The Morning After
I staggered down from the Acrocorinth in the early morning with my head throbbing and my mouth tasting horrible. I can remember that Charite and I sat around for hours, talking and drinking, though I suspect that towards the end I wasn't making much sense. Bacchus takes a heavy toll from those who worship him. Whether I received my twelve drachma's worth or not I couldn't remember. All I did know for sure was that every last drachma was gone and I was reluctant to think that the beautiful Charite had robbed me.
The last thing I felt like was sitting in a stuffy room and listening to old Athenodorus lecturing, but even worse was the prospect of my father's lecture if I played truant. I rapped quietly on the door and Antiochus, may the gods reward him, let me in and helped me to my room. Cartimandua sat up, rubbing the sleep from her eyes, but when I snapped at her she scrambled out of the bed and rushed around to give me a wash and clean clothes and then something from the kitchen that I suppose was kindly meant but didn't really do anything for my aching head.
I gathered, as I stumbled off to class, that I was not the only person suffering in Corinth in the aftermath of the festival. Stilpo, who lived at the corner of the Cenchreae Road and Hercules Road, was a noted libertine. The road outside his house was strewn with the remains of garlands and pools of vomit. An all but naked flute-girl sprawled just outside the doorway, her instrument hanging from her limp hand, while from inside the house came the sound of a man's voice shouting angrily and women screaming187 .
Lucius looked almost as bad as I felt, and Alexander's insincere sympathy was only tolerated because it came from a fellow Green. Several of the other students looked as if they too had been worshipping the god and in the afternoon Athenodorus, after valiant attempts to liven up his class and keep us from falling asleep, suggested that we go and visit Paul again.
We all welcomed the idea - in my case for purely medicinal reasons - and soon I was walking along the Lecheae Road, my eyes screwed up against the blinding light of the sun. Paul and his fellow workers received us graciously and again Priscilla yielded up her seat to Athenodorus and retired to the smaller tent to continue her spinning.
"Well, sir," Athenodorus opened the discussion as soon as Paul had disentangled himself from his work, "What did you think of our festival yesterday?"
Paul raised his eyebrows. "Well, of course, as a Jew I believe in only one God. I do not recognise your gods of wine and vegetation and what have you. The true God created all things and is the only God over them."
I hastily touched my mouth with my finger and rubbed the sacred spot behind my right ear but Athenodorus seemed unmoved.
"Many philosophers would agree with you," he said. "Bacchus and others are simply manifestations of the one true God. Leaving that aside, however, do you hold with the Epicureans188, who regard pleasure as the greatest good to which man can aim; or with the Stoics189, who despise such things?"
"It is my aim in life," Paul said slowly, "to be God's fellow-workman. By the grace God has given me I act like a master builder and lay a foundation. Someone else may be given the task of completing the building, but the important thing is to do your part to the best of your ability."
"And what is this foundation?" Athenodorus asked.
"Jesus the Christos," was Paul's surprising reply. "He is the basis of all my teaching, the foundation of everything that I do. I have told you his story and now each one of you is building on that foundation for yourselves: some of you are building with gold, some with silver, some with wood and some, I fear, with hay or straw." Paul's sharp eye scanned over our pale and haggard faces and a small smile played on his lips. "Your work will be revealed on that Day, for it will be tested with divine fire. Those whose work survives the test will be rewarded."
"And those who fail the test?" Athenodorus was clearly enjoying Paul's strictures against us.
"They may be saved, like someone escaping from a fire" Paul admitted, "but the loss will still be irreparable."
I held up my hand and Paul stopped talking and nodded towards me.
"Why will the loss be ir-ir-er-what you said?" My tongue felt as if it was too large for my mouth.
Paul frowned slightly. "Don't you know that you yourselves - your bodies - are the temple of God? Don't you realise that the spirit of God dwells in you? Now, what punishment would you award to someone who desecrated the temple up there?" He pointed dramatically towards the Acrocorinth before answering his rhetorical question. "What punishment do you think the Immortal God will give to anyone who desecrates his temple? I tell you, God will destroy such a person. A temple is holy - and you are God's temple."
I gaped at him while I tried to comprehend this idea. I was almost glad when Alexander held up his hand and diverted attention away from me.
"Sir, we believe that the Christos - the messiah - will rule over all the world. How may we become citizens of his kingdom?"
"Don't let any of you delude himself," Paul sounded severe. "The wicked will not have a part in God's kingdom. Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolators, nor adulterers, nor male prostitutes, nor homosexual offenders, nor theives, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor slanderers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God."
Paul looked round at each one of us again and as his glance swept over me it seemed that he could read the secrets of my heart, that he knew how I had spent the night.
"That is what some of you are," Paul shook his head sadly. "You need to be washed and made holy, you need to be freed from your guilt, and that can only happen through the name of the Lord Jesus, the Christos, and by the spirit of our God."
By now Athenodorus was grinning broadly. "Sir," he said, "I agree with you. The true philosopher will avoid all extremes and will seek to live a just and moral life; he will eschew drunkenness, immorality and dishonesty. You listen to this man, boys, and remember what I have told you in ethics."
A dutiful chorus of "Yes, sir," ran round us, but we were secretly well pleased when Paul's next words seemed to be directed at our master.
"Ethics are all very well," Paul nodded seriously, "but they can only tell you what you ought to do. They cannot help you to do it - and as you well know, your natural desires are contrary to ethics and to the Divine law. The natural mind does not submit to God's law and, indeed, it cannot. It is impossible for the natural man to please God."
"Then what is the solution?" Athenodorus looked intently at Paul. "If we cannot behave in an ethical manner, but are condemned if we do not, then there is no hope for us."
"The only solution," Paul said, "is to be born again, to become a new person, one who does not have a natural mind but a mind controlled by the Spirit of God."
"But how can that happen?" Athenodorus asked.
"I offer you initiation into another mystery," Paul replied. "If the Christos is in you - I speak in a spiritual sense - then, although your body is dead because of its sins, yet your spirit is alive because of Jesus' righteousness. If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, He who raised the Christos from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through the Spirit who lives in you."
Talking about the resurrection again, I thought. This impossible event really is important to this man.
"God offers to adopt you and make you his sons. He does not seek to make you his slaves, filled with fear, but sons, so that you can call the Immortal One 'Daddy'."
"And this has happened to you?" Athenodorus was leaning forward, his eyes rivetted on Paul's face.
"Yes." Paul seemed to be glowing, almost like a god come to earth.
"But how is it possible for a mortal to become a son of God?" Athenodorus protested.
"Because we are changed into His likeness, from glory into glory." Paul replied.
Athenodorus sat back and half-closed his eyes, as though he was considering a difficult problem. Abruptly he sat up.
"The class is dismissed. Those of you who celebrated too enthusiastically yesterday can go to your beds, those who were wiser may employ the time to do something useful." He turned back to Paul. "Sir, I would like to speak to you some more, if I may."
The others in the class filed out and dispersed noisily along the road to the city. Lucias and Alexander hung back, waiting for me.
"You go on," I whispered to them. "I want to stay and listen."
Alexander opened his mouth as if about to say something, but Lucias shrugged and pulled him by the sleeve. The two of them ducked under the awning and I saw their legs striding away up the road to Corinth.
"You spoke about homosexual offenders," Athenodorus began. "In saying this you speak against philosophy, for although I am an Ionian in this respect190, most philosophers regard such a relationship with their pupils as essential191 ."
Paul shook his head vigorously. "Our history teaches us that the Most High God disapproves of immorality and homosexuality. In our sacred books we have the story of how our fathers wandered in the wilderness for forty years, suffering God's displeasure because of their sins. They worshipped idols, they were sexually immoral - and in one day twenty-three thousand of them died, smitten down by God's anger."
"Sir," Athenodorus licked his lips nervously. "I admire your philosophy. I have long studied the religion of the Jews, believing that their legislator192 had wisdom beyond that of an ordinary mortal. I should like to hear you discuss your teaching with other wise men in this city. May I, therefore, invite you to a symposium193 in my house?"
"Most gladly," Paul replied. "I accept your offer."
"Humph." Athenodorus rose to his feet. "Now I know that you are a true philosopher, for no other Jew has ever agreed to eat in my house."
"The Christos has swept away everything that might have divided you and me," Paul stood up as well and looked Athenodorus straight in the eye. "Because of Him I am free to enjoy your hospitality."
"Then in one week's time I shall send to escort you to my house," Athenodorus said. "Until then, may the gods - or rather - may your God and His Christos, keep you in health."
I followed my teacher out of the tent and back along the road to the city centre. Athenodorus looked at me in surprise.
"What, Lord Arxes? You didn't go home?"
"No, sir." I screwed up my eyes against the sunshine. "I wanted to hear what Paul would say."
"Do you find his teachings attractive?"
I thought for a moment, unsure whether agreement would offend, and then nodded my head. "Yes, sir. I've never heard anyone like him."
"Neither have I." Athenodorus walked a little way in silence before speaking almost to himself. "I do not love life any more than a philosopher should, yet at the same time I have no great desire to live forever locked in the infernal regions194. Paul's message of a resurrection holds out great hope."
"But sir," I objected, "what about the mysteries? Don't they offer hope? I know the mystery of Bacchus does, for I was initiated myself last week."
"They do," Athenodorus agreed. "I should know: I've been initiated into all the mysteries of Greece and most of those in Asia. I have spoken to gods, I have visited the domain of Hades195 but all insist that only the truly good can attain the Elysian Fields."
"But you're good," I exclaimed. "You're a philosopher. You're always urging us to live our lives by reason."
"Indeed, as I try to do myself, but Arxes - I suppose I must drop the 'lord' when I speak to a fellow initiate - my life is anything but good."
I said nothing. I couldn't contradict my teacher, yet I knew of no-one who led so austere a life as he.
"Are you surprised, Arxes?"
"Yes, sir," I agreed, unsure of his meaning.
"You see, although I wish to lead a truly good life I constantly find myself struggling with the evil that seems to be within me. You will bear me witness, Arxes, that in the love I bear my pupils I only worship the Celestial Aphrodite, but you have no idea how strongly the Common Aphrodite wrestles with me when I see a beautiful boy. Paul speaks of a new birth, a new creature. That is what I need."
Athenodorus was silent for a few more paces and then turned his head and grinned at me. "Well, Arxes, your eagerness to hear Paul should be rewarded. Would you like to come to my symposium?"
I protested196 that I was too young, that it wasn't fitting for a student to associate with a gathering of philosophers, but Athenodorus urged me with such kind words that before long I was happy to accept his invitation.
187 In his essay On the Avoidance of Anger Plutarch comments: "When we approach reprobate's houses we hear a pipe-girl playing at dawn and the sights that greet our eyes are, to quote, 'sediment of wine and shreds of garlands' and inebriated servants at the door; but the fact that the longing to hurt others is an aspect of anger explains why you will see the manifest signs of cruel and irascible people on the faces and in the identification tattoos and chains of their servants; and 'wailing is the only constant refrain to arise in the house' of an angry man - the wailing of estate-managers being flogged and serving-women having their arms twisted inside the house." (p. 198) Return
188 This is, of course, a simplification. Epicurus taught that the Good is the same as the Pleasant. The purpose of life, therefore, is to seek the gratification of the body's senses, but this was not to take the place of duty. It could best be done by living a simple life with good friends. His followers, however, carried these principles to an extreme and sought titillation rather than gratification of all appetites. Return
189 The Stoics regarded an equable temperament as the ideal and professed to disdain both pain and pleasure. Naturally any man would prefer pleasure to pain, but the point was that a true Stoic, who had perfect control of his emotions, would neither be excited by pleasure nor disturbed by pain. Return
190 According to a comment in Plato's Symposium, the Ionian Greeks, who had been under Persian domination, followed the Persians in regarding homosexuality as wrong. Return
191 In Plato's Symposium Pausanias (not the same as the author of the Guide to Greece) attempts to define homosexual relationships. "A wrong relationship is one which involves the immoral gratification of a bad man and a good relationship is one which involves the morally sound gratification of a good man." (p. 17) A good man is, of course, a philosopher and philosophers who set themselves up as tutors commonly had sexual relationships with their pupils. It was felt that this would make the pupil more eager to learn - in order to please his lover - and the teacher more willing to teach, for the same reason. As Pausanias says, "If these two sets of rules - the one governing affairs with boys and the one governing education and improvement in general - are combined, then acceptable conditions are created for a boy to gratify his lover. I mean, if in a meeting between a lover and his boyfriend each has his set of guidelines - the lover appreciating that any service he performs for a boyfriend who gratifies him would be morally acceptable and the boy appreciating that any favours he does for a man who is teaching him things and making him good would be morally acceptable, the lover capable of increasing wisdom and other aspects of goodness, the boy eager to learn and generally increase his knowledge - it is only then, when these facets of the moral code coincide, that it becomes all right for a boy to gratify a lover. Under any other circumstances it is wrong." (p. 18)
According to Xenophon's Symposium, however, Socrates held that the true love (eros) between a man and his young lover was non-physical and consisted of the exchange of ideas. He was himself a model in this respect, as Alcibiades' complaint shows. Return
192 This is the term Josephus uses to refer to Moses. It simply means "Law-giver". Return
193 The word literally means "drinking party". The guests would all be men who would gather after their regular evening meal. The host would provide couches, wreaths and entertainment as well as plenty of wine. After pouring libations to the gods and singing a "paean" or hymn to the gods the company would elect a president to regulate the evening. It was his task to call for the entertainers - often a flute girl or two who would play, dance and sing for the guests and might even provide other services (flute girls were usually prostitutes), propose subjects for discussion and decide on the proportion of water to be mixed with the wine. Except in real debauches, the wine was never drunk neat. Return
194 In describing the statues at Olympia Pausanias, in his Guide to Greece V.xx mentions one group of statuary: "On one side is Asklepios with one his daughters, Health, and Ares is there with Contest beside him; on the other side you have Pluto and Dionysios and Persephone and two nymphs, one of whom is carrying a ball: what they say about the key which Pluto is holding is that Pluto has locked up Hades and that no one ever returns from there." As John saw in Revelation 1:18, it is Jesus Who really holds the keys of Death and of Hades. Return
195 Hades, the underworld, was often personified as one of the gods of death. In Euripides' play Alcestis Death argues with Apollo: "This woman will descend to Hades' dwelling, come what may. I am advancing on her now to initiate the ritual with my sword, for once this weapon has shorn a lock of hair from the victim's head, so consecrating it, that life is sacred to the gods below." (p. 11) A basin of spring water in front of the door and a lock of hair from the corpse's head laid across the threshold were the conventional signs that a death had taken place in the house.
Archaeologists have found the sites of a number of mysteries, many of which include an underground chamber into which the initiate was introduced, believing that he was entering the underworld. Return
196 An initial refusal was the expected courtesy. Xenophon, in his Symposium, records that when Callias invited Socrates and his friends to the party "Naturally Socrates and his friends began by thanking Callias for his invitation but excusing themselves from dining with him; but when it became clear that he really would be annoyed if they didn't come too, they joined the party." (p. 228) Return
