"Determine they nought that an Egyptian wizard Cannot upset by a mighty spell," said Onas. "Why, in the terrible Book of Thôth there are two cantrips. If you recite the first, you shall enchant the heavens, the earth, the underworld, the sea, and the mountains. If you recite the second, though you be dead in your tomb, you shall rise from the dead and see the sun in the sky, the moon in her courses, and all the company of the ever-glorious gods in heaven."
I said: "How shall I recite this spell when I'm moldering in my grave?"
"If you have the benefit of Egyptian embalming, you will not molder. And your double—or 'soul,' as you call it—will recite the cantrip."
"I have yet to see proof that the soul exists."
"How ill informed you are!" said Onas. "The records of our ancient wisdom, going back a myriad of years, describe not only one soul but at least three per man."
"To the afterworld with your ancient records!" said Berosos. "Our history goes back thirty-six thousand years; that is, to the times before the Flood."
"The chronicle of our kings is longer than that," said Onas. "Would that my cousin Manethôs. were here to recite the whole tally of reigns and dynasties!"
I said: "Who cares how far back your records go? Modern science had done away with all your spells and spooks and stargazing prophecies. All those old notions are based upon hearsay and self-serving dogma, as proved by Pyrron and Theodoros—"
Both disputants sprang upon me. I was saved from being torn to pieces, dialectically if not literally, by Giskon's announcement:
"Dinner is served. Move aside, friends, to let the servants set the tables."
Giskon served a veritable Erymanthian boar. The Strangers discussed a wide range of topics; politics, geography, war, philosophy, and the arts all came within their ken. Any one of them was keen to learn about anything. All, too, were eager to show off their knowledge to one another.
I asked Berosos how he came to be in Rhodes. He explained: "I was a minor priest in the Temple of Mardoukos. Five years ago the armies of Antigonos, seeking to overthrow Seleukos, invaded Babylonia and our holy city seized. Their enemies in the citadels they besieged; much of the city they burnt or demolished; many of the people they slew or sold. Now in ruins lies beautiful Babylon, once the world's greatest city. Finding my own temple sacked and my kinsfolk scattered, I fled with the rest. Methought to seek my fortune in the West, by means of the sundial that I had invented in the course of my studies."
"What was the outcome of the war?"
"First, Antigonos his son Demetrios sent, while Seleukos was fighting Antigonos' other generals in Media; but the boy achieved little besides looting and wanton destruction ere to Syria he returned. Then old One-eye himself with a larger force came down. Seleukos, by clever maneuvering amid the canals and watercourses, kept Antigonos from winning a decisive victory, although Antigonos was too strong to defeat in the field. At last Antigonos, hearing of trouble in his western domains, patched up a peace with Seleukos and returned to Anatolia." Berosos sighed. "So here am I, the most erudite scholar on the Research Committee of the Temple of Mardoukos, eking out a living by selling sundials and casting horoscopes. The most pitiful part is that, having just begun a little to prosper, doomed I find myself."
"How, doomed?" I asked. "Have you some wasting disease?"
"Nay, my health of the best is. But the stars say that, ere the year be out, caught again in the hideous claws of war shall I be."
"That's a chance we all take."
"Ah, but worse than that it is. For to become a soldier I am fated. Me, of all people!" Berosos glanced down at himself. "Far too fat and soft am I, and the mere thought of swords and lances thirsting for my blood inspires me with terror. Yet no escape see I. I was born under the Ram, a belligerent sign, with Nerigal—or Ares, as you call the red planet—in the Scorpion. That forces a warrior's career upon me, willy-nilly. I sought to escape my fate in the priesthood, but the Antigonian army drove me out of that. This year Ares reaches its exaltation in the Ram, which is also my house of life. It is, therefore, scientifically proved that I shall soon be wading in gore—I, the most peaceful of men. Of what use should I be to any army?"
Onas licked his fingers and said: "They could always hang you up and use you for an archery target. You do have the shape for it."
"Perhaps your calculations erred," I said.
"That will be his excuse in any case," said Onas the Egyptian. "Whenever their prophecies prove false, these Chaldeans say: 'Oh, I overlooked that little star and must recompute.' "
"I have cast my own horoscope thrice in a ten-day," said Berosos in a voice of doom. "Each time it came out more ominous. With Aphrodite opposed to Kronos—"
I interrupted. "How do you come to be in Rhodes?" I asked Onas.
"My case is the opposite to that of Berosos," he said. "A frustrated warrior, I. For I belong to the old warrior class of Egypt, though little chance to show our valor have we had since the Persians drove out our last king. Six years ago, when the Ptolemaios contended with Antigonos for Syria, he raised a native corps among my class and marched us along the coast of the land of Sos to fight Demetrios."
"Did you fight at Gaza?" I asked.
"Say that I was there, though we pikemen had but little to do. From where I stood, nought could be seen but clouds of dust, through which came the hoofbeats of cavalry and the squeals of elephants. When Demetrios' elephants were halted by spiked iron caltrops, Demetrios' horsemen fled and his foot were surrounded and captured.
"Like many of my class, I thought we Egyptian warriors had earned quality with all these greasy Gr—excuse me, sir, with these ambitious Hellenes who have swarmed into the land of Chem and taken all the posts of honor and profit. But nay, perhaps the satrap feared that, were we suffered to keep our arms, we might revolt and put one of our own on Egypt's empty throne. So our arms were taken away and locked up, all but some which had vanished. It was said that some Egyptian warriors hid them for their own use. Came word that I was suspected of being in on this plot, if plot there was.
"Or ever all this befell, it was decided that I, as the youngest son, should learn a trade, as my father's allotment was too small to support all his sons. Therefore, I was apprenticed to my father's cousin in Sebennytos. When the matter of the missing pikes made Egypt too warm for comfort, I came to Rhodes and have practiced my craft here ever since." Onas stretched his powerful arms. "Gem-cutting is a good trade, at least whilst one's eyes hold out. But betimes I yearn for something more active."
Later, as we munched dried chick-peas and sipped sweet wine, Giskon said: "The time has come to choose the next president. Who puts himself forward?"
Sarpedon the Lykian said: "I"—here he said a name that sounded like a sneeze* (*Sppntaza)—"of Xanthos, name myself to be the next president."
"Anybody who can make noises like that deserves to head the Strangers," said Giskon. "As I hear no other nominations, Sarpedon shall be our next chief. And now comes the inquisition. Chares of Lindos, stand up! Gobryas, begin the questioning."
The Persian, a brawny, balding, blunt-featured man with a deep, rasping voice, who painted his face in the Persian manner, said: "O Chares, how justify you your existence?"
I thought a moment and said: "My existence is justified by my mission."
"What is that?"
"To raise the practice of sculpture to a level higher than it has hitherto known."
"How will you do that?"
"By applying the methods of my master, Lysippos of Sikyon, and his brother, with such improvements as I can devise."
"What are these new methods?"