Hipponicus, who was trierarch of the second ship, had requested permission to accompany his commander. With him was the beautiful Theodota. Thus the charming dancer again threateningly approached Pericles’ horizon. The Milesians received the Athenian commander with delight, celebrated his arrival with magnificent entertainments, and honored the victor of Samos with a gold laurel wreath. Pericles felt as if he had breathed a sultry atmosphere ever since he stepped upon the coast of Asia Minor. He had entered the land of the statue of Diana with the thousand breasts, of gigantic temples, whose Hellenic forms blended with the colossal, monstrous architecture of the East, the land of the priestesses of Aphrodite, of luxurious, effeminate music, the land of the mother of the gods, whose festal dances on the Tmolus partook of the mysterious madness of the Orient, the land too of her foster-son Dionysus, the god of joy, who by his nature and appearance, delicate and effeminate in form, yet full of courage and ardor, with his luxuriant wealth of curls crowned by a Lydian mitra, and clad in ample bright-hued garments, proved himself a true son of Asia Minor. If the sultry atmosphere the Athenian felt was anywhere on the Ionian coasts of Asia, it pervaded the streets of wealthy, superb Miletus, famed for its roses. Here one heard the Persians and the satrap of Sardis mentioned, as the Athenians spoke of the Megarians or Corinthians; Persians and other Orientals were seen in the streets. The costume of the men of Miletus and their charming wives was rich and gay as the plumage of Eastern birds, yet exquisitely tasteful. Pericles saw garments borrowed from the Persians, others from the Egyptians. They were of every color—purple, crocus yellow, sea-blue, the hue of the violet and hyacinth, even the vivid tint of flames. He saw the Milesians wrapped in the texture of Persia, decked with the jewels of India, dripping with the perfumes of Syria. During their stay in Miletus, Pericles and Hipponicus enjoyed the hospitality of her richest and most distinguished citizen, Artemidorus. The latter took them to his magnificent country-estate, near the city. Not far from this rural seat was a myrtle grove, amid whose dusky recesses, musical with the notes of birds, legend related that the goddess Aphrodite sometimes appeared in bodily form. Oriental magnificence reigned in Artemidorus’ apartments. The walls and furniture were decked with gay Persian stuffs. Gold glittered, ivory gleamed, the air was full of the perfume of sandal-wood. Throngs of beautiful female slaves moved about the house. Some, from the shores of the Caspian sea, were dazzlingly fair like marble statues, others brown as the bronze figures in Artemidorus’ house, and others still, a shining black, like the ebony tables inlaid with gold in his rooms. Nothing was lacking that could satisfy the mind of an Asiatic Greek in Aspasia’s native city.