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[111]
There was a married woman in Ephesus of such
famous virtue that she drew women even from the neighbouring states to gaze upon
her. So when she had buried her husband, the common fashion of following the
procession with loose hair, and beating the naked breast in front of the crowd, did
not satisfy her. She followed the dead man even to his resting-place, and began to
watch and weep night and day over the body, which was laid in an underground vault
in the Greek fashion. Neither her parents nor her relations could divert her from
thus torturing herself, and courting death by starvation; the officials were at last
rebuffed and left her; every one mourned for her as a woman of unique character, and
she was now[p. 231] passing her fifth day without food. A devoted maid sat
by the failing woman, shed tears in sympathy with her woes, and at the same time
filled up the lamp, which was placed in the tomb, whenever it sank. There was but
one opinion throughout the city, every class of person admitting this was the one
true and brilliant example of chastity and love. At this moment the governor of the
province gave orders that some robbers should be crucified near the small building
where the lady was bewailing her recent loss. So on the next night, when the soldier
who was watching the crosses, to prevent anyone taking down a body for burial,
observed a light shining plainly among the tombs, and heard a mourner's groans, a
very human weakness made him curious to know who it was and what he was doing. So he
went down into the vault, and on seeing a very beautiful woman, at first halted in
confusion, as if he had seen a portent or some ghost from the world beneath. But
afterwards noticing the dead man lying there, and watching the woman's tears and the
marks of her nails on her face, he came to the correct conclusion, that she found
her regret for the lost one unendurable. He therefore brought his supper into the
tomb, and began to urge the mourner not to persist in useless grief, and break her
heart with unprofitable sobs: for all men made the same end and found the same
resting-place, and so on with the other platitudes which restore wounded spirits to
health. But she took no notice of his sympathy, struck and tore her breast more
violently than ever, pulled out her hair, and laid it on the dead body. Still the
soldier did not retire, but tried to give the poor woman food with similar
encouragements, until the maid, who was no doubt seduced by the smell of his[p. 233] wine, first gave in herself, and put out her hand at his kindly
invitation, and then, refreshed with food and drink, began to assail her mistress's
obstinacy, and say, 'What will you gain by all this, if you faint away with hunger,
if you bury yourself alive, if you breathe out your undoomed soul before Fate calls
for it?' 'Believest thou that the ashes or the spirit of the buried dead can feel
thy woe?1
Will you not begin life afresh? Will you not shake off this womanish failing, and
enjoy the blessings of the light so long as you are allowed? Your poor dead
husband's body here ought to persuade you to keep alive.' People are always ready to
listen when they are urged to take a meal or to keep alive. So the lady, being
thirsty after several days' abstinence, allowed her resolution to be broken down,
and filled herself with food as greedily as the maid, who had been the first to
yield.
1 See Virgil, Æneid iv, 34.
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