Lives of Alcyone

FORTY-SEVENTH LIFE 271
Chart LXVII a
Greece (Birth of Orion) 499 B.C.
1 st 2 nd 3 rd 4 th 5 th 6 th 7 th
Many members of our group took birth among the families of the Eupatriadae at Athens at a troublous and exciting time of Greek history
about the year 500 B.C. Orion, for example, was born in the year 499. His name was Theodoros; his father was Kleomenes(Sirius) ; his
mother Philippa (Koli) ; his eldest brother Philalethes (Selene) ; his younger brother Kleon (Mira) ; and his little sister Agatha (Fomalhaut).
They were an especially happy and united family, and the ties of affection between them were strong. The only weak spot was the second
son Anaximandros (Ursa), who did not seem quite to be one of them, had spasms of dislike for his home, and gave a good deal of trouble
in various ways. Sirius took his share in the politics and fighting of the period, but his greatest interest was the Pythagorean school of philosophy.
In his youth he had seen the great Pythagoras himself, and had been specially helped and instructed by his pupil Kleinias (Uranus),
who afterwards came and settled in Athens and founded a school of philosophy there, of which allour characters were earnest students.
Uranus himself had as wife Vesta, and Agathokles (Erato), the uncle of Orion, married Demeter, one of his daughters, so that he families
were practically one family. Erato was a celebrated sculptor, and has been mentioned in exoteric history; he attached to most of his works
the assumed name of Kalamis. He had married Demeter, daughter of the philosopher Uranus, and his boys and girls were naturally prominent
in the life of Orion, though most of the were a good deal younger than he. The girl Vega, for example, was nine years younger than
Orion; she was an exceedingly beautiful child and all the brothers were forn of her. Some grandchildren of Uranus were also among their
playmates.
In spite of the constant wars and turmoils their life was a gree and happy one, filled with a joy of living in the sunlight which it is difficult for
us in these modern days to realise. The Greek race was a beautiful one, and great attention was paid to physical culture. Orion was handsome
and graceful, full of life and vigour, and good at sports and games. He had a fine intellectual head, and learned quickly and easily. The
education of the period was curiously different from ours, limited in certain directions but excellent in others. There was not much actual book
learning, and but little was known of the laws of nature as exemplified in such sciences as chemistry or astronomy. The endeavour was
to wake up the faculties of the children rather than to load them with dry facts--to make their daily life bright, happy and to appreciate the
best in art and poetry, to sing and to play upon the lyre and the double flute, and Orion did well in all these lines. The maxims of philosophy
were directly taught, but great reliance was also placed upon the influence of surroundings, and beautiful pictures and statues were always
kept before the eyes of the children, and they were encouraged to try to reproduce them.
Orion excelled in clay-modelling, and was very often in his uncle's studio across the court. He studied under him later, and did some good
work, making copies in marble of some of his uncle's statues--notably of the boys upon horseback which Kalamis added to the great bronze
group of Onatas at Olympia. These specially attracted him because he himself had taken parts in the games at Olympia. He was successful
in these games, both as a boy and as a young man, and once he won the crown of wild olive which was the greatest honour Greece
had to give. He was a kind hearted and sympethetic child, always anxious to relieve any suffering he saw; wayward and contrary sometimes
, but capable of a glorious wealth of affection.
An unfortunate accident in early boyhood produced a considerable effect upon his character. He was always a peaceable child, and shrank
from seeing anyone hurt, but on one occasion he lost his temper in some little quarrel and gave an angry push to a playmate when they were
standing at the top of the steps in front of his father's house. The other child fell over the side of the flight of steps to the ground beneath, and
was seriously hurt, so that he was lame for some years. The grief and remorse of Orion were great, and he vowed again and again that he
would never strike a blow in a personal quarrel, no matter how great the provocation might be.
He kept his vow, though in later years he had to take part in the defence of his country like the other nobles. He was only nine years old at
the time of the battle of Marathon, in which his father and uncle took part, so he naturally had no share in that great feat of arms, in which an
army of over a hundred thousand Persians, under one of the best generals of the time, was defeated with great loss by a body of ten thousand
Greeks. Many thousands of the Persians were slain, but fewer than two hundred of the Atlanteans, and Greece was left in peace for a
short time.
The occasion on which Orion won the olive crown was of course one of great rejoicing for his family--the more so as it coincided with his
initiation into the Mysteries of Eleusis. There was a splendid procession in which the handsome boy, covered with garlands of flowers, was
the prominent figure. His mother Phillipa, who was always gentle, tender and sympethetic to her children, watched with keen delight and
pride. With her was Fomalhaut, and also Helios and Achilles (the two granddaughters of Uranus) who had both fallen deeply in love with the
young athelete. He quite reciprocated their affection, and might have found it difficult to choose between them, but presently the elder sister
died, and when he was twenty-two he married the younger.
Before this, however, he had borne his part in some stirring events. His father was one of the Atlantean delegated to the celebrated Congre-
ss at Corinth in 481 B.C. and both Selene and Orion accompanied hhim on this historic occasion. In the next year Xerxes advanced upon
Athens with his mighty army of a million men--drawn, he boasted, from forty six nations; and as successful resistance was impossible all the
Athenians had to withdraw from their homes, and take refuge on beautiful mansion, and no doubt the thought of it made them fight with additional
valour at the great naval battle of Salamis. In this the Persian fleet was totally defeated, and Xerxes hurriedly marched his army back
into Asia, leaving, however, thirty three thousand men under his general Mardonius. Orion was brave enough in the battle, though horror se-