She Stands Alone

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Excerpt from She Stands Alone: The Story of Pilate's Wife The child! She would see the child! Bring it quick! Here! Cried the midwife. Ere it could be brought there was a shivering movement on the couch, a slight convulsion, a sigh a breath strangled in the throat ere it reached the lips - then a dead silence. The mother's life had paid forfeit for that of her child. The soul had rent its prison-house of clay, and had escaped. Whither? Lysander's eyes were opened now. No need to tell him all was over. He drew his pallium, or Upper mantle, over his head - the Greek Sign of mourning and left the chamber of birth and death the wail of the women following him into the men's division of the house. The Areopagite had fondly loved his wife, and his grief was real. Nature, well pleased, also went her way, for she had accomplished another of her never-ceasing tasks, producing with one hand and destroying with the other. Man and She are ever at war. He wrests her secrets, subdues her forces, utilizes her powers, and then when he boasts that he has conquered, Death steps in and wins. The naming a child was an important religious rite with the ancient Greeks, yet no priest, save as a guest, assisted at the ceremony. The worship of the gods was so interwoven with every act of the daily life of these Pagans, they needed neither teach ing nor celebrants. Each man was priest in his own house, and performed himself, whether individually or collectively, his public as well as his private devotions. Thus the priests were the necessary servants of the temples - nothing more. When the day arrived for giving the Areopagite's infant its name, the outside of the house was not only festooned with wool, the Sign of a girl, but also with olive branches, the indication of a boy, in token that the father considered his child to be both daughter and son to him. The statues of the gods were garlanded with ¿owers, incense was burnt before them, libations poured, and offerings laid at their feet, musicians and singers invoked and sang their praises at intervals, and the fire was prepared and lighted on the sacred hearth. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.