"Mary Renault - Greece 4 - The Last Of The Wine" - читать интересную книгу автора (Renault Mary)

At last he said, The house will have to be purified. A madman must have done it.

Just then we heard voices approaching. Our neighbour Phalinos, with his steward and two or three
passers-by, all speaking at once, poured out the news that every Herm in the street had been profaned,
and in other streets too.

When the clamour lessened, my father said, This must be a conspiracy against the City through her gods.
The enemy is behind it. — Which enemy? said Phalinos. You mean that impiety has conspired with
strong wine. What man but one defies the law from insolence, and the gods for sport? But this is beyond
everything, on the eve of war. The gods send that only the guilty suffer. — I can guess whom you mean,
my father said. But you will find you are mistaken. We have seen wine make him extravagant, but not
foolish; I have faith in the oracles of Dionysos. — That may be your opinion. Phalinos never liked even
the civillest disagreement. We know that everything is forgiven to Alkibiades by those who have enjoyed
his good graces, briefly though it might be. I don't know what my father eventually replied to this; for he
noticed me standing by, and, turning angrily, asked if I meant to let the whole day pass while I loitered in
the streets.

I got myself breakfast, called my tutor, and set off for school. You can imagine we had enough to talk
about on the way. He was a Lydian called Midas, who could read and write; an expensive slave to use
for a pedagogue, but my father did not hold with putting children in the charge of slaves who are good for
nothing else. Midas had been saving some time to buy himself out, by copying speeches for the courts in
his spare time; but he had cost a good deal, I believe as much as ten minas, so he had not got half yet.
My father had lately promised him, however, that if he looked after me well till I was seventeen, he
should have his freedom as a gift to the gods.

There were broken Herms in every street. Some people were saying an army must have been hired for
the work. Others said no, it was a band of drunks rioting home after a party; and we heard Alkibiades'
name again.

Outside the school a crowd of boys stood gazing at the Herm there. It had been a good one, presented
by Perikles. Some of the little boys, pointing, began to giggle and squeak; on which one of the seniors
 Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html




went up and told them to behave themselves. Recognising a friend of mine, Xenophon son of Gryllos, I
called to him. He came over, looking serious. He was a handsome boy, big for his age, with dark red hair
and grey eyes; his tutor stuck close to him, for he already attracted attention.

It must have been the Corinthians, he said to me, trying to make the gods fight against us in the war. —

They must be simple then, I said. Don't they think the gods can see in the dark? — Some of the country
people near our farm hardly know the god from the image he lives in. Now a thing like this could never
happen in Sparta. — I should say not. All they have outside their dirty huts is a heap of stones for a
Herm. Let your Spartans alone for once. This was an old quarrel between us, so I could not keep from
adding, Or perhaps they did it; they are allies of Syracuse after all. — The Spartans! he said staring at
me. The most godfearing people in Helas? You know quite well that they never touch anything sacred,
even in open war, and now we're at truce with them. Are you mad?