"Oh, how shameful, how deformed we are nowadays! Ashamed of our own
morose and pitiful nakedness, we hide it because we feel ugly and
impure. Whereas of old time.... Ah! there was a time when all was very
different. Julian, the young girls of Sparta used to go out upon the
wrestling-ground naked and haughty before all the people. Nobody
feared temptation in those days. Folk were simple as children--as
gods! And to think that nevermore shall that happen again; that the
freedom, the cleanness, of that happy state shall be seen on earth no
more!"
The poet's chin fell on his breast, and he sighed drearily.
They came at last to the Street of Tripods, and hard by the Acropolis
the friends separated and went their ways in silence.
Julian went into the shadow of the propylæa, through vast porches
leading into temple-enclosures; but avoided the Decorated Porch, on
which Parrhasius had chiselled the battles of Marathon and Salamis,
and passing the little temple of the Wingless Victory ascended to the
Parthenon.
He had but to shut his eyes to remember the superb body of Artemis the
huntress. When he opened them the sun-bathed Parthenon marbles seemed
golden and living as that divine body; and, despising Imperial spies
and chances of death, he desired openly to worship and kiss the warm
stones of that holy place.
Two black-robed young men of pale and severe countenance were standing
near. They were Gregory of Nazianzen and Basil of Cæsarea. The
Hellenists feared these two men as their most formidable foes. It was
the hope of the Christians that the two friends would one day become
fathers of the Church. They were now watching Julian.
"What's the matter with him to-day?" said Gregory. "Is that the
attitude of a monk? Are those the gestures of a monk? Do you see those
closed eyes--that smile? Do you believe that his piety is genuine,
Basil?"
"I have often watched him weeping and praying in church."
"Mere hypocrisy!"
"If so, why does he come to us, seek our friendship, and argue over
the Scriptures?"
"He's deceiving himself; or perhaps he wishes to seduce the faithful.
Never trust him! He is the tempter! Remember what I say, brother, the
Roman Empire in fostering this young man is nursing an adder!"
The two friends went off, their eyes on the ground. The severe
caryatids of the Erechtheum, the laughing blue of the sky, the white
temple of the Wingless One, the Porches and the Parthenon, that wonder
of the world, on them cast no spell. One thing alone did they desire:
to lay all these haunts of demons in the dust. The long shadows of the
monks fell on the Parthenon steps as they walked away.
"I must see her again," Julian was thinking; "I must find out who she
is."