The Galileans: A Novel of Mary Magdalene Read Online Free PDF

with—” Joseph stopped and crimsoned with embarrassment.
    “Is there anything wrong in her living with me?” Demetrius asked.
    “Of course not,” Joseph said. “I am a fool.”
    “No more than almost anyone would have been under the circumstances,” the Greek said equably. “When a beautiful girl says she lives with a man, you naturally think the worst, being human. Look at me, young man. Do I look like a debaucher of the young?” Demetrius suddenly began to guffaw, holding his vast belly as if he were afraid it might come apart with its shaking. Finally he stopped laughing and wiped his streaming eyes with his sleeve. “Alas,” he added with mock sadness, “even if I longed for feminine solace, who would love a fat old man for anything but his money, of which I have next to none, anyway?”
    “I did not mean that there was anything wrong in her living with you,” Joseph assured him sincerely.
    “Of course you didn’t. But you must have heard other people insinuate things about her that are not true. Women envy Mary her beauty because men’s eyes are drawn to her in the street. And the men, realizing how pale and insipid their own wives are beside her, label her meretrix so they will not feel so guilty about lusting after her.”
    “You are a philosopher,” Joseph exclaimed admiringly.
    “Nay. I am but a winebibber who has known many people, most of them bad. Because I acknowledge no God who would forbid me, I do as I please, but I harm no one except myself, which is my privilege. Since I like to see people happy and gay, I let Mary sing and dance that others may share her beauty and her talent. But to you Jews that is shefikat damim.” He sighed. “If you try to please everyone, you please no one. But sit down here beside me, young man. Mary has gone to Capernaum to sell some lyres for me and bring back a fish for our dinner from the stall of Simon and the sons of Zebedee. What do you think of the spell she had yesterday?”
    “I do not believe it is the Sacred Disease,” Joseph said promptly.
    “Nor I. You have studied Hippocrates, I see.”
    “All of his writings that I could obtain, sir,” Joseph said eagerly. “And those of Marcus Terentius Varro and Lucretius Carus, too.”
    Demetrius lifted his eyebrows. “Your thirst for knowledge is worthy of the old Greeks, young man. There is a man in Rome, a friend of mine named Aulus Cornelius Celsus, from whom you could learn much, although he is a philiatros, a friend of physicians, rather than a physician. But getting back to Mary, what do you really think of these fits of hers?”
    “I have seen them in some young girls before,” Joseph said. “My preceptor, Alexander Lysimachus, believes they are possessed by a demon for only a short while, but I doubt if that is the answer. Most of them grow out of it with womanhood.”
    “Did she say anything yesterday when she was in the fit?”
    “Only the babblings of a child. She seemed to be remembering a scene where someone was beating her.”
    “I was hoping she had forgotten all that,” Demetrius sighed. “I took Mary when she was twelve years old, Joseph. Her father was a trapper of doves and a petty thief. He had beaten her many times and was on the point of selling her to a Roman, but I gave him a higher price. I adopted her legally and taught her all I know of music, philosophy, and the arts. Now the lyre is not so popular and I have been working to improve the cithara, so we have not fared very well. Mary loves to sing and dance, and since people will pay to hear her, I let her perform sometimes in the streets”
    “Is it safe?”
    “The Nabateans are always there. And Hadja would give his life for her.”
    “You trained her well,” Joseph said. “I never heard a more lovely voice, nor saw a more graceful dancer.”
    Demetrius nodded. “Few can equal her, although she is still little more than a child. As a dancer and singer in the great cities of the empire I am sure she could turn