The Temptation of St. Anthony

The Buddha. "I was led unto the schools; and it was found that I knew more than the teachers."

Hilarion. "… In the midst of the doctors … and all that heard him were astonished at his wisdom!"20

(Anthony makes a sign to Hilarion to be silent.)

The Buddha. "Continually did I meditate in the gardens. The shadows of the trees turned with the turning of the sun; but the shadow of that which sheltered me turned not.

"None could equal me in the knowledge of the Scriptures, the enumeration of atoms, the conduct of elephants, the working of wax, astronomy, poetry, pugilism, all the exercises and all the arts!

"In accordance with custom, I took to myself a wife; and I passed the days in my kingly palace; – clad in pearls, under a rain of perfumes, refreshed by the fans of thirty thousand women, – watching my peoples from the height of my terraces adorned with fringes of resonant bells.

"But the sight of the miseries of the world turned me away from pleasure. I fled.

"I begged my way upon the high roads, clad myself in rags gathered within the sepulchres; – and, hearing of a most learned hermit, I chose to become his slave. I guarded his gate! I washed his feet.

"Thus I annihilated all sensation, all joy, all languor.

"Then, concentrating my thoughts within vaster meditation, I learned to know the essence of things, the illusion of forms.

"Soon I exhausted the science of the Brahmans. They are gnawed by covetousness and desire under their outward aspect of austerity; they daub themselves with filth, they live upon thorns, – hoping to arrive at happiness by the path of death!"

Hilarion… "Pharisees, hypocrites, whited sepulchres, generation of vipers!"

The Buddha. "I also accomplished wondrous things, – eating but one grain of rice each day (and the grains of rice in those times were no larger than at present) – my hair fell off; my body became black; my eyes receding within their sockets, seemed even as stars beheld at the bottom of a well.

"During six years I kept myself motionless, exposed to the flies, the lions and the serpents; and the great summer suns, the torrential rains, lightnings and snows, hails and tempests, – all of these I endured without even the shelter of my lifted hand.

"The travellers who passed by, believing me dead, cast clods of earth upon me!

"Only the temptation of the Devil remained!

"I summoned him.

"His sons came, – hideous, scale-covered, nauseous as charnel-houses, – shrieking, hissing, bellowing; interclashing their panoplies, rattling together the bones of dead men. Some belched flame through their nostrils; some made darkness about me with their wings; some wore chaplets of severed fingers; some drank serpent-venom from the hollows of their hands; – they were swine-headed; they were rhinoceros-headed or toad-headed; they assumed all forms that inspire loathing or affright."

Anthony (to himself).

"I also endured all that in other days!"

The Buddha. "Then did he send me his daughters – beautiful with daintily painted faces, and wearing girdles of gold. Their teeth were whiter than the jasmine-flower; their thighs round as the trunk of an elephant. Some extended their arms and yawned, that they might so display the dimples of their elbows; some winked their eyes; some laughed; some half-opened their garments. There were blushing virgins, matrons replete with dignity, queens who came with great trains of baggage and of slaves."

Anthony (aside). "Ah! he too …"

The Buddha. "Having vanquished the Demon, I nourished myself for twelve years with perfumes only; – and as I had acquired the five virtues, the five faculties, the ten forces, the eighteen substances, and had entered into the four spheres of the invisible world, Intelligence became mine! I became the Buddha."

(All the gods bow themselves down. Those having several heads, bend them all simultaneously. He lifts his mighty hand aloft, and resumes:)

"That I might effect the deliverance of beings, I have made hundreds of thousands of sacrifices! To the poor I gave robes of silk, beds, chariots, houses, heaps of gold and of diamonds. I gave my hands to the one-handed, my legs to the lame, my eyes to the blind; – even my head I severed for the sake of the decapitated. In the day that I was King, I gave away provinces; – when I was a Brahman I despised no one. When I was a solitary, I spake kindly words to the robber who slew me. When I was a tiger I allowed myself to die of hunger.

"And having, in this last existence, preached the law, nothing now remains for me to do. The great period is accomplished! Men, animals, the gods, the bamboos, the oceans, the mountains, the sand-grains of the Ganges, together with the myriad myriads of the stars, – all shall die; – and until the time of the new births, a flame shall dance upon the wrecks of worlds destroyed!"

(Then a great dizziness comes upon the gods. They stagger, fall into convulsions, and vomit forth their existences. Their crowns burst apart; their banners fly away. They tear off their attributes, their sexes, fling over their shoulders the cups from which they quaffed immortality, strangle themselves with their serpents, vanish in smoke; – and when all have disappeared …)

Hilarion (solemnly exclaims):

"Thou hast even now beheld the belief of many hundreds of millions of men."

(Anthony is prostrate upon the ground, covering his face with his hands. Hilarion, with his back turned to the cross, stands near him and watches him.

A considerable time elapses.

Then a singular being appears – having the head of a man upon the body of a fish. He approaches through the air, upright, beating the sand from time to time with his tail; and the patriarchal aspect of his face by contrast with his puny little arms, causes Anthony to laugh.)

Oannes (in a plaintive voice):

"Respect me! I am the contemporary of beginnings.

"I dwelt in that formless world where hermaphroditic creatures slumbered, under the weight of an opaque atmosphere, in the deeps of dark waters – when fingers, fins, and wings were blended, and eyes without heads were floating like mollusks, among human-headed bulls, and dog-footed serpents.

"Above the whole of these beings, Omoroca, bent like a hoop, extended her woman-body. But Belus cleft her in two halves; with one he made the earth; with the other, heaven; – and the two equal worlds do mutually contemplate each other.

"I, the first consciousness of Chaos, arose from the abyss that I might harden matter, and give a law unto forms: – also I taught men to fish and to sow: I gave them knowledge of writing, and of the history of the gods.

"Since then I have dwelt in the deep pools left by the Deluge. But the desert grows vaster about them; the winds cast sand into them; the sun devours them; – and I die upon my couch of slime, gazing at the stars through the water. Thither I return!"

(He leaps and disappears in the Nile.)

Hilarion. "That is an ancient God of the Chaldæans!"

Anthony (ironically). "What, then, were those of Babylon?"

Hilarion. "Thou canst behold them!"

(And they find themselves upon the platform of a lofty quadrangular tower dominating six other towers, which, narrowing as they rise, form one monstrous pyramid. Far below a great black mass is visible – the city, doubtless – extending over the plains. The air is cold; the sky darkly blue; multitudes of stars palpitate above.

In the midst of the platform rises a column of white stone. Priests in linen robes pass and repass around it, so as to describe by their evolutions a moving circle; and with faces uplifted, they gaze upon the stars. …)

Hilarion. (pointing out several of these stars to Anthony):

"There are thirty principal stars. Fifteen look upon the upper side of the earth; fifteen below. At regular intervals one shoots from the upper regions to those below; while another abandons the inferior deeps to rise to sublime altitudes …

"Of the seven planets, two are beneficent; two evil; three ambiguous: – all things in the world depend upon the influence of these eternal fires. According to their position or movement presages may be drawn; – and here thou dost tread the most venerable place upon earth. Here Pythagoras and Zoroaster have met; – here for twelve thousand years these men have observed the skies that they might better learn to know the gods."

Anthony. "The stars are not gods."

Hilarion. "Aye, they say the stars are gods; for all things about us pass away; – the heavens only remain immutable as eternity."

Anthony. "Yet there is a master!"

Hilarion (pointing to the column):

"He! Belus! – the first ray, the Sun, the Male! The Other, whom he fecundates, is beneath him!"

(Anthony beholds a garden, illuminated by lamps: He finds himself in the midst of the crowd, in an avenue of cypress-trees. To right and left are little pathways leading to huts constructed within a wood of pomegranate trees, and enclosed by treillages of bamboo.

Most of the men wear pointed caps, and garments bedizened like the plumage of a peacock. But there are also people from the North clad in bearskins, nomads wearing mantles of brown wool, pallid Gangarides with long earrings; – and there seems to be as much confusion of rank as there is confusion of nations; for sailors and stone-cutters elbow the princes who wear tiaras blazing with carbuncles and who carry long canes with carven knobs. All proceed upon their way with dilated nostrils, absorbed by the same desire.

From time to time, they draw aside to make way for some long covered wagon drawn by oxen, or some ass jolting upon his back a woman bundled up in thick veils, who finally disappears in the direction of the cabins.

Anthony feels afraid; he half-resolves to turn back. But an unutterable curiosity takes possession of him, and draws him on.

At the foot of the cypress-trees there are ranks of women squatting upon deerskins, all wearing in lieu of diadem, a plaited fillet of ropes. Some, magnificently attired, loudly call upon the passers-by. Others, more timid, seek to veil their faces with their arms, while some matron standing behind them, their mother doubtless, exhorts them. Others, their heads veiled with a black shawl, and their bodies entirely nude, seem from afar off to be statues of flesh. As soon as a man has thrown some money upon their knees, they arise.

And the sound of kisses is heard under the foliage, – sometimes a great sharp cry.)

Hilarion. "These are the virgins of Babylon, who prostitute themselves to the goddess."

Anthony. "What goddess?"

Hilarion. "Behold her!"

(And he shows him at the further end of the avenue, upon the threshold of an illuminated grotto, a block of stone representing a woman.)

Anthony. "Ignominy! – how abominable to give a sex to God!"

Hilarion. "Thou thyself dost figure him in thy mind as a living person!"

(Anthony again finds himself in darkness.

He beholds in the air a luminous circle, poised upon horizontal wings. This ring of light, girdles like a loose belt, the waist of a little man wearing a mitre upon his head and carrying a wreath in his hand. The lower part of his figure is completely concealed by immense feathers outspreading about him like a petticoat.

It is– Ormuzd —the God of the Persians. He hovers in the air above, crying aloud:)

"I fear! I can see his monstrous jaws! I did vanquish thee, O Ahriman! But again thou dost war against me.

"First revolting against me, thou didst destroy the eldest of creatures, Kaiomortz, the Man-Bull. Then didst thou seduce the first human couple, Meschia and Meschiané; and thou didst fill all hearts with darkness, thou didst urge thy battalions against heaven!

"I also had mine own, the people of the stars; and from the height of my throne I contemplated the marshalling of the astral hosts.

"Mithra, my son, dwelt in heavens inaccessible. There he received souls, from thence did he send them forth; and he arose each morning to pour forth the abundance of his riches.

"The earth reflected the splendour of the firmament. Fire blazed upon the crests of the mountains, – symbolizing that other fire of which I had created all creatures. And that the holy flame might not be polluted, the bodies of the dead were not burned; the beaks of birds carried them aloft toward heaven.

"I gave to men the laws regulating pastures, labour, the choice of wood for the sacrifices, the form of cups, the words to be uttered in hours of sleeplessness; – and my priests unceasingly offered up prayers, so that worship might be as the eternity of God in its endlessness. Men purified themselves with water; loaves were offered upon the altars, sins were confessed aloud.

"Homa21 gave himself to men to be drank, that they might have his strength communicated to them while the Genii of heaven were combating the demons, the children of Iran were pursuing the serpents. The King, whom an innumerable host of courtiers served upon their knees, represented me in his person, and wore my coiffure. His gardens had the magnificence of a heaven upon earth; and his tomb represented him in the act of slaying a monster, – emblem of Good destroying Evil.

"For it was destined that I should one day definitely conquer Ahriman, by the aid of Time-without-limits.

"But the interval between us disappears; – the deep night rises! To me! ye Amschaspands, ye Izeds, ye Ferouers! Succor me, Mithra! seize thy sword! And thou, Kaosyac, who shall return for the universal deliverance, defend me! What! – none to aid! Ah! I die! Thou art the victor, Ahriman!"

(Hilarion, standing behind Anthony, restrains a cry of joy; – and Ormuzd is swallowed up in the darkness.)

(Then appears:)

The Great Diana of Ephesus

(black with enamelled eyes, her elbows pressed to her side, her forearms extended, with hands open.

Lions crawl upon her shoulders; fruits, flowers, and stars intercross upon her bosom; further down three rows of breasts appear; and from her belly to her feet she is covered with a tightly fitting sheath from which bulls, stags, griffins, and bees, seem about to spring, their bodies half-protruding from it. She is illuminated by the white light emanating from a disk of silver, round as the full moon, placed behind her head.)

"Where is my temple? Where are my Amazons?

"What is this I feel? – I, the Incorruptible! – a strange faintness comes upon me!"…

(Her flowers wither, her over-ripe fruits become detached and fall. The lions and the bulls hang their heads; the deer foam at the mouth, with a slimy foam, as though exhausted; the buzzing bees die upon the ground.

She presses her breasts, one after the other. All are empty! But under a desperate effort her sheath bursts. She seizes it by the bottom, like the skirt of a robe, throws her animals, her fruits, her flowers, into it, – then withdraws into the darkness.

And afar off there are voices, murmuring, growling, roaring, bellowing, belling. The density of the night is augmented by breaths. Drops of warm rain fall.)

Anthony. "How sweet the odour of the palm trees, the trembling of leaves, the transparency of springs! I feel the desire to lie flat upon the Earth that I might feel her against my heart; and my life would be reinvigorated by her eternal youth!"

(He hears the sound of castanets and of cymbals; and men appear, clad in white tunics with red stripes, – leading through the midst of a rustic crowd an ass, richly harnessed, its tail decorated with knots of ribbons, and its hoofs painted.

A box, covered with a saddle-cloth 22 of yellow material shakes to and fro upon its back, between two baskets, – one receives the offerings contributed, – eggs, grapes, pears, cheeses, fowls, little coins; and the other basket is full of roses, which the leaders of the ass pluck to pieces as they walk before the animal, shedding the leaves upon the ground.

They wear earrings and large mantles; their locks are plaited, their cheeks painted, olive-wreaths are fastened upon their foreheads by medallions bearing figurines; – all wear poniards in their belts, and brandish ebony-handled whips, having three thongs to which osselets are attached. 23

Those who form the rear of the procession, place upon the soil, – so as to remain upright as a candelabrum, – a tall pine, which burns at its summit, and shades under its lower branches a lamb.

The ass halts. The saddle-cloth is removed. Underneath appears a second covering of black felt. Then one of the men in white tunics begins to dance, rattling his crotali; – another, kneeling before the box, beats a tambourine and– )

The Oldest of the Band, begins: —

"Here is the Good Goddess, the Idæan of the mountains, the Great Mother of Syria! Come ye hither, good people all!

"She gives joy to men, she heals the sick; she sends inheritances; she satisfies the hunger of love!

"We bear her through the land, rain or shine, in fair weather, or in foul.

"Oft times we lie in the open air, and our table is not always well served. Robbers dwell in the woods. Wild beasts rush from their caverns. Slippery paths border the precipices. Behold her! behold her!"

(They lift off the covering; and a box is seen, inlaid with little pebbles.)

"Loftier than the cedars, she looks down from the blue ether. Vaster than the wind she encircles the world. Her breath is exhaled by the nostrils of tigers; the rumbling of her voice is heard beneath the volcanoes; her wrath is the tempest; the pallor of her face has whitened the moon. She ripens the harvest; by her the tree-bark swells with sap; she makes the beard to grow. Give her something; for she hates the avaricious!"

(The box opens; and under a little pavilion of blue silk appears a small image of Cybele – glittering with spangles, crowned with towers, and seated in a chariot of red stone, drawn by two lions, with uplifted paws.

The crowd presses forward to see.)

THE ARCHIGALLUS (continues):

"She loves the sound of resounding tympanums, the echo of dancing feet, the howling of wolves, the sonorous mountains and the deep gorges, the flower of the almond tree, the pomegranate and the green fig, the whirling dance, the snoring flute, the sugary sap, the salty tear, – blood! To thee, to thee! – Mother of the mountains!"

(They scourge themselves with their whips; and their chests resound with the blows; – the skins of the tambourines vibrate almost to bursting. They seize their knives; they gash their arms.)

"She is sorrowful; let us be sorrowful! Thereby your sins will be remitted. Blood purifies all – fling its red drops abroad like blossoms! She, the Great Mother, demands the blood of another creature – of a pure being!"

(The Archigallus raises his knife above the head of a lamb.)

Anthony (seized with horror):

"Do not slay the lamb!"

(There is a gush of purple blood. The priest sprinkles the crowd with it; and all – including Anthony and Hilarion – standing around the burning tree, silently watch the last palpitations of the victim.

A Woman comes forth from the midst of the priests; she resembles exactly the image within the little box.

She pauses, perceiving before her a Young Man wearing a Phrygian cap. His thighs are covered with a pair of narrow trousers, with lozenge-shaped openings here and there at regular intervals, closed by bow knots of coloured material. He stands in an attitude of languor, resting his elbow against a branch of the tree, holding a flute in his hand.)

Cybele (flinging her arms about his waist).

"I have traversed all regions of the earth to join thee – and famine ravaged the fields Thou hast deceived me! It matters not! I love thee! Warm my body in thine embrace! Let us be united!"

Atys. "The springtime will never again return, O eternal Mother! Despite my love, it is no longer possible for me to penetrate thy essence! Would that I might cover myself with a painted robe like thine! I envy thy breasts, swelling with milk, the length of thy tresses, thy vast flanks that have borne and brought forth all creatures! Why am I not thou? – Why am I not a woman? – No, never! depart from me! My virility fills me with horror!"

(With a sharp stone he dismembers himself, and runs furiously from her …

The priests imitate the god; the faithful do even as the priests. Men and women exchange garments, embrace; – and the tumult of bleeding flesh passes away, while the sound of voices remaining, becomes even more strident, – like the shrieking of mourners, like the voices heard at funerals.

… A huge catafalque, hung with purple, supports upon its summit an ebony bed, surrounded by torches and baskets of silver filagree, in which are verdant leaves of lettuce, mallow and fennel. Upon the steps of the construction, from summit to base, sit women all clad in black, with loosened girdles and bare feet, holding in their hands with a melancholy air, great bouquets of flowers.

At each corner of the estrade urns of alabaster, filled with myrrh, slowly send up their smoke.

Upon the bed can be perceived the corpse of a man. Blood flows from his thigh. One of his arms hangs down lifelessly; – and a dog licks his finger nails and howls.

The row of torches placed closely together, prevents his face from being seen; and Anthony feels a strange anguish within him. He fears lest he should recognize some one.

The sobs of the women cease – and after an interval of silence,)

All (psalmody together):

"Fair! fair! – all fair he is! Thou hast slept enough! – lift thy head! – arise!

"Inhale the perfume of our flowers – narcissus – blossoms and anemones, gathered in thine own gardens to please thee. Arouse thee! thou dost make us fear for thee!

"Speak to us! What dost thou desire? Wilt thou drink wine? – wilt thou lie in our beds? – dost wish to eat the honeycakes which have the form of little birds?

"Let us press his lips, – kiss his breast! Now! – now! – dost thou not feel our ring-laden fingers passing over thy body? – and our lips that seek thy mouth? – and our tresses that sweep thy thighs? O faint God, deaf to our prayers!"

(They cry aloud, and rend their faces with their nails; then all rush, – and the howling of the dog continues in the silence.)

"Alas! alas! Woe! – the black blood trickles over his snowy flesh! See! his knees writhe! – his sides sink in! The bloom of his face hath dampened the purple. He is dead, dead! O weep for him! Lament for him!"

(In long procession they ascend to lay between the torches the offerings of their several tresses, that seem from afar off like serpents, black or blond; – and the catafalque is lowered gently to the level of, a grotto, – the opening of a shadowy sepulchre that yawns behind it.

Then– )

A Woman (bends over the corpse. Her long hair, uncut, envelopes her from head to feet. She sheds tears so abundantly that her grief cannot be as that of the others, but more than hit man – infinite!

Anthony dreams of the Mother of Jesus. She speaks: – )

"Thou didst emerge from the Orient, and didst take me, all trembling with the dew, into thy arms, O Sun! Doves fluttered upon the azure of thy mantle; our kisses evoked low breezes among the foliage; and I abandoned myself wholly to thy love, delighting in the pleasure of my weakness.

"Alas! alas – Why didst thou depart, to run upon the mountains! A boar did wound thee at the time of the autumnal equinox!

"Thou art dead; and the fountains weep, – the trees bend down. The wind of winter whistles through the naked brushwood.

"My eyes are about to close, seeing that darkness covers them! Now thou dwellest in the underworld near the mightiest of my rivals.

"O Persephone, all that is beautiful descends to thee, never to return!"

(Even while she speaks, her companions lift the dead, to place him within the sepulchre. He remains in their hands! It was only a waxen corpse.