ACE OF DIAMONDS

… a fair man who
wanted all the cards on the table …

A s usual I got up before Dad, but it wasn’t long before his muscles began to twitch.

I decided to see whether it was true that he woke up every single morning with a bang, as he had claimed the day before.

I concluded that he was right, because when he opened his eyes, he really did look pretty startled. He could just as well have woken up in a totally different place – in India, for example, or on a little planet in another galaxy.

‘You are a living person,’ I said. ‘At this moment you are in Delphi. It is a place on earth, which is a living planet at present orbiting a star in the Milky Way. It takes 365 days for this planet to circle this star.’

He stared at me intently, as though his eyes had to adjust to the change from dreamland to the bright reality outside.

‘Thanks for the clarification,’ he said. ‘I normally have to work all that out for myself before I climb out of bed.’

He got up and walked across the room.

‘Maybe you should whisper some words of truth like that in my ear every morning, Hans Thomas. It would certainly get me into the bathroom more quickly.’

It didn’t take us long to pack, eat breakfast, and get back on the road.

‘It’s incredible to think how gullible they were,’ Dad said as we drove past the old temple site.

‘You mean believing in the oracle?’

He didn’t reply right away; I was worried that he had started to doubt the oracle’s word that we would meet Mama in Athens, but then he said, ‘Well, that, too, but think about all the gods: Apollo, Asclepias, Athena, Zeus, Poseidon and Dionysus. For years and years people built costly marble temples to these gods, which normally meant dragging heavy blocks of marble across huge distances.’

I didn’t know a great deal about what he was describing; nevertheless, I said, ‘How can you be so sure that these gods didn’t exist? They might not be here now – or they’ve found some other gullible people – but once upon a time they walked around on this earth.’

Dad glanced at me in the rear view mirror. ‘Do you believe that, Hans Thomas?’

‘I’m not quite sure. But in a way they were in the world, as long as people believed in them. People see what they believe – the gods didn’t grow old or frayed at the edges until people started to doubt.’

‘Well said,’ Dad exclaimed. ‘That was damn well put, Hans Thomas. Maybe you’ll be a philosopher one day, too.’

For once I felt I had said something so profound that even Dad had to think about it. At any rate, he didn’t say anything for a long time.

I’d actually fooled him a little, because I would never have said anything like that if I hadn’t read the sticky-bun book. I wasn’t really thinking of the Greek gods, I was thinking of Frode’s playing cards.

It was quiet in the car for such a long time that I carefully tried to sneak out the magnifying glass and the sticky-bun book. Just as I was about to start reading, however, Dad braked sharply and pulled off the road. He jumped out of the Fiat, lit a cigarette, and stood poring over a road atlas.

‘Here! Yes, it must be here,’ he exclaimed.

I said nothing. To our left was a narrow valley; otherwise I didn’t see anything that might explain this sudden outburst.

‘Have a seat,’ Dad said.

I could tell a mini-lecture was on its way, but this time it didn’t bother me. I knew I was really very lucky.

‘That’s where Oedipus killed his father,’ he said, pointing down to the valley.

‘Well, of course that was pretty dumb of him,’ I remarked, ‘but what on earth are you talking about?’

‘Destiny, Hans Thomas. I’m talking about destiny, or the family curse, if you prefer. It’s something which should particularly concern us – seeing as we’ve come to this country to find a lost wife and mother.’

‘And you believe in destiny?’ I had to ask. Dad stood next to me, with his foot on the stone I was sitting on and a cigarette in his hand.

He shook his head. ‘But the Greeks did, and if you rebelled against your destiny, you paid for it.’

I was already starting to feel guilty.

‘In an old town called Thebes, which we will soon be passing, lived King Laius and his wife, Jocasta. Laius had been told by the Delphic Oracle that he must never have any children, because if he had a son that boy would kill his father and marry his mother, so when Jocasta gave birth to a son, Laius decided to abandon the child to starve to death or be torn apart by wild animals.’

‘That’s barbaric,’ I exclaimed.

‘Of course, but wait until you hear the rest. King Laius ordered a shepherd to get rid of the child, and to be safe the King slashed the boy’s Achilles tendons, so there would be no way he could move around in the mountains and find his way back to Thebes. The shepherd did as the King had commanded, but on his way up into the mountains he met a shepherd from Corinth. The King of Corinth also had pastures in these parts. The shepherd from Corinth felt sorry for the little boy, who was going to be left either to starve to death or be eaten alive by wild animals. He asked the shepherd from Thebes if he could take the boy back with him to the King in Corinth. And so it came to be that the boy was raised as a prince in Corinth, since the King and Queen had no other children. They called him Oedipus, which means “swollen foot”, as the little boy’s feet were very badly swollen after the unpleasant treatment he had received in Thebes. Oedipus grew up to be a very handsome man whom everybody liked, but nobody told him that he wasn’t the royal couple’s true son. However, one day at a royal party a guest showed up and started to gossip about Oedipus not being the King and Queen’s real son –’

‘But he wasn’t.’

‘Exactly. But when Oedipus asked the Queen about it, she wouldn’t give him a proper answer, so he decided to consult the Delphic Oracle. Oedipus asked Pythia whether he was the rightful heir to the Corinth estate, and she said, ‘Leave your father, because if you meet him again, you will kill him. Afterwards, you will marry your mother and beget children with her.’

I whistled loudly. It was the same prophecy the King of Thebes had received.

‘On hearing this,’ Dad continued, ‘Oedipus didn’t dare return to Corinth, because he still believed the King and Queen there were his real parents. Instead, he took the road to Thebes. When he reached this exact spot, he met a noble gentleman who was being driven in a stately carriage drawn by four horses. He had several guards with him, and one of them struck Oedipus to make him stand aside. Oedipus – who had been brought up as the heir to the throne of Corinth – didn’t care for this treatment, and after a great deal of pushing and shoving, the whole unfortunate meeting ended with Oedipus killing the rich man.’

‘And this really was his true father?’

‘Yes. The guards were also killed, but the coachman finally managed to escape. He drove back to Thebes and told the people that King Laius had been killed by a robber. The Queen and the people of Thebes were overcome with grief, but there was also another thing worrying the city’s inhabitants.’

‘What was that?’

‘There was a Sphinx, a monstrous beast with a lion’s body and a woman’s head. It guarded the road to Thebes and tore apart any passerby who couldn’t solve the riddle it posed. The people of Thebes promised that whoever could solve the Sphinx’s riddle would be able to marry Queen Jocasta and become the King of Thebes after King Laius.’

I whistled again.

‘Oedipus, who quickly forgot that he’d been forced to use his sword on the long journey, soon arrived at the Sphinx’s mountain, and the Sphinx now demanded that he solve the following riddle: what walks on four legs in the morning, two legs in day time, and three legs in the evening?’

Dad looked at me to see whether I could solve this difficult riddle. I just shook my head.

‘“ Human beings do, during the three stages of life,” replied Oedipus. “In infancy they crawl on all fours, for most of their life they walk upright on two legs – and in old age they hobble on three because they have to use a stick.” Oedipus had given the correct answer, and the Sphinx didn’t survive this; it tumbled down the mountainside to its death. Oedipus was greeted as a hero in Thebes. He received the promised reward and married Jocasta, who was in fact his own mother, and in time they had two sons and two daughters.’

‘Well, I’ll be damned,’ I exclaimed. I hadn’t taken my eyes off Dad for a second, but now I just had to glance down at the place where Oedipus had killed his father.

‘But that’s not the end of the story,’ Dad continued. ‘A terrible plague broke out in the city. In those times the Greeks believed such misfortunes were due to the wrath of Apollo and that there must be a reason for his anger. They asked the Delphic Oracle why Apollo had sent this terrible plague. Pythia’s answer was that the city had to find King Laius’ murderer, otherwise the whole city would be destroyed.’

‘No way!’

‘King Oedipus took it upon himself to do everything he could to find the previous King’s murderer. He had never linked the fight on the road to the murder of King Laius. Without knowing it, Oedipus became the murderer who had to solve his own crime. The first thing he did was ask a clairvoyant about who might have murdered King Laius, but the man refused to answer, simply because the truth was too harsh. However, Oedipus – who was prepared to do everything in his power to help his people – managed to squeeze the truth out of him. The clairvoyant confided to Oedipus that the King himself was guilty. Even though Oedipus gradually remembered what had happened that day on the road and realised that he had murdered the King, he still had no proof that he was King Laius’s son. However, Oedipus was a fair man who wanted all the cards on the table. He finally managed to confront the old shepherd from Thebes and the shepherd from Corinth, and they confirmed that he had killed his own father and married his mother. When the truth eventually became clear to Oedipus, he tore out both his eyes. In a way he had been blind all along.’

I sighed heavily. I thought the old story was deeply tragic and terribly unfair.

‘That’s what you call a real family curse,’ I murmured.

‘But on several occasions King Laius and Oedipus tried to escape their destiny. According to the Greeks, this was totally impossible.’

As we passed Thebes there was silence in the car. I think Dad sat mulling over his own family curse; at least he didn’t utter a word.

After having thought over the tragedy of King Oedipus from all angles, I reached for the magnifying glass and the sticky-bun book.

Дата добавления: 2015-10-28