The weird of the wanderer Being the papyrus records of some incidents in one of the previous lives of Mr. Nicholas Crabbe
cause of Kyknos and to be extremely prepotent about it. But Great Zeys,
upset by cow-eyed Hera (most righteous of goddesses), shrouded himself
in black clouds, having decreed that the fragments of broken Kyknos
must stay below to satisfy Golden Helen, and that she (the divine one
of goddesses) must not stay above, being a cause of disorderly conduct
among the young gods. But Phoibos Apollon collected the pieces of
Kyknos, as many as he could find, wherewith he made a new swan (that
lickerish fowl) entirely black.[55] But Golden Helen, debarred from the
height of Olympos, and her honour in peril from hairy men down below,
betook herself further, even to the profundity of the netherworld,
where the gods were austere, and men but senseless shades, phantoms
of men worn out. And there she lived in exile, all for the sake of me,
divested of godlihood, enduring ten centuries of sorrow, the inevitable
penance for the glowing glory of her immortal inmarcesible youth.
But, having heard all these things babbled-of by rustic Pan one day
when we dawdled together (and I could not learn them from fair Helen,
for reasons of modesty), then, indeed, I held a sort of council with
the mind in my noble breast. And I determined that, as far as I was
concerned, she certainly should be rewarded for her grievous pains.
For the best of women wants no more than a little true love; and well
indeed did I know that that man is a blind besotted imbecile who, in
pride or what-not, denies himself the pleasure of making a woman happy
with what she wants, excepting (of course) for a religious reason.
And, furthermore, I was aware that I myself was by way of owing a
clearly-defined duty to the golden one of goddesses, in that I owed a
debt of love to her, not only for her fidelity, or as amends for her
wrongs, but chiefly because she had procured for me several pleasing
and exciting and singular adventures, teaching me how to win the Crown
of All Wisdom. The which debt I determined to pay forthwith.
Thereafter, I spoke not a word of these pious matters: but fair Helen
was not unaware that I knew all that Pan could tell me, not as her
accredited embassador but as the trusty friend of us both. And, when
I suddenly became very eager and insistent for nuptials, she would not
deny me: but she mentioned that a bride ought to be brought from her
paternal home to the house of her husband. Which doctrine I accepted.
And I said that I would contain myself till her case and my case had
been suitably pleaded before very mighty many-named Zeys. That, then,
was to be the object of our visit to the height of Olympos. For it
pleased me better to go thus, on a matter of business, than merely to
arrive, sleek, grinning, and complacent, to receive prizes and praises
for athletic achievements and feats of endurance and wiliness, which,
though most meritorious and praiseworthy, and valuable also, inasmuch
as they gained for me the friendship of several very important gods
(whose friendship is much preferable to their enmity), were, I affirm,
rather to be classed with my ordinary habits than with my virtues.
Anon, cunning Hephaistos restored to me my shining armour of silver
with adornments of rock-crystals and blue moonstones in all its
pristine splendour: but he returned forthwith to Olympian palaces.
Neandros and Thalos also brought my silver chariot, polished in all
its parts with a sheen like the full moon, and its secret recesses
were well-filled with water and oil. But, when we had placed my
gear therein, we said farewell to kindly Pan. And, in the cool of
the evening, I led the divine one of goddesses to her place at the
front: but I mounted by her side; and the slaves climbed up behind.
But fair Helen pulled the fine chain by its taslet; and the whole
chariot vibrated for sheer joy, panting and pulsating like a creature
enjoying sweet life: for, at the same moment, young Eros dived out of
open space, and the silver image of him started into perfervid life,
boiling with force and merrily hooting.[56] But we, leaping forward
with his beating wings, skimmed into distance more swiftly than an owl
in flight. All through the cool night we went at tireless speed: but,
whether over sea or land, I cannot say. For, in good sooth, I was not
aware of anything, save that the moon serene and the flagrant Crab
smiled upon me from the dark-blue sky, that I was no longer dawdling
but active and very strong, that Golden Helen was with me for good and
all, and that Love was my charioteer.
In this manner, I set forth from the silvan grove where goat-footed Pan
had been entertaining me.
FOOTNOTES:
[54] This is valuable. I suppose “formerly” helps to date these papyrè,
at least within a century or so. But Mr. C.’s epithet for Marcus
Curtius strikes me as being a little what I might almost term original.
“Showy” hardly seems the just word for a hero. But, of course, Mr. C.
wrote only a few centuries after the young Roman’s celebrated header,
which perhaps did not seem extraordinarily impressive to contemporary
professionals. Distance does sometimes lend inchantment to the view, I
believe. A. H.
[55] I cannot help citing Juvenal, _Sat._ VI., 165, in this connection:
“_Rara avis in terris nigroque simillima cycno._” A. H.
[56] I cannot help remarking that this sounds rather awfully like
what I might almost venture to term an ante-Christian automobile or
motorcar, with its secret recesses filled with oil and water, its
vibrations, its pantings, its pulsations, _and_ its hooter on the
front. If this conjecture of mine could be clearly substantiated, it
would furnish a fresh exemplification of the adage “Nothing new under
the sun,” I fancy. A. H.
THE TWENTY-THIRD PAPYRUS
But, when rosy-fingered Dawn had donned her saffron robes, arising
from her couch in the ocean to bring light to mortals and immortals,
then, indeed, we were nearing Tainaron, where lay the hollow ship with
the shipmen expecting my coming. And, when they saw us whizzing out
of a dusty cloud like a flash of white thunder (for, on the one side,
the hair of Golden Helen streamed behind us as streams a long ray of
sunbeams in no breeze, and, on the other side, my mantle of silver
tissue lined with white fur and clasped with the Moon and the Crab
in rock-crystals and blue moonstones floated at large and at length
beneath my towering crest of the prides of nine white peacocks), and,
when they saw Neandros and Thalos, mysteriously lost, returning,
and, when they saw the large silver Love very much alive, and, when
they heard the gleeful whoopings of untameable Love and the terrible
whirring of the chariot-wheels, then, indeed, their knees tottered, and
their breath popped out, and their hearts stood quite still for fear,
so that their life left them, and pale Death veiled their eyes.
But we lighted in the middle of the lofty prow, even as a bird lights
on the branch of a blooming tree;[57] and, when fair Helen pulled the
silver chain, instantly ruddy-white Love soared out of his silver image
into the boundless empyrean; and thus we came to the end of our journey
by land.
And now I was in a sort of quandary. For, knowing that I should need
all my strength of mind and body on lofty Olympos, knowing (also) that
rule of magic which says that a man of fluid temper (such as I am) can
best collect a reserve of such strength from the sea, I had determined
to go, by favour of azure-haired Poseidon, in my galley, from Tainaron
in the south, by the Eyboik Gulph, to the small port of Myrai at the
foot of mighty Mount Ossa in the north. But the rest of the journey
would be made more splendidly, in my silver-shining chariot, by land.
But (such is the lot of miserable mortals, who forget to inquire the
length of the life-threads, which the blameless Fates have spun for
their fellows), I found myself, at the very outset of my voyage by
sea, possessed of a huge well-benched ship with all its appurtenances
in perfect order, but encumbered with the corpses of one-and-sixty
mariners suddenly deceased, and a mere toy for the sea-gods. For which
causes, I sat me down on the lofty poop, taking my dear head in my
hands: and I began to contrive most astonishing wiles. But Golden Helen
sat by my side, like a true lover who knows when to speak to her man
and when to hold her peace. But my two slaves waited silently in their
places.
And, at length, it appeared to the mind in my lordly breast that the
gods, divine ones inhabiting olympian palaces, are wont to deal with
mortal men in this manner, shewing them singular favours so that they
may be encouraged to expect (and, even, to insist on) a continuance
of the same. For, as it is with a man, when he can do a certain deed
very well, straightway he desires also to do it very often, for the
benefit of the race of men and for all sorts of other pious and
religious reasons, so, also, indeed, precisely, is it with the blessed
gods, givers of good things. Wherefore, then, seeing that tameless
Love had willingly bound himself (with a silver chain) to serve me
and long-robed Helen, I contrived an altogether unmentioned and
unthought-of magic: so that that ruddy bird of heaven might not have
cause to complain that I let his blooming wings grow rusty with disuse.
Wherefore, I said unwinged words to Neandros and Thalos, explaining
to them what they were to do. But, first, having pitched the dead
mariners overboard to lighten the ship, together we drew in the long
oars, bestowing them tidily as a rampart inside the bulwarks and
fixing them there with well-twisted knots. These things having been
accomplished, and the whole ship having been set in a new order, we
took a spare sail, white and vermilion, silken, with certain cordage,
out of the store. And, when we had ascended the lofty prow, we fastened
the wheels of the silver-shining chariot, fixing it where it stood,
immoveably, in the middle of the prow, so that a man might walk round
and about it if he pleased, then, indeed, we hanged the beautiful sail
over it, and fastened the same to the bulwarks, in the manner of an
awning with vermilion fringes. Thus, the splendour of the chariot was
concealed from the eyes of casual inquisitives: but the silver image of
Love emerged above the awning as a figure-head for my galley: and the
taslets of the silver chain about his reins dangled down inside.
And, all being ready, I (with my slaves) weighed anchor: but Golden
Helen pulled the chain of the silver image. And, instantly, young Love
descended into his image; and the silver Love lived, flying with his
tireless wings; so that the great ship moved most rapidly across the
frightened sea, having neither oars nor other sail. But I governed the
course with the steering-oar; and the divine one of goddesses was near
me.[58]
Now when I came again to hold council with my noble mind, I was aware
that (in winning the Treasure of Hades) I procured for myself such
a companion as I never had had before. In sooth I have had comrades
a many in my various lives; and, among them I will name the most
desirable Red Heart of the southern sea, and the glorious son of
Sycorax, and the unchangeable George of the Roses, and timidly-false
Aubrey, and Hugh the priest devoured by hidden hatred and envy and
prepotence, and blind Karterikos of Bosporos, and loving Vergilio,
and naïve elegant Khekkhi, and also Diomedes of the loud war-cry, and
great-hearted yellow-headed Akhilleys. Now, with a man, a man may
fight, and (at any rate) must quarrel: or there can be no true love,
for love is not proved true until it has been tested by reconciliation
after strife, preferably very bloody. And herein is the difference
between a comrade and a companion.[59] For, with a woman, no man may