CHAPTER V
I remained an entire month at Athens, occupied with my own personal affairs; and these did not allow me time to return to the house of the great painter. Athens was truly in mourning since the fall of the Olynthians. The slave-market at Chalcis, the sale of a people, such a scandal and insult was the subject on all tongues, and the dream of all those who were silent.
One day it was known that in Athens a citizen held captive an Olynthian woman. The citizen was condemned and executed.
Alarmed, I hastened to Parrhasius, and my entreaties gained me admission to him.... Never shall I forget the regard, slow and grave, with which Parrhasius greeted me when I entered. He was standing, painting. Then, following his further glances, I saw, nude and bound to an actual rock, Nicostratus the Olynthian.
“Cry out!” shouted Parrhasius to him; and his awesome captive did, cursing, foaming, and raging.
The face of Parrhasius did not alter one line. He said to a Sarmatian slave: “Upon his right; touch lightly, without penetrating.” Nicostratus saw the man advance, and soon his eyes swooned and a sweat of agony came to his temples. Moans came to the lips; then a sob, like that of a child. Parrhasius, impassible, studied the face; then suddenly cried out: “The imbecile! He has died too soon.”
When it was known how Parrhasius had painted his Prometheus the people stormed his house, crying out for death to the murderer. At last Parrhasius appeared in all his pomp and faced the crowd and all its cries. Then, slowly lifting his painting, as though offering something sacrosanct, he showed the Athenian people the Prometheus.
An awesome shudder of amazement, of wonderment at its highest, came to the populace who saw the great picture—the picture of human anguish and final defeat by death. The summit, the uttermost, of tragic grandeur seemed to be unveiled there for the first time.... Silence, as of a temple, held the people for a time; then some hostile cries broke out afresh. But they were futile, and died, lost in the splendid thunder of glory.