by Sidney M. Hirsch
© February 7, 1913 by Sidney M. Hirsch

APOLLO BELVEDERE.
(VATICAN.)

To supremest Jove
I 'grave this image.

DEDICATED TO MRS. JAMES C. BRADFORD AND MRS. ROBT. W. NICHOL

ACT I

(Scene: Grazing sheep upon a meadow guarded by two dogs. The Shepherd (a youth) lies sleeping under a tree. Several Pans, Satyrs, etc., appear and hold revel, dancing about. The Youth moves uneasily in troublesome dreams. The figures disappear. The Shepherd arises as one in a trance; he appears strangely troubled and makes exclamation of deep despair, then falls heavily to the earth and immediately enters into a profound, dreamless sleep. Three Muses arise from the midst of the herd (Calliope, Euterpe, and Polyhymnia); they are draped with diaphanous veilings of delicate pinks and blues, bare-limbed and sandal-shod. Their hair, at first corymbus, shortly falls and envelops them in a vaporous cloud. They speed lightly over to the sleeping Shepherd.)

Euterpe

O! Thou peasant, made poet, now living abreathing, twice born
O singer, mellifluous, fresh waken, ... aye sing to the morn,
Aye sing to the dawn of the day when was shorn.
Thy memories of night.
O sleeper of death, in the kiss; ... now awaken to life that is life
Awake to thy nuptial, behold, aye! Enfold now thy mystical wife.
Whose embrace doth now give thee a light,
For the loss of that fire, consuming, O fire of strife
O my lover of light! Child husband
Ecstasy hushes and hangs o'er earth and its whirr --
Wings are down folded, quivers the violet to birth
Within ear of the tiniest furry winged delicate thing,
'Tis whispered ... be without fear,
'Tis a gift in the kiss of our might
O my lover ... my leman of light

(She stoops and kisses the Shepherd.)

Calliope

Hero born! sword wielder! helmeted fierce,
Hurling back spears of the Sun, mimic of Ar's,
Maimer of underworld glyphs; astride now thy horse.
Winged and thirstful, aerial to drink 'pon the highest of heights,
O rider, drink now of my gift
From hence now thy mouth, be to river, the lips ...
The lips on the waters that flow,
That the rhythm shall rhyme, as a shore-thirsting wave-measured sea.
O waters of words! that shall rouse, that shall flame heroes' hearts.
Youths drinking shall long for a spear and a beard, long for the shock!
And the clashing of shields 'pon the plains of the battling wraths.
Aye, dream dreams from the hearing of veterans,
Who'll straighten and tense and live all again in the birth of the telling,
And maidens and wives in presaging --
Shall weep o'er the woes of the wars in the years!
O youth, 'tis the breath-measured gift of my kiss.

(She stoops and kisses the Shepherd.)

Polyhymnia

O mortal who dies in my kiss! man who is born!
Count the heart now thy mother, the virgin, ... no mortal hath known.
Thy Father is he. Concealed of all the Concealed!
The White Head ... Supernal, O blessed be He!
O man in my kiss, shall much of his name ...vouchsafed unto thee!

(She kisses Shepherd, then disappears. He rises enthralled by what he considers a ''vision dreamed.'')

Shepherd

Ye Sun! Consoling light, O Earth!
Ye trees and shadowed streams, ye sky-lined hills,
O bleating lambs, ye rams, ye pebbled rills,
I've dreamed a dream! a vision rare vouchsafed to me,
A maid, three heavenly maids
Came down and kissed my mouth,
And breath of theirs was sweeter far than any flower!
Sweeter than waters from a native youth-known well
Drunk upon a parched midnight palate!
Sweeter than a love child's earliest lisp
Upon the youngest mother's breast,
O sweet it was and balmy past the telling!
And flame they brought that fires to whitest light,
That purged my dross, refined, yea purified my very pure!
Henceforth ... I their prophet am, --
My lips can utter concord of but sweetest sounds,
O balmy breath, O soul of flowers, return again!

(An olive tree opens and admits Athene. She is helmeted and carries a spear. The Youth falls prostrate in reverence and awe.)

Shepherd

O! ... O! ... O!
Now is this miracled day at zenith!

THE WINGED VICTORY OF SAMOTHRACE. (LOUVRE.)

Athene

I am Athene!
Fairest daughter of supremest Jove!
I sprang full lipped; ... full armed from that broad brow,
Clove at one mighty stroke of ax by that lame God.
I am the soul of man!
That mystic bride that weds him 'pon the highest height of mind,
When all he gives in gladness, that he all might gain,
Delights he, life to lose that he might live.
O man! unweighted idea!
One thought of Him who thinks on thought!
Well wilt thou serve me,
For deed in mine own city, Athens, violet crowned,
A maid, who guards my sacred flame.
Spotless, untainted e'en by a thought.
To shameful, hideous death decreed.
The nether-world manes wrought
By machinations foul that fume but in the darkest minds.
This deed that e'en basest mortal,
Man of reddest earth would shrink.
These shades, ... Ate inspired, have connived;
And Persephone in meads of Asphodel agreed.
With Furies three, with fire controller's self,
That each a runner should dispatch.
Illy visaged, ... illy humored, ... illy seen.
Four despicables! ... four Hadean helots!
And winner of this grizzly crew
Should in embrace, foul ... fetid.
And claim the Hestia's virgin priest. --

Shepherd (to Athene)

O! Wisdom's Self!
O! Princess, daughter of the King of Kings!
Aflame am I to speed, --
My feet disdain the earth!
O! earth sink from me! ...

Athene (to Shepherd)

O eager youth!
Becalm thy flamings with wisdom's waters!
To underrate the runners 'tis to lose the race already.
Take thou my shield and speed!
And whoso looks therein, shall find a fate
Acquired of himself ... fearful either or fearsome --

Shepherd

I stand with tingling feet!
The flame to speed consumes me!
Oh. ... I flame ... I flame....

(Shepherd falls in a trance to the earth.)

Athene

O poet who dies ...
Thou shalt prophet arise --

(The Shepherd falls in a trance. The nine muses appear and wrap him in the white napery of the grave. The thirty-two blackrobed acolytes appear carrying torches. The Shepherd is lowered into the sepulchre.)

THESEUS OR DIONYSIUS. (BRITISH MUSEUM)

Athene

The death of the poet!
Ah, weep all ye muses, ye glorious nine who are sung ... who are evermore sung!
Attending the princess, whose heart is now sobbing, is evermore sobbing ... is evermore wrung!
For paused the galloping hills in their headlong and tireless flight,
Bowed ... their heads in the mourning of draperied night.
Noble the night-bird in song of unnamable pain,
Silent the wind, that aeolian through grasses and grain.
Runic the murmur of river and reeds 'long the shore
Revealing of passionate pain in ineffable lore.
Oh, that the soul of the world should be cleansed by the solace of tears.
And its rock-ribbed heart attuned to the mystical music of spheres!
High in the perfume of pallid magnolia and moon.
Coalescing with comfortless woe and the sob and the psalm of the loon,
Ah! sorely oppressed are the valleys, the velvet savannahs and streams.
For mute is their prophet, and silent their psalmist, ... their dreamer of dreams.
Back to the hills went his largeness ... to the reeds his pure polonaise.
Back to the Soul-source, helaic, returned the seer's white rays,
Back to the All-love, his loving, aflame in the wine of the vale
In the peace past sublime and supernal --
'Tis the kiss of the groom Astreal.

(The goddess Athene moves over and attends before the aperture of the sepulchre.)

Athene (with authoritative gesture)

Thou Might of Jove ... arise!

(The stones at the top of the sepulchre appear to separate and shortly, to the amazed eyes of the muses and sombre-garbed males, the Youth still wrapped in the grave-clothes slowly ascends into view. When he stands on the summit of the sepulchre, with one convulsive effort the grave napery is parted and thrown aside. He stands garbed in shimmering white.)

Athene (to Youth as she gives her shield)

Speed ... and upon the coursive corridor
Shall much be given thee!
All that hast unlearned been by thee
Hath left a void, wherein shall rush
In thy delight, purest word,
A Name that doth the all contain!
Speed, goodly messenger

(Athene disappears. A youthful Eros enters, leading Pegasus, who appears as a surpassingly beautiful white-winged stallion and seemingly aflame with light. The Eros delivers the Pegasus to the Youth and disappears. Then Youth taking the bridle delivers ode.)

Shepherd

O Jove! Supremest, past thy Name!
Enthroned above the waters, ... 'lone ... complete!
Reclaiming from him, who kings the River-ocean,
Mighty monarch! Horse creator!
Thou God of Gods! Of king of Gods, ... the King!
To Thee, my prayer, that like the eagle's flight
The highest height would no less gain!
O, AEther! way my winged words
And hinder not their swiftest ascension.
To Him, whose ear divine, doth man's word try
Thou Light of Sun! O Dionysos child!
Passion I beseech, of thine own golden grapes.
That nether shades, in ecstasy, are Lethe held,
Nor can distract within of secret sin nor latent lie!
I speed! ... I speed!
O Jove! O Jove! O Jove! O Jove!

(The Shepherd carrying shield of Athene and leading the winged horse speeds once around the encircular and exeunt.)

ACT II

(The Hierophant, a broad-browed, ample man with streaming white beard and hair covering his breast and shoulders, attired in white sacerdotal garments, enters accompanied by three black-bearded young Priests. They advance with solemn and majestic mien to the sacrificial altar. The Hierophant makes low obeisance and kneels before the cubical stone.)

Hierophant

O Zeus! Thou cloud conformer! Mist destroyer!
Whose breath is vital air and fire's soul,
Whose wrath is lightning's spears and thunder's rumbling car!
Despoiling souls as sun dispels the clouds!
Thou! whose terroring eye, this delumed flame discerns!
I thee approach, that I might name thine awesome Name!
Ineffable word! O meditative mind!
Per'venture I, numbered negations have confessed and cleansed mine heart.
Attending here before thine Oracle
Might I within enveloping truth now call --
And hear the voice unheard of mortal ear, the unseen rays discern,
I utter now, with cleansed lips, and heart, and ears!
Jove! ... Jove! ... Jove! ... Jove! ...

A Voice of the Oracle

The stone.... The stone!

(The Hierophant and Priests fall prostrate in awe.)

The Voice

Double the cube.... Double the cube!

Hierophant

(Arises. To three Priests in great alarm.)

Assemble the priests! Gather together the peoples!
Sound upon the ram's horn! Let blare the red-voiced trumpets ...
Wind upon the cornet!
For the Oracle hath spoken! ... it hath cried aloud ...
And that which is voiceless hath uttered! ...
Yea! that which is unrayed hath given forth rays!

(The three Priests sound upon the trumpets, etc., and are echoed from within the temple. Three times they wind. (a) Then enters a high priestess. She advances with stately step. Then follow thirty white- draped maidens with loosened hair. (b) Enters a black-robed priest followed by thirty black-garbed priests. (c) Enters chorus, of maidens and male priests.)

HIEROPHANT

Ye ample men of Jove! Ye virgin priests! --
O! Herders of the sacred sheep! O Hounds that guard the temple's flock
Attend thine earnest ear! ... Attend! ... Attend!
For unto thee hath heaven's wish
In hidden secret word come down.
O! awesome was the hearing! Awesome now!
Mine inner heart! My soul's own soul did quake!
O! that I may with censor stand between thee and the wrath ...
That incense prayerful, spread abroad, might stay the plague!
O Zeus! That white-armed Justice should with Graces three,
Whose loveliness is tender-eyed as stars inwoven
Through weeping rain, o'erwatch us now!
O! Omnivirgin, clear-eyed Jove's Athene!
For thine own sacred city, Athens, we beseech ...
That wisdom, whose inner, whitest soul thou art,
Might bring that liberty, that calm, serenest poise
Wherein, discernment of the secret words divine, shall be.
With purest lips I voice ... Athene!

The Maxima

Hierophant triumphant! Thou mortal God!
Archtype of Him who spake the awesome word
And formed this bounded earth!
Thou Head, Thou art of life in this our Argive land!
Let Mercy now attend 'pon Justice sombre.
How else might Zeus his might express?
Who mortal, could coincidence that line?
O Thou whose thought is beauty, and whose word ... the good,
What hath perceived thee in commune with Jove
That arrows aerial emanate from thee.
And tremulous votaries, maids who guard the light,
With timid step approach and search with eye suspicious?

Hierophant

Let pulsing silence, and thick darkness cover!
Let words flexible be, and gates to memory!
Attend ye, who have gained an eye, and inner ear,
Initiates, and all who are elect!
The Kings, the Thirty-two have with the Thirty fought --
With fierce and soft desire did they now o'ercome.
And they who reigned ere balanced force did rule
The victory gained. Oh, wail ye men of Jove!
For one among the Thirty who with prudence guards the light
Hath sullied maidenhood and chastity hath treasoned....

Maidens and Chorus

Woe.... Woe....

Strophe (Males)

Justice decrees ... Justice decrees!
Women are sobbing, strengthen our pleas!
Justice severe ... Justice severe!
Yoke is now galling ... yoke we revere!
Justice deferred ... Justice departs!
Strengthen our purpose ... harden our hearts!

Antistrophe (Maidens)

O Justice, veil thine eyes in mist!
See beauty is balanced, 'twas wedded when kiss't.
Let misty ey'd Mercy with Justice commune,
Gentle Faith and lone Hope in our cause importune!
See hills 'gainst the Argent, ... tense stone weds the earth.
Fierce Sun and the Sea ... gentle rain brought to birth.
Aye, Tide and the Moon in a Lesbian love,
Strange sisters that live in the law of great Jove.
Yea, Sun and the Clouds ... e'en Sun and the Sod!
The Artist with beauty ... the Rhapsodist with God!

APHRODITE (VENUS DE MILO). (LOUVRE.)

Males

(Repeat Strophe.)

Epode

Let cooling memories heal the mind,
Serenity and calm repose attend,
And 'neath that shield no shade can send
An arrow nor a spear to blind.
For 'pon that pleasant land Jove hath his eye
And sends his rain and later rain,
The law that cleanses, ... the gold we buy,
Wisdom we purchase with our pain.
O Souls that throng the aether and will blend --
Cause adamantine hearts to break, and peace descend.

HIEROPHANT

When hero-born scans unhorizoned mind,
And gains the grandeur of the plan entire,
Then e'en deathless demons who do dwell in death
Can serve. I call them now.

(The underworld Gods appear and with weird ceremony torment the maidens.)

Upon the temple's traitor, ... Pan, I urge
Thy sudden and thy frentic fear
That guilt should be established....
Satyrs, Cybele, Hecate, all! Ye Gods of caves and grottos,
Of frentics irrational.... Of panics irredeemable!
O Artemis, black melancholy that shall blast her soul!
O caves and mystic marshes send mephitic vapors,
Earth hide her not! ... Sea cast her forth....
Shriek ... shriek thou treasoned priest!
Let cries of thine, unclouded heaven blast
And point thy guilt as bleak trees stab the sky!

(One of the maidens suddenly becomes possessed of hysteria and flees frantically towards the altar. She is overtaken by two priests and brought before the Hierophant.)

Strophe (Male)

The sins that mar our pristine state
Demand propitiation!
The clay that clogs our truest fate
Demands an immolation!
Nor Pity's tear scald fertile earth
Nor heave the windy sigh!
The laws immute that brought us birth
Demand a victim die!
O Justice send thy dire decrees.
Choose thou a maid of one of these!

Antistrophe (Maidens)

O Hestia! Virgin votaries we,
Attend our tremulation.
Come Astraea from cerulean seas,
To fend our tribulation.
O guard thy doves within the cote
That is thine own afflatus,
Defence devise that shall defeat
Storm shades would devastate us!
O Pallas! clearest eyed and brow'd
Save thou thy maid from flaming shroud!

Three Acolytes

O Zeus!
Stern stands thy charioteer;
Thy might should be established.
Lest wrath like green-eyed, mountain wolves
Should plague the plains afamished!

Male Chorus (Insistent)

Justice clear-eyed name decrees!
Choose thou a maid of one of these!

Maiden Chorus

O Pallas e'en thee! O ... e'en thee we cry
Lest tend'r'st bosom'd virgin die!

Male Chorus

O Justice stern-eyed voice decrees!

Maiden Chorus

O Pallas Athene! Hear our pleas!

Chant (Antiphonal. In unison)

Priests: O Zeus! that thy might --
Response: O Zeus! that thy might
Priests: In the earth be established --
Response: In the earth be established --
Priests: Through justice and with clinging mercy --
Response: Through justice and with clinging mercy --
Priests: Hail! Hail! Thou Supremest Jove!
Response: Hail! Hail! Thou Supremest Jove!
Priests: Giver of the com, the wine, and the oil --
Response: Giver of the corn, the wine, and the oil
Priests: That nourisheth the heart
Response: That nourisheth the heart --
Priests: That delighteth the soul --
Response: That delighteth the soul
Priests: That maketh my face to shine --
Response: That maketh my face to shine!

Entire Chorus (in unison)

Hail! Hail! Unto thee Jove supernal!
Light of the Sun! Of the Sun of the Suns!
Giver of the corn, the wine, and the oil!
Bread of the heart, ecstasy of soul, light that rays the face.
Bountiful Jove! Former of form!
Hail unto Thee! Hail unto Thee!
Essence of ecstasy! Return I unto Thee in rhapsody!
Hail unto Thee, Hail! Hail!

(Athene appears in the midst of a misty fountain. All kneel in reverence.)

Chorus

Males

Woe.... Woe!

Maidens

O ... h! Oh!

Athene

The cube 'twas ever symboled man,
And doubled ... be but born anew!
Again the flame shall seek the sky,
The red attain the blue.
Then thrice ordeal of doves and lambs
And night and day shall race,
Lest innocence should shriek in vain
And wrath cloud heaven 's face --

Strophe (Maidens)

Athene grave-eyed hath granted our boon,
Yea wisdom unweighted enveiled the rune!
And stone to be doubled, ... the riddle is ceased;
In new birth is now added, ... of the Best to the beast.
Now him double-natured, ... the mortal adds man,
No longer obdurate, Jove's purpose can scan.
Trust now to ordeal, seeking laurel coronal.
Diadem rarest of Saturn's supernal.

Antistrophe (Males)

We host of might do voice regret,
No longer do the senses reign,
No longer do they weigh of pain
But rather of perfection fret;
These mortals who would 'scape the net!
But though they dream ... 'tis noble dream,
Still Acheron will claim his debt.
And we, obdurate to the lucid beam.
Must, too, our barks that course beset.
O Jove who veils himself in light
E'en thou art bull indwelling night!

Epode

Should changeless God gain Protean plan,
Whate'er is willed; ... 'tis then the good;
And man's new heritage of true law must scan,
For what He is ... He is the God.
Of type, then arch-type makes a new demand,
And conscience be but quarrel 'twixt "to be" and "is."
Perceiving some, the wheel an endless saraband
None amaranthine but him, ... Thanatos.
O omniman nought constant is but change!
'Cept him who thinks on thought and nought can disarrange.

HIEROPHANT (to Athene)

Hail thou clear-eyed Olympian Athene!
Omnivirgin, omniscient!
Thy cryptic words inflame the mind eristic,
But soothing waters are and palliative balm
To simple memories who much of knowledge have unlearned,
Perception trusting, essorant of wall and rampired banal states.
And leaping troops that brandish black-gored spears
As deadly keen as brumal winds that blast the vernal trees;
White poplars slim, ah shadowy slender brides
That kiss Scamander's moon-thralled tremulous breast
And willows wan that weep sweet melancholy's ecstasy.
O Virgin wife! Of all who in life live, ... the mother!
Thy word ... and will of mine was banished, and my will ... thy word
Be it of holocaust or hecatombs.
Or monstrous miracles with blood of goats and blood of bulls;
For 'mersed within the mood that doth preclude thine unveiled science,
"To be," and "good to be," of dire difficulty knows not any.
So be it then of thrice ordeal, of dove and ram and horse.
And thou, the azure eyed, whom oaten pipes can ne'er o'ercloud.
Shall in mine golden moment, give me gain of verdict.

Strophe (Male)

Justice demands.... Justice demands!
Pity is manless.... Strengthens our hands!
Justice deplores.... Justice deplores!
Pity is sown.... And Panic the sowers!
Justice deferred.... Justice departs!
Strengthen our purpose.... Harden our hearts!

Maiden Chorus

Hestia! Astraea! Athene! we beseech....

Male Chorus

Justice attend.... Justice attend!
Stern eye and tearless ... pity to 'fend!

Maiden Chorus

Artemis, O moon-maid, we beseech....

Male Chorus

Justice disown.... Justice disown!
Change in perfection ... perfection is flown!

Maiden Chorus

Nymphs and Nereids, Hera all now we beseech....

Male Chorus

Justice deferred.... Justice departs!
Strengthen our purpose.... Harden our hearts!

PARTHENON, EAST FRONT. (ATHENS.)

(The thirty-two black-robed priests enter, each holding two black pigeons freighted with mourning streamers. Thirty white-draped maidens enter, each with two white doves with white ribbons attached.)

Maidens

Thou tenderest doves ... thou symboled souls of light
Let thy caressing wings the empherean win,
Thou gentle God-wives who do sear out blackest night
List no outer, but intrinsic sprite within,
Else some soilure should o'erfreight our prayers palanquin.
O doves, thou amorous souls of light,
Guide thy gentle flow aright!
Guide thou aright!

Thirty-two Priests

Eerys of Erebus.... Erynys of fate!
Careering 'pon the phantom's vapors
Keen thy sensing ... eyes dilate,
Seek the regions ... he adores
Who doth guard the Stygian shores.
Tend thy forehead, guide thy flow.
Woe and woe heaped high on woe,
Yea, from right to left they flow!

Entire Body

Woe and woe.

(The thirty maidens and thirty-two priests loosen the doves. Then each member of both choruses simultaneously loosens two doves, chanting the while the last three lines of the maidens' and men's chorus.)

HIEROPHANT (after observing flight of doves)

The monad doth defeat our restive poise,
No vouchsafed answer hath this first boon limned,
And dreaded two, discordant ever; seek ye now,
Of lambs, white fleeced and dark wooled rams
That she, who o'erwatches flocks, feeds well her jealous eye
And sees no slight, that maddening beams should sear us
Broken minded, bruited sad ones, prophets, sibyls, silly seers.
Prescience urges that your smoking brands of resinous pine
Propitiate and stave that fearsome fate.

(The thirty-two priests and thirty maids exeunt and re-enter with white lambs and black rams and after choral dance, the lambs and rams are loosened from centre. After thirty seconds have expired, smoking brands are stuck into the ground whereon the lambs and rams are grazing, and direction of smoke noted.)

HIEROPHANT

The breath of bounded gods, Olympian Joves combat!
O direful is the predilection!
Hence to your grottos ... vade foul vapors!
Oppressing vitiated bodies, thy plaguing nocturnal
O Phoebus dispel, permeate this discolored aether!
Sminthian, thou attend these mice of lumest whiteness
Who do now in ordeal triune.
Driving coursers, lion waisted, noble breasted,
Black and white for doom or day,
O attend ye River-ocean's King!

(Enter two chariots with four horses each, four white and four black. A white-attired maid drives the white and a black-garbed Priest the black horses. Thrice around they race. Black-garbed Priest wins.)

Maidens

Woe! Woe!
Woe and woe!

Male Chorus

Justice attends.... Justice attends!
Woeful and awesome the omen portends!
Justice immute.... Justice immute!
Doleful and direful her laws to refute!
Justice deferred! Justice departs!
Strengthen our purpose.... Harden our hearts.

Hestia's Maidens (they surround the doomed maid)

O give to the maids their sad sister maid!
O let us bewail, ah, bewail!
All ye Nymphs and Dryads look 'pon slend'rest Maenad
Who was frail ... who was tremulous frail.
'Tend ye timid'st Sprites ... ye Eerys of light
Who are known ... who are evermore known.
Indwelling the zone of the soundingless tone,
'Yond the pale ... aye far 'yond the pale,
How the wind in the vale ... in the sea sounding vale,
How the wind doth bewail.... How the wind doth bewail.

(The Hierophant and three acolytes leading the accused maid accompanied by the twenty-nine maidens enter the Temple to the accompaniment of the maidens repeating the bewailment. After a silence, there enters a procession in stately and solemn movement. First the Hierophant followed by the three acolytes, then the thirty maidens, then thirty-two black-garbed priests, ten Ethiopian captives, four Numidian slaves, leading a red bull. Then four Numidians leading white ox with maiden hound upon ox's back, then four Numidians with black bull, then follow ten Ethiopian barbarians. The procession halts before the altar and maiden is bound to post with red and black bull facing her on each side. The Hierophant advances with sacrificial knife. He purifies it in the water, air, fire, and earth. He raises knife to strike the neck of the maiden ... when Hermes appears on top of Parthenon and with great and authoritative voice proclaims.)

Hermes

Stay.... Stay that thirsting knife
That thirsts for purest maiden's blood....

Maiden Chorus

Ah ... Ah!

Hermes

Halt thine activities ... gaze with rage impotent --
Ye hosts of nocturnal discordances!
From high Olympus have I gained this vantage
And far upon tumultuous seas,
Five runners I descry --

Maidens

Ah, Hestia ... Astraea, we beseech....

Hermes

They speed with swiftness that doth at once proclaim
No mortal runners they,
But rather disembodied shades --

Male Chorus

Woe ... woe ...

(The three fury runners enter, horribly visaged, hideous nether shades; one is armed with a spear, one a net, and one a trident; when they near the maiden, they begin fighting among themselves and all fall. Then enters the fire god's runner, he is limping and carries a long-handled hammer. He appears exhausted and makes painful, slow advance. Maidens are sobbing aloud.)

Male Chorus

Justice decrees ... Justice decrees!
Women are sobbing ... strengthen our pleas!
Justice severe ... justice severe!
Yoke is now galling ... yoke we revere!
Justice deferred ... justice departs!
Strengthen our purpose ... harden our hearts!

(When fire god's runner nears maiden, he staggers and falls from exhaustion and is unable to arise. He painfully attempts to draw onward. Enter Athene's messenger.)

Maiden Chorus

Ah ... Ah!

(He, too, appears exhausted and stumbles slowly along.)

Maiden Chorus

Athene ... Hestia ... Astraea ... we beseech....

(Youth struggles on and when abreast of the fiery messenger, he too falls.)

Maiden Chorus

Woe ... Woe ...

(The fiery one regains his feet and raises hammer to strike the goodly youth, when recalling the shield of Athene, that the goddess herself had given him, the youth raises it and the fire god's runner, seeing his own reflection in the shield, falls shrieking horribly to the ground. The goodly youth takes the fire god's hammer, and strikes the rock, and a spark is communicated to the altar; the flame is rekindled amidst shouts of great acclaim. The youth releases the maiden, who on becoming unbound, is discovered as Athene herself, helmeted and triumphant! She mounts to the altar and stands unharmed amidst the flames. The entire assembly make deep obeisance of reverence and awe.)

Entire Assembly

Hail! Hail! Hail! Unto Thee, Jove's supernal!
Hail unto thee! Hail unto thee! Hail unto thee!
God of all gods! King of the King of Kings! Sov'ran of all!
Reclaimer and Redeemer! Restorer and Reformer!
Merciful past mercy!
Father of gods! Father of Light! Source of true Light!
Hail! ... Hail! ... Hail!
Merciful Jove.... Bountiful Jove. ... All loving Jove!
Hail thou supernal!
Hail! ... Hail! ... Hail! ...

(A chorus from within Temple repeats as echo.)

FINIS

THE THREE FATES. BY MICHAEL ANGELO. (FLORENCE.)

ARGUMENT

A Shepherd lies sleeping under a tree, his flock of sheep graze near by. A number of Wood Nymphs Dryads, etc., appear; they are pursued by Pans, Satyrs, etc. After throwing leaves of the soma plant, grapes, etc., upon the Shepherd, they disappear.

Three Muses appear and speed over to the sleeping Shepherd, and after chanting of their gifts they stoop and kiss the youth. They disappear.

The youth arises, enthralled by the beauty of what he considers a vision dreamed, and addresses ode in praise.

Athene (the goddess of wisdom) appears; the youth falls prostrate in awe and reverence. She informs him that, in Athens, one of the thirty virgins who guard the sacred flame is falsely accused of unchastity. The underworld gods or demons have connived, and the Furies and Hephaestus (the fire god) have dispatched four runners to consummate the agonized death of the virgin.

They can be defeated only by the youth defeating them in the race over the horizon and seas, etc., and rescuing the maiden.

The Shepherd at a glance from Athene, dies. The nine Muses appear and prepare him for the grave. Black-robed figures appear and lower him into the sepulchre; they disappear. Eros enters with Pegasus. The youth, taking the winged horse, delivers ode and beseeches aid for his perilous mission. Then exit.

ACT

The Hierophant, accompanied by three young priests, enters and stands before the oracular stone, and inquires of the gods. The oracle answers in secret phrase. The Hierophant assembles all the priests, maidens, etc., and makes known to them the terrifying omen.

He attempts to discover the guilty one amongst the thirty maidens and calls upon all the underworld demons to appear, and, through their weird ceremonies, to blast and break the mind of the guilty maiden.

One of the maidens suddenly becomes possessed of hysteria and the facts seem to assure all of her guilt and she is brought shrieking horribly before the altar and condemned to death.

At this moment the goddess Athene appears and orders that the maiden be granted boon of trial by ordeal.

The first ordeal, that of dove flight, is to determine her innocent if the doves fly to the right, and guilty if to the left.

The second ordeal consists of lamb and ram ceremony and afterwards the direction of the smoke from smoking torches noted which had been stuck into the ground.

Third ordeal, chariot race, maid driving white, and male priest black chariot, and black wins.

Maiden is condemned to death and the maidens surround her and lament her maidenhood.

All enter Parthenon.

Procession then enters of priests, maidens, barbarians, etc., chanting the death chant.

Maiden is bound upon back of an ox, led by four Numidian slaves; she is preceded by a red bull and followed by a black bull, both attended by Ethiopian slaves.

The maiden is bound to post, with a bull facing her on either side.

The Hierophant advances with sacrificial knife. He purifies knife in water, air, fire, and earth. Just as he would strike, Hermes, the messenger of the gods, appears and stays all proceedings. He announces the discovery of the five runners that are racing for the shades.

The Furies' messengers break into view; they are followed by the fire god's racer. The goodly youth enters last.

In contest with the other runners, he recalls the shield of the goddess which will turn all beholders to stone, and succeeds in rescuing the maiden, who on being released is discovered as Athene herself, helmeted and triumphant.

PERSONS IN THE DRAMA

Pallas Athene
Hierophant
Shepherd
Pans, Satyrs, etc.
Nymphs, Dryads, Bacchantes, etc.
The Furies' Three Runners
The Fire God's Runner
The Thirty Maidens
The Thirty-Two Male Priests
Attendant Priests and Priestesses
The Nine Muses
Hermes
Three Acolytes
Eros
The Maximae.

Ares or Ar's -- The god of war.

Ate -- The goddess of malicious mischief, an ever-present evil genius who incites to folly and crime. Daughter of Eris or strife.

AEther -- Personification of the air.

Acheron -- A fabled river of Hades.

Amaranthine -- The amaranth plant, symbol of immortality.

Acolyte -- A young priest, a novice.

And leaping troops, etc. -- Symbolically speaking, there is a wall that separates the supermundane from the mundane. This wall is guarded by a grizzly crew of banal temptations.

Argive -- Poetic name for Greece.

Artemis -- The lunar goddess, hence one smitten by her beams -- a lunatic.

Astraea -- A personification of purity

Astrial -- A personification of purity

Bounded gods -- Other than the infinite Olympians.

Cybele -- A fearful goddess of the earth.

Calliope -- Muse of epic poetry.

Clio -- Muse of history.

Cryptic -- Secret.

Dryads -- Maids of the woodland.

Dionysos -- God of wine that intoxicates the soul -- ecstasy.

E'en thou art hull in dwelling night! When in the earth (or the land of darkness as compared to heaven, the land of true light), Jove would assume the form of a bull. Witness his occasion with Europa, Io, etc. Also in Egypt (the land of darkness) he was worshipped as the bull.

Enthroned above the waters -- The Creator is greater than the created law. (Water, symbol of truth.)

Eros -- God of love.

Eerys -- Spirits.

Erebus -- A place of utter darkness between the earth and Hades.

Euterpe -- Muse of lyric poetry.

Erato -- Muse of love poetry.

Eristic -- Argumentative, self-righteous.

Glyphs -- Shades, shadows, spirits.

Graces -- Hope, Faith, and Mercy.

God-wives -- Doves (the symbol of the soul); the soul is mystically spoken of as the bride of God.

Holocaust -- A burnt sacrificial offering.

Hermes -- Son of Zeus and Maia, messenger and herald of the gods.

Hero born of twice born -- Awakened to spiritual understanding.

Hestia -- The goddess of the hearth, corresponding to the Roman Vesta.

Hierophant -- The chief priest or expositor of the Eleusinian mysteries in ancient Greece.

Hera -- The queen of the gods, daughter of Kronos, sister and wife of Zeus.

Hecate -- A three-headed goddess having power over three worlds, earth, heaven, and the underworld; a much dreaded, fearful shade of sorcery, hatred, etc.

Hecatomb -- A sacrifice of a hundred bulls.

Horse creator -- Poseidon, the god of the River-Ocean, a body of water that encircles the world. Poseidon created the horse (symbol of passion).

Jove -- The highest name of the highest god.

Lesbos -- The isle where Sappho loved and sung.

Lethe -- The stream of oblivion in the lower world, from which souls drank before passing to Elysium, that they might forget all earthly sorrows.

Mephitic -- Poisonous, pestilential. A cavern at the foot of Mt. Parnassus, near Delphi, was remarkable for a vapor which it exhaled, which had the power of convulsing any one who breathed it.

Monad -- Unity, the one.

Man of reddest earth -- Base mortals. Red was the symbol of the fiery passions.

Maenad -- A broken-minded maiden.

Mystical music of Spheres -- The relations of the notes of the musical scale to numbers, whereby harmony results from propositional vibrations of sound, and discord from the reverse, was one of the reasons that led Pythagoras to speak thus.

Muses -- The nine daughters of Zeus (rational mind) and Mnemosyne (memory).

Melpomene -- Muse of tragedy.

Nymphs -- Maiden spirits that inhabited trees.

Nereids -- Sea nymphs, daughters of Nereus and Doris. Attendants of Poseidon.

One thought of him who thinks on thought -- Aristotle wrote: "But behind all these gods, there is One, the prime mover, whose essence is that ecstasy to which the wisest men sometimes attain. He spends his time thinking on thought."

HEAD OF HERMES BY PRAXITELES. (BERLIN.)

Oaten pipes -- Pan's pipes.

O Jove who veils himself in light

O Jove! Supremest, past thy Name! -- The Grecian mystics held that the name of Jove only, expressed their highest ideal and the idea of God. His majesty and greatness extended far beyond that ideal.

O Zeus! Thou cloud conformer! -- The cloud was the symbol of the soul, since the sun (symbol of Zeus) formed them from water (truth).

Polyhymnia -- Muse of religious poetry.

Pan -- An Arcadian woodland spirit and god of the hills and woods, flocks and herds, son of Hermes or Zeus and Callisto. He is represented as horned, goat-footed, playing on his pipes and exciting sudden and irrational fear (hence panic).

Protean -- Personification of constant change.

Proteus -- God of change.

Palanquin -- A vehicle.

Pallas Athene -- Daughter of Jove. She sprang fully formed from his head. The god of fire, Hephaestus, assisted at the birth by splitting Jove's head with a hammer.

Pallas --  Daughter of Jove. She sprang fully formed from his head. The god of fire, Hephaestus, assisted at the birth by splitting Jove's head with a hammer.

Per'venture 1, numbered negations have confessed -- In the ancient mysteries initiates swore aloud that they had not been guilty of any one of the thirty-two vices.

Phoebus -- Name of Apollo.

Perception trusting, essorant of wall, etc. -- Trusting perception instead of sense-received evidence and avoiding mental states, etc.

Pegasus -- The winged horse of inspiration, a blow from whose hoofs caused the fountain of inspiration called Hippocrene to spring from the mountain Helicon.

Rune -- Secret, Runic.

Stygian -- Pertaining to the River Styx, the infernal regions.

Sibyl -- A prophetess.

Sminthian -- So called from the fact that mice (the symbol of the soul) were sacred to him; one of Apollo's names.

Satyr -- Woodland demon in the train of Dionysos, depicted as a shy, wanton, cunning creature with goat-like ears, pug nose, short tail, and budding horns, delighting in music, dancing, revel, wine, and women.

Saturn -- King of the older Grecian deities and father of Jove.

Saraband -- A ghostly, weird dance.

Scamander -- A sacred river of Greece.

Thanatos -- The shade of death.

Tend thy forehead -- Depend upon self instead of the beneficent powers.

That she who o'erwatches flocks, etc. -- Artemis, who, if slighted, would render them all lunatics.

The Name -- The understanding of Jove's name which was believed to bestow miraculous power upon the possessor.

The stone, etc., Double the cube -- It is recorded that in the dim antiquity a fearful plague ravaged Greece and when the Hierophant inquired of the oracle at Delphi how the plague might be stayed, the enigmatical answer of doubling the stone was given.

The Kings, the thirty-two have with the thirty fought -- The vices that attack the soul were thirty-two in number and the virtues that protected were thirty.

The yoke we revere -- The religious law was termed the yoke.

Thy cryptic words inflame the minds eristic -- The populace and uninitiated are angered by their inability to penetrate past the veil of symbolism of the sacred literatures.

To Simple memories who much of, etc. -- Wisdom was said to be the memories from a past pristine state as differentiated from knowledge gained by senses, which only obstructed the flow of wisdom's streams.

"To be'' and "good to he'' For 'mersed within the mood, etc. -- Socrates and Protagoras argued on the famous line of Simonides' poem, "It is easy to be good." It was concluded that it was difficult to become good (great) but easy to he afterwards.

Terpsichore -- Muse of dancing.

Thalia -- Muse of comedy and bucolic poetry.

The zones of the soundingless tone -- Beyond the senses.

Urania -- Muse of astronomy.

Unhorizoned mind -- The limitless mind of the Infinite.

Water -- The symbol of the law of truth.

Zeus -- Another name for Jove.

Return to Table of Contents