The Arrows of Hercules

"My father gave me a good education. I studied under the great Philolaos." Zopyros frowned a little, since it did not seem to him that such matters were any of the steward's business.

Abarish's manner underwent a change. Hitherto he had been polite and helpful, but in a wary, impersonal way. Now he smiled all over, bowed, opened the front door wide, and made sweeping motions with his hands to indicate that the three should enter.

"Mot take all inns!" he said. "Here shall you stay until you depart hence for Carthage. The hospitality of the house of Elazar, poor though it be, is yours to command!"

Zopyros exchanged another glance with Evnos, who shrugged and said: "Why not?" They filed in, murmuring polite protests. Taking off his wide-brimmed hat, Zopyros stared about him. A slight shudder took him as he thought of Korinna as mistress of this house.

When he lived in Motya, Elazar occupied the entire ground floor of the house and rented out the upper three stories. The rooms of the ground-floor apartment were spacious, but there was no courtyard, such as one found in all single-family Mediterranean houses of the better class. The rooms were singularly bare; no doubt the master had taken the handsomer pieces to Carthage with him. Abarish introduced his wife and discoursed about his son, a naval cadet of whom he was very proud.

Said Evnos: "If you will kindly let me get settled, Master Abarish, ere dinnertime I'll hie me to the waterfront to seek passage to Carthage."

"And I," said Segovax, "will be looking in on the drink shops, to see if there is any news of the comrades I soldiered with when I was in Sicily aforetime."

"To hear is to obey! This way, esteemed sirs ..."

Thus Zopyros presently found himself seated in the main room of the apartment, drinking Byblian with the steward and answering Abarish's questions on philosophy.

"Not too loudly, I pray," said the Phoenician. "Else my wife may overhear and, perchance, repeat our discourse to the master. He is a devoted follower of the old gods and contemns philosophy as base pernicious atheism. Although my dear wife wishes me no ill—I hope— women have but little skill in curbing their tongues.

"Long have I yearned to learn more of this science of the mind, but never have the gods vouchsafed me the opportunity. Although Hellenes abound in Motya, all are of the trading class, and to them shines the glimmer of a drachma brighter than the sun of knowledge. Now proceed, I entreat you."

Zopyros talked. He told of Myron's theory that the earth was round, and the theory of Philolaos, that it traveled in a circle around the Central Fire of the universe. He told of the Four Elements of Empedokles, of the atoms of Demokritos, and of the evolutionary theories of Anaximandros, who asserted that all land animals had evolved from fishes. He told of the search for the basic principle of all things, which Thales had found in fluidity, Anaximenes in infinity, and Herakleitos in fire. It was a struggle to express philosophical thoughts in the Punic tongue, which contained but few abstract terms.

The catechism continued the next day. Zopyros explained the Pythagorean ethical doctrines: rigorous self-control, imperturbability, temperance, moderation, and justice. A good man should rise early, train his memory, and keep his passions under the control of his reason. He should do his duty and faithfully discharge his responsibilities. He should perform scientific experiments to extend the bounds of mankind's knowledge. He should be kind to animals. He should have nothing to do with blood sacrifices or with aggressive warfare. He should observe certain rules of eating, "... which," said Zopyros, "I fear I seldom do." He should altogether shun drunkenness, adultery, and pederasty. He should not even fornicate before he was nineteen, and thereafter only while he remained single, and no more often than he had to.