552 Pericles A Tale of Greece. MAY, 



following day Anticles did not fail to visit the mansion of Pericles, for the 

 purpose of thanking Polidorus for the inestimable kindness he had done 

 him, and congratulating him on the reputation which he had deservedly 

 gained for patriotism and virtue. Upon being introduced into the stately 

 hall of Pericles, he found not only his son, who had rendered himself so 

 conspicuous on the preceding night, but also, to his great surprise,* Callir- 

 rhoe, his daughter. Anticles was, as we have said before, of an imposing 

 appearance, manly and handsome. Callirrhoe was in the full bloom of 

 youth ; her figure was elegant, her gait graceful, her features were formed 

 in the loveliest mould -, locks, which might emulate the raven's sable 

 hue, fell gracefully on her fair neck ; and eyes, which wanted no prospect 

 to feast them, so exquisitely beautiful were they themselves, shone dark- 

 ling forth all harmonised in symmetry truly and only Grecian - } such a 

 form, in short, as may well be supposed to have inspired the pencil of 

 a Phidias or the chisel of a Lysippus to the execution of works, which 

 have been and will ever continue to be the standards of art and models of 

 imitation. 



Their eyes no sooner met than they flashed affection, and love fired 

 their breasts. To discover his attachment to the daughter of Pericles, 

 would have been dangerous to Anticles; and for Callirrhoe to acknow- 

 ledge that the attachment was reciprocal, would have been fatal. For 

 the family of Anticles, though one of the most ancient in Athens, was yet 

 plebeian ; and Pericles, although he had elevated the people so nearly to 

 a level with the aristocracy, was not^so insensible to the pride of nobility 

 as to suffer his daughter to be wedded to a plebeian, and was more than 

 once heard to say : " Sooner shall the gods take the place of men, and 

 men usurp the throne of the gods 3 sooner shall rivers flow upwards, and 

 the scaly tribe crawl in dominion over the land, than the daughter of 

 Pericles be espoused to a plebeian of Athens." These sentiments of 

 Pericles, so universally known, seemed at first an insuperable obstacle to 

 the wishes of the lovers. For so absolute was the authority of parents 

 fci Greece, and so unqualified the obedience of children, that for a daughter 

 to marry without the approbation of her father, and, indeed, most of her 

 relations, would have been deemed a crime of most flagitious impiety. 

 But to attempt to resist the impetuosity of love, would be like attempting 

 to divert the course of the ocean, or to quench with a libation of wine the 

 flames which played around the turrets of Troy, and reduced it to ashes. 

 For if mountains intervene too lofty to be scaled by ordinary means, 

 Love will furnish wings to o'erfly their bounds. 



Many an anxious thought struggled in the heart of Callirrhoe, and many 

 a strife between duty and love agitated her bosom j but at length love 

 proved in her, as it has done in all who have truly loved, the most power- 

 ful of human passions ; and she determined, rather than desert her lover, 

 to disobey her father, to leave Athens, to become a voluntary exile 

 from her country, and to take refuge with Anticles in some lonely island 

 of the ^Egean. A revolt, however, in the isle of Samos, now called for 

 the immediate presence of Pericles to complete the reduction of the 

 inhabitants, which had been but partially effected by Polemarchus. This 

 seemed to afford a favourable opportunity for the execution of their pro- 

 ject ; and they were in consequence elevated to great expectations, and 



* In Greece, the women's apartments were separate from those of the men. 



