ruins. We shall rebuild her.We shall make her more truly than before the 'Beautiful,' the'Violet-Crowned City,' worthy of the guardian Athena. The conquering ofthe Persian was hard. The making of Athens immortal by the beauty of ourlives, and words, and deeds is harder. Yet in this also we shall conquer.Yea, verily, for the day shall come that wherever the eye is charmed bythe beautiful, the heart is thrilled by the noble, or the soul yearnsafter the perfect,--there in the spirit shall stand Athens."
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After they had prayed to the goddess, they went down from the Rock and itsvision of beauty. Below a mule car met them. They se
t Glaucon and Hermionewith the babe therein, and these three were driven over the Sacred Waytoward the purple-bosomed hills, through the olive groves and the pinetrees, across the slope of Daphni, to rest and peace inEleusis-by-the-Sea.
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