'Apollo told him that if he could get back a statue of Artemis that had been carried off by a barbarous people called the Taurians, who lived up in the Crimea, the gods would call a Council to consider his case and perhaps give him a new deal. So he and Pylades got hold of a galley manned by fifty oarsmen from somewhere and set out for the Black Sea.
'Barbarous people are always scared that strange gods may do them a mischief if they are not polite to them, and to keep Artemis in a good humour the Taurians had built a little temple to house her statue. This temple was not far from the shore, so when Orestes and Pylades reached Tauris and landed to have a snoop round they soon came upon it. But their luck was out that night. They were caught by the guards and lugged before the priestess, whose job it was to sacrifice any foreigner turning up in those parts.
'Now you may remember that when Iphigenia was about to be sacrificed, Artemis had relented at the last moment and whipped her up to the heavens. But instead of keeping her there, as everyone had believed to be the case, she had promptly dumped her down in Tauris to act as priestess to the stolen statue.
'Of course, Iphigenia didn't much care for her job of slitting castaways' throats, and was longing to get back to her family in Greece. When the two young prisoners told her they were Greeks she was particularly put out at the thought of having to kill them, so she said:
"Look, chaps, the horrid hairy man who is King here is not altogether a bad sort. When there are several shipwrecked mariners for me to do my stuff on, he sometimes lets me beg a few of them off. But it's sure as that Zeus made little apples that he won't agree to let both of you beat the rap. Of course Artemis loathes these human sacrifices, but the King can't get it out of his head that unless I spill some blood on her altar now and again she may come after him one night with a carving knife. So I can save one of you, but not both. Now, which is it to be?"
'Being frightfully loyal types the friends naturally said to one another: "My dear old boy, what a splendid break. I'm so glad for you. As for me, not to worry. I've always wanted to die by having my throat slit. In fact, I've been hoping that would happen to me for years."
'Hearing all this, Iphigenia got the idea that neither of them was telling the truth but just putting on the sort of act that two Englishmen would have done when dressed in boiled shirts and threatened by cannibals in the jungles of darkest Africa.'
'Wouldn't that have been a bit after Iphigenia's time?' Stephanie remarked.
Robbie grinned. 'Yes, I suppose it would. But you know the sort of thing I mean. And being the "whitest girl that anyone ever knew", Iphigenia felt that these chaps were just up her street; so she became more than ever reluctant to do either of them in.
'To put off the evil hour she asked them about themselves, and it then emerged that Orestes was the kid brother that she hadn't seen since he was two years old. She didn't let on for the moment who she was but pretended to be very tough and had them thrown into a dungeon to await slaughter.
'That evening she went to see the hairy King, and said to him: "Sire, I find myself in a bit of a fix. A couple of young Greeks have been cast ashore and I couldn't be more anxious to give them the works but my goddess has tipped me off that they are criminals of the deepest dye. Unless they are purified first they will pollute her altar and she would be so annoyed that she might even cause your beard to drop out."
'The King clutched his face fungus and asked: "What's the drill then? You'll be for the high jump yourself unless you can get me out of this."
' "I can sort it for you," Iphigenia reassured him. "Both these thugs and the statue of the goddess must be dipped in the sea. That will wash their sins away; then I'll be able to stick a knife in their gullets without fear of any unpleasant after-effects."
' "Go to it, then," said the King, "and good luck to you."
'But he must have been a very trusting type, as later that night Iphigenia was allowed to lead both the prisoners from their cell with only a dog leash attached to their wrists and no escort. What is more, they took the wooden statue of Artemis with them.
'Orestes had left his galley with its fifty oarsmen hidden behind a headland, so all they had to do was to go aboard her and get the crew to row like hell for Greece. The King's coastguards told him what was doing, so he sent his fleet after them; but Artemis was very pleased with her own people, so she got her brother Apollo to put up the sun an hour or so early that day and it blinded the pursuers.
'When they got the statue back to Greece it was set up in Athens so that it could be duly honoured by Artemis's worshippers. Then, the year being up, a Council of the Gods was called to assemble on the Areopagus there and judge Orestes. It is rather interesting that they should have used white stones and black stones in their ballot, just as a committee do when voting whether to receive or reject a candidate who has been put up for membership of a modern club; although in their case it had to be a majority of black balls to exclude. At the count the whites and the blacks came out even, but suddenly Athene winged her way down to the meeting and threw a white ball into the urn.
'That saved Orestes and gave him a new lease of life. He returned to Mycenae and, suddenly, everybody there became frightfully pleased to see him. Then he married Hermione, the beautiful daughter of Helen and Menelaus, that Helen had borne before skipping off with Paris to Troy. So Orestes and Hermione and Pylades and Electra lived happily ever after.'
Stephanie sighed. 'How pleasant it is to think that at least a few of the ancients escaped from some frightful fate decreed for them by the gods.'
They were back at Navplion in time for a bathe before lunch and slept in the afternoon. In the early evening Stephanie gave Robbie another driving lesson. At dinner that night he noticed at a table on the other side of the room the elderly American who had spoken to him the previous evening of getting an air-passage home. As he had not, after all, left for Athens that morning, Robbie assumed that the situation with regard to the trapped submarine had not deteriorated. Then he again forgot all about it.
The next four days went all too quickly. On two occasions, Stephanie half-heartedly suggested that she ought to make a start on typing Robbie's manuscript; but he knew that if she did, he would have to leave her to it, and he took such delight in her company that he assured her that there would be plenty of time later for typing it.
Besides, there seemed so many things to do. One day, they drove the twenty miles across the isthmus to Epidauros. It had been the Greek equivalent of Bath, and the Greeks of classical times had gone there in their thousands for treatment by the priests of the healer-god Asclepius. There were no cyclopean walls, but the ruins of the great temple to the god, of the rotunda and of other buildings still standing were sufficient to give a good idea of what this famous spa of a later age must have looked like. Above all, there was its theatre. It was the best-preserved of any in the ancient world and so cleverly constructed that no modern auditorium could equal the perfection of its acoustics.
During part of another day, they explored the much less
H 221
interesting remains of ancient Argos. That city, too, had had its theatre. It had once seated twenty thousand spectators and was the largest in Greece, but the greater part of it had since fallen into ruin. Then there were their daily bathe, long naps in the afternoons and a driving lesson for Robbie every evening. It was, therefore, with the greatest reluctance that, while they were at lunch on the Thursday, he said: