Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine. Vol. 51, No. 6, June 2006

Death at Delphi by Marianne Wilski Strong

The innkeeper was a Thessalian by the name of Tedar, and not so fond of us Athenians. The inn was slightly seedy, but Tedar gave us one of the better rooms. It was not my good Athenian coins that made him generous, nor my identity. When I announced that I was Kleides of Athens, I heard whispers of “Sophist” go round the tavern room. My fame as a treatise writer, a companion and sometimes friendly rival of Socrates, and the man whom Pericles of Athens called upon to investigate murders that threatened our proud city had obviously spread to Mount Parnassus and Delphi. But fame, which we Greeks strive for, proved of little interest to this burly innkeeper.

However, once he cast his eye on my mistress Selkine’s slender, tall body, the room was ours. Not that Selkine wasn’t wearing her full chiton, a lovely white flowing tunic with a red hem, and her cloak, but even with all that, she is as graceful as the goddess Artemis, that is, if you believe in the gods. These days, many of us do not, or at least, we are skeptical. Perhaps, as some Athenians claim, we Sophists with our ideas of moral relativity and ethics based on humans and the city rather than divine truths have corrupted our youth. It does worry me.

But in the inn on this sunny spring day at the sanctuary of Apollo at Delphi, it was Selkine who worried me. She had insisted on coming to consult the oracle. She refused to say what her question was to be, but I feared that she was considering marrying her wealthy lover. He had once given her a pair of gold earrings of delicate beadwork. She had worn them for a while, then put them aside. Lately, she’d started to wear them again. She was thirty-two now, myself forty-one, and I began to detect that she wanted marriage and children. I, of course, was still hopelessly in love with the beautiful and intelligent Aspasia, Pericles’ mistress and mother of his two sons. Still, Selkine was beautiful, and I did not want to lose her. So I was facing a dilemma. Marry her or lose her. Would marriage limit my life? Not my political life, certainly. No Athenian man limited his political life for family life. But I often found myself in dangerous situations, investigating homicides. Would Selkine be able to handle that? Would she object once we had children? I didn’t know. Or, perhaps, I was more worried about how much of a burden a wife and children would be to me.

It was all of these questions, and a strong dose of vanity no doubt, that clouded my usual keen observations and made me miss the undercurrent of hostility that lurked in the whispers in the tavern when Selkine and I arrived.

I didn’t miss the lust in the innkeeper’s eyes, though, or the interest several men showed in Selkine. They all knew that aristocratic Athenian women stayed close to home and that only a high class hetaera, which Selkine’s earrings, expensive linen chiton, and lustrous dark curls over her shoulders announced her to be, would have traveled openly. I could see the men calculating just how much Selkine might charge for her favors. Most of them quickly realized that she could well afford to pick and choose her lovers. So they lost interest, though they may well have wondered why she had chosen me.

One man with short, badly cut hair and a rough, brown wool wrap from some backward island, no doubt, stared at me and then at Selkine. Selkine stared back, her large, luminous brown eyes defiant. The man lowered his eyes, poured wine from a jug into his cup, diluted it with water, took a gulp and gagged. He stared at his wine cup, put it down, rose, and went upstairs. An unpleasant fellow, I thought, but he would apparently keep to himself and not bother his fellow guests at the inn. But two or three other men still had the same glint in their eyes that I must have had over fifteen years ago when I’d first seen Selkine in the port of Piraeus, just below Athens. I vowed to myself to stay close to Selkine.

The innkeeper asked if we had a cart to be taken care of. We did not. We had left Athens in a cart, my own wealth being well enough to afford one, especially since my half brother’s merchant ships had substantially increased the family wealth, but at the split in the Delphi road up from Athens, a wheel had broken. I was all for getting it repaired or replaced by a local farmer, but Selkine wouldn’t hear of it. She can be superstitious. It worried her that the wheel had broken just at the gorge where, legend has it, Oedipus killed his father. Good Sophist that I am, I informed Selkine that the incident, like most things, could be seen in at least two ways: an omen of danger or a harbinger of truth and understanding. After all, Oedipus had been warned by the oracle that he would kill his father and marry his mother. He had just not had the sense to look into his character to understand his violent nature. I, of course, had the sense to examine all, including myself, carefully. Selkine scoffed and said something about my not knowing where my best interests lie. So we paid a passing traveler to go in his cart. I sulked for about an hour afterward, remembering that my half brother and his wife had hurled the same accusation at me.

I informed the innkeeper that we did not have a cart, but that we would be happy if he knew of someone from whom we could rent or buy one.

He said he knew of no one. I saw that the effect of Selkine’s beauty had its limits. The innkeepers around Delphi could always ferret out a cart from a local farmer, who, having had a bad harvest or having no need of his carts, was willing to lend one for Athenian coins.

“I could get you a cart.”

I turned to the man who sat on a bench by the far wall of the room. His accent, his short hair, new leather sandals, and heavy linen tunic marked him clearly as Athenian, and wealthy at that. But I didn’t need my powers of observation to know that. I recognized him.

“Mides,” I said. “You must have some vital question for the oracle here to be away from your olive groves and fields in plowing season.”

Mides laughed. “I have olive groves here at Delphi as well. In any event, I want to ask the oracle how to keep my sons away from the influence of you Sophists. You do seem to have a powerful pull on the youth of Athens. What is your secret?”

“Words,” I said. “We use them to get young men thinking. It can be habit forming.”

“Ah. And habits once formed are difficult to break, are they not?”

“Indeed,” I said, wondering what was on Mides’ mind.

“So if one learns as a youth,” he said, rising and coming over to us, “to think that laws and morals and the very gods themselves are relative to a culture, and the common man knows as much as anyone else, then it would be hard to think otherwise, the habit of thinking that way being ingrained. Correct?”

“I hope not, Mides. One needs always to assume that one does not know the whole truth of an issue, any issue. Once one believes that, one ceases to think.”

“I see. I hope, Kleides, that you do not consider me such a one.”

“Indeed not. I have heard you argue before the assembly. You defend your positions persuasively. As a supporter of democracy, I do not agree with them. I think the common man more capable of making sound judgments than you seem to think him. But I do not underestimate the force of the arguments you use to insist that the wealthy and the educated are the most qualified to support and direct the state. But right now, I am interested in how you might obtain a cart for us.”

Mides looked appreciatively at Selkine. “I know a local farmer from whom I rent carts here in Delphi. And,” he said, leaning toward me to prevent the innkeeper from hearing, “I could get you a better room in a good farmhouse, a room your companion deserves.”

“A tempting offer, Mides, for which I thank you. But I believe the inn will suit us fine.”

Selkine looked a bit annoyed at my rejection of Mides’ offer, but I rather enjoyed the conversation of a tavern’s customers, generally practical, honest, and direct. “I would, however, be grateful if you could get that cart.”

Mides nodded. He waved away the cup of wine the innkeeper had poured for him. “Of course,” he said. “I’ll see to it.” He left.

I had the feeling that he’d lost interest in us.

We went up to our room and rested. Late in the afternoon, we got up to make our first visit to the sanctuary. We carried our offerings for the gods and headed for the Castilian Spring to cleanse ourselves in its sacred waters.

We made our way into the rectangular paved structure of the spring and took seats on the stone benches that ran along the walls, awaiting our turn to approach the bronze lion heads from which the waters flowed.

I leaned back against the limestone wall, still tired from our two-week journey from Athens, fretting that I had left my city. Tension was still high over Sparta’s and Corinth’s war challenges. But the problem at hand was to resolve my relationship with Selkine. I knew the status quo could not hold.

My head lolled in the warmth the sun bathed on it, but the mountain air was just cool enough to keep me awake. Through my drowsiness, almost like a mist covering my eyes and seeping into my brain, I watched a young man on his knees before one of the lion heads. He had a terra-cotta cup in one hand, and with it he scooped up water and poured it over his head. His dark curls lengthened with the weight of the water. He lifted up his face on which the water shone in the sunlight. He looked up at the shining rock crags of Mount Parnassus, cliffs from which those deemed by priests to be violators of the sanctuary were thrown.

It occurred to me that a goodly number of people would find pleasure in seeing me, a Sophist and friend of the likes of Socrates and Protagorus, flung off that cliff.

The young man rose, placed a small gift to the gods in a niche in the wall, and turned to leave. I closed my eyes.

Selkine jabbed my side. “We can approach the fountain now and make our offerings.”

The young man stopped by us. He looked admiringly at Selkine, then nodded to me. “You are Kleides of Athens, are you not?”

“I am.”

“I am Parmades, also of Athens. I have listened to you lecture on arriving at knowledge by examining opposite ideas: thesis and antithesis. You are quite brilliant, Kleides.”

“Thank you. But there is an antithesis to your statement. Some regard me as quite immoral, others as quite a fool.”

“I don’t think you are a fool. I think, perhaps, you understand human beings and what makes them do what they do. Perhaps, Kleides, we might talk before the day is finished. There may be danger here at Delphi for us Athenians.”

I raised my eyebrows. “We are at the inn of Tedar. We will be there tonight if you wish to talk then. Or we can talk now if you wish. Selkine and I have not yet heard from the priests regarding our turn to approach the oracle. I don’t know how good our chances are in the lottery since there seems to be a goodly number of pilgrims here.”

Parmades nodded. “We will talk this evening then. But be careful at the inn of Tedar. I do not wish to accuse without further evidence, but it may be that all is not as it seems. In the meantime, I am hoping that my name comes up in the lottery this afternoon.” He lifted up the small statue he carried. It gleamed in the sun: an exquisite gold statue of Apollo. “My father asked me to give this statue to the priest who will lead me to the oracle.”

Selkine gasped. “Oh, but it is truly beautiful. Was it cast in Athens?”

“In the shop of Phidias.”

“Ah,” I said. “A true work of art then, of inestimable value, like the great gold and ivory statue of Athena inside the Parthenon.”

“My father had Phidias cast this small statue as a gift to the god for healing my mother who was ill for some time. She is getting better now. If possible, she and my father will wish to come to Delphi soon themselves to thank the god.” Parmades frowned. “I have asked a farmer about carts for them when they arrive. At the farmer’s, I saw something that disturbs me. I must have your opinion, Kleides. Now I must see if I can see the oracle. If not, I will visit one of the small local shrines, then seek you out later.”

I nodded.

Parmades returned my nod and left.

I watched him go. I wondered what he wanted to talk about. Parmades did not have a reputation as a deep thinker or debater. He was an ordinary young man, enjoying hetaerae, wrestling at the gym, drinking a little too much on occasion, learning to farm his father’s lands efficiently.

“He is solemn for a young man; he is most uneasy,” Selkine said.

“Perhaps just the solemnity of the place.”

“Perhaps. Let’s make our offering.”

We made our offering, Selkine placing her terra-cotta statue into a niche in the wall and me placing my offering of wine, which I assumed the priests would much appreciate.

We sat for a while, breathing in the cool mountain air and the smell of pines, then left the spring, Selkine pulling her cloak closely round her shoulders to ward off the chill in the air. We walked through the sanctuary, passed a few wanderers, most of them heading for the treasury buildings of their cities to make an offering there to Apollo, a bribery, as it were, in exchange for the god’s prediction of the future or for sage advice for their problems. I noticed the ill-clothed man from the tavern who had shown more interest in his wine than in Selkine. He glared at me. I wondered if he were another traditional Athenian upset at my scientific and sophistic outlook. No matter. I had made enemies before and would, no doubt, do so again, but at least not as many as Socrates had or Euripides, our young iconoclastic playwright.

I directed our path toward the Lesche, the great hall erected by the people of Cnidus, a meeting and discussion place. As always, I was interested in what issues might be under discussion, but I knew too that Selkine wanted to see the famous painting by the great Polygnotus.

Inside, I took a seat on the bench that ran along the walls, while Selkine walked up the great hall to view the paintings.

I heard one of the men next to me mutter “freedom for all Greeks, not just Athenians.” The man next to him nudged him and jerked his head toward me. The first man turned, looked at me, then back at his companion. The two rose and walked out of the Lesche.

A tall thin man who had watched the two men leave came over and sat next to me. “Athenian?”

“Yes.”

“I’m Thades, from Corcyra Island. We owe you Athenians thanks for sending your warships to defend us against attack by the Corinthians.”

“The assembly voted to help Corcyra. You’re an ally, after all.” I smiled. “And besides, we certainly did not want your own fleet of triremes going over to the Corinthian navy.”

“But did your assembly realize what sending the warships meant?”

“Many of us did. But we hope war can be avoided.”

“I understand that Sparta has demanded that you Athenians drive out those associated with the curse made years ago for the murder of suppliants inside the temple of Athena. That would mean driving out Pericles, whose mother was of the offending family.”

“Athens will not drive out Pericles, as the Spartans wish, only because he will not concede to them. In fact, he has issued a demand to the Spartans to expiate their own curse for killing their slaves, the Helots, who had taken refuge in a temple.”

“Ah,” Thades said raising his thin eyebrows. “The Helots. The Spartans talk of freedom for the Greeks, yet they enslave the vast majority of their own people and those they take in war. Someday, such a policy will bring them to ruin.”

I nodded. “Indeed, Pericles hopes so. He issued the decree to remind all Greeks that the Spartans enslave their people.”

“I need no reminding. I am no friend of Sparta. No Corcyran is. Like you Athenians, we prefer democracy. But I fear war. Will you Athenians fight?”

I looked carefully at Thades. I knew that Pericles’ intent was to draw all the Athenians inside the city wall if Sparta attacked, and to let Sparta spin its wheels outside. The Spartans would burn our fields and crops, but no matter. Our great navy would keep us supplied with wheat from the Black Sea area and from Egypt. But I had no intentions of discussing Pericles’ plans in any detail in a public place. For all I knew, Thades was a spy. “We will do what we have to do,” I said. I rose, sorry to part company with a man who seemed intelligent, but I knew the care one had to take in this impending storm.

Mides came in and invited me to the villa where he was staying for an evening of wine and discussion. I declined, citing Selkine’s presence and the young Parmades’ desire to talk to me.

Mides looked over at Selkine. “I understand. Another time.”

I went over to Selkine. She was standing, apparently awestruck in front of one of the great paintings. I knew the painting that had mesmerized her. It chilled my blood. Polygnotus had painted the destruction of Troy. I went to Selkine’s side and stared at the painting. I had, when I’d seen the painting before, admired the beauty of its reds for the fires that burned Troy, of the white and black of the tunics, of the yellow of Helen’s hair. I’d admired the purity of the lines and the dramatic placement of figures. Now I saw the anguish on the faces of the women as they were dragged into slavery, the pain on the faces of the dead men, the blood that seemed to flow from the very walls of the city, the rubble that had once been homes and temples. Polygnotus had drawn well the horror of war, belying the glory that we Greeks had always seen in it.

I looked at Selkine’s face. I took her arm. Her flesh was warm, her skin smooth and soft. I understood why our great poetess Sappho had written that the sight of a loved one was worth the sights of all the warriors in the world.

Selkine put her hand on my arm, and we left the Lesche. Outside, it was still light, and we sat for a while. In the distance, we saw Parmades and a priest talking. They parted and Parmades passed by, greeting us and explaining that he’d been lucky. He’d been told that someone had lost their turn in the lottery and that he would get to visit the oracle now. He indicated that he still wanted to talk to me later.

The sky began to turn to a pale blue with streaks of rose shooting from the descending sun. The sun still lit portions of the shining rock cliff behind us, but dark shadows had begun to score the gray rock face.

A few torches carried by departing pilgrims flickered bright orange against the dark green pines. One man, his cloak wrapped tightly round him against the cool air, sat on a low wall, his head down. I assumed he had received a disturbing answer to whatever question he had posed for the god.

In the valley below, between Mount Parnassus and Mount Desphina, the white columns of the Tholos glowed rosy in the setting sun as pilgrims paying homage to Athena and her temple began to light their torches for their walk back to inns, tents, and farmhouses. The River Pleistos shone silver on its winding way through the olive groves to the bay of Itea beyond. A quiet peace had settled over the sanctuary.

Selkine and I walked past the theatre and looked down on the city treasuries, housing the donations of the pilgrims. On the treasury of Athens, we could see the sculptures of Heracles on the back of the building. I wondered if the Spartans still took offense to our placing their hero and his exploits on the backside of our treasury.

Beside me, Selkine murmured about the beauty of the scene. I turned and saw the golden color of her olive skin in the remaining sun. I wanted her badly. I took her arm again. She smiled, and we moved forward down the slope to one of the sanctuary’s entrance gates.

Just outside the entrance gate, we stopped at the table of a local vendor, a miniaturist selling his pen and ink papyrus drawings of the temple of Apollo. I was digging out a few obols from inside my tunic when we heard it. A high-pitched screech. Selkine looked about, as did I.

“What was that?” she asked.

The vendor shrugged. “A bird, no doubt. An eagle or an owl. Sounded like an eagle. They have a high pitch. Sound almost human, don’t they?”

“An eagle. Zeus’ bird,” Selkine whispered. “Is it an omen?”

“It’s just an eagle,” I said. I looked around at the deep valley running to the bay of Itea. “Maybe.” I noticed that the man who had wrapped himself in his cloak and sat on the wall had also come to the gate. He was staring at the great cliff to the side of the sanctuary.

“Maybe?” Selkine said.

“It’s almost dusk. Most birds have settled in for the night.”

“Then it is a special eagle. Sent by Zeus.”

“Selkine,” I said, a little exasperated, “if it is an eagle, it is out for some eagle reason we don’t know. It has nothing to do with signs or omens.”

Selkine sighed. “I suppose. But something is wrong here. It has been a day of strange keens in the air. I hardly know what to think.” She smiled. “But let us not allow this Delphic mystery to spoil our evening. We can ask the innkeeper to send up some good Chian wine and wheat bread and cheese and maybe even a roasted swallow. We have the night.” She turned and looked up toward the temple where the priests led pilgrims to the pythia, the woman who interpreted the god’s answers. “Then we will see.”

We returned to the inn, told the innkeeper our wants, and retired to our room. It was sparsely furnished, but we needed little other than the small table and the bed that had soft leather coverings and warm rabbit furs. Selkine had carried a basket with good linen, and we spread it on top of the leather. We ate the food, dipped our bread into the sweet white wine and made love. Even in the dim light of the oil lamps, Selkine’s skin shone with a silky glow.

Afterward, we talked of many things, Selkine arguing that the great poetess Sappho surpassed Homer, I arguing that no one surpassed his stories of Achilles and Odysseus. It was a good evening.

We decided on more wine, and I dressed to go downstairs to get it.

I descended the wooden stairs as fast as I could, wanting to get the wine quickly and to return to Selkine. It wasn’t until I stepped into the tavern room that I realized that something was strange. I should have been hearing voices, some drunken, some argumentative, some laughing. I had not been.

Now I noticed that the tavern was unnaturally quiet. Only a murmuring rose from the ten or so men gathered there. I looked around at them. The innkeeper saw me and turned away. The sullen man with the bad haircut looked up at me. Then, as before, he returned to his wine.

Mides rose and approached me. “Have you heard the news, Kleides?”

I shook my head, fearing that war had begun.

“Someone died at the sanctuary today. Fell from the great cliff. A horrible accident.”

“When?” I asked, remembering the cry of an eagle that had sounded human.

Mides shook his head. “No one knows. Perhaps in the early evening, the priests think. They found his body just before the sanctuary was closed for the day.”

“Who died? Do the priests know?”

Mides nodded. “It was the young Athenian, Parmades. He must have been visiting one of the ancient shrines to Mother Earth high on the cliffs.”

I shook my head, trying to clear it of the sensual warmth of wine and sex. “Parmades. He asked to see me this evening. I’d forgotten.”

“Poor Parmades,” Mides said. “He perhaps wanted to talk of some philosophical or scientific matter with you. Now he will talk no more. Kleides, he was an Athenian of a good family. Perhaps you could inquire after his movements and his death. The family will want to know. I will help where I can if you wish.”

I nodded. “Of course. Tomorrow I will go to the place where the priests found his body. I will do what I can. For now, goodnight, Mides.” I turned to the stairs, but remembered Parmades’ words about a farmer. I wondered. “Mides, were you able to get a cart for us?”

Mides shook his head. “I am sorry, Kleides. I haven’t seen the farmer. He has left to tend his olive groves his wife tells me. But if he returns soon, I will ask. Our innkeeper may know when the farmer returns.”

There were many farmers about Delphi, but this one who knew people at the inn might prove to be Parmades’ farmer.

I returned to Selkine and told her the bad news. She, too, remembered the scream we thought had been an eagle.

The next morning I left Selkine early to inspect the place where the body was found. I saw nothing to tell me anything of what might have happened, nor did I expect to find much. The body had fallen from the rocky crag outside the sanctuary wall in a direct line just near the great three-serpented tripod that held the golden cauldron in honor of the Greek naval victory of Plataea that had ended our wars with the Persians.

Ampheus, a priest on duty whom I recognized as the one talking yesterday with Parmades, told me that the body had been cleansed, oiled, and buried. A local man had been sent to Athens to inform the family of the death. I would have liked to have examined the body, but I could hardly demand that Parmades be dug up. I asked why Parmades had been buried so quickly.

Ampheus shook his gray locks at me and waved a ringed finger. “We cannot have the sanctuary of Apollo corrupted with a dead body.”

“Could Parmades not have been held somewhere outside the sanctuary?” I persisted.

“He could not.” Ampheus’ large nose seemed to drag down his whole face with its weight, giving him a dour look. I disliked him, not for his bad nose in contrast to my straight one, my best, possibly, I must admit, my only really good feature, but for his imperiousness.

“Had you spoken to Parmades at all while he was here at Delphi?”

“Possibly. I do not remember. I must return to the temple.” Ampheus turned and walked away.

The churlish priest was lying; I myself had seen him talking with Parmades. Of course, it was possible that the conversation was so insignificant as to be easily forgotten, but I thought not.

I began to consider that I was dealing with murder and not an accident. Suicide was a possibility, but it is hardly in human nature to ask so solemnly, Selkine’s word, to speak with someone and then to commit suicide a few hours later. There had been an urgency about Parmades’ request. Had I been more alert and less drowsy with sun and Selkine, I might have urged Parmades to talk then and there. I might have prevented his death. I owed it to him to discover what had happened.

I started by taking the circuitous route round and up the cliff. As I climbed, I sweated. I could see why the shrine to the earth goddess was not much visited. On the other hand, perhaps my half brother and his wife were right. I was spending too much time reading and not enough time at the gymnasium.

Even Parmades, twenty years younger than myself and in considerably better condition, would have had to have a compelling reason to climb this mountain to go to this particular shrine. What or who had compelled him?

I reached the top of the cliff and hobbled toward the edge. My boot was worn, since, as usual, I had purchased a new papyrus of Herodotus’ instead of new boots. I looked over the sanctuary. Its stadium at the tip, its theatre carved into the mountainside, and below that the temple — body, mind, and soul. Delphi provided for all three. The view alone was, indeed, worth the climb.

I stepped farther to the edge. There was a rocky slope upward, small but definite enough to call one’s attention to how close one stood to the edge. Parmades had not fallen accidentally, unless he had been drunk, as drunk as Elpenor in the Odyssey, or truly careless, and he had seemed neither. Someone had persuaded Parmades to come up this cliff and had struck him or simply pushed him over. He must have known the person and believed himself in no danger to have stood here with his assailant.

I needed to talk with people, with anyone who had talked with Parmades in the last several days, including the unpleasant Ampheus, who had apparently insisted on the immediate burial of the body. To hide signs of a struggle on the body? To subdue any speculation as soon as possible?

I made my way carefully down the shining rocks and back to the inn.

The inn was crowded, but the men were not carrying on the usual arguments over whether hot and cold were truly different phenomena or just differing aspects of the same phenomenon, my belief, or the usual discussion of the virtues of tyranny over democracy. Instead, the men sat in clusters, talking in low voices. I could hear words such as curse, corruption, and even blood revenge, a barbarian idea we Athenians had replaced with trial by jury.

Mides rose and approached me. “Have you discovered anything about Parmades’ death?”

I nodded but declined to explain. “Can you tell me if any of the men here knew or had talked with Parmades?”

Mides looked about. “Several. Parmades did eat here a few times. Most travelers do. The goat cheese and olives are superb.”

“Point out the men who had some acquaintance with Parmades.”

Mides gestured to one cluster and said two men there had talked with and eaten with Parmades, as he himself had, without noticing any anxiety on Parmades’ part. Mides pointed out a third man drinking by himself. I thought it might be the man we had seen yesterday on arrival, but this man’s hair seemed better cut. I had paid little attention yesterday, bad behavior for a Sophist. We pride ourselves on our powers of observation.

“Thanks, Mides,” I said. “I may need your help later.”

He nodded and returned to his stool, ordering, I presumed, goat cheese and olives. I decided I’d have to try some if they were good enough to draw Mides here, when with his wealth, he could have had food prepared specially for him at the villa where he was staying.

I joined the cluster of men Mides had pointed out and introduced myself. I got to the point, asking what they could tell me of Parmades.

One of the four men shrugged. One got up and walked away. One of the other two, a young man with a face worthy of Apollo himself, said he’d talked with Parmades.

“Several times,” he said, rather proudly. “Parmades just didn’t understand that all moral beliefs are mere human devices. I had to explain several times that the truest guide for behavior is to do what is expedient.”

The other young man, with a snub nose more like Socrates’ than like a god’s, smiled. “Yes, Eteocles, you did explain over and over.”

Eteocles nodded, failing to get the sarcasm. He’d also failed to understand that while we Sophists saw that belief in the divine for moral guidance was ruled by one’s culture, we also believed that behavior should be guided by what promoted excellence and the common good.

“I take it Parmades did not agree with you, Eteocles?” I asked.

“No. He did not. My arguments overwhelmed him.”

I looked to the other young man.

“Parmades did not argue. He was quiet, reserved. I had the feeling he was concerned with other things.”

The man seated alone scoffed. “Parmades was a sneaky one.”

“Sneaky?” I queried, noting that the man’s accent marked him as a man of Chios, in the league of Athens. I wondered about the welts on his hands.

The man stuffed a hunk of goat cheese into his mouth. After a bit, he spoke. “You couldn’t get an opinion out of him. Just questions. I told him our Chian honey was far tastier than your Athenian honey, even to the dullest of tongues and not just us beekeepers. Our bees are blessed by the gods.”

Like Parmades, I didn’t argue the point, though I understood the pocked hands then: multiple bee stings. I would have liked to question him about why the gods concerned themselves with bee quality, but I had more important concerns. “What questions did he have?”

“He asked if I’d recognize a Spartan when I saw one, even one in disguise. Stupid question. Who wouldn’t recognize those longhaired sacks of muscles with no brains.”

“Why did you find Parmades sneaky?”

The man spat out a bit of cheese. “Fishbrain. A man who doesn’t like to argue and who asks too many questions is sneaky.” He gave me a knowing look and stomped out of the tavern.

Eteocles laughed. “Parmades also wanted to know if I knew which of the priests here were particularly trustworthy. As if a priest could explain anything. Parmades did not understand that the soul is a natural part of the material world.” Eteocles leaned back pompously against the wall.

I hoped that the beetle he’d leaned against would get into his tunic. Eteocles was one of the young men of Athens who had given Sophists a bad name. But though he’d failed to detect the worry that lay behind Parmades’ questions, he’d given me useful information. Parmades had been troubled about a Spartan and was looking for a trustworthy priest to speak to. He’d obviously had doubts about some of the priests. I wondered if he’d thought Ampheus trustworthy or not.

I was about to talk to Mides when Selkine entered the tavern, accompanied by the servant woman she’d hired here at Delphi. She stopped in the doorway and looked round. “Kleides,” she said, “do let’s go upstairs to our room.” She motioned to me to follow her upstairs.

The glow in her eyes compelled me to follow her. Something had excited Selkine, and she was always at her most beautiful when excited, her eyes a bright golden brown, her movements swift and flowing, like those our poets give to the huntress goddess, Artemis.

I followed her, the pull of Aphrodite, our goddess of love, turning my brain to barley mush. At that moment, only Selkine mattered. Is there any greater fool than a Sophist in love?

I closed the door of our room behind me and reached for Selkine.

She stepped back. “Not now, Kleides. I have something important to tell you.”

“Important,” I repeated dully. I would have been hard pressed at that moment to properly identify myself if I had to.

“Yes. I was in the village with my servant woman. We stopped at the house of a farmer renting carts and providing food and other items for pilgrims. I wanted some good olive oil for my skin. Inside the house, I saw a man seated on a stool by a small wooden table. It was dim inside and it took a moment for my eyes to see clearly. But then I recognized the man. Kleides, are you listening to me?”

I blinked several times and tried to forget that the call of Aphrodite would have been quite visible had my tunic not been loose and bulky. “I’m listening,” I managed.

“I recognized him. He was the man with the badly cut hair who was in the tavern when we arrived.”

“I see,” I said, not seeing at all what had excited Selkine.

“I should have known that evening of our arrival. I had noticed how he was drinking, but I simply did not recognize its importance, so I did not think of what he was. Recall that he gagged on the wine he’d mixed with water. But I knew today. The man was eating a black broth and drinking a dark wine. He had no cup for water to mix with the wine.”

“Black broth,” I said, alert now, “and undiluted wine. A Spartan.”

“Of course. Only Spartans eat that vile broth of vinegar, salt, pork stock, and animal blood. But, Kleides, the man did not have the long hair of the Spartans.”

I frowned in thought. “No, his hair was cut short. He was pretending to be something other than a Spartan. The only Spartans who travel as Spartans are diplomats. If a Spartan leaves Sparta with his hair cut, he is on a spy mission.”

“Something else, Kleides. The man had with him a cloak of dark, rough wool. I know there are many such cloaks, but when he swung it over his shoulders, I felt I had seen his figure before.”

“At dusk when we left the sanctuary yesterday.”

“Exactly,” Selkine said.

I went up to her and took her by the shoulders. “Selkine, you have proven yourself the real student of nature today. You’ve beaten me at my own game of observation. And you may very well have solved the murder of Parmades.”

Selkine’s eyes glittered. “So, you believe he was murdered?”

“I’m sure of it. And you have just given me the motive. If the Spartan is here on a spy mission to discover what he could about our plans for war, Parmades may have realized it. Like you, he obviously suspected the man of being Spartan. He may have known, too, that one of the priests was involved with the Spartans, relaying information picked up from pilgrims.”

Selkine frowned. “There was a priest at the sanctuary yesterday talking to Parmades.”

“Yes. A priest named Ampheus. I wonder if he told Parmades to meet him at the top of the shining cliffs.”

“But why would Parmades have gone up if he suspected a conspiracy?”

I frowned again. “I don’t know. But priests can be formidable, especially to someone not usually skeptical about religious matters. I’ll have to talk to Ampheus again.” I looked at Selkine’s beautiful face. “Selkine, avoid the Spartan. Promise me. If he suspects that you know what he is, you could be in danger.”

“As are you. I know you cannot take me with you. But take someone. Mides, perhaps.”

I agreed and turned to leave, but stopped at the door and looked back at Selkine. I think it was then that I saw Selkine for the first time — not as I did so many years ago in our port of Piraeus when she was very young, clever, and sure of her beauty, but as she had become: full, experienced in life and love, aware of her powers of mind as well as body. I realized with a shock that I loved her. “Avoid the Spartan,” I said. “Promise.”

She promised. “I intend to rest for a while.”

I left. I should have made her promise not to leave the tavern.

Downstairs, I looked for Mides and asked him to keep watch over Selkine while I went out. “I must go up to the sanctuary, and I do not want her left alone. She may be in some danger.”

Mides’ eyes opened wide, but he asked no questions. “I’ll stay all night if necessary. I’m sure the innkeeper will give me a room.”

From behind us, the innkeeper grunted. Mides and I took the grunt as assent.

“Fine,” I said, relieved. “Be sure that Selkine stays inside.”

Mides nodded. “I’ll just go to the villa where I’m staying to get some things. I’ll return within the hour.”

“Fine. Selkine is resting now. But get back as soon as you can.”

I went back upstairs to tell Selkine that Mides would return to the tavern later and would be there if she needed him. Back downstairs, I remembered Selkine’s admonition to take someone with me. Not seeing the innkeeper, I asked his wife where her husband was, but she shrugged. “Out,” she said.

I went alone to the sanctuary.

The sun still shone on the mountain of Parnassus. I had an hour or so before the sun sank below the horizon. I headed up to the Lesche, hoping that Ampheus might be there on some administrative duty. He was not. I trudged back down to the bouleuterion where the aldermen of Delphi held their meetings. Ampheus was not there.

I headed down toward the treasuries, hoping to find one of the security men of Delphi. Perhaps he might be able to tell me if Ampheus was at the sanctuary or not. A security man might also be able to tell me who Ampheus had been seen with over the last several days.

I passed the treasury houses, stopping briefly to look at the sculptures of our hero Theseus on the front pediment. Our myths said that he had successfully defeated the Minotaur and saved Athenian youths from terrible deaths by the beast, then returned to Athens to found a democracy, the democracy now in danger. I stood in the cool breeze blowing off the mountains and shivered, wondering whether Parmades’ death was the first of many to come for Athens. What conspiracy was brewing to bring us down?

I shook off my fears as best I could and continued down the sacred way. I passed by the treasury of Siphnos, with its magnificent statues holding up bell-shaped capitals. The statues’ eyes, inlaid gems, glowed in the sun’s fading light. I felt that they were watching me, and as I moved down the sacred way, I swung back around to look at them. I could have sworn that the shadow of one of them moved toward me. I chastised myself for letting my fears gnaw away at my reason, but that did not stop me from feeling relieved when I spotted a security man. He said he needed to secure the temple when the last pilgrim left and to see the sibyl and the priests safely out of the sanctuary, but that he would speak with me before he secured the doors for the evening. I agreed to meet him at the northwestern gate below the theatre. I could, he said, leave by that exit, the last one he would have to secure for the night.

I walked up to the gate, breathing in the smell of pine and listening to the cry of eagles as they flew home to their nests. I envied them. I longed for the joy and warmth of Selkine and, perhaps for the first time, understood Odysseus’ longing to be home with his wife, Penelope.

I started at a sound that echoed off the sloped seats of the theatre. A rock, dislodged by a walker. I looked around. Several people were still moving about the sanctuary, including two men headed to the gate and the stoa beyond, a place to rest or to take shelter from the mountain’s cold air or blowing storms. I considered taking shelter there myself, but I did not want to miss the security man. I consoled myself with climbing the stairs to look at the great bronze charioteer that Polyzalos of Gela had erected in gratitude for his victory in the games of Delphi. Even in the fading light, the charioteer’s intense gaze mesmerized me. His powerful neck, his tousled hair, the strong bend of his arms, all marked him as a victor. The sculptor, Critias of Athens, had created a masterpiece.

I was absorbed in studying the face of the charioteer when the blow came. Had I not bent forward to better see the finely molded folds in the bronze dress, I would have taken the blow full on my head. As it was, the blow fell on my shoulder. I pitched forward, fell, rolled, and scrambled up, fully expecting to see the Spartan coming at me.

It was Tedar, the innkeeper. He had a narrow-necked urn in his hand, and he came at me, swinging the urn. I dodged, ducking behind one of the bronze horses of Polyzalos’ chariot. The innkeeper came on. I dropped on all fours and scurried under the horse. I managed to get out from under the horse and dashed for the stairs. I had three flights to get down before I could reach the level of the sanctuary. I could hear the innkeeper grunting behind me. I raced for the gate, hoping the two men I’d seen were still in the stoa.

Behind me, the innkeeper grunted again, closer. I could almost feel his breath. Then the urn struck me on the side of the head. I lurched toward the sanctuary wall. The innkeeper had flung the urn, and it had hit its mark. I turned to face my attacker.

Someone brushed by me. I blinked, focused, and saw the security man thrust the innkeeper up against the wall of the great bronze sculpture.

I thanked Apollo for my rescue and dashed to help the security man. He was muttering darkly about the punishment for violence in the sanctuary. He didn’t need my help. He hauled the innkeeper toward the gate, admonishing me to leave before he returned.

I leaned against the wall of the sanctuary, dabbing the side of my head with my tunic. My head hurt, but I was not seriously injured. No doubt, I would live to lose another fight with someone and need rescuing.

I dabbed at my head again. The bleeding had slowed down considerably, and I began to think again. The innkeeper must have killed Parmades. He was certainly too dense to be involved in any conspiracy, but he was brutal and crude enough to commit murder for a bribe. In any event, I would know tomorrow. I hoped that the security man and I could intimidate Tedar enough to make him tell us who the briber was, though I had no doubt it was the priest Ampheus.

Glad to see a bright moon beginning to light the sanctuary, I was turning toward the gate when I heard the scream. High and clear, it rang out from the theatre and echoed off the temple and the cliffs, ricocheting through the sanctuary.

I knew that clear voice. It was Selkine’s.

The scream came again, and I raced for the stairs, taking them three at a time. I rounded the mound at the side of the theatre and ran toward the nearest aisle.

I could see, at the top of the theatre’s steep wooden seats, three figures, struggling as if each were determined to fling the other two down the seats to their deaths.

I raced up the wooden stairs, my heart and head beating and my knees protesting. Just as I reached the top, I saw Selkine lift her arm, white in the increasingly bright moonlight, and thrust it forward. The man she was struggling with lurched back. I jumped to the top level of the theatre and ran toward the threesome, now only twenty footlengths away from me.

I saw Mides, apparently just as he saw me. He clutched at his nose, turned and ran, heading to the right and up the narrow path that led to the stadium.

“Kleides,” Selkine shouted. “Mides is the murderer. I’m sure of it.”

I confess to feeling startled, even shocked. How had Selkine, a woman, solved the murder of Parmades when I had not? My mixed emotions slowed my headlong pursuit of Mides up the hill. I hardly knew what I was feeling: pride at Selkine’s intelligence, disgust with my own obtuseness at Delphi, and — I do confess it — almost jealousy at Selkine’s competence.

I managed to keep my wits enough to yell to Selkine to seek out the security guard in the stoa, then concentrated on running uphill to catch up with Mides. I could only hope that he had not worked out too much at our gymnasiums recently.

I made the turn that brought me out at the entrance to the high stadium. I was breathless in the thin air so high on Mount Parnassus. I raked my eyes over the stadium and the side mounds on which spectators sat. No one. I turned and looked straight ahead. Thirty or so footlengths in front of me, Mides was leaning against the wall that ran alongside the dirt path. Mides turned, saw me, and ran.

I knew where he was heading. He would move along the path beside the stadium, then curve into the woods, race down the hill and out of the sanctuary. Once he moved into the woods, I could lose him.

I made a quick decision. My plan would work if the path’s rocks, curves, and holes held him up a bit.

I dashed into the stadium and ran at the full length of the straight, smooth, hard running surface: a stade. I could almost have wished that there were an audience of Athenians to cheer me on. At the uppermost part of the stadium, I clambered onto the gangway that allowed spectators to move about on the seating mounds. At the top of the seating mound, I saw Mides approaching. I stooped down and waited. My wait was short.

I jumped from the top of the narrow stairway that led out of the stadium and landed full force on Mides. He grunted loudly. We rolled toward the trees, neither of us retaining enough strength to fight. We stopped rolling and lay with our arms around each other, like two lovers. Even then, I thought that our young playwright, Euripides, would have loved the irony.

I was staring at Mides’ bloody nose when the security man yanked us apart.

“He killed Parmades,” I said.

“The woman told me,” the security guard said.

Mides glared at me but remained silent. The security guard hauled him off down the path, past Selkine who ran to me.

“Are you all right?” she asked.

I nodded. “And you?”

We wrapped our arms around each other.

When we drew apart, I caught my breath at the sight of Selkine’s face bathed in moonlight. Her eyes were luminous, her smile knowing.

“I didn’t know,” I said, “that you could throw a punch that could give a man a bloody nose. And what were you doing in the sanctuary anyway? How did you know that Mides...”

She laughed. “Stop firing questions more quickly than Socrates can, and I’ll tell you.”

I fell silent.

We turned to walk toward the sanctuary exit, Selkine’s clear musical voice explaining what had happened. “I just couldn’t imagine why Mides would give up staying in a villa to watch over me in the tavern. He likes luxury.”

“Really?”

“Didn’t you notice his tunic. The best of linen. And he uses high quality olive oil on his skin.”

I had to confess that I hadn’t noticed. I’d been in a kind of daze the whole while at Delphi, worrying about my and Selkine’s future.

“I also wondered,” Selkine continued, “why he felt it necessary to go to the villa to get things. The innkeeper’s wife told me he had taken a room, then gone back to the villa. I wondered why he couldn’t just send one of his servants or pay someone to go to the villa. For that matter, why couldn’t he send a servant to watch over me. The answer was obvious.”

“Obvious?” I said, feeling like one of Socrates’ less astute students.

“Yes. I realized that he wanted personally to keep an eye on both of us. He did so from the first moment we arrived at the tavern, either watching us himself or sending the Spartan.”

I rolled my eyes. “Thus his offer to get a cart for us. And the man in the cloak at the sanctuary.”

“No doubt also the reason he offered to help you find Parmades’ murderer. But tonight he clearly had something important at the villa he wanted to have with him. So after he returned, I had my servant woman watch his room. When he left to go down to the tavern, I went into the room. I found this.”

She held up her right hand. The golden statue of Apollo gleamed in the moonlight.

“Parmades’ father’s gift to the sanctuary,” I said.

Selkine nodded. “I left the tavern to get it to you. I thought I’d snuck out, but Mides obviously saw and followed me. When he attacked and tried to throw me down the theatre stairs, I hit him with the statue. It must have been Mides who was conspiring with the Spartan, telling him I don’t know what. He was never a supporter of the democracy.”

“No, he wasn’t,” I said. “I should have known. I suspect he was telling Ampheus the plans Pericles has in case of war.”

“But surely those are public knowledge, discussed in the assembly,” Selkine protested.

“But where Pericles would send out triremes and how we would get supplies and water into the city, where our walls are vulnerable, are not public knowledge. Mides would have told Ampheus, and Ampheus told the Spartan. That way, Mides would have had no direct, incriminating contact with the Spartan.”

“But why kill Parmades?”

“Remember what Parmades told us at the fountain? That someone dangerous was at the tavern. I think that, like you, he must have recognized the Spartan as a Spartan, likely at the farmer’s, just as you did.” I shook my head. “When I stupidly told Mides that Parmades wanted to talk with me, Mides must have gotten suspicious. I suspect he got word to Ampheus to keep Parmades at the sanctuary, then sought him out and persuaded him to go up to the cliff, an opportunity to visit a local shrine and have a very private place to discuss a possible conspiracy. Parmades would have gone with Mides, perhaps distrustful of Ampheus, but never suspecting Mides’ role in the conspiracy.”

Selkine held up the statue. “Mides’ downfall. His greed.”

I nodded. “I wonder how much the Spartans paid Mides to betray Athens.” I looked over toward the Lesche with its painting of the fall of Troy. “Would Mides have helped the Spartans breach our walls? I suspect so.”

“For enough gold,” Selkine said. She smiled. “His name is appropriate, isn’t it? Like the Phrygian king whose golden touch became a curse.”

We turned at the gate and looked over the sanctuary under the moonlight. The columns of Apollo’s temple glowed against the shining rocks. Here and there, the moonlight touched the serene faces of the statues scattered throughout the sanctuary that we Greeks consider the center of the universe, the omphalos, the naval, the central point. But in the background, the valleys were dark and foreboding.

I looked at Selkine and knew that she was my omphalos. “Selkine,” I said. “Let us marry. Let us be together.” Perhaps I would always idealize Aspasia, Pericles’ mistress, but I would always love Selkine.

She smiled. “I will consult the oracle.”

I swallowed. “To see whom you should marry?”

“To see if we will have sons and daughters.”

I put my arm around her, and we stepped to the gate of the sanctuary. An owl hooted, a long, low sound.

As a Sophist, I did not believe in omens. Those who did might have taken the hoot as a warning of the trials Athens, Selkine, and I, together, would have to face.