Reader

MELITTABacchis, do you know any old woman of the kind called Thessalians? i.e. witches, cf. p. 359. There are said to be a lot of them around. They use incantations and can make a woman to be loved, no matter how much she is hated before. My blessings on you, if you can bring one of them to me. I would gladly give up these dresses and all this gold, if I could only see Charinus returning to me, and hating Simiche as he now hates me. BACCHISWhat’s that? Don’t you live together any more? Has Charinus gone off to Simiche, and left you, Melitta, you for whose sake he had to face all that parental fury, when he refused to marry that rich girl who, they said, brought a dowry of five talents? I heard that from your own mouth. MELITTAThat’s all over now, Bacchis, and for five days now I haven’t so much as set eyes on him, while the gentleman in question and Simiche have been carousing with Pammenes, his companion.

BACCHISThat is rotten for you, Melitta. But what parted you? It must have been something serious. MELITTAI can’t tell you the whole story. But the other day, when he came back from the Piraeus—his father had sent him there to recover some debt, I believe—he didn’t look at me when he came in, or take me in his arms when I ran over to him in my usual way, but he pushed me away when I tried to embrace him, and he said, “Go off with you to Hermotimus, the shipowner, or read what’s written on the walls at the Ceramicus, The Potters’ Quarter and the burial area of Athens. where your names are scribbled on a tombstone.” “What Hermotimus?” I said, “Who’s he? What tombstone do you mean?” He wouldn’t answer or take anything to eat, and then went to bed with his back turned to me. You can imagine all the tricks I tried in this situation. I tried to hug him, and to turn him to me, and kissed his back, though he kept turned away from me. He didn’t soften a bit, but said, “If you bother me any more, I’ll leave this instant, even though it is midnight.”

BACCHISDid you know Hermotimus, though? MELITTAMay you see me in a more miserable state than at present, my dear, if I know any shipowner called Hermotimus. But next morning, as soon as the cock crowed, he was up and away, but I remembered his saying that the name was written on some wall in the Ceramicus, and I sent Acis to look, but all she could find was this, written near the Dipylon Gate on the right as you go in; “Melitta loves Hermotimus”, and again, a little lower down, “The shipowner Hermotimus loves Melitta.” BACCHISOh, those meddlesome youths! I understand it all. Somebody wished to annoy Charinus, and wrote it up, knowing he was jealous, and he believed it at once. If I see him, I’ll have a word with him. He’s a child still, and has no experience. MELITTAWhere can you see him, when he has shut himself up with Simiche? His parents are still looking for him at my house. But if only, Bacchis, we could find an old woman, as I said! Her presence could save me.

BACCHISWell, my dearest, there is a most useful witch, a Syrian, who’s still very fresh and firm. Once, when Phanias was angry with me without reason, just as Charinus is with you, she reconciled him with me after four whole months, when I’d already despaired of him; but he was brought back to me by her incantations. MELITTAWhat did she charge, if you can still remember? BACCHISShe doesn’t ask a big fee, Melitta—just a drachma and a loaf; besides that you must put out seven obols, sulphur, and a torch along with the salt. These are taken by the old woman; she must also have a bowl of wine mixed, and drink it by herself. You’ll also need something belonging to the man himself, such as clothing or boots or a few of his hairs or anything of that sort. MELITTAI have his boots.

BACCHISShe hangs these on a peg and fumigates them with sulphur, sprinkling salt over the fire, and mumbles both your names. Then she plucks out a magic wheel from her bosom, and whirls it round, rattling off an incantation full of horrible outlandish names. That’s what she did on that occasion, and shortly afterwards, though at one and the same time his friends told him off, and Phoebis, the lady whose company he was keeping, pleaded desperately with him, he returned to me; and it was mainly the charm that brought him back. Yes, and she impressed on me this spell for turning him against Phoebis—to look out for any footprints she left, to erase them, place my right foot where her left had been, and vice versa, with feet pointing the other way, and say, “I trample on you and am on top of you.” These instructions I carried out. MELITTAHurry, hurry, Bacchis. Fetch the Syrian woman at once. And you, Acis, get ready the loaf and the sulphur and all the other things for the spell.