By Heracles! but I should like to see These Hebrews crowned with ivy, and arrayed In skins of fawns, with drums and flutes and thyrsi, Revel and riot through the solemn streets Of their old town.Ha, ha! It makes me merry Only to think of it!--Thou dost not laugh.
JASON.
Yea, I laugh inwardly.
ANTIOCHUS.
The new Greek leaven Works slowly in this Israelitish dough!
Have I not sacked the Temple, and on the altar Set up the statue of Olympian Zeus To Hellenize it?
JASON.
Thou hast done all this.
ANTIOCHUS.
As thou wast Joshua once and now art Jason, And from a Hebrew hast become a Greek, So shall this Hebrew nation be translated, Their very natures and their names be changed, And all be Hellenized.
JASON.
It shall be done.
ANTIOCHUS.
Their manners and their laws and way of living Shall all be Greek.They shall unlearn their language, And learn the lovely speech of Antioch.
Where hast thou been to-day? Thou comest late.
JASON.
Playing at discus with the other priests In the Gymnasium.
ANTIOCHUS.
Thou hast done well.
There's nothing better for you lazy priests Than discus-playing with the common people.
Now tell me, Jason, what these Hebrews call me When they converse together at their games.
JASON.
Antiochus Epiphanes, my Lord;
Antiochus the Illustrious.
ANTIOCHUS.
O, not that;
That is the public cry; I mean the name They give me when they talk among themselves, And think that no one listens; what is that?
JASON.
Antiochus Epimanes, my Lord!
ANTIOCHUS.
Antiochus the Mad! Ay, that is it.
And who hath said it? Who hath set in motion That sorry jest?
JASON.
The Seven Sons insane Of a weird woman, like themselves insane.
ANTIOCHUS.
I like their courage, but it shall not save them.
They shall be made to eat the flesh of swine, Or they shall die.Where are they?
JASON.
In the dungeons Beneath this tower.
ANTIOCHUS.
There let them stay and starve, Till I am ready to make Greeks of them, After my fashion.
JASON.
They shall stay and starve.--
My Lord, the Ambassadors of Samaria Await thy pleasure.
ANTIOCHUS.
Why not my displeasure?
Ambassadors are tedious.They are men Who work for their own ends, and not for mine There is no furtherance in them.Let them go To Apollonius, my governor There in Samaria, and not trouble me.
What do they want?
JASON.
Only the royal sanction To give a name unto a nameless temple Upon Mount Gerizim.
ANTIOCHUS.
Then bid them enter.
This pleases me, and furthers my designs.
The occasion is auspicious.Bid them enter.
SCENE II.-- ANTIOCHUS; JASON; THE SAMARITAN AMBASSADORS.
ANTIOCHUS.
Approach.Come forward; stand not at the door Wagging your long beards, but demean yourselves As doth become Ambassadors.What seek ye?
AN AMBASSADOR.
An audience from the King.
ANTIOCHUS.
Speak, and be brief.
Waste not the time in useless rhetoric.
Words are not things.
AMBASSADOR (reading)."To King Antiochus, The God, Epiphanes; a Memorial From the Sidonians, who live at Sichem."ANTIOCHUS.
Sidonians?
AMBASSADOR.
Ay, my Lord.
ANTIOCHUS.
Go on, go on!
And do not tire thyself and me with bowing!
AMBASSADOR (reading).
"We are a colony of Medes and Persians."
ANTIOCHUS.
No, ye are Jews from one of the Ten Tribes;Whether Sidonians or Samaritans Or Jews of Jewry, matters not to me;Ye are all Israelites, ye are all Jews.
When the Jews prosper, ye claim kindred with them;When the Jews suffer, ye are Medes and Persians:
I know that in the days of Alexander Ye claimed exemption from the annual tribute In the Sabbatic Year, because, ye said, Your fields had not been planted in that year.
AMBASSADOR (reading).
"Our fathers, upon certain frequent plagues, And following an ancient superstition, Were long accustomed to observe that day Which by the Israelites is called the Sabbath, And in a temple on Mount Gerizim Without a name, they offered sacrifice.
Now we, who are Sidonians, beseech thee, Who art our benefactor and our savior, Not to confound us with these wicked Jews, But to give royal order and injunction To Apollonius in Samaria.
Thy governor, and likewise to Nicanor, Thy procurator, no more to molest us;And let our nameless temple now be named The Temple of Jupiter Hellenius."ANTIOCHUS.
This shall be done.Full well it pleaseth me Ye are not Jews, or are no longer Jews, But Greeks; if not by birth, yet Greeks by custom.
Your nameless temple shall receive the name Of Jupiter Hellenius.Ye may go!
SCENE III.-- ANTIOCHUS; JASON.
ANTIOCHUS.
My task is easier than I dreamed.These people Meet me half-way.Jason, didst thou take note How these Samaritans of Sichem said They were not Jews? that they were Medes and Persians, They were Sidonians, anything but Jews?
'T is of good augury.The rest will follow Till the whole land is Hellenized.
JASON.
My Lord, These are Samaritans.The tribe of Judah Is of a different temper, and the task Will be more difficult.
ANTIOCHUS.
Dost thou gainsay me?
JASON.
I know the stubborn nature of the Jew.
Yesterday, Eleazer, an old man, Being fourscore years and ten, chose rather death By torture than to eat the flesh of swine.
ANTIOCHUS.
The life is in the blood, and the whole nation Shall bleed to death, or it shall change its faith!
JASON.
Hundreds have fled already to the mountains Of Ephraim, where Judas Maccabaeus Hath raised the standard of revolt against thee.
ANTIOCHUS.
I will burn down their city, and will make it Waste as a wilderness.Its thoroughfares Shall be but furrows in a field of ashes.
It shall be sown with salt as Sodom is!
This hundred and fifty-third Olympiad Shall have a broad and blood-red sea upon it, Stamped with the awful letters of my name, Antiochus the God, Epiphanes!--Where are those Seven Sons?
JASON.
My Lord, they wait Thy royal pleasure.
ANTIOCHUS.
They shall wait no longer!
ACT II.
The Dungeons in the Citadel.
SCENE I.-- THE MOTHER of the SEVEN SONS alone, listening.
THE MOTHER.
Be strong, my heart!