THE WINGED VICTORY.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 11026, 14 March 1914, Page 3

THE WINGED VICTORY.

(" Everylady's Journal.") Editor's Note.—ln "Le Journal, 'of Paris, appears the following beautiful tale by Edmond Harancou'rt. It clothes one of tho world's most precious treasures with a new charm. The statue is' now in the Louvre.

Many, many years ago, a thousand years ago, even twice that length of time, there lived in Samothracia two young artisans who worked for the samo sculptor. They were from widely separated parts of Greece; but, because they were of the same age and! because they followed the same art, they lived in fraternal intimacy, although they, were very different in character. One of them was Demophonos, the 'other was Eumonos. Demophonos was of a contented mind; as he worked lie sang and smiled. When the master sculptor reproved or criticised him he listened deferentially, but his efforts to do better were moderated by tho fact that he was not sure tliat his work could bo improved. ■When the day ended, when the friends went out into the open air, the jovial Demophonos ran against tho pretty girls as if bv accident, and begged their pardon, and the pretty girls, going two by two through the twilight with crowns of flowers on their coquettish heads, turned laughing to answer him. Eumonos was timid. He worried while ho worked. He feared the criticisms of his master. So. sure lie that he deserved reproof that when it came he bowed his head and gave way to black melancholy. All his days seemed to him wasted time. In his own eyes his work was worthless; a,nd if, by some rare freak, he found a hint of merit in what he had accomplished by hard effort, his joy was as a dream, for when he looked again upon his work he wondered that he had found it good. In short, all his days were dark, and his future stretched before him like a shadow. ■ But though weak and hopelessly humble, Eumonos had one ambition; he dreamed, as Demophonos dreamed, of fame; of working so hard that in the end, at a time far away iu the future, his country Would be proud of him. "You are a happy man to have such faith in yourself!" said Eumonos to his comrade. He spoke doubtfully, for he was no more sure of his friend's talent than of his own.

Demophonos essayed to give him courage. "You wrong your talent!' he said to Eumonos. " I swear it. By Phcubus, I mean what I say! ' One day he slapped his clay even more gaily and sang even more sweetly, than'was his wont, and when the day was over, when they were going homo through the twilight, he said to Eumonos: "Last night a god came to me in my dream. Are you listening to me, Eumonos? If you are not listening I will not tell you I" . n Eumonos answered dejectedly: " Dreams aro nothing."

" My dreams have meanings," said Demophonos. "This one gave me an idea. The sea is calm—since some days I have not heard the voices of the drowned. It is the time of the year when the pilgrims turn the ptows of their 6hips toward Delphos. Let us go you and II Wo can take' any of the ships. Arrived at Delphos we can climb the mountain and consult the oracle, and Phosbus Apollo will tell us the secret of our future." "The voyage costs dear," said Eumonos. '' SVe have no money. "We need none! Wo can work our way. Tho sailors will be glad of our help. Once there, wo can learn our set out in one of tho pilgrim ships whose black hull chased tho sunlit foam, and, in time, .they reached Delphos. They entered tho gulf, and t-ho sailors pointed to tho round backs of the mountains, and spoke m awed whispers of Omplialo and of tho PyWhen they 6et foot on tho august land tho heart of Demophonos leaped for joy, and, weighted by consciousness of inferiority, tho heart of Eumonos sank. . At daybreak tho long tram wound along tho stono road between palo «roves of olive trees and ash trees, the friends afoot. Greeks ju tunics, Orientals in embroidered silken robes, and rich merchants, on horses, on assessor in litters, followed by slaves bearing

road skirted the precipice, and below the precipico an unseen torrent roared. Higher on tho mountain-side tho road ran between pallid groves, and gorges where echoes answered the sighs of the ash trees.

The climb up tho slopes of Parnassus was broken by halts, and when they halted many of the train looked back upon tho treo tops, tho rocks, and the shimmering sea. Tho rocks echoed the voices of the sailors in the ships along the shore and the cries of the sea-birds hovering about tho ships.

The train had climbed the hills in silence, broken only by tho padded hoofs of tho beasts of burden. Night fell and tho pilgrims pitched, their tents. The slaves served their masters, The two artists ate their supper of bread and olives, and lay down on clean straw in tho place reserved for tlie torses and asses. Tlio night was dark.

"I cannot See yoilf DilMjillOnos/' said Eumonos, " and the groans of tho tired horses smite my heart! Let us invoke the gods!" "Do sol" said Demophonos. "Then we will talk."

After a* long silence: "By and by," gifts or escorting clanking cars; The

said Demophonos, " I shall have won fame and d place among men; ahd then I, too, shall bring gifts. I shall bring a statue to every god!" "There are too many statues," answered Eumonos. "When I look upon them their number confuses me; and from all that chaos I learn only this—that many men have reached a height I cannot reach, even in my dreams." Demophonos answered lightly, Eumonos, glad am I that your mind is not my mindl As I lie here surrounded by cattle, I can think of hut one thing, and that is a fact; I am not an animal. I' am what I am, strong, young, a man made in the likeness of tho gods. The only thing that troubles me is to know this—What can. I bring to Phoebus, who, though aged, accepts gifts from men? Tell fee, Eumonos 1 What can we offer to Phcnbus in return for an answer from the oracle P" " I have nothing," said Eumonos, "therefore I shall not present myself before the god." "But I," murmured Demophonos; " are you listening . . . to me . « . Eumonos ?"

Eumonos listened. Then, as he heard nothing more, he slept. Both slept, and as the night : advanced, both dreamed. In thoir dream, light like the pale glow of an unearthly presence revealed the grey shapes of the horses and the asses, and in that light the god appeared. The sleepers dreamed that neither 6tirred.

"Do you see, Eumonos?" dreamed Demophonos,' and Eumonos answered in the dream, " I see." The god smiled upon them and said to them: "Fear me not I Of all who landed from the ships, I have chosen thee. They camo to .me with gifts below tho knowledge of any god. Thou hast brought the vital offerings of lives of labour. Therefore, thou art mine. Tell me thy wish!" They were silent. The son of Latona waited, and Demophonos murmured, "Give us immortality I" "There is no sii£h; .answered the god. "Hadst thou need to come to mo to learn a truth so simple? The realm of immortality is the memory of man, and man forgets. Even I am passing; even I 6hall be forgotten." " Forgotten ?" cried Demophonos. " And what of the light that animates the arts and heals the sick?"

"Before five centuries pass," answered Phoebus Apollo, " a higher god shall abolish the worship of Apollo; and from the ethereal heights where I am dwelling I shall fall to the place of things revered by none save them that classify old thoughts." They listened; the god continued: "But now I am the prophet; this is my day. Thou hast wished for immortality. I will grant thee fame as lasting as thy time in the memory of man Shall it be granted for thy work or for thy name?" "For my name!" cried Demophonos. "For my work," answered Eumonos.

"Draw near to me!" said the god. In the dream Eumonos approached him, and the father of the Muses touched his forehead with the tip of his fingers. Demophonos had awaited lis turn with impatience. He advanced his forehead, but the god touched nothing but his hands. Eumonos 'felt fire within his brain. The hands of Demophonos twitched as if tipped with electrio sparks. The friends sprang forward to, embrace the knees of the god, but the god had vanished. The place was dark. The beasts of burden were lost in the opaque night. Demophonos and Eumonos returned to Samothrace and to their work. Eumonos was even more grave than he had been before his journey, and more tormented by his doubts. Demophonos's faco glowed. He moulded his clay and chiselled his marble, and all that he did gave proof of his strange gift. Buyers flocked to his workshop, for he had established himself independent of his master. His strongbox filled with gold, and his name became known beyond the seas. Eumonos lived piteously. Ho was poor, and the world despised him. As time passed, his squalor and his humility made him a byword. He was so sure that ho could do nothing well that ho began work only to abandon it —not because ho was capricious, but because he dared not continue attempts so abject in result. .Convinced that Eumonos was incapable of carrying any work to completion, the master dismissed his worthless disciple, and Eumonos sat in his hovel surrounded by unfinished statues, or beside the sea, looking with wild eyes into the distance. Ho hired models, draped them in supplo stuffs, led them to the shore of the sea, and posed them in warlike attitudes facing the tempest. He, Eumonos, called the mad sculptor, contemplated their storm-lashcd robes and their blue lips. "Step out!" lie commanded. "March! As if to assault the sea!"

Qno night when tho wind was high and tho sea roaring, Eumonos appeared before tho rich sculptor. " Deign to come to me, Demophonos 1" ho begged. "My work is done, and to you only will I show it." They went out buffeted b.v the storm, and in Eumonos's hovel Demophonos

saw tho statue—the prow of a _ great ship, and, standing, a woman, winged, and with wings outspread, marching on an unseen foo, the gloom of past conguests In her eyes, ungovernable will in the proud swell of her young breast. 11l fato) form, gostwo and powerful arms was manifest - the triumphant force not of a woman hut of a world.

Demophonos bowed his head, and two tears rolled down his cheek. When Demophonos had conquered his emotion—"Eumonos," he said, "well done I Hail, master! I salute youl" And then the two clasped hands before the statue, and both were glad. Demophonos proclaimed the mastery of Eumonos, and all the people flocked to the hovel to do homage to the images of the nation's power. The Archons set the statue in the centre of the port, facing the sea, to point the way of conquest to coming generations. They were so proud of their symbol that they stamped her image on their money, that all Greece might know the " Victory of Samothrace."

When Demophonos had compassed all the glory and luxury that a great name and a. full purse can give, he died, and on the stela of his tomb was written the legend: " Here lies Demophonos, the Sculptor of Beauty."

Eumonos died as he had lived, in poverty. The two friends had slept the dark sleep many years when the barbarians invaded Samothracia and killed the people. _ They laid Winged Victory level with the dust. They broke her arms, and cast her head into the sea, and the wings that had defied the tempests they lagged through blood and mire.

When even the memory of Eumonos had passed from the minds of men, the wild winds entered from tho broad sea and, aided by tho pious earth, swept up the sands to form a shroud. They buried Victory, and still deeper the passing cycles made her grave. Centuries followed centuries, and the children of a new race, digging for relics of the antique world, unearthed the statue,_ and, seeing in it a human form, set it on foot; and once more "Venus Victrix," the "Victory of Samothrace," faced tho eternal sea, with all the winds of the eternal future before her assaulting wings. On a day in modern times, in digging for the foundation of a city, men unearthed the fragment of a tomb, and 011 tho shattered stela they found a uame: "Demophonos."