Creation Read Free Page B

ceremonies. I’m told it’s quite a sight. Particularly the part where the Arch-Magian eats the fire. That’s you, isn’t it?”
    “Yes.” I no longer bother to explain to Greeks the difference between Zoroastrians and Magians. “But we don’t eat the fire. We tend it. The fire is the messenger between us and the Wise Lord. The fire also reminds us of the day of judgment when each of us must pass through a sea of molten metal—rather like the real sun, if Anaxagoras’ theory is true.”
    “But then what happens?” Although Callias is an hereditary priest, he is most superstitious. I find this odd. Hereditary priests usually tend to atheism. They know too much.
    I answered him, traditionally: “If you have served the Truth and rejected the Lie, you will not feel the boiling metal. You will—”
    “I see.” Callias’ mind, such as it is, flits about like a threatened bird. “We have something like that, too. Anyway, I want to watch you eat fire one of these days. Naturally, I can’t return the favor. Our mysteries are very deep, you know. I can’t tell you a thing about them. Except that you’ll be reborn once you’ve got through the whole lot. If you get through them. And when you’re dead, you’ll be able to avoid—” Callias stopped; the bird settled upon a bow. “Anyway, I fought at Marathon, even though I was obliged to wear these priestly robes that I must always wear, as you can see. Well, no, you can’t see them, of course. But priest or not, I killed my share of Persians that day—”
    “—and found your gold in a ditch.” Anaxagoras finds Callias as exasperating as I do. Unlike me, he does not have to endure him.
    “That story has been much distorted in the telling.” Callias was suddenly precise. “I happened to take a prisoner who thought I was some sort of general or king because I wear this fillet around my head, which you can’t see. Since he spoke only Persian and I spoke only Greek, there was no way to sort the matter out. I couldn’t tell him that I was of no importance at all, outside of being torch-bearer. Also, since I was only seventeen or eighteen, he should have figured out that I wasn’t important. But he didn’t. He showed me a riverbank— not a ditch —where he had hidden this chest of gold. Naturally, I took it. Spoils of war.”
    “And what happened to the owner?” Like everyone in Athens, Anaxagoras knew that Callias had promptly killed the Persian. Then, thanks to that chest of gold, Callias was able to invest in wine and oil and shipping. Today he is the richest man in Athens. He is deeply envied. But then, at Athens everyone is envied for something—even if it be nothing more than the absence of any enviable quality.
    “I set him free. Naturally.” Callias lied easily. Behind his back he is known as rich-ditch Callias. “The gold was by way of ransom. Normal sort of thing in battle. Happens every day between Greeks and Persians—or used to. That’s all over now, thanks to us, Cyrus Spitama. The whole world owes me and you eternal gratitude.”
    “I will be quite happy with a year or two of gratitude.”
    Between the removal of the first tables and the arrival of the second tables, Elpinice joined us. She is the only Athenian lady who dines with men whenever she chooses. She is privileged because she is wife to the rich Callias and sister to the splendid Cimon—sister and true widow, too. Before she married Callias, she and her brother lived together as man and wife, scandalizing the Athenians. It is a sign of the essential crudity of the Greeks that they do not yet understand that a great family is made even greater when brother marries sister. After all, each is a halfof the same entity. Combine the two in marriage and each is doubly formidable.
    It is also said that Elpinice, not Cimon, actually ruled the conservative party. At the moment, she has great influence with her nephew Thucydides. She is admired and feared. She is good company. Tall