The Athenian Murders by José Carlos Somoza Read Free Book Online Page A

Diagoras, rubbing his hands briskly to warm them. 'She was young and agile ... I believe she could have run without stopping until she was out of Attica . ..'
    He imagined her running for the nearby forest, leaving prints of her bare feet behind her, by the light of a moon as white as a lily in the hands of a young girl. She would be unconcerned by the dark (she must know the way), her breath leaping in her chest, the sound of her steps muffled by the distance, her fawn-like eyes wide. Unafraid, she would shed her clothes so as to run more swiftly, her lily-white body a delicate flash of lightning shooting through the undergrowth, dodging the trees, her loose hair barely catching on their antlers (slender as stems or a girl's fingers), quite naked and resplendent, like an ivory flower held by a young girl as she runs. 14
    They soon reached a crossroads. Beyond it, the street narrowed to a passage strewn with stones. An alley started to the left. To the right, a small bridge between two tall houses created a tunnel, its end lost in shadow.
    'What now?' enquired Diagoras irritably. 'Do we draw lots to decide on the way forward?'
    14 The original text is missing several words (written so 'hastily' they prove 'illegible', according to Montalo) making this mysterious paragraph difficult to interpret. The implicit eidesis seems to relate to 'speed', which has featured since the beginning of the chapter, but there are also images of deer (though not wild boar): 'fawn-like eyes', the 'antlers' of the trees, suggesting, not the third Labour of Hercules, but the fourth, the capture of the Arcadian Stag. I don't find it too surprising that the order of the Labours should have been altered, as this was often the practice of writers in antiquity. But a new metaphor stands out: a young girl holding a lily. Is this an eidetic image? And if so, what does it have to do with the hunting of the stag? Does the author intend it to represent the purity of the goddess Artemis, to whom the stag was sacred? In any case, I don't think one can dismiss it, as Montalo does, 'as an instance of poetic licence of no real significance'. (T .'s N.)
    He felt a pressure on his arm and, in compliant silence, allowed himself to be led quickly to the street corner nearest the tunnel. 'Let's wait here,' whispered Heracles.
    'But what about the woman?'
    'Waiting can be a means of pursuit.'
    'Surely you don't believe she's going to retrace her steps?'
    'Of course she is.' Heracles captured another fig. 'Everyone always returns. And speak a little lower - we don't want to frighten off our quarry.'
    They waited. The moon's white horns appeared. A brief gust of wind disturbed the stillness of the night. The two men wrapped their cloaks tightly around them. Diagoras suppressed a shiver, even though the moderating presence of the sea made it milder here than in the City.
    'Someone's coming,' whispered Heracles.
    It sounded like the supple rhythm of a girl dancing in bare feet, tiptoeing over the stones. But it was a flower, not a person, that emerged from the streets beyond the crossroads, a lily damaged by the rough hands of the wind. It fell apart as it brushed the wall near their hiding place and, scattering petals, it went quickly on its way through air that smelt of foam and salt. It disappeared, carried by the Zephyr as if by a beautiful young girl - eyes of sea, hair of moonlight - wearing it in her hair.
    'It was nothing. Just the wind,' said Heracles. 15
     
    15 Of course it's something! Our protagonists can't see her, of course (she's a purely fictional figure), but here, once again, we have the 'girl with the lily'. There can no longer be any doubt that this is another eidetic image, and a very powerful one at that, since it crosses over into the reality of the story, like a ghost. What can it mean? I have to admit that this sudden apparition makes me a little uneasy; I even struck the text, just as Pericles is said to have done to Phidias' chryselephantine