The weird of the wanderer Being the papyrus records of some incidents in one of the previous lives of Mr. Nicholas Crabbe
of Hades beside me, we went to and fro, walking delicately over the
monstrous wrigglings of titans, victims of my bow, as men pick their
way among earthquakes, lightly leaping hither and thither. But the mind
in my breast was contriving new wiles.
Then said Delphic Phoibos Apollon, the Knight of the Sun: “We have
tarried long enough in the kingdom of twilight; and I yearn to go back
to blazing noon. Return with us, O Master of Wisdom; and be sure of
olympian welcomes.”
Then said Arkadian Hermes Psykhopompos, the Knight of East and West
and North and South: “Never yet have I led articulately-speaking men
out of this place: but rather my business is to bring them hither when
they are dead. But very gladly will I bear thee and thine away with
swift-winged feet, O Master my child. Return, therefore, with us; and
be sure of olympian welcomes.”
Then said Lemnian Hephaistos, the Knight of the Brazen Serpent: “There
be many dints and notches in thy silver-shining armour, and many of thy
lovely rock-crystals and blue moonstones have been shattered in battle,
and what shall we say of thy nodding crest of the prides of nine white
peacocks. But, indeed, my fingers itch to have thee in my smithy where
I may restore thee. Return, therefore, with us, O Master of Arms; and
be sure of olympian welcomes.”
And, in like manner, all the divine ones spoke, very affably.
But white Death and black Sleep, being young, stood modestly aside:
for the general rule is that the last may not come to man without an
invitation, and that the first may come only at a particular time.
And that time for me had not even been discussed by the authorities.
For which cause, the pale god moved away, going about more pressing
business: but the dark one lingered, lifting his horn of dust to tempt
me. But, though I was not unwilling to receive the kindly gift of
Sleep, the mind in my noble breast reminded me that many things still
remained for me to do. Wherefore I addressed unwinged words to the
blessed gods, saying: “Gladly, O divine ones, will I escape from this
nasty neighbourhood, and gladly will I visit the height of Olympos,
bringing with me Helen the Treasure of Hades, and Love, the Crown of
All Wisdom.”
Thus I spoke, as we came forth from the hall into the misty
meadows of Asphodel. But, behind us in the House of Hades, we left
incalculable pudder and turmoil. For, beside the roars of the wounded,
the innumerable shades of all the dead since Cain slew Abel,[50]
being worried with pique and jealousy, were pouring themselves out
helter-skelter, snuffling in clusters, whimpering and maudling and
mumbling, waving themselves all over the place like streamers of
seaweed, all in a most embarrassing manner. And it seemed as though my
passage would be impeded by them, as by inextricable mazes of cobwebs.
Wherefore, I (to make an end) summoned Thalos, nimbly loaded with my
gear by him collected and skipping after me; and of him I inquired
whereabouts might be my silver chariot. Who answered me, saying that
my squire Neandros was not ceasing from driving about the asphodeline
meadows, being unseen, and keeping alert for my call: yet he knew not
precisely where the chariot might be at the moment. And he mentioned
his opinion that Neandros would be glad of a meal, not because he
was dying of hunger as another youth would have died, famished (for
his life was bound to my life, so that he lived while I lived), but
just because it was the custom of mortals to eat at intervals. And
inextinguishable laughter arose among the immortal gods when they heard
the apt speech of my foot-boy.
Then, the Great Twins, impatient of delay, moved to the other side
of their golden sister, as though to protect her from the mobs of
gibbering shades: but I, on my part, uttered the _Spell_ called
_The Call Which Must Be Answered_; and, instantly, Neandros drove
my silver-shining chariot toward us out of the imperscrutable mist.
But the gods, when they saw that I was furnished with so suitable a
vehicle with its equipage of four mad stallions of the divine breed of
Laomedon, departed, flying up earthward through the riven roof of the
netherworld, and thence onward to the height of Olympos. Thus the gods
themselves were my heralds.
But I placed Golden Helen (divine one of the goddesses) beside Neandros
in the chariot; and, when Thalos had mounted in the rear placing his
beautiful bundle on the silver floor, I, also, was about to ascend to
my place: but a very fearful occurrence delayed me. For the shade of
woman-mad Paris, partly embodied again, darted toward us out of the
mist; and his sufficiently-solid hand had been armed by shady Hades
with the sword of dead Hektor his brother. Now had I been blameless
Hades in these circumstances, I would have embodied the shade of
Hektor and employed him as my assassin rather than the feeble and
fatuous Paris: but Hades was not at all wily. And the woman-mad one
ran, gibbering frightfully, leering like a lunatic who after long
seeking has found; and he, squealing (for his throat was not quite
firmly finished), slashed as he passed with his blade at my harness, so
that the snow-white leathern thongs were divided, and the reins fell
severed from the hands of my charioteer. But the horses went madder,
bounding upward; and careered (trace-free) to their native pastures in
the rolling heavens, leaving us half-blinded by their hoof-sparks and
(so to speak) fixed immoveably below. And, every moment, the mobs of
malignant ghosts surrounding us became more impertinently menacing.
But I, having won the Crown of All Wisdom (which is Love), and the
Treasure of Hades (which is Golden Helen), and being unwilling to
forego the enjoyment of my beautiful spoils, and remembering the word
which Hermes had said by my altar on black Tanairon, lifted up my voice
very loudly indeed, uttering the most mighty but two of all spells.
And thus I said: “Hear, O oldest and youngest of all the blessed gods,
sweet one, sly one, dire one, winged one, blind one, arch-archer, lord
of unquenchable flame, thou who art somewhere in the rich state of
heaven or on the grain-giving earth, for thou everywhere canst see and
hear a man in affliction, hear now, and aid me in my need. Come, Love,
come.”
And, instantly, through the gigantic fissure yawning overhead, came
the sound of merry childish laughter. And Divine Eros dived out of the
darkness like a flash of ruddy lightning, folding his white wings to
stand before us, lifting the bandage from his sparkling eyes to warm
us with their radiance. And we, who had been shivering with ghostly
cold and bound to the soil of hell a moment before, felt all our
limbs a-thrill with life and joy and in our hearts a splendour at the
coming of the bird of the gods. For he, indeed, was a very large and
lovely boy, slim, and rounded, and so ruddy that his form had scarce
been known within a fiery furnace of clear flame: but, when we saw
the freedom with which he flung abroad his sprightly limbs, and his
quick incessant movements, it was clear that he could have no rival
in energy or strength. And, while we gazed, he was darting here and
there, peering into my silver chariot’s secret parts, having pulled
out the pole and cast it away for inquisitive ghosts to sniff at and
mumble. And even I stood amazed: for, notwithstanding my magic, I had
not suspected that such marvels could be as those which Love laid
bare. For, here, he pressed certain beautiful knops carven on the
panels; and, forthwith, lids opened in the silver floor, whereunto
he wept copious torrents of wet tears, because of foolish men; and,
having closed the lids, he shewed us his ruddy young face wreathed
with laughter. And, there, he ran his fingers over the bosses of other
silver panels inlaid with crabs and moons in mother-of-pearl; and other
lids opened; and a fragrance as of smooth oil was wafted in the air.
But all this, and very much more, was done in a moment of time.
And Love urgently charged us to mount to our places: but he was
sprawling on his supple back, underneath, between the well-carved
wheels, and belching streams of heavenly fire from his rose-red lips.
But we four mounted, and clung to the rail: for the mighty chariot
was beginning to hum and pulsate like a creature having life, so that
(though I was not afraid, but rather exultant with joy unspeakable), I
made the _Sign of Safety_ from height to depth and from here to there,
which is the test and the touchstone and the palladium of all white
magic.
But the immortal god arose, sweeping the air once with his great white
wings; and he swooped upward, diving into the very image of himself,
larger than life, blindfolded, naked, most alluringly proportioned,
which stood poised on the front of the rail, winged, and ready to fly.
And the whiteness and ruddiness of Eros totally disappeared in the
silver image of him, nor was the silver any longer hard and still, like
silver, but smooth and firm and supple as young flesh, being alive in
very fact and altogether godlike in potency.
And the silver Love hooted aloud in mockery of the gibbering shades;
and he swept back the air with his winged arms, as a strong swimmer
slipping through the wavelets of the innumerable laughter of the
ocean,[51] setting all mortal means at naught, needing neither oar
nor sail saving his wings, winnowing the winds with those eternal
plumes.[52] And the wheels of the chariot whirred astonishingly with
the swiftness of our flight toward the fissure in the firmament of
hell. But I, looking downward at the fearful ghosts, saw Kastor and
Polydeykes catching treacherous Paris by hair and heels and slinging
him into fiery Pyriphthlegethon. Awfully scorched was what there was
of him when he scrambled out; and the Great Twins left him licking his
burns on the bank: but they went back to the house of Hades, to serve
the rest of that day in the netherworld for a religious reason, such
being their immutable doom.
But the living silver Love bore us upward out of darkness. But I looked
upon the walls of the vast chasm as we passed them by; and I saw the
depths of rich earth’s bosom all laid bare. Here, were pockets full
of white gold or korinthic bronze which is platinum[53] and of gold
and of silver and of copper, and of iron, and of gleaming tin. There,
were mounds of marble and porphyry and granite. Here, were rivers of
chalcedonyx and jasper, and streams of rose-quartz and violet amethyst
and rock-crystal and blue moonstone and mysterious green-and-purple
alexandrolith. There, were caverns full of buried and forgotten
treasures. And, scattered everywhere, like the stars upon the floor of
heaven, were very precious stones, in clots, or alone in glittering
glory. But, above all these, we passed the pregnant soil of earth the
cupboard of mortals, pierced in every direction by the juicy roots of
herbs and trees.
I turned my gaze to my dear companions. The stalwart Neandros clung to
the rail at the back; and his bold eyes stirred not from the god who
had deposed him from his place as charioteer, for he was meditating an
unmentioned and unthought-of work, which I will narrate at a suitable
time. Thalos crouched on his hams on the floor, clinging with one arm
to the straight legs of Neandros, but his other arm steadied the bundle
of my gear. And, by my side, stood long-robed Helen, the divine one of
goddesses. She was as purely white as the kernel of a nut; and her hair
floated behind like a web of woven sunbeams. One gleaming arm round me,
and the other on the rail near the feet of the silver Love, held her
still. Her head was quiet and happy on my breast. Silent were her lips
of coral. Eloquent beyond mortal words were her amber eyes: wherein
gazing at my ease, I read of her pride, her meekness, her power, her