"Romans...no more than a decury, and yet they had crossed half of Asia to make a demand upon the king in his host." (p. 240)
Seeing this, and even though hostile to Rome, Eodan is honored to have a Roman child.
The Greek virgin, Phryne, has fled rather than become Mithradates' concubine. Hence the latter's childish rage. See here. Eodan suggests that:
"'An evil spirit must have seized her...'" (p. 242)
- although:
"...maybe she had done this of her free will, for some reason unknown to him. He found it hard to imagine his cool Phryne, who knew what the stars were made of, seized by any misshapen Phrygian shadow; or was it just that he dared not imagine it!" (ibid.)
Phryne lacked modern astrophysical knowledge but knew what the Greeks thought about the heavens.
Eodan finds that he no longer fears the idea that a troll might haunt the locality or harry Phryne but then notices that the King is in a more primitive emotional state:
"Eodan's green gaze narrowed upon Mithradates. He saw the terrors of a thousand generations, who had muttered in dark huts and brewed magic against a world they peopled with demons, flit over the lion-face. Let him dissect as many criminals and cast as many learned horoscopes as he wished; Mithradates remained only half a Greek." (ibid.)
Those thousand generations are the protean enemy. Mithradates again reverts to a pre-rational response. See here.
St Paul wrote:
But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness;
-copied from "King James Bible," here.
My response to this is that I am a "Greek" (although I happen to be named after Paul).
Phryne risks wolf, bear, lynx, wild herdsmen and also:
"...Lycaonia and Parthia, where a woman is also merely an animal." (p. 244)
6 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I think Eodan was starting to realize that Phryne had stronger feelings toward him than simply those of a friend or even an oath-sister. That would explain why she was so unwilling to become a concubine of Mithradates. Most women, in those days, would have leapt at such an opportunity, after all. It would have meant not only freedom from poverty or grinding toil, but also the chance, for the most ambitious, of becoming a power behind the throne. Either during the king's lifetime or by becoming the mother of his successor.
And I remember that grudging respect, and even admiration that Eodan had for Rome! It makes me wonder what happened to his Roman son (by Cordelia) in later years.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
Son or daughter.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
Yes, Eodan had a son or daughter by Cordelia.
And, that bit about the "thousand generations" you quoted reminded me of the people haunted and daunted by the forest they lived in that we see in "The Forest." Thousands of years before Mithradates time.
And if the cross of Christ was a "foolishness" to many of the Greeks who heard the preaching of St. Paul, that was because they could not believe the Unknown God would have become Incarnate as man and allow himself to be crucified.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
My rationalistic explanation is that a Messianic claimant was executed which would have disproved his Messiahship except that some of his traumatized followers reinterpreted scriptures as prophesying that suffering followed by "resurrection" was the way to Messiahship.
Paul.
The immediately preceding comment was me on Ketlan's computer. I visit him for lunch every Tuesday.
Kaor, Paul!
I understand that "rationalistic" argument, but I don't agree with it. My belief is that Christ truly died on the cross and truly rose from the dead. And that the Resurrection is the supreme proof of Christianity.
Ad astra! Sean
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