HERE'S THE THIRD PART OF THE KNIGHT'S TALE.
I guess I wouldn't do a good job of telling this story if I didn't tell you all about
the magnificent stadium Theseus built to host the tournament between Arcite and Palamon
and their teams of knights.
The stadium was enormous.
It was circular and made of stone and was a full mile in circumference and sixty feet
high.
It also had stadium seating, which meant that if someone sat in front of you, you could
still see the field clearly.
There really was no finer stadium in the entire world.
There was a white marble gate on both the eastern and western sides of the stadium.
Theseus also had altars built on the eastern, western, and northern sides of the stadium
where he could make sacrifices to the gods.
The eastern altar was for making sacrifices to Venus, the goddess of love, while the expensive
altar near the western gate was built to honor Mars, the god of war.
On the northern side he built an oratory platform of white alabaster and red coral, from which
people could address the audience.
This he dedicated to Diana, the goddess of the moon and hunting.
As I said, the stadium truly was one of a kind, in part because Theseus hired every
single mathematician, construction worker, painter or sculptor in the country.
Oh, but before I forget, let me tell you a little bit more about the sculptures and paintings
that adorned these three altars because they were truly amazing.
Well, first, if you look at the altar devoted to Venus, you'll see paintings of all sorts
of people who personify everything that love has the ability to make people feel: Pleasure,
Hope, Desire, Foolishness, Beauty, Youth, Lust, Wealth, Magic, Power, Deceit, Flattery,
Opulence, Toil, and Jealousy, who wore a garland of golden flowers and had a cuckoo bird sitting
on her hand.
The paintings also depict parties, musical instruments, singers, dancing, happiness,
and everything else that love has the power to create but that I don't have time to talk
about.
There was also a painting of beautiful Mount Cytheria, the home of Venus.
There were also paintings of all sorts of people who've felt love's pleasure and pain,
including Narcisus, the man who fell in love with his own reflection; King Solomon; Hercules;
the sirens Medea and Circe; fierce Turnus; and wealthy Croesus.
So, as you can see, no one is immune from Venus's powers of love, not even the wisest
and richest and strongest men out there.
I could go on and on, but you get the idea.
The altarpiece was a glorius statue of Venus that depicted her naked, floating in the ocean
so that she was covered from the waist down by green waves that sparkled like glass.
She held a stringed lyre in her right hand and wore a garland made of beautiful and sweet-smelling
roses on top of her head.
Doves flew above her head, while her son, Cupid, stood in front of her.
Cupid had wings, carried a bow and arrows, and was blind, just as most other sculptures
and paintings depict him.
And while I'm at it, I should tell you all about the artwork inside the temple of Mars
too.
This temple was decorated with scenes of the horrors of war, the same scenes you'll find
in the temple to him in the region of Thrace, where Mars lives.
The first scene of the painting on the wall was that of a dark and scary forest on top
of a hill that was filled not with people or animals, but with old, knotted trees and
stumps.
You could hear the creaking of the wood and the howling of the wind just by looking at
the painting.
A painting of a temple dedicated to Mars stood at the bottom of the hill, complete with a
statue of the god dressed in a full suit of steel armor and ready for battle.
It made him look pretty frightening.
The temple gates were gaping, and you could imagine hearing the wind slam them shut.
The columns holding up the roof were enormous and made of solid iron.
The temple doors, which were made of the indestructible metal adamant, were shut and locked up tightly.
The north side of the temple was lit, but everything else was dark.
As with the paintings honoring Venus, you could see all the emotions associated with
war personified in the paintings in the temple of Mars.
There was Treachery plotting and scheming, Anger glowing red, and Dread as well.
There was the smiling character holding a knife underneath his cape, a barn burning
with black smoke, murder, bloodshed, gaping wounds, misery, bloody knives, and piled bodies.
You could almost hear the clash of steel and the screams of battle.
There was a painting of a man who'd killed himself, his head lying in a pool of his own
blood.
Death himself stalked another man who had an iron stake poking through his head.
Other figures representing personified emotions were nearby too.
Misfortune, for example, sat in the middle of the temple looking forlorn, while Insanity
laughed hysterically.
Sadness and Outrage were there too, and Conquest sat high up in a tower overlooking the entire
scene below.
You could see a dead body lying in the bushes with its throat cut, and a thousand dead bodies
all piled up, dead from war rather than old age or even disease.
There were kidnappers and burning cities and sailing ships, hunters gored to death by their
own prey, pigs gorging themselves on little babies lying in their cribs.
Mars's servants were there too, including the battlefield surgeon, the butcher, and
the blacksmith who makes weapons for war.
You could see the scenes of the murders of Julius Caesar and the Roman emperors Nero
and Caracalla, who'd all been murdered.
Nothing was left out.
All the horrors of war were there to see in the paintings inside the temple of Mars.
The statue of Mars inside the temple rode a chariot, and he looked as fierce and angry
as ever.
The constellations Puella and Rubeus that are often associated with him shone brightly
over his head.
A red-eyed wolf was at his feet, visciously tearing the flesh of a man.
The painting was quite amazing and was a true tribute to Mars.
And now, as quickly as I can, I'll tell you all about the temple devoted to the celibate
goddess Diana.
All up and down, the walls were painted with scenes of hunting and those depicting chastity.
There were portraits of lots of hunters, including Callisto, who pissed Diana off and was transformed
into a bear as punishment and later was placed in the sky as the North Star.
Her son is a star too.
There was also a painting of Daphne, whom Diana changed into a tree.
You could also see a painting of Actaeon, the poor hunter whom Diana changed into a
deer after he'd seen her naked.
The painting even showed his hunting dogs tearing him apart because they didn't realize
that the deer was their master.
You could also see Atalanta and Meleager, the couple who hunted the wild boar, and many
paintings of other people too, none of which I can recall off the top of my head.
The statue of Diana inside the temple featured her sitting on a deer with all her hunting
dogs at her feet as well as the moon.
She wore bright green clothes and held a bow and arrows in her hands.
Her eyes were pointed toward the ground toward the underworld.
There was a sculpture of a woman crying out for mercy in the middle of childbirth next
to the statue of Diana.
The artists who made these sculptures and paintings really knew how to make scenes come
to life, and you could tell they spared no expense in creating the altar.
And when the stadium had finally been completed, Theseus felt pretty happy with the results.
But, before I talk any more about him, let me switch gears quickly and tell you more
about Arcite and Palamon.
Well, the day of the tournament came very quickly, and Arcite and Palamon assembled
their one hundred battle-ready knights in the new stadium in Athens.
God, a tournament fought for the love of a woman.
That would definitely be a sight to see, now wouldn't it?
Lots of Athenians said that never had so many of the world's most noble and valiant assembled
in one place for such a tournament.
Knights had come from far and wide and applied to fight for Arcite and Palamon, but only
200 men total were chosen to participate.
Well, you know yourselves that if it was announced that this kind of tournament was going to
be held tomorrow—either here in England or somewhere else—every knight who ever
dreamt of honor and glory would come out of the woodwork to get a piece of the action.
Well, the knights who fought for Palamon felt this way too.
They all wanted to prove their honor.
Some came dressed in chain mail, a tunic, and a breastplate.
Others simply wore a couple of steel plates, one on the front and one on the back.
Others carried a simple round shield, or made sure to wear leg armor.
Some wanted to fight with a mace, while other knights brought axes.
Each person came with the armor and weapons he thought would help him win.
Lycurgus himself, the powerful king of Thrace, came with Palamon.
He looked so manly with his jet-black beard and hair that fell down to his waist.
The pupils of his eyes were somewhere between red and yellow.
Those eyes and his big bushy eyebrows made him look like a griffin, half lion and half
eagle.
He had broad shoulders and strong, muscular arms.
He wore an enormous black bearskin over his armor instead of a tunic, and its yellow claws
shone like gold.
A crown of gold studded with diamonds and rubies glittered on top of his head.
Like most Thracian warriors, he arrived in a golden chariot pulled by four white bulls.
Twenty giant white wolves circled around his chariot, tethered with gold collars and muzzles.
He brought with him a hundred of his own knights