5 A Visit To A Temple One day Melissa and I took Argo for his walk. Instead of the usual route we headed toward the centre of town, Melissa explaining that she had to “see someone about something”. Even though I was already fluent in Greek and no longer needed her help, Melissa and I had taken a liking to each other, and Gaius allowed us to go out together to take Argo for walks and to run errands. As we reached the Agora we came to the Egyptian temple I had seen upon my arrival here. It looked kind of out of place surrounded as it was by Greek and Roman temples and other buildings. It had a huge pylon in the front, with three poles on each side of the gate, upon which red pennants fluttered in the breeze. The front was decorated with a painted relief that showed some soldiers lying on the ground. Standing over them was a king (or so I assumed, judging by the fact that he had what appeared to be a crown on his head). With one hand he clutched the head of one of the fallen soldiers and his other, upraised, hand held a club or stick of some sort with which he appeared to be beating the soldier. “Who is that supposed to be?” I asked, pointing at the relief. “A king”, she said. “One of the Ptolemies I imagine. I’m not sure which one, though.” The gate was open, and Melissa went in. She looked at me and said “Come on, don’t just stand there”. “Do they let people bring dogs in there?” I asked, looking at Argo. “Of course they do”, she answered, “Come on!” I led Argo into the gate. Inside we found ourselves in a large courtyard at the end of which was another pylon. We went through the other pylon and found ourselves in a large, dark room filled with massive, brightly painted pillars, about two and a half or three feet apart. I remembered reading in some of my ancient history books back home that this room was called the Hypostyle Hall. Every large Egyptian temple had at least one. Historians and Egyptologists had been debating for years exactly what this room was for and what the enormous pillars so close together symbolised. Well, here was a chance that no other twenty-first century person will ever have, to settle the question once and for all (unfortunately I’d never have a chance to go home and tell them, though). “Melissa,” I said, “What exactly is this room for?” “No idea”, she said. You’ll have to ask one of the priests. We emerged on the other side of the Hypostyle Hall and found ourselves in a smaller courtyard. On the other side were three small buildings. I asked Melissa what they were. “Chapels” she answered. She pointed at the one in the centre “The High Priest is the only one allowed to use that one. The image of the Goddess is in there”. “What does it look like?” I asked. “The image?” she said, “how should I know? Only the High Priest gets to see it. They take it out in a procession once a year to visit the Serapion, but it’s in an enclosed palanquin so people still don’t get to see it even then. Wait here, I’ll be back.” She hurried across the courtyard and went into one of the chapels. A bald-headed man dressed in an Egyptian style long tunic came out of one of the other chapels. He saw me and came over. “Do you need anything, young man?” he asked. “I’m just waiting for someone. She’s in there” I said, pointing at the chapel that Melissa had entered. He nodded and smiled. “Excuse me, sir,” I continued, “Could you answer a question for me?” “I’ll try” he said. “The hypostyle Hall”, I said, “what exactly does it represent?” “Represent?” he repeated, a puzzled look on his face. “Where I’m from, people, when they talk about Egyptian temples, are always debating over what it represents. Some say the pillars represent tree trunks in a forest, some say they represent reeds along the Nile, things like that.” He chuckled. “Actually they don’t symbolise anything. They hold the roof up.” “That’s it?” I asked. “Then why are they so big, and so close together?” “Unlike Greek and Roman temples, whose roofs are made of wood, this temple, and others like it, have roofs made of huge slabs of solid stone, “ he said. “The pillars need to be so huge and so close together just to keep the roof from collapsing under its own weight.” He turned and headed out the gate. After a while, Melissa returned. As we headed out, I said “You said that they take the Isis statue to the Serapion...” “Yes”, she said. “What’s a ‘serapion’?” I asked. She ponted towards a temple which I recognised as the one at which the Legate, on the day of my arrival, had sacrificed the bulls. “The temple of Serapis”, she said. “Serapis?” I aked, “who exactly is Serapis?” I had heard the name before but was unsure of who it referred to. “Serapis is a Greek-Egyptian god”, she said. “He was formed by combining attributes of Osiris, Apis and Zeus. In Egyptian he’s called ‘Ausir-Apis’ which is Egyptian for ‘Osiris-Apis’ That comes out in Greek as ‘Serapis’. “By the way,” I said, as we left the agora andaded back towards the house, “Do you know where I could get a glass bead? It has to be clear and have no impurities, and it can’t have a hole in it.” “Just one bead?” she asked. I nodded. “I could probably get you one, they’re not too expensive. One of the shops in the Agora might have them,” she said. “What do you need just one bead for?” For an experiment” I said. For the past several days I had racked my brain for an idea for something to ‘invent’ to make a little money. Then, the previous night I rememebred my old high school science fair project. The camera itself would be easy, but the real challenge would be getting the materials I needed to make photographic plates. “What kind of experiment?” she asked. To make a ‘camera obscura’”, I said “A what?” she asked. “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you” I answered, “but if it works, you’ll be the first one I show it to.” “Fair enough” she said with a smile. “What are you going to do with it when you get it finished?” “ It’s a surprise,” I said. I didn’t want to tell her up front that I intended to buy freedom for both of us until I actually had the money, because I didn’t want to give her any false hope in case my plan didn’t work out. When we returned to the house (I couldn’t bring myself to refer to it as “home”, even tho it was where I lived. ‘Home’ was in the 21st Century), I went to look for Pius, who had taken it upon himself to teach me Latin in addition to Greek. Meslissa brought me five beads that afternoon. I had ro reject one because it had a bubble in the centre, but the others were good enough for my purposes, so the next day I would set out to find the materials I needed to grind one of them into a lens.