The Tour · Chapter
XVIII explained
Lucius, grappling with the revelation that Ilia left him for the sailor Carus, visits the great Sphinx (Neith) and encounters a Jewish hermit who claims to have seen a radiant child in the lap of the Sphinx, interpreted as a vision of a new
What happens
Lucius, grappling with the revelation that Ilia left him for the sailor Carus, visits the great Sphinx (Neith) and encounters a Jewish hermit who claims to have seen a radiant child in the lap of the Sphinx, interpreted as a vision of a new god. The chapter explores Lucius's internal turmoil and the contrast between human grief and divine mystery.
Themes in this chapter
Grief and Healing
Lucius's silent grief over Ilia's betrayal and his attempt to suppress it through pride and acceptance of oracular truth.
Deception and Survival
Caleb's deceptive act of pocketing the gold meant for the hermit, and the hermit's rejection of material wealth in favor of spiritual vision.
Mortality and Transience
The hermit's vision of a radiant child as a fleeting, transcendent moment that eclipses all past and future knowledge.
Characters to notice
- Publius Lucius Sabinus
Struggles with the truth of Ilia's betrayal by Carus; seeks solace in oracles and the Sphinx; resolves to keep his grief silent.
- Caleb
Arranges the visit to the Sphinx and the Jewish hermit; dismisses the hermit as mad; secretly pockets the gold meant for the hermit.
- Catullus
Overwhelmed by the impressions of Egypt; expresses fear and discomfort, preferring to retreat to his camel.
- Thrasyllus
Whispers that the hermit is a seer who may have seen the new god spoken of by the sibyls; urges Lucius to leave for safety.
- Tsafnath-Paeneach
The Jewish hermit who claims to have seen a radiant child in the lap of Neith; rejects gold, declaring his wisdom dead since the vision.
Key passages
“He certainly was the Cypriote, the sailor, Carus … who, shortly before Ilia’s disappearance, had himself disappeared from the crew of the quadrireme … and whom he had once found with Ilia among the oleanders!”
Lucius realizes that Ilia's lover was Carus, a Cyprian sailor from his own crew, whom he had caught with Ilia among the oleanders.
Lucius's painful acceptance of Ilia's infidelity with a lowly sailor.
“I am Tsafnath-Paeneach, ‘he who reveals mysteries!’ I am of the tribe of Joseph himself, who took to wife Asenath the daughter of Potipherah priest of On!”
The hermit declares himself a revealer of mysteries, descended from Joseph and the priestly line of On.
The hermit's claim to prophetic lineage and wisdom.
“Since then I know nothing more, O Jahve, be praised! Since then I have discovered no mysteries! Since then the knowledge of Joseph has died away within me and that of the priests of On! For I have seen Jahve’s Son, there, there, in the lap of Neith … and since then I have seen nothing but that vision!”
The hermit says his wisdom ended after he saw Jahve's Son in the lap of the Sphinx, and now he only sees that vision.
The hermit's transformative vision of a divine child, eclipsing all prior knowledge.