ringlets of his black hair in which blueish tints shift symmetrically
surround a protuberance upon the summit of his skull. His arms,
which are very long, hang down against his sides. His two hands rest
flat upon his thighs, with the palms open. The soles of his feet
are like the faces of two blazing suns; and he remains completely
motionless--before Anthony and Hilarion--with all the gods around him,
rising in tiers above the rocks, as if upon the benches of some vast
circus. His lips, half-open; and he speaks in a deep voice_):
"I am the Master of great charities, the succor of all creatures; and
not less to the profane than to believers, do I expound the law.
"That I might deliver the world, I resolved to be born among men. The
gods wept when I departed from them.
"I sought me first a woman worthy to give me birth: a woman of warrior
race, the wife of a king, exceedingly good, excessively beautiful,
with body firm as adamant;--and at time of the full moon, without the
auxiliation of any male, I entered her womb.
"I issued from it by the right side. Stars stopped in their courses."
HILARION (_murmurs between his teeth_).
"And seeing the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy!"[1]
(_Anthony watches more attentively._)
THE BUDDHA[2] (_continuing_).
"From the furthest recesses of the Himalayas, a holy man one hundred
years of age, hurried to see me."
HILARION. "A man named Simeon ... who should not see death, before he
had seen the Christ of the Lord."[3]
THE BUDDHA. "I was led unto the schools; and it was found that I knew
more than the teachers."
HILARION. "... In the midst of the doctors ... and all that heard him
were astonished at his wisdom!"[4]
(_Anthony makes a sign to Hilarion to be silent._)
THE BUDDHA. "Continually did I meditate in the gardens. The shadows of
the trees turned with the turning of the sun; but the shadow of that
which sheltered me turned not.
"None could equal me in the knowledge of the Scriptures, the
enumeration of atoms, the conduct of elephants, the working of wax,
astronomy, poetry, pugilism, all the exercises and all the arts!
"In accordance with custom, I took to myself a wife; and I passed the
days in my kingly palace;--clad in pearls, under a rain of perfumes,
refreshed by the fans of thirty thousand women,--watching my peoples
from the height of my terraces adorned with fringes of resonant bells.
"But the sight of the miseries of the world turned me away from
pleasure. I fled.
"I begged my way upon the high roads, clad myself in rags gathered
within the sepulchres;--and, hearing of a most learned hermit, I chose
to become his slave. I guarded his gate! I washed his feet.
"Thus I annihilated all sensation, all joy, all languor.
"Then, concentrating my thoughts within vaster meditation, I learned to
know the essence of things, the illusion of forms.
"Soon I exhausted the science of the Brahmans. They are gnawed by
covetousness and desire under their outward aspect of austerity; they
daub themselves with filth, they live upon thorns,--hoping to arrive at
happiness by the path of death!"
HILARION.... "Pharisees, hypocrites, whited sepulchres, generation of
vipers!"
THE BUDDHA. "I also accomplished wondrous things,--eating but one
grain of rice each day (and the grains of rice in those times were no
larger than at present)--my hair fell off; my body became black; my
eyes receding within their sockets, seemed even as stars beheld at the
bottom of a well.
"During six years I kept myself motionless, exposed to the flies, the
lions and the serpents; and the great summer suns, the torrential
rains, lightnings and snows, hails and tempests,--all of these I
endured without even the shelter of my lifted hand.
"The travellers who passed by, believing me dead, cast clods of earth
upon me!
"Only the temptation of the Devil remained!
"I summoned him.
"His sons came,--hideous, scale-covered, nauseous as
charnel-houses,--shrieking, hissing, bellowing; interclashing their
panoplies, rattling together the bones of dead men. Some belched
flame through their nostrils; some made darkness about me with their
wings; some wore chaplets of severed fingers; some drank serpent-venom
from the hollows of their hands;--they were swine-headed; they were
rhinoceros-headed or toad-headed; they assumed all forms that inspire
loathing or affright."
ANTHONY (_to himself_).
"I also endured all that in other days!"
THE BUDDHA. "Then did he send me his daughters--beautiful with
daintily painted faces, and wearing girdles of gold. Their teeth were
whiter than the jasmine-flower; their thighs round as the trunk of
an elephant. Some extended their arms and yawned, that they might so
display the dimples of their elbows; some winked their eyes; some
laughed; some half-opened their garments. There were blushing virgins,
matrons replete with dignity, queens who came with great trains of
baggage and of slaves."
ANTHONY (_aside_). "Ah! he too ..."
THE BUDDHA. "Having vanquished the Demon, I nourished myself for twelve
years with perfumes only;--and as I had acquired the five virtues,
the five faculties, the ten forces, the eighteen substances, and had
entered into the four spheres of the invisible world, Intelligence
became mine! I became the Buddha."
[Illustration: Intelligence became mine! I became the Buddha.]
(_All the gods bow themselves down. Those having several heads, bend
them all simultaneously. He lifts his mighty hand aloft, and resumes_:)
"That I might effect the deliverance of beings, I have made hundreds
of thousands of sacrifices! To the poor I gave robes of silk, beds,
chariots, houses, heaps of gold and of diamonds. I gave my hands to the
one-handed, my legs to the lame, my eyes to the blind;--even my head I
severed for the sake of the decapitated. In the day that I was King, I
gave away provinces;--when I was a Brahman I despised no one. When I
was a solitary, I spake kindly words to the robber who slew me. When I
was a tiger I allowed myself to die of hunger.
"And having, in this last existence, preached the law, nothing now
remains for me to do. The great period is accomplished! Men, animals,
the gods, the bamboos, the oceans, the mountains, the sand-grains of
the Ganges, together with the myriad myriads of the stars,--all shall
die;--and until the time of the new births, a flame shall dance upon
the wrecks of worlds destroyed!"
(_Then a great dizziness comes upon the gods. They stagger, fall into
convulsions, and vomit forth their existences. Their crowns burst
apart; their banners fly away. They tear off their attributes, their
sexes, fling over their shoulders the cups from which they quaffed
immortality, strangle themselves with their serpents, vanish in
smoke;--and when all have disappeared_ ...)
HILARION (_solemnly exclaims_):
"Thou hast even now beheld the belief of many hundreds of millions of
men."
(_Anthony is prostrate upon the ground, covering his face with his
hands. Hilarion, with his back turned to the cross, stands near him and
watches him._
_A considerable time elapses._
_Then a singular being appears--having the head of a man upon the body
of a fish. He approaches through the air, upright, beating the sand
from time to time with his tail; and the patriarchal aspect of his face
by contrast with his puny little arms, causes Anthony to laugh._)
OANNES (_in a plaintive voice_):
"Respect me! I am the contemporary of beginnings.
"I dwelt in that formless world where hermaphroditic creatures
slumbered, under the weight of an opaque atmosphere, in the deeps of
dark waters--when fingers, fins, and wings were blended, and eyes
without heads were floating like mollusks, among human-headed bulls,
and dog-footed serpents.
[Illustration: ... and eyes without heads were floating like
mollusks]
"Above the whole of these beings, OMOROCA, bent like a hoop, extended
her woman-body. But Belus cleft her in two halves; with one he made the
earth; with the other, heaven;--and the two equal worlds do mutually
contemplate each other.
"I, the first consciousness of CHAOS, arose from the abyss that I might
harden matter, and give a law unto forms:--also I taught men to fish
and to sow: I gave them knowledge of writing, and of the history of the
gods.
[Illustration: I, the first consciousness of Chaos, arose from
the abyss that I might harden matter, and give a law unto forms ...]
"Since then I have dwelt in the deep pools left by the Deluge. But the
desert grows vaster about them; the winds cast sand into them; the sun
devours them;--and I die upon my couch of slime, gazing at the stars
through the water. Thither I return!"
(_He leaps and disappears in the Nile._)
HILARION. "That is an ancient God of the Chaldæans!"
ANTHONY (_ironically_). "What, then, were those of Babylon?"
HILARION. "Thou canst behold them!"
(_And they find themselves upon the platform of a lofty quadrangular
tower dominating six other towers, which, narrowing as they rise, form
one monstrous pyramid. Far below a great black mass is visible--the
city, doubtless--extending over the plains. The air is cold; the sky
darkly blue; multitudes of stars palpitate above._
_In the midst of the platform rises a column of white stone. Priests
in linen robes pass and repass around it, so as to describe by their
evolutions a moving circle; and with faces uplifted, they gaze upon the
stars._ ...)
HILARION. (_pointing out several of these stars to Anthony_):
"There are thirty principal stars. Fifteen look upon the upper side
of the earth; fifteen below. At regular intervals one shoots from the
upper regions to those below; while another abandons the inferior deeps
to rise to sublime altitudes ...
"Of the seven planets, two are beneficent; two evil; three
ambiguous:--all things in the world depend upon the influence of these
eternal fires. According to their position or movement presages may be
drawn;--and here thou dost tread the most venerable place upon earth.
Here Pythagoras and Zoroaster have met;--here for twelve thousand years
these men have observed the skies that they might better learn to know
the gods."
ANTHONY. "The stars are not gods."
HILARION. "Aye, they say the stars are gods; for all things about us
pass away;--the heavens only remain immutable as eternity."
ANTHONY. "Yet there is a master!"
HILARION (_pointing to the column_):
"He! Belus!--the first ray, the Sun, the Male! The Other, whom he
fecundates, is beneath him!"
(_Anthony beholds a garden, illuminated by lamps_: _He finds himself
in the midst of the crowd, in an avenue of cypress-trees. To right and
left are little pathways leading to huts constructed within a wood of
pomegranate trees, and enclosed by treillages of bamboo._
_Most of the men wear pointed caps, and garments bedizened like the
plumage of a peacock. But there are also people from the North clad
in bearskins, nomads wearing mantles of brown wool, pallid Gangarides
with long earrings;--and there seems to be as much confusion of rank
as there is confusion of nations; for sailors and stone-cutters elbow
the princes who wear tiaras blazing with carbuncles and who carry
long canes with carven knobs. All proceed upon their way with dilated
nostrils, absorbed by the same desire._
_From time to time, they draw aside to make way for some long covered
wagon drawn by oxen, or some ass jolting upon his back a woman bundled
up in thick veils, who finally disappears in the direction of the
cabins._
_Anthony feels afraid; he half-resolves to turn back. But an
unutterable curiosity takes possession of him, and draws him on._
_At the foot of the cypress-trees there are ranks of women squatting
upon deerskins, all wearing in lieu of diadem, a plaited fillet of
ropes. Some, magnificently attired, loudly call upon the passers-by.
Others, more timid, seek to veil their faces with their arms, while
some matron standing behind them, their mother doubtless, exhorts
them. Others, their heads veiled with a black shawl, and their bodies
entirely nude, seem from afar off to be statues of flesh. As soon as a
man has thrown some money upon their knees, they arise._
_And the sound of kisses is heard under the foliage,--sometimes a great
sharp cry._)
HILARION. "These are the virgins of Babylon, who prostitute themselves
to the goddess."
ANTHONY. "What goddess?"
HILARION. "Behold her!"
(_And he shows him at the further end of the avenue, upon the threshold
of an illuminated grotto, a block of stone representing a woman._)
ANTHONY. "Ignominy!--how abominable to give a sex to God!"
HILARION. "Thou thyself dost figure him in thy mind as a living person!"
(_Anthony again finds himself in darkness._
_He beholds in the air a luminous circle, poised upon horizontal
wings. This ring of light, girdles like a loose belt, the waist of a
little man wearing a mitre upon his head and carrying a wreath in his
hand. The lower part of his figure is completely concealed by immense
feathers outspreading about him like a petticoat._
_It is_--ORMUZD--_the God of the Persians. He hovers in the air above,
crying aloud_:)
"I fear! I can see his monstrous jaws! I did vanquish thee, O Ahriman!
But again thou dost war against me.
"First revolting against me, thou didst destroy the eldest of
creatures, Kaiomortz, the Man-Bull. Then didst thou seduce the first
human couple, Meschia and Meschiané; and thou didst fill all hearts
with darkness, thou didst urge thy battalions against heaven!
"I also had mine own, the people of the stars; and from the height of
my throne I contemplated the marshalling of the astral hosts.
"Mithra, my son, dwelt in heavens inaccessible. There he received
souls, from thence did he send them forth; and he arose each morning to
pour forth the abundance of his riches.
"The earth reflected the splendour of the firmament. Fire blazed upon
the crests of the mountains,--symbolizing that other fire of which
I had created all creatures. And that the holy flame might not be
polluted, the bodies of the dead were not burned; the beaks of birds
carried them aloft toward heaven.
"I gave to men the laws regulating pastures, labour, the choice of wood
for the sacrifices, the form of cups, the words to be uttered in hours
of sleeplessness;--and my priests unceasingly offered up prayers, so
that worship might be as the eternity of God in its endlessness. Men
purified themselves with water; loaves were offered upon the altars,
sins were confessed aloud.
"Homa[5] gave himself to men to be drank, that they might have his
strength communicated to them while the Genii of heaven were combating
the demons, the children of Iran were pursuing the serpents. The
King, whom an innumerable host of courtiers served upon their knees,
represented me in his person, and wore my coiffure. His gardens had the
magnificence of a heaven upon earth; and his tomb represented him in
the act of slaying a monster,--emblem of Good destroying Evil.
"For it was destined that I should one day definitely conquer Ahriman,
by the aid of Time-without-limits.
"But the interval between us disappears;--the deep night rises! To
me! ye Amschaspands, ye Izeds, ye Ferouers! Succor me, Mithra! seize
thy sword! And thou, Kaosyac, who shall return for the universal
deliverance, defend me! What!--none to aid! Ah! I die! Thou art the
victor, Ahriman!"
(_Hilarion, standing behind Anthony, restrains a cry of joy;--and_
ORMUZD _is swallowed up in the darkness._)
(_Then appears_:)
THE GREAT DIANA OF EPHESUS
(_black with enamelled eyes, her elbows pressed to her side, her
forearms extended, with hands open._
_Lions crawl upon her shoulders; fruits, flowers, and stars intercross
upon her bosom; further down three rows of breasts appear; and from her
belly to her feet she is covered with a tightly fitting sheath from
which bulls, stags, griffins, and bees, seem about to spring, their
bodies half-protruding from it. She is illuminated by the white light
emanating from a disk of silver, round as the full moon, placed behind
her head._)
"Where is my temple? Where are my Amazons?
"What is this I feel?--I, the Incorruptible!--a strange faintness comes
upon me!"...
(_Her flowers wither, her over-ripe fruits become detached and fall.
The lions and the bulls hang their heads; the deer foam at the mouth,
with a slimy foam, as though exhausted; the buzzing bees die upon the
ground._
_She presses her breasts, one after the other. All are empty! But under
a desperate effort her sheath bursts. She seizes it by the bottom, like
the skirt of a robe, throws her animals, her fruits, her flowers, into
it,--then withdraws into the darkness._
_And afar off there are voices, murmuring, growling, roaring,
bellowing, belling. The density of the night is augmented by breaths.
Drops of warm rain fall._)
ANTHONY. "How sweet the odour of the palm trees, the trembling of
leaves, the transparency of springs! I feel the desire to lie flat upon
the Earth that I might feel her against my heart; and my life would be
reinvigorated by her eternal youth!"
(_He hears the sound of castanets and of cymbals; and men appear, clad
in white tunics with red stripes,--leading through the midst of a
rustic crowd an ass, richly harnessed, its tail decorated with knots of
ribbons, and its hoofs painted._
_A box, covered with a saddle-cloth[6] of yellow material shakes to
and fro upon its back, between two baskets,--one receives the offerings
contributed,--eggs, grapes, pears, cheeses, fowls, little coins; and
the other basket is full of roses, which the leaders of the ass pluck
to pieces as they walk before the animal, shedding the leaves upon the
ground._
_They wear earrings and large mantles; their locks are plaited, their
cheeks painted, olive-wreaths are fastened upon their foreheads by
medallions bearing figurines;--all wear poniards in their belts, and
brandish ebony-handled whips, having three thongs to which osselets are
attached._[7]
_Those who form the rear of the procession, place upon the soil,--so as
to remain upright as a candelabrum,--a tall pine, which burns at its
summit, and shades under its lower branches a lamb._
_The ass halts. The saddle-cloth is removed. Underneath appears a
second covering of black felt. Then one of the men in white tunics
begins to dance, rattling his crotali;--another, kneeling before the
box, beats a tambourine and_--)
THE OLDEST OF THE BAND, _begins_:--
"Here is the Good Goddess, the Idæan of the mountains, the Great Mother
of Syria! Come ye hither, good people all!
[Illustration: Here is the Good Goddess, the Idæan of the mountains ...]
"She gives joy to men, she heals the sick; she sends inheritances; she
satisfies the hunger of love!
"We bear her through the land, rain or shine, in fair weather, or in
foul.
"Oft times we lie in the open air, and our table is not always well
served. Robbers dwell in the woods. Wild beasts rush from their
caverns. Slippery paths border the precipices. Behold her! behold her!"
(_They lift off the covering; and a box is seen, inlaid with little
pebbles._)
"Loftier than the cedars, she looks down from the blue ether. Vaster
than the wind she encircles the world. Her breath is exhaled by the
nostrils of tigers; the rumbling of her voice is heard beneath the
volcanoes; her wrath is the tempest; the pallor of her face has
whitened the moon. She ripens the harvest; by her the tree-bark swells
with sap; she makes the beard to grow. Give her something; for she
hates the avaricious!"
(_The box opens; and under a little pavilion of blue silk appears a
small image of Cybele--glittering with spangles, crowned with towers,
and seated in a chariot of red stone, drawn by two lions, with uplifted
paws._
_The crowd presses forward to see._)
THE ARCHIGALLUS (_continues_):
"She loves the sound of resounding tympanums, the echo of dancing
feet, the howling of wolves, the sonorous mountains and the deep
gorges, the flower of the almond tree, the pomegranate and the green
fig, the whirling dance, the snoring flute, the sugary sap, the salty
tear,--blood! To thee, to thee!--Mother of the mountains!"
(_They scourge themselves with their whips; and their chests resound
with the blows;--the skins of the tambourines vibrate almost to
bursting. They seize their knives; they gash their arms._)
"She is sorrowful; let us be sorrowful! Thereby your sins will be
remitted. Blood purifies all--fling its red drops abroad like blossoms!
She, the Great Mother, demands the blood of another creature--of a pure
being!"
(_The Archigallus raises his knife above the head of a lamb._)
ANTHONY (_seized with horror_):
"Do not slay the lamb!"
(_There is a gush of purple blood. The priest sprinkles the crowd
with it; and all--including Anthony and Hilarion--standing around the
burning tree, silently watch the last palpitations of the victim._
_A Woman comes forth from the midst of the priests; she resembles
exactly the image within the little box._
_She pauses, perceiving before her a Young Man wearing a Phrygian
cap. His thighs are covered with a pair of narrow trousers, with
lozenge-shaped openings here and there at regular intervals, closed by
bow knots of coloured material. He stands in an attitude of languor,
resting his elbow against a branch of the tree, holding a flute in his
hand._)
CYBELE (_flinging her arms about his waist_).
"I have traversed all regions of the earth to join thee--and famine
ravaged the fields Thou hast deceived me! It matters not! I love thee!
Warm my body in thine embrace! Let us be united!"
ATYS. "The springtime will never again return, O eternal Mother!
Despite my love, it is no longer possible for me to penetrate thy
essence! Would that I might cover myself with a painted robe like
thine! I envy thy breasts, swelling with milk, the length of thy
tresses, thy vast flanks that have borne and brought forth all
creatures! Why am I not thou?--Why am I not a woman?--No, never! depart
from me! My virility fills me with horror!"
(_With a sharp stone he dismembers himself, and runs furiously from
her ..._
_The priests imitate the god; the faithful do even as the priests. Men
and women exchange garments, embrace;--and the tumult of bleeding flesh
passes away, while the sound of voices remaining, becomes even more
strident,--like the shrieking of mourners, like the voices heard at
funerals._
_ ... A huge catafalque, hung with purple, supports upon its summit an
ebony bed, surrounded by torches and baskets of silver filagree, in
which are verdant leaves of lettuce, mallow and fennel. Upon the steps
of the construction, from summit to base, sit women all clad in black,
with loosened girdles and bare feet, holding in their hands with a
melancholy air, great bouquets of flowers._
_At each corner of the estrade urns of alabaster, filled with myrrh,
slowly send up their smoke._
_Upon the bed can be perceived the corpse of a man. Blood flows from
his thigh. One of his arms hangs down lifelessly;--and a dog licks his
finger nails and howls._
_The row of torches placed closely together, prevents his face from
being seen; and Anthony feels a strange anguish within him. He fears
lest he should recognize some one._
_The sobs of the women cease--and after an interval of silence_,)
ALL (_psalmody together_):
"Fair! fair!--all fair he is! Thou hast slept enough!--lift thy
head!--arise!
"Inhale the perfume of our flowers--narcissus--blossoms and anemones,
gathered in thine own gardens to please thee. Arouse thee! thou dost
make us fear for thee!
"Speak to us! What dost thou desire? Wilt thou drink wine?--wilt thou
lie in our beds?--dost wish to eat the honeycakes which have the form
of little birds?
"Let us press his lips,--kiss his breast! Now!--now!--dost thou not
feel our ring-laden fingers passing over thy body?--and our lips that
seek thy mouth?--and our tresses that sweep thy thighs? O faint God,
deaf to our prayers!"
(_They cry aloud, and rend their faces with their nails; then all
rush,--and the howling of the dog continues in the silence._)