Aristippus, being asked wherein the learned
differed from the unlearned said, “Send them naked
to strangers, and you will see”.
“Hey, hey, hey there buddy. What’s goin’ on? What happened to your clothes”? Then, speaking on the two-way, “You better get over here quick Carl, this guy aint’t talkin’ to me, he might be . . . I don’t know, he might be dangerous”. Carl runs up, puffing.
“He don’t look so dangerous to me”. “Yeah, well,
I don’t know, maybe not”.
While Don and Carl are trying to decide what to do, another naked man runs at them from the shadows. Without a second’s thought they beat him to the ground with their service batons. They stare wide-eyed at the standing man and the one bleeding on the ground. “We better cuff both of ‘em and call Dolin to pick ‘em up”.
The prisoners are loaded in the squad car and taken back to the station. Don and Carl, confused, walk back to the quarry guard post to make a report. “What the hell we gonna say”? “We’ll say he attacked us. We had to knock him out. It was self-defense”. “How ‘bout the other one”. “ Don’t worry Carl.
He don’t talk, and besides, we did what we had to do”.
J. J. Dolin wasn’t so sure about what he had to do.
He’d been sheriff for quite a few years now, nothin’ like this had ever happened before. He wasn’t even sure being naked was a crime. Maybe trespassing, except they weren’t actually inside the quarry fence. “Must be something. Well, first, I’ll get ‘em locked up, then see if Louise can loan the city some clothes for these guys”.
Louise’s husband had been killed accidentally at the quarry nearly two years earlier. She still had all his shirts, pants, and shoes. Even though awakened in the middle of the night, Louise was happy to be helpful. She gathers what she has and walks down to the jail.
“Could you open the door for me, Jeff, I haven’t a hand free” “Yes ma’am. Don’t know what I’d do without you”. “Oh pshaw! I brought my first-aid kit, too”,
Modestly averting her eyes, Louise placed the neatly folded clothing on the sheriff’s desk. The Delphi jail was small - only one room with a desk, file cabinet, and two cells - which were now occupied by two naked men.
Louise, eyes still averted, left saying, “See you in the morning”. The sheriff passes the clothes, shoes, and first-aid kit into the cells, then unfolds the cot he keeps for just such times and sleeps ‘til Louise wakes him in the morning.
Louise brings breakfast from Faye’s Café across the street, as she did every morning. Sheriff Jeff reimburses her from the petty cash drawer, also as usual. Faye had raised her brow at the extra two orders. Louise told her about the naked men. By noon, the whole town was wondering what was going on.
The prisoners stared at the fried eggs & bacon, saying something in a questioning tone to each other. They spoke in a language neither Louise nor Jeff could understand. “Can you make out what they’re saying”. “Nope, but I think their wonderin’ if that stuff on their plates is food”. “Sounds like they’re talking Italian. Maybe Tony Lugano will be able to tell us what their sayin’ ”. Louise walks down to Tony’s restaurant to fetch him.
“Don’t know what they’re talking. Might be Greek, sure ain’t no Italian I ever heard”. “Yeah, well, it’s sure Greek to me”, says Sheriff Jeff. “Never had to deal with a situation like this. I’m gonna call down to the County Seat to see what they think
I should do”.
Next day, Judge Harley W. Evans arrives with a stenographer and a translator from Pellegrin University, just outside Attica township. The translator, Jerry Akins, determines the men are speaking Greek, but not a dialect familiar to him. He tells the judge there is a guy in the Classical Studies Dept. more knowledgeable than himself in the Greek language.
Judge Evans calls the Chancellor of Pellegrin
The Chancellor regrets to say Professor Laertius is in the midst of his advanced studies class on Periclean Athens and will not be able to help until the end of the following month. “No matter”, says the Judge, “It can wait, there’s no emergency” The judge hangs up, saying, “Sheriff Dolin will keep these men in his custody, though not behind bars, until further notice.
The County will cover all expense for their upkeep.
Jerry will remain here to translate as best he can until Professor Laertius can get here. I find no crime has been committed.
Case dismissed”!
Sheriff Jeff had been hoping to get these guys off
his hands.
Louise thinks it all an adventure. She had been an elementary school teacher in her early twenties. She might be again. She could teach these mystery men English and Jerry could assist the work by translating whatever he could.
They began with names.
The friendlier of the two places his hand to his chest and says, “Tellus”. Louise hears this as, “Tell us”. Jerry says. “No, no, I’m pretty sure it’s one word, his name”. “Oh”, I thought he was saying he wanted to learn”. Jerry says, “Yes, Tellus does seem eager to learn.
They turn to the other man who says, “Leobotas”. Both Jerry and Louise at first hear, “Leo Botas”. They realize their mistake, but decide to call him Leo, anyway. Tellus may be eager to learn, Leo isn’t. Grimly staring, he returns to silence.
The work of learning begins. Leobotas reluctantly picks up a few words by overhearing the back-and-forth between Tellus, Louise, and Jerry. A few weeks later, Tellus has acquired enough English to explain that he enjoys learning foreign languages. He says he speaks a little Ariya, and Phoenicia, enough to talk about everyday things with the few Persians and Phoenicians he meets. Jerry and Louise don’t know what to make of this. They nod politely and continue their parsing of Greek phrases into English.
Tellus is also learning to read English. Louise had brought him the Dick & Jane readers she used when she was teaching elementary school. He mastered these quickly, though he remarked to Louise, ”It is sad that Dick and Jane do not do anything but watch Spot run”.
Louise laughs. Tellus smiles because he has made
a joke in English. Louise considers telling him about Sight/Word theory, then decides it wouldn’t be helpful.
Since Tellus has been helping Louise with her chore of bringing breakfast from Faye’s Café to the jail, Faye has taken a liking to this handsome young man. She offers him a job washing dishes at the Café. Sheriff Jeff thinks this is a good idea. He’d like to see Leo (Leobotas) get a job as well, stipulating only that both men report-in once a day at 5:00 pm.
Because of Tellus’s new job English lessons are moved to the two hours following 5:00 PM. Sheriff Jeff wonders what sort of job might be right for Leo. Leobotas is a strapping young fella, maybe the marble quarry?
The foreman at the quarry agrees. So does Leo. He likes being outside, and he likes the strenuous work. Max Pettyjohn, the foreman, offers an empty toolshed for a bunk. Leobotas prefers sleeping outside with a blanket on the ground.
He does use the toolshed when it rains.
Leobotas is happy to be out of the jail. The Sheriff is glad to have Leo gone from the jail. The foreman is glad to have gained such a hardworking worker. Tellus won’t miss Leobotas’s company, because they were never really friends anyway.
Only Louse is a little unhappy, because of the vulgar new words Leo is learning on the job.
Sheriff Jeff doesn’t have anything to do at the evening English classes. He usually sets at his desk and listens. Sometimes his pal, Toby Beyer, stops by. Toby is on the Delphi City Council, he’s also a bit of a gossip, he keeps Sheriff Jeff up-to-date on all the goings-on.
“So Toby, what’s the Council been chawin’ on lately?. “Well. I’ll tell you, Jeff, they been talkin’ ‘bout that request you made for a raise in salary. Charley Miller says they ain’t a lot for a Sheriff to do in Delphi. Not a lotta use in havin’ a Sheriff at all, much less payin’ him more”?
This gets the Sheriff’s attention.
It gets Tellus’s attention, too. He turns and says, “Solon once advised a friend in a similar situation to tell the story of the sheep who complained that the watch-dog did nothing”.
The Sheriff has no idea who Solon might be, but he slaps his knee, saying, “Damn, that’s a good one. “Toby, you ought’a tell that story next Council meeting”.
Tellus makes remarks like this often. Townsfolks are starting to think of him as a pretty smart guy.
Faye thinks so, too.
Tellus suggested Faye might save money by buying several months’ worth of supplies as one purchase. Faye wonders, “Where would I put all that stuff”? Tellus answers. “You might buy much at one time but ask for delivery spaced as usual”.
Faye’s suppliers liked the idea. They were happy to lower prices for the stability of money already paid. When Faye thanked Tellus for this good idea he said, “Oh, it’s not my idea.
I think the Phoenicians’ thought of it first”. Tellus adds, ”They are skilled at trade”. Faye wonders who these Phoenicians might be but doesn’t ask.
Tellus had many ideas that made daily operations at the Café better. Faye, in appreciation of his ideas offers the unused room above the Café as an extra perk to his employment.
Leobotas was also getting noticed,at the marble quarry.
Randy Barnes likes to hassle new guys. The new guys usually just sass back. Leo took direct action. “He grabbed Randy’s arms, lifted him up so his legs wuz dangling and shook him like a dog shakin’ a rabbit, then he threw him away.
That scared ole’ Randy bad,
I saw his eyes”.
“Leo never said a word the whole time, and after that, neither did Randy.
The quarrymen respected the way Leobotas’s handled
a bully. They respected him more though because of the dignity he brought to the job of cutting marble.
His example influenced the other quarrymen. They began to see themselves as they were; exceptionally skilled workers precisely shaping a special kind of rock of exceptional beauty.
Before Leobotas they were proud of being hard workers. Now they were proud of being expert workers, doing important work. The change in attitude changed behavior. The men now supervised themselves.
That left Max Pettyjohn, the foreman, more time to plan operations, grumbling disappeared, production increased, Everyone held their head a little higher.
Leobotas’s attitude to work and life springs directly from the Classical Greek notion of eleutheria. It’s a word often translated as freedom. It means much more. It is a conviction that free men make their own decisions. They are free to decide just as slaves are not. Leobotas would interpret employee as slave. He was not a slave. He chose freely to cut marble for the quarry. They chose freely to award him coinage in appreciation of his work.
Tomorrow he might do something else.
Tonight he will choose to dine at Tony Lugano’s Sicilian Taverna.
Tellus and Leobotas discovered Tony’s Taverna separately. Both men were attracted by food they could recognize: olives; olive oil; grapes; wine; anchovies; mussels and whole loaves
of coarsely ground bread.
Tony introduced them to novelties like prosciutto and thin shaved slices of parmesan cheese. They liked this new food that fit so well with known food.
Faye was a little miffed that they didn’t eat more often
at her Café. She understood why. Familiar food tastes better. Besides that, most of her business was breakfast and lunch, while Tony typically got most of the evening trade. They weren’t really competitors.
Tellus and Leobotas were rarely together except for the daily 5:00 pm English lessons. For some time now, the success
of the lessons had led to less lesson, and more conversation.
Tonight, Tellus was telling a tale of Zeus’s Eagle. “Zeus was the King of the Olympian gods”, explains Jerry to Louise and Sheriff Jeff. “Yes, yes, we know that. Please go on, Tellus”.
“ . . . then Zeus sent his Eagle to carry off Prince Ganymede to become cupbearer for the gods of Olympus”.
Leobotas interrupts, “Ganymede was a sissy queer boy from Troy”! Louise frowns at this uncouth language, that she is sure came straight from the quarry yard.
Leobotas drops his head in shame. He has been taught
to respect his elders, now he has upset Louise. He immediately says,“ Signori”. Tellus explains in English that Leobotas is saying he is sorry, in Greek.
“Well, never mind, you’re forgiven, let’s hear some more about Zeus and his Eagle.
The Sheriff asks, “ Was the eagle’s main job to carry off people like a deputy making an arrest”?
“No, more than that. Zeus sent his Eagle on many missions. Once he sent his Eagle to save Psyche from the deadly waters of the river Styx. Psyche had been maliciously sent to fill a flask with the black water of the Styx, water that would kill her if she touched it. Zeus’s Eagle scooped up the water in his wings and poured it safely into Psyche’s flask”.
“Zeus sends his Eagle to fulfill his will for many reasons”.
Sheriff Jeff reminds everyone before the session breaks up that Professor Laertius will be arriving at the end of the week.
They’d nearly forgotten about the Professor. They leave,
still chattering, with thoughts of Zeus’s Eagle, Psyche, and a queer boy from Troy roaming capriciously around their heads.
When they meet on Friday Professor Laertius is waiting for them. The Sheriff formerly introduces the Professor as, Dr. Ashly Stratton Laertius. “That’s a mouthful, why don’t you just call me, Ash, or Dr. Ash if you prefer”. Nods and handshakes follow. Dr. Ash listens while the others tell him of all that has happened in the last several weeks. “Congratulations, You have done much in short order”.
Dr. Ash then speaks directly to Tellus and Leobotas in Greek.
He expected them to reply in Greek. They did, but it wasn’t modern Greek.
They spoke the Greek of fourth century BC Athens – Classical Greek!
“No wonder Jerry Akins had trouble understanding them”.
The gulf between modern and classical Greek had been painfully made clear to Dr. Ash in the course of a symposium he attended some years ago in Athens. He had hoped to spend some days before the symposium visiting the classical sites he had studied for so long. He had no idea there would be a problem with language. He spoke Greek fluently, or so he thought.
As soon as he got off the plane he realized no one could understand what he was saying, and he couldn’t understand what they were saying. He had no difficulty with language at the symposium. The scholars attendant spoke only classical Greek.
So, too did Tellus and Leobotas.
Dr. Ash explains all this to the Sheriff, Jerry, and Louise. He says, “Since we’ll be talking for some time in a language that will be gibberish to you, you may as well go on to whatever else you need to take care off. Louise goes home. Jerry returns to his motel room. Sheriff Jeff steps out to the bench in front of the jail, and lights his pipe.
So, begins Dr. Ash, “You both speak impeccable ancient Greek and neither of you know how you got here.
Where did you learn classical Greek and what’s the last thing you remember before you got here”?
Tellus replies, “We speak the Greek we have always spoken. The last thing we remember is listening to a question asked by Phaedo to Aristippus about the value of learning.
We thought Aristippus answered cleverly”.
“Then we were here”.
Taken by surprise Dr. Ash pauses. “I’ve considered that question for a long time, adding that Aristippus’s answer was given nearly 2500 years ago”. Tellus and Leobotas are confused.
Dr. Ash seemed like a sensible man. How could he say something so crazy, so ridiculous?
Dr. Ash wonders the same about them.
Cautiously, they continue speaking.
“How did you come to hear this exchange between “Phaedo” and Aristippus? Where were you - and who is Phaedo”? Tellus answers, ”We were at the Lykeion, I from Athina, Leobotas from Sparta”. Dr. Ash interrupts, “I don’t believe many Spartans attended the Lykeion”.
Leobotas responds ,”My father, Lykourgos, sent me to Athina. He was there when he was young. He thought I might learn more about the wider world in Athina than I could learn in Sparta. Other Spartans thought there was nothing useful to learn in Athina. I respected my Father’s wishes. I did not want to go”.
Tellus adds, “We knew Phaedo only slightly. He was one of many that walked with the philosophers along the pathways of the Lykeion”.
Dr. Ash ponders: “They say Athina instead of Athens; Lykeion instead of Lyceum; Lykourgos instead of Lycurgus; archaic words expressed in phrases that seem to have more in common with the straightforward syntax of classical Greek than with modern speech. Their words seem natural to them, not contrived”.
He wonders, too, about “Phaedo”. Diogenes Laertius recorded Aristippus’s famous answer. He did not record who asked the question.
“How is it that Tellus and Leobotas know this, unless they were really there. They sound like they’re telling the truth. If they are telling the truth, then how did the impossible become possible”?
None of the three have an answer to that. They do become satisfied that insanity is not the problem”.
What then?
Dr. Ash says, “Well, we’re aren’t going to come up with any answer right now, maybe we never will. I think we should keep this to ourselves. I’ll tell the others neither of you can recall anything, clearly amnesia, probably caused by some sort of trauma. An unknown traumatic event would also explain why you showed up here naked, in the middle of the night”.
Tellus and Leobotas agree. “If they think us crazy they will confine us”. “Though we are strangers in this strange new time, we know that the nature of men is the same in all times”.
Quite so, says, Dr. Ash, “Let’s call it a night. Tonight I’ll reflect on what should be done next. I’ll present my considerations to the whole group at tomorrow’s 5:00 meeting.
Professor Laertius lays out his considerations.
Louise thinks amnesia explains a lot, Jerry agrees.
The Sheriff worries about the trauma part. “Judge Evans is sure gonna wonder ‘bout that. It sounds like a crime. He’ll have me out there investigating this and that, and I don’t know what all”.
Dr. Ash says, “We don’t know what caused the trauma.
It needn’t be because of criminal assault. It could have been caused by many reasons. Perhaps, just for now, you should inform the Judge of the amnesia and leave the trauma for later”. Sheriff Jeff says, “Good idea”.
“I’d like to have Leobotas and Tellus return with me to Pellegrin for a time, if that would be agreeable with them and, of course, with all of you, and Judge Evans”. Louise adds, “better let Faye and Max Pettibone in on this”.
“Yes, certainly”.
Faye and Max reluctantly conceed, as does Judge Evans. The Judge asks The Sheriff to take fingerprints of the two before they leave for Pellegrin University.
“No, no, I don’t think they’re criminals. I want to send their prints to Quantico so the FBI can check them against their national data base. If they can be identified, we might turn up something that would help explain the amnesia”. “Yes Sir”.
“Please hand the phone to the Professor”.
“Dr. Laertius, I want you to keep me advised on
any new developments. These men aren’t criminals, and though they’re gainfully employed, they are still wards of the State until we can get them back to their real homes and families. “Yes, Judge. I’ll let you know whatever I learn, whenever I learn it.
I expect they’ll be with me for only a few weeks, I’m sure their Delphi friends and employers will be happy to hear that”.
Sheriff Jeff is happy to be free of the 5:00 meetings. Louise isn’t. She enjoyed being a teacher again, and she’ll miss the interesting conversations with the group, and with Jerry, who returned to his job at the university.
Many Days later, Professor Laertius reports to Judge Evans. “I’m sorry to say I’ve learned nothing that might help with identification”. “Well, neither have I. The FBI report came back, ‘No match’. I‘m going to take the problem to the Immigration folks. Maybe they have a standard solution to handling the amnesia problem”. “Perhaps they do, I wish you luck”.
“Leobotas and Tellus are doing well here. Tellus, especially well. Leobotas less so. Leobotas has a kinetic personality, he needs to be in motion. He wants to return to his work at the marble quarries. I’m inclined to agree, but that’s up to you”. “I suppose that would be alright. What about Tellus”?
“Tellus would like to stay at Pellegrin. I’d like that, too. He can’t recall how he acquired his knowledge of Classical Greece, but he has been very useful to my studies.
The Chancellor has agreed to allocate a modest salary for his work as my research assistant”.
“Don’t see anything wrong with both arrangements.
I’ll inform Sheriff Dolin”.
Dr. Ash invited Tellus to address him as just Ash. They were colleagues now; formality was no longer appropriate.
Tellus remembers parts of documents that modern scholarship knows only as incomplete remnants. he also remembers dialogues and events that had been altogether forgotten. Ash was both exhilarated and depressed by this “new” information.
He documented all of it, even though he couldn’t share these exciting revelations with the rest of the academic community. They would ask for providence.
If he told them he got it from a time-traveler, that would
be the end of his professional career.
Nevertheless, he persisted with documenting, Tellus assisted. Ash toyed with the idea of sealing his documentations in a time-capsule to be opened after his death. Tellus didn’t worry about the dilemma, he was happy enough to be working with ideas instead of fried eggs & bacon.
He did miss Faye, she was nice.
Tellus and Leobotas were strangely uninterested in their bizarre role as time-travelers. If asked, they would shrug it off and say, “The gods do as they will”
Months passed.
Judge Evans was still looking for a path to legal status for Tellus and Leobotas.
Sheriff J.J. Dolin and Louise Ann Carlton announced their engagement to be married. Gossip around Delphi about the two came to an end after that.
Faye rented the little room above her Café to the night guards at the marble quarry, Don and Carl Jackson. Faye wondered how they could live together in such a small space. They said all they wanted was a place to sleep during the day.
Max Pettibone was promoted Manager of the Delphi Marble Quarry. Leobotas took his place as Foreman. Tellus and Dr. Ash continued their studies of Classical Greece at Pellegrin University.
The eruption in time-space that brought Tellus and Leobotas to the little town of Delphi seems to have become quiescent.
________
Judge Evans was trying to make sense of what he had just heard from Sheriff Dolin when his secretary rushed into the room saying, “ Dr. Ash is on the phone, he sounds excited”.
“Yes, Judge Evans. What is it”? “Tellus is gone, disappeared. We checked all over the campus, he’s gone, without a trace”. The Judge paused momentarily. . . “So is Leobotas. Sheriff Dolin called a few minutes before you.
Same thing, gone without a trace. I think you, and I, and the sheriff should get together before we say anymore to anyone else.
Days pass, nothing is discovered but mystery.
“I think we should announce what we know and announce nothing further”.
“What do we know Judge”? “We know two men disappeared without notice for reasons unknown”. Ash agrees,
“I suppose it’s best to leave it at that”.
The Sheriff wonders what really happened, How could two men appear out of nowhere and then vanish into nowhere”?
Dr. Ash says, almost to himself . . . “Perhaps on the wings of Zeus’s Eagle”.
The Eagle of Zesus
(Fiction)