Egypt -- History -- 332-30 B.C. -- Fiction; German fiction -- Translations into English
The rocky cliffs of this barren range glowed at this moment like the fire
in the heart of the great ruby which had clasped the festal robe of King
Euergetes across his bull-neck, as it reflected the shimmer of the
tapers: and Lysias saw the day-star rising behind the range with blinding
radiance, shooting forth rays like myriads of golden arrows, to rout and
destroy his foe, the darkness of night.
Eos, Helios, Phoebus Apollo--these had long been to him no more than
names, with which he associated certain phenomena, certain processes and
ideas; for he when he was not luxuriating in the bath, amusing himself in
the gymnasium, at cock or quail-fights, in the theatre or at Dionysiac
processions--was wont to exercise his wits in the schools of the
philosophers, so as to be able to shine in bandying words at
entertainments; but to-day, and face to face with this sunrise,
he believed as in the days of his childhood--he saw in his mind's eye
the god riding in his golden chariot, and curbing his foaming steeds,
his shining train floating lightly round him, bearing torches or
scattering flowers--he threw up his arms with an impulse of devotion,
praying aloud:
"To-day I am happy and light of heart. To thy presence do I owe this,
O! Phoebus Apollo, for thou art light itself. Oh! let thy favors
continue--"
But he here broke off in his invocation, and dropped his arms, for he
heard approaching footsteps. Smiling at his childish weakness--for such
he deemed it that he should have prayed--and yet content from his pious
impulse, he turned his back on the sun, now quite risen, and stood face
to face with Irene who called out to him:
"I was beginning to think that you had got out of patience and had gone
away, when I found you no longer by the well. That distressed me--but
you were only watching Helios rise. I see it every day, and yet it
always grieves me to see it as red as it was to-day, for our Egyptian
nurse used to tell me that when the east was very red in the morning it
was because the Sun-god had slain his enemies, and it was their blood
that colored the heavens, and the clouds and the hills."
"But you are a Greek," said Lysias, "and you must know that it is Eos
that causes these tints when she touches the horizon with her rosy
fingers before Helios appears. Now to-day you are, to me, the rosy dawn
presaging a fine day."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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