The Just City by Jo Walton Page A

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    â€œTheseus,” he corrected me at once.
    â€œExactly. That’s why I wanted to ask you alone.”
    â€œWell, what? It’s a good Theseus, it meets the needs, it’s beautiful and we’ve rescued it. Atticus didn’t blink.”
    â€œBut why not say it’s David? Why do we have to keep Christ out? What’s the necessity? The reason I mentioned that I thought you were a monk was because I thought you were a Dominican, but still you prayed to Athene.”
    â€œI was having a bad moment when I prayed to be here. The church refused to hear my arguments and then I was imprisoned in France.”
    â€œYou prayed to Athene when you were imprisoned by the Inquisition?”
    â€œWith very good results,” he said, smiling and spreading his hands.
    â€œYes, fine, but my point is that many people have reconciled Plato with Christ. Ficino did.” Only a sliver of the sun was left, but the sea and sky still blazed. Why would he have been wearing a monk’s habit if he were not a monk? Did they have fancy dress parties in the Renaissance? Could I possibly ask?
    â€œI myself did,” he said, proudly. “I reconciled Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Platonism and Zoroastrianism. I learned Arabic and Hebrew. I was so proud of myself. But don’t you see, we were doing it starting from a belief that Christianity was true. If instead it’s the Greek Gods who are true, if we have immortal souls that go down into Hades and on to Lethe and new life, then what price salvation? They can mix from the other side, we could say that Plato was really talking about God. But from this side, well, we can’t say that when Jesus said he’d be in his father’s house that he was really talking about Zeus, now can we?”
    â€œI do see that,” I said. “But it’s not as if it does any harm, even if it’s not true. It’s a lovely story, about good people. It’s not … contaminated. I don’t see why we have to exclude it so entirely that we have to say the David is Theseus.”
    Ikaros lay back, propped on his elbow. “Christianity is harmful to the Republic because it offers a different and incorrect truth. We want them to discover the Truth, the real Truth that a philosopher can glimpse. That’s important. We don’t want to clutter it up with irrelevancies. Christianity would just get in their way. So no Madonnas and no crucifixions.”
    â€œBut David is all right as long as we say it’s Theseus?”
    â€œWhy not? What harm could that do? I’d bring a Madonna and say it’s Isis, but Ficino thinks that’s going too far.”
    â€œI wish I could see the Madonnas again. Botticelli’s Madonnas, that is. I only saw them once. I was going to buy an engraving, but I spent all my money on books. Still, we have the new ones.”
    â€œWe do. Athene in the Judgement of Paris looks a little like you.” He moved closer and put his arm around me. “The real trouble with Christianity is that the morality can do so much harm.”
    â€œI didn’t offer you Christian morality, but Plato on love,” I said, standing up. I wasn’t afraid that he would attack me, although I was aware that he was strong and could easily have overpowered me if he had wanted to. What frightened me was the thought that if he persisted, and especially if he persisted in touching me, I would give in to him. “Come on, let’s go back if you can’t exercise temperance.”
    â€œBut you are a poor little Christian virgin, not somebody holding out for agape,” he said, not moving.
    I was furious. “How could you possibly know?” I asked.
    He laughed, silhouetted against a sky of violet and rose. “Oh sit down. I can’t talk to you when you’re hovering over me like that. I’ll concede that I could be wrong. But I doubt it.”
    â€œNobody will ever say yes to you if