Deborah: A tale of the times of Judas Maccabaeus — John Shaqi
Deborah: A tale of the times of Judas MaccabaeusLudlow, James M. (James Meeker)
History
Deborah: A tale of the times of Judas Maccabaeus
Ludlow, James M. (James Meeker)
Jewish fiction; Jews -- History -- 586 B.C.-70 A.D. -- Fiction; Maccabees -- Fiction
"That's the Macedonian," said one of Clarissa's satellites, as from her
float she spied the graceful form in the crowd.
"A perfect Apollo!" was the critical response, which drew a jealous
glance from even The Glorious, who made the unkingly comment:
"No. His nose isn't true. Has the snout of a Jew."
His Majesty deserved to hear, though he did not, the comment the Greek
was at the same moment making to his comrade:
"Humph! Epiphanes, the Glorious! Well do the people call him Epimanes,
the Fool."
Captain Dion, notwithstanding the contemptuous sentiments thus far
awakened by the great show, was an observer the day following; for the
spectacular greatness of the affair would have drawn a Diogenes into
the crowd.
This was All-Gods Day. The various deities of the nations which
Epiphanes' fathers had conquered for him, and those of lands which the
ambitious monarch claimed, though he had not yet subdued them,--these
were represented by their statues, or by living personages who were
apparelled in celestial hues; that is, so far as the King's costumers
were acquainted with the fashions of the world beyond the clouds.
One float bore a tableau in which Mount Olympus appeared, peopled with
divinities, among whom Jupiter sat with uplifted hand holding a sheaf
of golden spears for lightning bolts, which the shaking of the float
made to menace the spectators with celestial ire. A bull-headed Moloch
of brass was contributed by the adjacent Phœnician city of Sidon; this
was followed by a stone Winged Bull from Babylon.
Lesser divinities held their court before the gaping crowds, as if
heaven were trailing its banners beneath the greater glory of the
earthly monarch. Indeed, the vanity of Epiphanes did not hesitate
to make this monstrous pretension. He was magnificently enthroned,
his head canopied by a device in which a golden sun and silvery
planets were made to float through fleecy azure. At his feet on a
lower platform were priests representing every religion in his wide
domain--those of the Phœnician Baal in white robes with fluted skirts
slashed diagonally with violet scarfs, their heads covered with
close-fitting caps of knitted hair-work, as if of a piece with their
black beards; Greek priests with gloomy brows inspecting the entrails
of the sacrifice; and naked Bacchantes, crowned with the leaves of the
vine.
Among these sacred officials was Menelaos, the High Priest of the Jews,
clad in the beauty of the ancient pontificate; his white tunic partly
covered with the blue robe; his head surmounted with the flower-shaped
turban. Menelaos was not the rightful High Priest of his people. His
brother, the sainted Onias, had held that office, until, after long
captivity in the prison of Daphne, he was murdered by Menelaos' order,
not far from the spot the fratricide was now passing.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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