The Temptation of St. Anthony

First comes the three great gods of Samothrace, – Axieros, Axiokeros, Axiokersa, —united together as in a fascia, purple-masked, all with hands uplifted.

Æsculapius advances with a melancholy air, not even perceiving Samos and Telesphorus, who question him with gestures of anguish. Elean Sosipolis, of python-form, rolls his coils toward the abyss. Dosipoena, becomes dizzy, leaps in of her own accord. Britomartis, shrieking with fear, clutches fast the meshes of her net. The Centaurs come at a wild gallop, and roll pell-mell into the black gulf.

Behind them, all limping, advance the bands of the mourning Nymphs. Those of the meadows are covered with dust; those of the woods moan and bleed; wounded by the axes of the woodcutters.

The Gelludes, the Strygii, the Empusæ, all the infernal goddesses, form one pyramid of blended fangs, vipers, and torches; – and seated upon a vulture-skin at its summit, Eurynome, blue as the flies that corrupt meat, devours her own arms.

Then in one great whirl simultaneously disappear the bloody Orthia, Hymina of Orchomenus, the Laphria of the Patræns, Aphia of Agina, Bendis of Thrace, Stymphalia with thighs like a bird's. Triopas, in lieu of three eyes, has now but three empty orbits. Erichthonius, his legs paralysed, crawls upon his hands like a cripple.)

Hilarion. "What a pleasure, is it not! – to see them all in the abjection of their death-agony! Climb up here beside me, on this rock; and thou shalt be even as Xerxes, reviewing his army.

"Beyond there, very far, dost thou behold that fair-bearded giant, who even now lets fall his sword crimsoned with blood? – that is the Scythian Zalmoxis between two planets, – Artimpasa, Venus, and Orsiloche, the Moon.

"Still further away, now emerging from pallid clouds, are the gods whom the Cimmerians adore, even beyond Thule.

"Their huge halls were warm, and by the gleam of swords that tapestried the vault, they drank their hydromel from horns of ivory. They ate the liver of the whale in dishes of brass wrought by the hammers of demons; or, betimes, they listened to captive sorcerers whose fingers played upon harps of stone.

"They are feeble! They are cold! The snow makes heavy their bearskins; and their feet show through the rents in their sandals.

"They weep for the vast fields upon whose grassy knolls they were wont to draw breath in pauses of battle; they weep for the long ships whose prows forced a way through the mountains of ice; – and the skates wherewith they followed the orb of the poles, upbearing at the length of their mighty arms all the firmament that turned with them."

(A gust of frosty wind carries them off. Anthony turns his eyes another way. And he perceives – outlined in blade against a red background – certain strange personages, with chinbands and gauntlets, who throw balls at one another, leap over each other's heads, make grimaces, dance a frenzied dance.)

Hilarion. "Those are the divinities of Etruria, the innumerable Æsars.

"There is Tages, by whom augury was invented. With one hand he seeks to augment the divisions of the sky; with the other he supports himself upon the earth: let him sink therein!

"Nortia gazes at the wall into which she drave nails to mark the number of the passing years. Its whole surface is now covered; and the period is accomplished.

"Like two travellers overtaken by a storm, Kastur and Pulutuk, trembling, seek to shelter themselves beneath the same mantle."

Anthony (closes his eyes):

"Enough! Enough!"

(But with a mighty noise of wings, all the Victories of the Capitol pass through the air, – hiding their faces with their hands, dropping the trophies hanging upon their arms.

Janus, – lord of crepuscules, – flees upon a black ram; and one of his two faces is already putrified; the other slumbers with fatigue.

Summanus, the headless god of the dark heavens, presses against his heart an odd cake shaped like a wheel.

Vesta, beneath a ruined cupola, tries to relight her extinguished lamp.

Bellona gashes her cheeks, – without being able to make that blood flow by which her devotees were purified.)

Anthony. "Mercy! – they weary me!"

Hilarion. "Before, they amused thee!"

(And he shows him in a grove of bean-trees, A Woman, naked … and a black man, holding in each hand a torch.24)

"It is the goddess of Aricia, with the demon Virbius. Her sacerdote, the King of the grove, had to be an assassin;25 and the fugitive slaves, the despoilers of corpses, the brigands of the Via Salaria, the cripples of the Pons Sublicius, all the human vermin of the Suburra worshipped no deities so fervently.

"In the time of Marcus Antonius the patrician women preferred Libitina."

(And he shows him under the shadow of cypresses and rose-trees, Another Woman, clad in gauze. Around her lie spades, litters, black hangings, all the paraphernalia of funerals. She smiles. Her diamonds shine afar off through spiders' webs. The Larvæ, like skeletons, show their bones through the branches; and the Lemures, who are phantoms, extend their bat-like wings.

At the end of a field lies the god Terminus, uprooted, and covered with ordures.

In the centre of a furrow, the great corpse of Vertumnus is being devoured by red dogs.

The rustic deities all depart, weeping: – Sartor, Sarrator, Vervactor, Collina, Vallona, Hostilinus – all wearing little hooded mantles, and carrying either a hoe, a pitchfork, a hurdle, or a boar-spear.)

Hilarion. "Their spirits made prosperous the villa, – with its dovecots, its parks of dormice, its poultry-yards protected by nets, its warm stables fragrant with odours of cedar.

"Also they protected all the wretched population who dragged the irons upon their legs over the flinty ways of the Sabine country, – those who called the swine together by sound of horn, – those who were wont to gather the bunches at the very summits of the elms, – those who drove the asses, laden with manure, over the winding bypaths. The panting labourer, leaning over the handle of his plough, prayed them to give strength to his arms; and under the shade of the lindens, beside calabashes filled with milk, the cow-herds were wont, in turn, to sound their praises upon flutes of reed."

Anthony (sighs.)

(And in the centre of a chamber, upon a lofty estrade, an ivory bed is visible, surrounded by persons bearing torches of pine.)

"Those are the deities of marriage. They await the coming of the bride.

"Domiduca should lead her in, – Virgo unfasten her girdle, – Subigo place her in the bed, – and Præma open her arms, and whisper sweet words into her ear.

"But she will not come! – and they dismiss the others: – Nona and Decima who watch by sick-beds; the three Nixii who preside over child-birth; the two nurses, Educa and Potina; and Carna, guardian of the cradle, whose bouquet of hawthorne keeps evil dreams from the child.

"Afterwards, Ossipago should strengthen his knees; – Barbatus give him his first beard; Stimula inspire his first desires; Volupia grant him his first enjoyment; Fabulimus should have taught him to speak, Numera to count, Camœna to sing, Consus to reflect."

(This chamber is empty; and there remains only the centenarian Nænia beside the bed, – muttering to herself the dirge she was wont to howl at the funerals of aged men.

But her voice is soon drowned by sharp cries. These are uttered by—

The Lares Domestici, crouching at the further end of the atrium, clad in dog-skins, with flowers wreathed about their bodies, – pressing their clenched hands against their cheeks, and weeping as loudly as they can.)

"Where is the portion of food we received at each repast, the kindly care of the maid-servant, the smile of the matron, the merriment of the little boys playing at knuckle-bones on the mosaic pavement of the court-yard? When grown up, they used to hang about our necks their bullæ of gold or leather!

"What happiness it was, when on the evening of a triumph, the master, entering, turned his humid eyes upon us! He would recount his combats; and the little house would be prouder than a palace; sacred as a temple!

"How sweet were the family repasts, above all on the morrow of the Feralia! Tenderness for the dead appeased all discords; all kissed each other, while drinking to the glories of the past, and the hopes of the future.

"But the ancestors, of painted wax, locked up behind us, are slowly becoming covered with mold. The new races, visiting their own deceptions upon us, have shattered our jaws; our wooden bodies are disappearing piece-meal under the teeth of rats."

(And the innumerable gods, watching over doors, kitchens, cellars, baths, disperse in every direction – under the form of enormous ants running over the pavement, or great butterflies soaring away.

Then a roll of thunder is heard.)

"I was the God of Armies, the Lord, the Lord God! I pitched the tents of Jacob on the hills; and in the midst of the sands I nourished my chosen people in their flight.

"It was I who consumed the city of Sodom with fire! It was I who overwhelmed the world with the waters of the Deluge! It was I that drowned Pharaoh, with all the princes, sons of Kings, – making the sea to swallow up his chariots of war, and his charioteers!

"I, the Jealous God, held all other gods in abomination. I brayed the impure in my anger; the mighty I cast down; and swiftly the desolation of my wrath ran to the right and to the left, like a dromedary loosened in a field of maize.

"I chose the humble to deliver Israel. Angels, flame-winged, spake to them from out the bashes.

"Perfumed with spikenard, with cinnamon and myrrh, clad in transparent robes, and shod with high-heeled sandals, – women of valiant heart went forth to slay captains. The passing wind carried my prophets with it.

"My law I graved upon tables of stone. Within that law my people were enclosed, as within a strong citadel. They were my people. I was their God! The land was mine; the men also belonged to me, together with their every thought, and all their works, and the tools they wrought with, and their prosperity.

"My ark reposed within a triple sanctuary, – surrounded by curtains of purple and lighted candelabra. I had a whole tribe to serve me as servants, swinging censers; and the high-priest, robed in robes of hyacinth, wore upon his breast precious stones disposed in symmetrical order.

"Woe! Woe! the Holy of Holies is open, the veil is rent, the perfumes of the holocaust are dissipated by all the winds of heaven! The jackal whines in the sepulchres; my temple is destroyed; my people dispersed!

"The priests have been strangled with the girdles of their robes. The women languish in captivity; the holy vessels have all been melted!"

(The voice, becoming more distant):

"I was the God of Armies; the Lord, the Lord God!"

(An enormous silence follows, – and deepest night.)

Anthony. "All have passed away!"

Some One (replies):

"I remain!"

(And Hilarion stands before him – but transfigured wholly, – beautiful as an archangel, luminous as a sun, and so lofty that in order to behold his face—

Anthony is compelled to throw back his head, to look up as though gazing as a star):

"Who art thou?"

Hilarion. "My kingdom is vast as the universe; and my desire knows no limits. I go on forever, – freeing minds, weighing worlds, – without hatred, without fear, without pity, without love, and without God. Men call me Science!"

Anthony (recoiling from him):

"Say, rather, that thou art … the Devil!"

Hilarion (fixing his eyes upon him:)

"Wouldst thou behold him?"

Anthony (cannot detach his eyes from that mighty gaze: – the curiosity of the Devil comes upon him. His terror augments; yet his wish grows even to boundlessness):

"Yet if I should see him … if I were to see him!"

(Then in a sudden spasm of wrath):

"The horror that I have of him will free me from his presence forever!.. Yes!"

(A cloven foot appears. Anthony regrets his wish.

But the Devil flings him upon his horns and bears him away.)