Tyrant Read Online Free PDF

You’re not Selinuntian, you’re Syracusan.’
    ‘I’m Sicilian. A Sicilian Greek, like you, like all the others. The bastard race of the sons of Greece and the native women. “Half-barbarians”, that’s what they call us in our so-called motherland. But look what we’ve accomplished, we half-barbarians. Look at that temple down there, held up by a host of giants: it’s bigger and grander than the Parthenon. Look at that artificial pond in the middle of the valley that reflects the colours of the sky in the middle of the city. Look at the porticoes, the statues, the monuments. Our athletes have made their challengers from the continent eat dust. The sons of the emigrants have won all the games of Olympia. Do you know the story of Euenetos?’
    ‘The charioteer, the Olympic champion?’
    ‘That’s him. When he returned to the city after his victory in the chariot races, the young Acragantines greeted him with a procession of one thousand two hundred chariots. One thousand two hundred, understand? Two thousand four hundred horses. There probably aren’t so many chariots in all of Greece these days! Here they make monuments to horses. They bury them in luxurious sarcophaguses, as if they were heroes. Look, there’s one down there, see, with the Ionic columns?’
    ‘I think so . . . but there’s so little light now. Tell me about that tall temple down there, the one held up by the giants.’
    ‘It’s dedicated to Zeus of Olympia and it will be finished next year. That’s a battle of the giants on the pediment. Zeus wins over the giants, and they are condemned to holding up the architrave of his temple in eternity. The scene on the other pediment represents the fall of Troy . . .’
    ‘Oh, gods, why? Why choose such a theme for the tympanum? It’s a sad story.’
    ‘I know,’ nodded Dionysius. ‘Perhaps to ward off a similar fate; who knows? Or perhaps the Acragantines have such an intense sense of death . . . because they love life in such an extreme, exaggerated way. See? They are a strange lot: they make monuments as though they were going to live for ever and they live each day as though it were the very last of their existence.’ He hesitated a moment, then added: ‘Those aren’t my words. It was Empedocles, their greatest philosopher, who said that.’
    ‘They are beautiful and terrible words,’ said Arete. ‘I would like very much to see it when it is finished.’
    ‘You will, I promise. I’ll come to get you, if need be, wherever you are. When you’ve visited that marvel you’ll forget everything you’ve suffered.’
    Arete sought out his eyes in the darkness. ‘Will you come and get me even if I’m so thin?’
    ‘Silly girl,’ said Dionysius. ‘Silly, silly girl. Of course I’ll come. I didn’t save your life so someone else could have you.’
    ‘If we were in another situation, I’d say you were making fun of me. But you found me in such a miserable state, deprived of my loved ones, my homeland . . . you’ve got to be sincere! But if you are, why haven’t you kissed me yet?’
    Dionysius got up, drew her close and kissed her. She could feel his nudity under the light chlamys and she pulled away, but kept talking: ‘I’m glad you did that. As soon as I first saw you, mounting that splendid black horse, in your armour like Achilles, I thought, won’t the girl he chooses be lucky! And then I thought that even the girl who got a kiss from you would be lucky. It’s not that you can have everything from life.’
    Dionysius shook his head. ‘What a talker! Aren’t you hungry?’
    ‘Of course I’m hungry, but it’s not good manners to say so.’
    ‘Then let’s go to dinner. We have an invitation.’
    ‘From who?’
    ‘We’re going to call on one of the wealthiest men of the city. His name is Tellias. You’ll have dinner with his wife and her friends.’
    ‘I talk so much because if I don’t, I feel like crying.’
    ‘Your answers always come late, and never at the