Гюстав Флобер - The Temptation of St. Antony

Damis —"As for me, they told me nothing, so that I do not know what I was."

Antony —"They have the unsubstantial air of shadows."

Apollonius —"We met on the seashore the cynocephali, glutted with milk, who were returning from their expedition in the Island of Taprobane. The tepid waves pushed white pearls before us. The amber cracked under our footsteps. Whales' skeletons were bleaching in the crevices of the cliffs. In short, the earth grew more contracted than a sandal;—and, after casting towards the sun drops from the ocean, we turned to the right to go back. We returned through the region of the Aromatæ, through the country of the Gangarid æ , the promontory of Comaria, the land of the Sachalitæ, of the Aramitæ, and the Homeritæ; then across the Cassanian mountains, the Red Sea, and the Island of Topazes, we penetrated into Ethiopia, through the kingdom of the Pygm æ i."

Antony , aside—"How large the earth is!"

Damis —"And when we got home again, all those whom we had known in former days were dead."

Antony hangs his head. Silence.

Apollonius goes on:

"Then they began talking about me in the world. The plague ravaged Ephesus; I made them stone an old mendicant."

Damis —"And the plague was gone!"

Antony —"What! He banishes diseases?"

Apollonius —"At Cnidus, I cured the lover of Venus."

Damis —"Yes, a madman, who had even promised to marry her. To love a woman is bad enough; but a statue—what idiocy! The Master placed his hand on this man's heart, and immediately the love was extinguished."

Antony —"What! He drives out demons?"

Apollonius —"At Tarentum, they brought to the stake a young girl who was dead."

Damis —"The Master touched her lips; and she arose, calling on her mother."

Antony —"Can it be? He brings the dead back to life?"

Apollonius —"I foretold that Vespasian would be Emperor."

Antony —"What! He divines the future?"

Damis —"There was at Corinth―"

Apollonius —"While I was supping with him at the waters of Baia―"

Antony —"Excuse me, strangers; it is late!"

Damis —"―A young man named Menippus."

Antony —"No! no! go away!"

Apollonius —"―A dog entered, carrying in its mouth a hand that had been cut off."

Damis —"―One evening, in one of the suburbs, he met a woman."

Antony —"You do not hear me. Take yourselves off!"

Damis —"―He prowled vacantly around the couches."

Antony —"Enough!"

Apollonius —"―They wanted to drive him away."

Damis —"―Menippus, then, surrendered himself to her; and they became lovers."

Apollonius —"―And, beating the mosaic floor with his tail, he deposited this hand on the knees of Flavius."

Damis —"―But, in the morning, at the school–lectures, Menippus was pale."

Antony , with a bound—"Still at it! Well, let them go on, since there is not … "

Damis —"The Master said to him: 'O beautiful young man, you are caressing a serpent; and a serpent is caressing you. For how long are these nuptials?' Every one of us went to the wedding."

Antony —"I am doing wrong, surely, in listening to this!"

Damis —"Servants were busily engaged at the vestibule; the doors flew open; nevertheless, one could hear neither the noise of footsteps, nor the sound of opening doors. The Master seated himself beside Menippus. Immediately, the bride was seized with anger against the philosophers. But the vessels of gold, the cup–bearers, the cooks, the attendants, disappeared; the roof flew away; the walls fell in; and Apollonius remained alone, standing with this woman all in tears at his feet. It was a vampire, who satisfied the handsome young men in order to devour their flesh—because nothing is better for phantoms of this kind than the blood of lovers."

Apollonius —"If you wish to know the art―"

Antony —"I wish to know nothing."

Apollonius —"On the evening of our arrival at the gates of Rome―"

Antony —"Oh! yes, tell me about the City of the Popes."

Apollonius —"―A drunken man accosted us who sang with a sweet voice. It was an epithalamium of Nero; and he had the power of causing the death of anyone who heard him with indifference. He carried on his back in a box a string taken from the cithara of the Emperor. I shrugged my shoulders. He threw mud in our faces. Then I unfastened my girdle and placed it in his hands."

Damis —"In this instance you were quite wrong!"

Apollonius —"The Emperor, during the night, made me call at his residence. He played at ossicles with Sporus, leaning with his left arm on a table of agate. He turned round, and, knitting his fair brows: 'Why are you not afraid of me?' he asked. 'Because the God who made you terrible has made me intrepid,' I replied."

Antony , to himself—"Something unaccountable fills me with fear."

Silence.

Damis resumes, in a shrill voice—"All Asia, moreover, could tell you … "

Antony , starting up—"I am sick. Leave me!"

Damis —"Listen now. At Ephesus, he witnessed the death of Domitian, who was at Rome."

Antony making an effort to laugh—"Is this possible?"

Damis —"Yes, at the theatre, in broad daylight, on the fourteenth of the Kalends of October, he suddenly exclaimed: 'They are murdering Cæsar!' and he added, every now and then, 'He rolls on the ground! Oh! how he struggles! He gets up again; he attempts to fly; the gates are shut. Ah! it is finished. He is dead!' And that very day, in fact, Titus Flavius Domitianus was assassinated, as you are aware."

Antony —"Without the aid of the Devil … No doubt … "

Apollonius —"He wished to put me to death, this Domitian. Damis fled by my direction, and I remained alone in my prison."

Damis —"It was a terrible bit of daring, I must confess!"

Apollonius —"About the fifth hour, the soldiers led me to the tribunal. I had my speech quite ready, which I kept under my cloak."

Damis —"The rest of us were on the bank of Puzzoli! We saw you die; we wept; when, towards the sixth hour, all at once, you appeared, and said to us, 'It is I.'"

Antony , aside—"Just like Him!"

Damis , very loudly—"Absolutely!"

Antony —"Oh, no! you are lying, are you not? You are lying!"

Apollonius —"He came down from Heaven—I ascend there, thanks to my virtue, which has raised me even to the height of the Most High!"

Damis —"Tyana, his native city, has erected a temple with priests in his honour!"

Apollonius draws close to Antony, and, bending towards his ear, says:

"The truth is, I know all the gods, all the rites, all the prayers, all the oracles. I have penetrated into the cavern of Trophonius, the son of Apollo. I have moulded for the Syracusans the cakes which they use on the mountains. I have undergone the eighty tests of Mithra. I have pressed against my heart the serpent of Sabacius. I have received the scarf of the Cabiri. I have bathed Cybele in the waves of the Campanian Gulf; and I have passed three moons in the caverns of Samothrace!"

Damis , laughing stupidly—"Ah! ah! ah! at the mysteries of the Bona Dea!"

Apollonius —"And now we are renewing our pilgrimage. We are going to the North, the side of the swans and the snows. On the white plain the blind hippopodes break with the ends of their feet the ultramarine plant."