Aphrodite (Story of the Month)

She knew his vainglory over pretty women, and his conceit; so when he came to her, infatuated with her beauty, and set about courting her, she received him with mockery, saying:

"You are used to having women love you. Do you know, then, what is required of you in return for the love of a woman who does not love you?

"Three things — will you procure them for me?..."

He sensed that she was about to ask the impossible, and he looked at her with a look of anxiety and fear; but she smiled and turned to say gently:

"I want a mirror of silver, in which my eyes may see their own magic."

He said: "Be it as you wish. What else?"

She said: "I want a comb of ivory, to bury in the tresses of my hair, like a net cast upon the face of the water."

He said: "As you please. What else?"

She went on: "And I want a necklace of pearls, to hang upon my breast when I dance for you in my chamber, on my wedding day, the dance of my country."

He raised his eyebrows: "Is that all you ask?"

She said: "Are you the giver of this necklace I have asked for?"

He said: "Whatever necklace you wish is yours."

Then she grew tender, saying coquettishly:

"That is what I wanted to hear from you. Are you truly the granter of the gifts I love and choose?"

He answered: "Without doubt." She said: "Will you swear?" He said: "I swear."

She turned and said: "Swear, then, by the goddess Aphrodite whose statue you made."

He said: "I swear that I will do it — but why this precaution?"

And he began to grow irritated, and went on:

"I do not ask you to love me — I have wearied of love and grown to hate being loved. But I am ready to give you all the gold in this world, for all of it is mine in Egypt, and subject to my will."

She said mockingly: "And I too have it — in my hair and my braids. I am weary of gold; I neither want it nor ask for it. But what I want—"

She answered: "I was uneasy; now my mind is at rest. Did you think I would accept a silver mirror that you could buy from some merchant of Smyrna, or from any beauty in Alexandria? Then you are deluded. I want the silver mirror owned by my friend Bacchis, who snatched one of my lovers from me last week and has taken to speaking of me with mockery and disdain in the gatherings of lovers and beauties — because of that historic mirror she is proud and boastful, and would not part with it though she were given all the treasures of the earth. And I know where you will find it: one night she got drunk, and the drink loosened her tongue, and she told me that she is in the habit of hiding it under a stone in her shrine every evening, just before she leaves her house. Go at that hour and do not be afraid, for she takes her slave girls and her slaves with her whenever she goes out of the house."

Demetrios cried out: "This is madness!... Do you expect me to steal the mirror for you?"

She burst out laughing: "Do you not love me? Did you not swear that you would do what I want?" And Demetrios understood that she was asking the impossible of him; but he yielded and submitted, as she wished, and said: "Be it as you will..."

She went on: "I was certain of it — though you hesitated at first... And do you suppose I am asking for an ordinary ivory comb, whose like you might buy in the city market? You are deluded. I ask for nothing but the ivory comb thrust into the braids of the wife of the High Priest; it came down to her from one of the queens of Egypt, and stamped upon it is the figure of a girl amid clusters of lotus blossoms, tripping over the water on the tips of her toes so as not to be wetted. I shall be the happiest of women if you bring it to me.

"And if you wish to know the secret of my choosing it, know that I bear a grudge against the priest's wife. Not long ago I brought her an offering — a blue veil to be laid upon the altar — and then, days later, I saw it upon her head, adorning herself with it. If you bring me her comb I shall have my cure of her, and take my revenge."

He said, perplexed: "And how am I to bring it to you?"

She said: "It will be a little hard for you. She is Egyptian, as you know, and like the daughters of her race she is accustomed to putting up her ten braids upon her head only once in each year. But I want the comb tomorrow — so kill her, that you may bring it to me.

"And you have sworn that you will do it."

And she looked with a mocking eye at him as he stood with head bowed in bewilderment, and continued:

"And I have chosen the required necklace as well: the necklace of seven strands hung about the neck of Aphrodite."

Demetrios trembled and stood aghast; then he said:

"This is too much! Would you play me false? Know, then, that you shall win from me neither mirror nor comb nor necklace nor anything at all."

She laid her palm upon his lips and set about coaxing him, saying:

"Do not say that; for you will most certainly bring this necklace I have chosen. And you will come tomorrow evening, and the night after, and the one after that, and every night you please, and you will find me obedient to your will — adorned for you as you love, bejeweled as you desire, arrayed as you demand, quick to please you as you wish. If you come one day asking for tenderness, I will rock you upon my breast and in my arms as a mother rocks her child in the cradle. If you want silence, I will not speak; and if you ask for song and singing, I will sing to you, my beloved, varied arts of delight, for I have for every mood a song — now like the murmuring of the brook, now pealing like the crash of the rumbling thunder. I have songs that virgins would not blush to hear,

"and others at which they would blush — but I shall pour them into your ear in a flood. And if some night you ask for dancing, I will dance for you until dawn."

Demetrios stood listening to her, dazed, his spirit astray, his tongue tied. And Chrysis went on:

"And with all this, you refuse to give me an old mirror of silver — in exchange for my golden braids when they billow in your hands like a forest of tangled boughs!"

Demetrios stretched out his hand to touch them, but she drew back a little, saying:

"No... leave that until tomorrow."

He muttered: "You shall have the mirror you asked for."

She said: "And then you refuse, as well, to bring me a little comb of ivory — though for it you would win from me my two arms, white as ivory, wound about your neck?!"

He tried to touch her arms, but she drew back a little, saying: "No... until tomorrow."

He said, his voice hushed: "The comb shall be your comb tomorrow."

Then the beauty cried out: "I was certain of that! And you will bring, too, the necklace of seven strands hung about the neck of Aphrodite — and for it I will sell you my body, which is like the matchless pearl, opening for you like the shell; and from my mouth you shall win kisses more numerous than all the pearls and shells in the sea..."

Demetrios lifted his face imploringly, but she remained a moment gazing long at him with her flashing eyes; then she held out to him her enticing mouth — and his reason left this world for some moments. And when he came to himself and opened his eyes, he found himself far away, striding toward the city with bowed head, aware of nothing around him.

And when evening came, Demetrios came to Chrysis with what she had demanded, for he had obtained it by theft, by murder, and by violating the sanctity of statues and idols. Demetrios asks her to keep her promise; but before long he feels that his burning desire has cooled, and that his winning of what he had thought beyond all reach has robbed him of any taste for it. So he commands her to appear in the public gatherings wearing these three gifts; whereupon she is seized and condemned to death, and dies by poison. And this skillful sculptor takes her corpse as the model for a statue that immortalizes her bewitching beauty to the end of life...