After Twenty Years.
“How terrible is time! his solemn years,
The tombs of all our hopes and all our fears,
In silent horror roll! the gorgeous throne,
The pillared arch, the monumental stone,
Melt in swift ruin; and of mighty climes,
Where Fame told tales of virtues and of crimes,
Where Wisdom taught, and Valor woke to strife,
And Art’s creations breathed their mimic life,
And the young poet when the stars shone high
Drank the deep rapture of the quiet sky,
Naught now remains but Nature’s placid scene,
Heaven’s deathless blue and earth’s eternal green.”
Winthrop Mackworth Præd.
To Themistocles in Magnesia, greetings from Zopyrus at Gela in Sicily:—
After a silence of many years I write you again of affairs of state and
even of many personal things which I know will be of interest to you. I
want to assure you, my friend that I have never doubted your true
loyalty to Athens, and I write you freely knowing that Greece is dearer
to you than Persia. Your memory is and always will be in the hearts of
the majority, for who can forget the glories of Salamis and the hero to
whom we owe that victory!
Would that you could once more behold Athens—our Athens—and yet not as
she was in the years that you, my dear friend, walked her streets, stood
in her buzzing mart, or ascended her divine hill. The crystalline air,
the song of the nightingale in the olive groves, the shaggy peak of
Hymettus, the blue of the bay, and the familiar rose-tinted rock of the
Acropolis—these the Persian has been unable to destroy.
Your once hated rival Aristides is dead. I know that though bitter
enmity once filled your heart, you will regret to hear that he died so
poor that he was buried at the public expense. After his death Cimon
became undisputed leader, and greatly has Athens been benefitted by the
rule of this brilliant man whom we knew well as a youth. But alas, for
the brevity of popular favor! But a few years ago he was ostracized by
the most talked of man in all Athens today, Pericles, son of Xanthippus.
On the eve of the battle of Tanagra, Cimon left his place of banishment
and fought bravely with the Athenians against the Spartans. This so
pleased Pericles that he proposed a measure recalling Cimon from exile
and it was passed by the assembly. Cimon has succeeded in putting down
many revolts, and you know of his great victory over the Persians in
Asia. From the proceeds from the spoils of this battle he had planned to
build a temple to Athena, but this work is being carried on by Pericles.
It is plain that Cimon, however sincerely he had the welfare of his city
at heart, was too fond of personal praise and worship. He failed in his
attempt to unite Athens and Sparta. Pericles stands for the independence
of Athens and for pure democracy.
During the Thasian Revolt about ten years ago, Mimnermus distinguished
himself by bravery, but he confided to us that he did not relish the
task of overseeing the Thacians tear down their walls at the command of
the Athenians, for his brother-in-law, Polygnotus, was a native of
Thasos. Mimnermus is now at Aegina helping to suppress a similar revolt.
And now I will tell you of Polygnotus. He and other artists adorned the
interior of the Painted Porch with mural pictures of great beauty
representing scenes from the myths and from recent history. Polygnotus
married Eumetis, the daughter of Pasicles, and to this union were born
three daughters, Corinna, Cleodice and Neobule. Pasicles resides with
his daughter and her husband, but his wife, Cleodice, whose health
failed rapidly after the death of her daughter, Corinna, died within a
few years after that tragic event.
I know it will interest you to hear of Ladice and Lysimachus, both of
whom spoke of you affectionately whenever we met while in Athens. Their
son, Aristides, in whom they feel the usual pride common to parents of
an only child, gives promise of exceptional ability along the lines of
his grandfather, and if I may say so, his foster-grandparent.
Yesterday I stood at a newly made grave on the banks of a river which
pours its waters into the African Sea. In the distance to the north
stretched the wheat-bearing land of Gela. Before I could give my
thoughts wholly to the honored dead, I gazed with pride and happiness
upon the family with which I have been blessed. My eldest son Phales,
stood by my side, stalwart of body and thoughtful of mind, not unlike
his grandfather, Aeschylus. Persephone, our eldest daughter is very like
her mother was at her age, so it is needless to mention here the pride I
feel in her. My second son Masistius, at times reminds me of my father,
Artaphernes, but the loving guidance of his mother has softened the
severity that was his grandfather’s. The youngest child, a daughter,
Protomache, stood upon this occasion with tears in her usually laughing
eyes. She clung tightly to the hand of her mother whose eyes rested
lovingly upon each member of the little group in turn.
Then in low tones and with head bent in a reverent attitude, Persephone
my dear wife, read this epitaph which was engraved upon the tomb:
“This tomb the dust of Aeschylus doth hide—
Euphorion’s son and fruitful Gela’s pride;
How famed his valor Marathon may tell,
And long-haired Medes, who knew it all too well.”
As the last word trembled into a silence that seemed to permeate Nature
all about us, a few lines that had been composed by Aeschylus on the
subject of death, came to my mind, and I could not but repeat them upon
this occasion:
“Smitten by Him, from towering hopes degraded,
Mortals lie low and still;
Tireless and effortless works forth its will
The arm divine!
God from His holy seat, in calm of unarmed power,
Brings forth the deed at its appointed hour!”
The End.
FOOTNOTES
[1]This was an older Parthenon which existed before the one erected at
the time of Pericles.
[2]Market-place.
[3]Each two guests were furnished with a small three-legged table on
which the food was served already cut up.
[4]One who mixes the wine and presides at the symposium.
[5]Better known by his Roman name, Pluto.
[6]The modern city of Patras.
* * * * * *
Transcriber’s note:
--Silently corrected obvious typographical errors.
--Left idiosyncratic use of commas and non-standard spellings and
dialect unchanged.
--I don’t think “selfishness” means what the author thinks it does.