The Etruscan by Mika Waltari

Posted by admin_akashic on Mar 10th, 2022 in Stories

But when I awakened to a new dawn everything was different. When one arrives in a strange city at dusk it seems larger and more mysterious than by the light of day. In looking around with rested eyes I saw that the holy city of Eryx was really quite insignificant with its log hovels and stone huts. After all, I had seen Delphi, I had lived in Ephesus, and in Miletus I had seen a large modern city the like of which was nowhere in the world. This tiny alien city with its screaming inhabitants and peddlers seemed pitifully unimportant compared to what I had seen before, and its insignificance grew as I looked about me from atop the wall which had been heaped together of earth and stones. The vastness of the sea surrounded it. This was the westernmost tip of the civilized world, and beyond it lay only unknown Phoenician waters extending to the Pillars of Herakles and beyond them to the sea of the world. On the landward side stretched the plain with its chestnut forests, olive trees and cultivated fields, and behind them rose the steep mountains of the land of Eryx.

With my ears humming from the wind and my eyes dazzled by the infinite sea, I looked at the temple walls and the barbarically clumsy colonnades. What could I hope to find in that insignificant temple? I was overcome by a sudden feeling that I had been born into the world alone and that I no longer believed in gods.

After Tanakil had made arrangements for us to enter the temple we bathed and dressed in spotless clothes, cut a tuft of hair from our heads and burned it in a flame. Then we took our votive offerings and went to the temple.

We were allowed to enter the temple freely and to view the votive offerings in the entrance hall as well as the empty pedestal in the goddess’s chamber. Several irritable priests guided us and accepted our offerings without a word of thanks. Save for several large silver urns we saw few expensive offerings, but the priests explained that the goddess’s clothes and jewels were kept in a treasure vault. When she had doffed her winter garments and bathed in the ancient fountain she would again be dressed in her incomparable clothes, pearls and gems.

In fact, it was as though we were visiting any other public building. Only when we approached the fountain and the goddess’s doves took flight did I feel the proximity of power. The fountain was large and deep and its concave walls curved unseen into the mountain beneath its opening. It was half filled with water and the dark unrippled surface reflected our faces. Surrounding it inside the modern peristyle was a row of ancient conical rocks, and the priests assured us that a man who had lost his virility had only to lay a hand on one of those stones to recover it immediately.

I saw none of the customary temple maidens, the priests explaining that they arrived with the goddess to participate in the spring festival and to serve the more demanding visitors, but departed with her in the autumn. Besides, Aphrodite of Eryx did not favor such sacrifices within the walls of her temple. The city was for that purpose. Harlots from everywhere came to Eryx for the summer and erected their leaf shelters outside the walls and along the mountain slopes.

One of the priests asked derisively whether I had no other problems for Aphrodite of Eryx. “Little do you Greeks understand Aphrodite,” he said scornfully. “Her power is not founded only in proficiency. Sensual ecstasy and erotic pleasures are merely her disguises, just as she ornaments herself with nine strings of pearls for the sole purpose of contrasting the gleam of her living skin to the lifelessness of the pearls.”

Tanakil spoke to him placatingly. “Don’t you remember me? Twice already the goddess has appeared to me and shown me my future husband. First she married me to Segesta, then to Himera, and on each occasion I made an offering, first upon receiving a husband and then again having buried him. Now I am hopeful that the goddess will appear yet a third time to me.”

The priest looked first at her and then at Dorieus and said with a grimace, “Of course I remember you, Tanakil, you incorrigible one. The goddess favors you, but even her power is limited.”

He turned to us and Mikon hastened to explain, “I am consecrated and as a physician am striving to familiarize myself with divine matters. Because of the goddess’s whim I had to marry this Siculian girl. When I first touched her she lost her power of speech but now that we are wedded she talks even too much, especially when I want to contemplate supernatural affairs. As a consequence, I became increasingly weak and now am completely impotent. We therefore hope that the goddess will appear to us and aid us so that our marital relations will be more harmonious.”

For my part I said, “Aphrodite once favored me in clothing my nakedness in her sacred woolen bonds. One single name rings through my mind night and day, but I dare mention it only to the goddess herself if she appears to me.” I looked around at the dove-spattered courtyard, the unhewn rocks and eroded bull’s-heads in the wall, saw how cheap and insignificant everything was and added, “I don’t think, however, that she will appear.”

The priest disregarded my words and invited us to his lodgings, mixed some inferior wine for us and told us what to eat and how to purge ourselves while awaiting the appearance of the goddess. As he gave his advice he looked at each of us in turn and waved his arms in the air.

Resting his hand on my shoulder the priest said, “Do not doubt and fall into despair. I believe that the goddess will appear to you and free you from your trouble.”

His touch dispelled my sluggishness, my limbs felt light and the priest no longer seemed an angry old man but a mentor worthy of all confidence.

Words came to my lips. “I have met the Delphic oracle. She said that she recognized me, but she was a restless and violent woman. You I trust.”

He allowed the others to go ahead, held me by the shoulders, looked into my eyes and said, “You have come far.”

“I have,” I replied. “I shall go perhaps even farther.”

“Have you already bound yourself?” he asked.

“I don’t know what you mean,” I said, “but a certain name binds me and forces me to seek the goddess.”

“Such was the purpose. Apparently the goddess wished to have you here. Set your mind at ease for she will surely appear to you. Whoever binds you can also relax the bonds.”

That same evening Dorieus and Tanakil went to the temple together to spend the night by the empty pedestal awaiting the goddess’s appearance, while Mikon and I sat drinking wine together.

Later we drank more wine with the learned artisan who earlier that evening had taken an impression of Tanakil’s missing teeth in soft wax. He told us of his skill which he said he had acquired in Carthage.

The new teeth were carved from ivory and fastened with gold bands to the remaining teeth.

“But after that,” he said, “one can eat only food that has already been cut. The Etruscans claim that they can fasten teeth even more securely than the natural teeth, but that is probably just boasting.”

He was a well-traveled man who said that with his own eyes he had seen in the temple of Baal in Carthage the skins of three completely hairy men which a Phoenician expedition had brought back from a voyage southward from the Pillars of Herakles. Of all the people, he declared, only the Phoenicians knew the secrets of the ocean. They had sailed so far north in it that the waters had turned to ice and so far west that the ships had been caught in a sea of seaweed.

He told us many other unbelievable things about the Phoenicians of Carthage and we drank so much that the host sent his servant to lead the tooth carver back to his lodgings and Aura tearfully took Mikon to bed with her. I don’t know whether the wine made us more receptive to the goddess but I do know that on the following day all the foods I was permitted to eat tasted like pitch in my mouth.

When Dorieus and Tanakil returned from the temple in the morning they clung to each other, looked at no one else and did not answer our questions. They went to sleep immediately and slept until evening, when Mikon and Aura in turn went to the temple.

Dorieus arose and confided to me that he intended to marry Tanakil, whom he called the dove of Aphrodite.

“In the first place,” he declared, “Tanakil is the most beautiful woman in the world. I have always respected her, but when Aphrodite entered into her in the temple her face began to shine like the sun, her body became as consuming as a pyre and I realized that from now on she would be the only woman in the world for me. Secondly, she is infinitely wealthy. Thirdly, through her earlier marriages and her own birth she has excellent connections with most of the land of Eryx. Heretofore she has not used them to political advantage because she is a woman. But I have succeeded in arousing her ambition.”

“In the name of the goddess,” I cried, “are you really going to bind yourself to a Phoenician hag who could be your grandmother?”

But Dorieus was not even angered by my words. With a pitying shake of his head he replied, “You are the one who is crazy, not I. Some witchcraft has blinded your eyes so that you fail to see how fine-featured Tanakil’s face is, how her eyes shine and how full-blown her figure is.”

His eyes began to gleam like a bull’s; he rose and said, “Why am I wasting time in chattering with you? My dove, my Aphrodite, is undoubtedly waiting for me impatiently after having tried her new teeth.”

Later that night when the house had grown still Tanakil crept out of her bedchamber, came to me and asked joyously, “Has Dorieus confided our great secret to you? You must have noticed already in Himera that he took advantage of my widowhood. Now, because of the goddess, he has promised to make me an honorable woman once more.

I said sharply that Dorieus as a Spartan was inexperienced in matters of the heart. She, Tanakil, as a three-time widow should have known better than to seduce a susceptible man.

But Tanakil replied accusingly, “Dorieus is the one who has been the seducer. When you came to my house I would never even have thought of tempting him, for I am an old woman. Even last night I repulsed him three times but three times he weakened me.”

She spoke so convincingly that I was compelled to believe. I do not know whether the witchery of the goddess was responsible or whether it was just the wine that dimmed my eyes, but in the light of the torch Tanakil’s features appeared beautiful and her black eyes gleamed compellingly. Dorieus’ behavior suddenly became understandable.

Noticing that my heart had melted, Tanakil sat beside me, placed her hand on my knee and explained, “Dorieus’ liking for me is not nearly so unnatural as you think. He has hinted at many things that not even he understands, but I who have buried three husbands can read a man’s mind from half a word. He told me that that forefather of his, Herakles, dressed in a woman’s clothes for a year during which he wove cloth and did other womanly tasks although he was usually a most quarrelsome man. Once a part of the herd that he had stolen fled to Sicily by swimming across the straits from Italy. A valuable bull named Europa was among them, and Herakles left his other cattle to search for the escaped animals. In pursuing them he reached Eryx and killed its king but restored the land to the Elymi. Before leaving he said that one of his descendants would some day return to claim the land as his legacy.”

Tanakil raised her hands to her face in confusion. “Forgive me for prattling so in my joy. But as I understand it Dorieus, as Herakles’ heir, considers himself the only legal king of Eryx and hence also of Segesta. As a woman I am not nearly so interested in this matter as he is. A man has to engage in all kinds of political activities and it helps to pass his time. But I noticed how approvingly Dorieus told me time and again about Herakles’ dressing like a woman. He has also told me that Spartan boys are separated from their mothers at the age of seven to live only among men. It is obvious that poor Dorieus secretly yearns for the motherly care and tenderness that he never enjoyed. This explains his inclination for a woman as old as I. I understand his secret desires better than any other woman could.”

“But we are bound to our commander Dionysius. As soon as the sailing season begins we must follow him across the sea to Massilia.”

Into my mind came the senseless thought that with the aid of Aphrodite I could abduct Kydippe and take her with me on the voyage.

But Tanakil shook her head and said firmly, “Dorieus will remain obediently at home and will no longer sail the uncertain seas. After all, he has been trained for land war. Why should he go to some barbaric country when his legacy matter must be pursued here?”

“Are you really going to encourage Dorieus in his wild dreams?” I demanded. “Haven’t those altars and monuments to the invaders warned you sufficiently? You have already buried three husbands. Why let the Segestans bury a fourth?”

Tanakil pondered a moment, chin in hand. “Men have their own pursuits,” she said finally. “In all honesty, I really don’t know what I’ll do. Physically Dorieus is, without a doubt, a regal man and the dog crown of Segesta would become him. But I fear that he is entirely too stupid to be a king in Sicily’s complicated political situation. The rattling of shields and the cleaving of skulls with a sword does not suffice as statesmanship. But if he wants to make me a queen as well as an honorable woman, I must bow to his will.”