Lives of Alcyone

FORTY-SEVENTH LIFE 243
vehicle of a young fisherman of the place, who had been drowned in
attempting to escape the massacre.
By the arrival of Mercury Zarathushtra seemed doubly
inspired, and they began to make arrangements for the preaching
tour which had been so long foretold, Zarathushtra had, all this time,
maintained the closest relations with the king Vishtaspa (Ulysses),
and the King was now as eager as Zarathushtra himself that his
prophet, as he called him, should be the leader of religion for the
while of Persia. Zarathushtra subordinated everything to what he
considered the needs of his work, and by no means neglected to
make all possible use of worldly links that he thought might be of
value to him. Not only had he in this way married his daughter to the
son of the prime minister, but he himself in turn, and for the same
reason, had married Kavihusrava (Achilles), a cousin of the King,
and by her had already two sons, named Hvarechithra and
Urvatatnara. This second wife, however, did not live very long, and
eventually Zarathushtra married a third time, still further cementing
his alliance with the family of Castor by taking to wife Hvoghvi
(Pindar), the youngest sister of the premier.
So deep was the grief of Alcyone at his second terrible
disappointment, so entirely was he filled with despair and weariness
of life, that he thought seriously of suicide, and had all but decided
upon it when Mercury’ s arrival changed the face of the world for
him. Even at first he felt for Mercury a combination of affection and
reverence, which from a proud Persian noble to one who was
apparently a humble Greek fisherman was indeed passing strange.
Almost at once Mercury spoke to him of the sorrow which so
evidently sat heavily upon him, and drew forth from him the whole