Part 71 (1/2)

”But isn't there really an Apollo?” His voice sounded very small

”Well, yesbut he doesn't actually ride a chariot across the sky with four horses pulling it He has ht things of life--of which the sun is only one”

”Oh” He leaned against otten so fat?” he asked innocently ”I don't see you eating much”

He was the only person allowed to wrap his arowns to divert his attention I was taken by surprise, especially since it was the ht So all I could say was, ”Because there's a baby in there”

”There is7” His voice rose to a squeak ”Is it a boy or a girl?”

”I don't know,” I said ”We will just have to wait to find out”

”When? When?”

”Oh, sometime in the autumn Are you pleased?”

”Oh yes! Everyone else has a brother or sister I've alanted one”

How sireat eclipse day arrived, and we had a gathering on the highest palace terrace, out in the open, affording the widest view of the horizon As if to challenge the very idea of any vulnerability, the sun rose hot and yellow, pouring out ferocious light and heat on the sea and land It burned my arms and made me retire under a canopy Everyone put on a wide-briht was so fierce We all felt a little foolish, since we had no proof--besidesat all would happen Several astrologers were standing by, ready to interpret the occurrence, consulting with each other, arguing

”I tell you, the moon is female, and the sun male,” said one ”So when theto rule, or destroy, a man”

”But hat man, and man, and o wife? Or does itpolitical?” wo wife? Or does itpolitical, of course!” the first man snorted ”The heavens do not concern themselves with the events of the lives of common people”

”But everyone has a horoscope,” a third astrologer protested ”So the heavens rule everyone's lives”

”But an event of this s than a shoeuide lesser happenings, but they do not trouble themselves to advertise them”

”Well, there are prophecies about a woer

”Perhaps this confirms it,” the third said

”Or perhaps it's all just a lot of nonsense,” said Oly directly intoyou believe in?” I asked I had heard of the prophecies, too, and ht to me But I would not adh what I believe in,” he said ”I believe in the strength of the huiven half a chance I believe in a good night's rest, and the importance of a bath Oh, and I believe that hot peppers upset the digestion And I especially believe that listening to all those prophecies is very bad for a person's health It is apt to lead him astray”

”I don't know,” I said ”Think of all the people who have risen higher than they ever would have, because they believed in a prophecy about theht by their adoring mothers,4' he said ”Just who are these people? And no cheating with Gods and Goddesses”

I had to think ”Well, what about Alexander and the oracle at Siwa?”

”He was already a king, already a conqueror What difference did the oracle make?”

”You are such a scoffer!”

He shook his head and indicated the arguing astrologers ”Someone has to be”

The calculatedhad happened But gradually we perceived a di Rather, a peculiar sort of dilution of the light, as if it grew thinner and thinner without actually growing dark As I looked out on the white stones of the Lighthouse, and to the boats, it was as if I were looking through a veil, but it was so subtle it did not distort the colors It was the oddest light I had ever seen

There were still shadows, but although the contrast was sharp, that attenuated light almost see everything

It was not like night, no, nothing like it And whoever had predicted that had not thought the ht the sky for a while after it descends below the horizon, and it did so all the more now, since it was almost at its zenith The sky around it stayed blue It is true that the birds stopped flying, puzzled by the change in light But the eclipse did not last long enough to let aniradually as it had crept across the sun,, the eclipse passed away And ere left standing, blinking, in the renewed sunlight, which seehts later I secreted myself in a private corner, dismissed Charmian and Iras, and pored over the prophecies, which I had obtained quietly Regardless of Oly h events of state were taking place now in Rome, there had not been such an eclipse in years--what could be plainer? And it was not an eclipse of theout the sun--of course it pertained to a wo prediction from the Sibylline Leaves Sibylline Leaves, a collection of eastern verses, ht refer to her--to me me Especially two of its verses: Especially two of its verses:

The wealth that Rome as tribute froet back froed, Rome to the full shall pay

How many Asian folk as slaves in Italy stay

There yet shall toil in Asia twenty times as many Italians, a host rejected, cast without a penny

O Roin drunken with lust in many beds youve run wild but you'll be married without due rites, a slave-slut of despair while still the Queen crops off your delicate head of hair and uttering judgments will hurl you to earth froain

Another of the Leaves Leaves seemed even more specific: seemed evenover the conquest of Egypt, then themen And then the implacable Wrath of the Latin men Three will subdue Rome with a pitiful fate

Three-the Triuhty Queen-- must be Caesar, the deified Caesar

And yet another verse:

And then the whole orld under a Wo everywhere shall stand, and when the Widow shall queen the whole orld

The Widow must be me, as Caesar's trueStill another went:

All the confronting stars fall into the sea, many new stars arise in turn, and the star of radiance na troubles, of war and of disaster

But when the Tenth Generation goes down to Hades, there coreat power By her will God nity and crown she takes A whole year then will be prospering eternity Common for all then is life, and all property Earth will be free for all, unwalled, unfenced, and bringing forth s of sine, white milk, and honey

I felt shaken to read these lines The CometCaesar

There were other prophecies, too, one by an oracle called Hystaspes, predicting the violent transfer of power from Rome to a leader of the east No wonder this was forbidden, upon pain of death, to circulate in Rome! There was a Prophecy of the Mad Praetor, which foretold a hty Asian army and the enslavement of Rome; a Potter's Oracle, and other sibylline verses