Satyricon, vol 4, Escape by Sea | Page 5

the ship
may be freed from the curse!" "I ordered it done," Eumolpus broke in,
"and I didn't order it as an unlucky omen, either, seeing that I had to be
aboard the same vessel: I did it because the scoundrels had long matted
hair, I ordered the filth cleared off the wretches because I did not wish
to even seem to make a prison out of your ship: besides, I did not want
the seared scars of the letters to be hidden in the least, by the
interference of the hair; as they ought to be in plain sight, for everyone
to read, and at full length, too. In addition to their other misdemeanors,
they blew in my money on a street-walker whom they kept in common;
only last night I dragged them away from her, reeking with wine and
perfumes, as they were, and they still stink of the remnants of my
patrimony!" Thereupon, forty stripes were ordered for each of us, that
the tutelary genius of the ship might be propitiated. And they were not
long about it either. Eager to propitiate the tutelary genius with our
wretched blood, the savage sailors rushed upon us with their rope's
ends. For my part, I endured three lashes with Spartan fortitude, but at
the very first blow, Giton set up such a howling that his all too familiar
voice reached the ears of Tryphaena; nor was she the only one who was
in a flutter, for, attracted by this familiar voice, all the maids rushed to
where he was being flogged. Giton had already moderated the ardor of

the sailors by his wonderful beauty, he appealed to his torturers without
uttering a word. "It's Giton! It's Giton!" the maids all screamed in
unison. "Hold your hands, you brutes; help, Madame, it's Giton!"
Tryphaena turned willing ears, she had recognized that voice herself,
and flew to the boy. Lycas, who knew me as well as if he had heard my
voice, now ran up; be glanced at neither face nor hands, but directed his
eyes towards parts lower down; courteously he shook hands with them,
"How do you do, Encolpius," he said. Let no one be surprised at
Ulysses' nurse discovering, after twenty years, the scar that established
his identity, since this man, so keenly observant, had, in spite of the
most skillful disguise of every feature and the obliteration of every
identifying mark upon my body, so surely hit upon the sole means of
identifying his fugitive! Deceived by our appearance, Tryphaena wept
bitterly, believing that the marks upon our foreheads were, in truth, the
brands of prisoners: she asked us gently, into what slave's prison we
had fallen in our wanderings, and whose cruel hands had inflicted this
punishment. Still, fugitives whose members had gotten them into
trouble certainly deserved some punishment.

CHAPTER THE
ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTH.
In a towering passion, Lycas leaped forward, "Oh you silly woman," he
shouted, "as if those scars were made by the letters on the branding-
iron! If only they had really blotched up their foreheads with those
inscriptions, it would be some satisfaction to us, at least; but as it is, we
are being imposed upon by an actor's tricks, and hoaxed by a fake
inscription!" Tryphaena was disposed to mercy, as all was not lost for
her pleasures, but Lycas remembered the seduction of his wife and the
insults to which he had been subjected in the portico of the temple of
Hercules: "Tryphaena," he gritted out, his face convulsed with savage
passion, "you are aware, I believe, that the immortal gods have a hand
in human affairs: what did they do but lead these scoundrels aboard this
ship in ignorance of the owner and then warn each of us alike, by a
coincidence of dreams, of what they had done? Can you then see how it
would be possible to let off those whom a god has, himself, delivered
up to punishment? I am not a cruel man; what moves me is this: I am

afraid I shall have to endure myself whatever I remit to them!" At this
superstitious plea Tryphaena veered around; denying that she would
plead for quarter, she was even anxious to help along the fulfillment of
this retribution, so entirely just: she had herself suffered an insult no
less poignant than had Lycas, for her chastity had been called in
question before a crowd.
Primeval Fear created Gods on earth when from the sky The
lightning-flashes rent with flame the ramparts of the world, And
smitten Athos blazed! Then, Phoebus, sinking to the earth, His course
complete, and waning Luna, offerings received. The changing seasons
of the year the superstition spread Throughout the world; and Ignorance
and Awe, the toiling boor, To Ceres, from