Achaemenidae shall be brought up at the king's gate. I dare not allow
the little Parmys, Cyrus' only grandchild, to leave me, and, much as
Sappho loves you, you know she would not part from her child. Indeed,
she has become so dear to me now, and to my daughter, that though I well
understand your wish to have her, I could never allow Sappho to leave
us."

Seeing that Rhodopis' eyes were filling with tears, Kassandane went on:
"There is, however, a good way out of our perplexity. Leave Naukratis,
and come with us to Persia. There you can spend your last years with us
and with your granddaughter, and shall be provided with a royal
maintenance."

Rhodopis shook her head, hoary but still so beautiful, and answered
in a suppressed voice: "I thank you, noble queen, for this gracious
invitation, but I feel unable to accept it. Every fibre of my heart
is rooted in Greece, and I should be tearing my life out by leaving it
forever. I am so accustomed to constant activity, perfect freedom, and a
stirring exchange of thought, that I should languish and die in the
confinement of a harem. Croesus had already prepared me for the gracious
proposal you have just made, and I have had a long and difficult battle
to fight, before I could decide on resigning my dearest blessing for my
highest good. It is not easy, but it is glorious, it is more worthy of
the Greek name--to live a good and beautiful life, than a happy one--to
follow duty rather than pleasure. My heart will follow Sappho, but my
intellect and experience belong to the Greeks; and if you should ever
hear that the people of Hellas are ruled by themselves alone, by their
own gods, their own laws, the beautiful and the good, then you will know
that the work on which Rhodopis, in league with the noblest and best of
her countrymen, has staked her life, is accomplished. Be not angry with