The Death of the Gods

by Dmitry Sergeyevich Merezhkovsky

  IV

  The celebrated sophist, Hekobolis, Court professor of eloquence, hadbegun to climb the ladder of promotion at the very lowest rungs. Hehad been a servant attached to the Temple of Astarte at Hieropolis. Atsixteen, having stolen some articles of value, he escaped toConstantinople, lived with the dregs of the populace, soaked in everykind of rascality. Later he took to the high-roads, where, roving onass-back from village to village, he lived from hand to mouth, incompany both with respectable pilgrims and with bands ofbrigands--sacrificers to Dindymene, that goddess beloved of thepeople. Finally he reached the school of Proeres the rhetorician, andsoon became a teacher of eloquence himself.

  During the last years of Constantine the Great, when the Christianreligion became fashionable at Court, Hekobolis became a Christian.The clergy showed him sympathy, but Hekobolis (though neverinopportunely) changed his form of creed as the wind blew: from Arianhe became Orthodox, from Orthodox Arian, and every conversion raisedhim a step in office.

  The clergy pushed him up this ascent, and in turn he lent the clergy ahelping hand.

  His head grew grey; he became pleasantly corpulent, his sage speechesmore and more honeyed and insinuating, his cheeks more rosy, his eyesmore kindly and brilliant. At moments an evil irony sparkled in them,as of some cold and arrogant spirit, but the eyelids would promptlydrop and the sparkle vanish. All his habits were clerical. He was astrict observer of fasts, and an exquisite judge of cookery. His leandiet was more refined than the most sumptuous course of holidayfeeding; just as his ecclesiastical witticisms were keener than thefrankest pleasantries of the Pagans. He used to be served with acooling drink made of beetroot and savoured with delicious spices.Many thought it preferable to wine. When denied ordinary wheaten breadhe invented cakes of a desert manna, with which, it is said, Pachomiusfed himself in Egypt. Ill-natured folk insinuated that Hekobolis was alibertine, and quaint tales were told about him at Constantinople. Ayoung woman avowed to her confessor that she had fallen fromchastity--

  "It is a great sin! And with whom were you guilty, my daughter?" "WithHekobolis, father!" The priestly visage cleared up. "With Hekobolis;ah, really! Well, well, the holy man is devoted to the Church! Repent,my daughter; the Lord will forgive!"

  Such anedoctes were mere tittle-tattle. But his thick red lips were atrifle too prominent in the respectable shorn visage of the dignitary,although he usually kept them tightly closed, with an expression ofmonastic humility. Women were fond of his company.

  Sometimes Hekobolis used to disappear for several days. No onefathomed the mystery, for he kept his own counsel. Neither servant norslave accompanied him on these enigmatic journeys, from which he wouldreturn calmed and refreshed.

  Under the Emperor Constantius, he received the appointment of Courtrhetorician, with a superb salary, the senatorial laticlave, and theblue shoulder-ribbon, a distinction of the highest dignitaries. Norwas his ambition satisfied.

  But at the moment when Hekobolis was preparing to mount a step higher,Constantius unexpectedly died. Julian, the Church's enemy, ascendedthe throne. Hekobolis lost no whit of his presence of mind. He merelydid what many others were doing, but did it neither too soon nor toolate.

  Julian, in the first days of his reign, organised a theologicalcontroversy in his palace. A young doctor of philosophy, esteemed byeverybody for his uprightness and noble nature, Caesar ofCappadocia,--brother of the famous theologian, Basil theGreat,--undertook the defence of the Christian faith against theEmperor himself.

  In such tournaments of learning Julian authorised an entireindependence of language, and even liked to be answered with passionand complete disregard of rank.

  Discussion was of the keenest kind, and considerable numbers ofsophists, priests, and men of science were present. Usually theopponent little by little gave way, yielding, not to the logic of theGreek philosopher, but to the majesty of the Roman Emperor.

  But on this occasion it was not so. Caesar of Cappadocia did not yield.He was a young man, almost feminine in the grace of his movements, andwith a steady clearness in his frank eyes. He denominated the Platonicphilosophy "the tortuous wisdom of the serpent," contrasting it withthe heavenly wisdom of the Gospel. Julian frowned, bit his lips,bridling his anger with difficulty. The argument, like all sincerediscussions, ended without results, and the Emperor, recovering hisself-possession, quitted the hall with a philosophic jest, and a faceof smilingly regretful magnanimity; in reality, pierced to the heart.

  Precisely at this moment, Hekobolis, the rhetorician, came up. Julian,who considered him an enemy, asked him--

  "What do you want?"

  Hekobolis fell on his knees, and began a confession of repentance. Forlong, he said, he had hesitated; but the reasonings of the Emperor hadfinally convinced him. He cursed the dark Galilean superstition, andhis heart returned to the remembrance of his childhood and the brightgods of Olympus.

  The Emperor raised the old man, and, scarcely able to speak withemotion, pressed him convulsively to his bosom, and kissed him on hisshaven cheeks and thick red lips. His eyes sought out Caesar ofCappadocia to feast on his opponent's humiliation.

  Julian kept Hekobolis near him for several days, repeating everywherethe story of his conversion, proud of his disciple as a child of a newtoy, as a youth of his first mistress.

  The Emperor desired to give some Court place of honour to his newfriend, but Hekobolis flatly refused, alleging himself to be unworthysuch distinction. He had decided to prepare his soul for the virtue ofthe Olympians by a long novitiate; and to purge his heart of Galileanimpiety by personal service to one of the old gods.

  Julian therefore nominated him chief sacrificial priest of Bithyniaand Paphlagonia.

  Persons bearing this title were called by the Pagans Archiepiscopts.The Archbishop Hekobolis thus governed two Asiatic provinces. Havingtaken the new way, he pursued it with as much success as the old, andeven contributed to the conversion of many Christians to Hellenism.

  Hekobolis became the high-priest to the celebrated Phoenician goddess,Astarte Atargatis, where in childhood he had served as a slave. Thistemple was built half-way between Chalcedon and Nicomedia, on a loftypromontory running out into the Propontic Sea. The place was calledGargarus. Pilgrims came thither from all corners of the earth to adoreAphrodite Astarte, goddess of life and love.