The Andreikelon

By Clement Masloff

The ancient Greek philosopher Thales journeys to Egypt to learn the secrets needed to assemble an artificial replica of a human. He depends on Egyptian priests and Greek artisans and weavers to build a being he names Abax, but breaks with the Egyptians when they attempt to create drones. Abax is found to have the power to transmit thoughts and m

• Language: English
• Publisher: The Mulberry Books
• Release date: Nov 7, 2019
• ISBN: 9781950850310

Clement Masloff

The author has been involved with science fiction and speculative literature since teaching himself to read in 1941-1942. He served in the Army as a linguist and translator in four Balkan Slavic languages. For several decades, he taught sociology in Ohio after graduating research in Russian social history. In his retirement years, he has been writing science fiction, a return to dreams of the early 1940s.

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Copyright © 2019 by Clement Masloff.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher and author, except by reviewers, who may quote brief passages in a review.

This publication contains the opinions and ideas of its author. It is intended to provide helpful and informative material on the subjects addressed in the publication. The authors and publisher specifically disclaim all responsibility for any liability, loss, or risk, personal or otherwise, which is incurred as a consequence, directly or indirectly, of the use and application of any of the contents of this book.

ISBN: 978-1-950850-32-7 [Paperback Edition]

978-1-950850-31-0 [eBook Edition]

Printed and bound in The United States of America.

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I.

Throughout his life, Thales was a man of unlimited curiosity about everything that touched his mind.

Departing from his native city of Miletos in Ionia, he sailed to Egypt with the goal of uncovering the secret, arcane knowledge of that ancient southern land. His new home became the Greek colony city of Naucratis in the Western Delta of the Nile. But in his first week there he came to suffer severe migraine pain that forced him to seek medical aid.

The proprietor of the hostel where he was staying recommended that he go to see a doctor named Nikias to treat his cephalogia. Following the directions of his landlord, the young scholar with silvery hair and azure eyes walked through the twisting streets to the house where Nikias lived and practiced his profession.

A servant showed him into a small chamber where initial meetings with patients occurred. The only light penetrated in through small openings high up next to the roof.

Soon the tall healer appeared in white Egyptian linen, the kind worn by most Greek males in Naucratis. Thales still had on the Ionic wool kilt common in the Greek civilization of Asia Minor. He had not yet adjusted himself to the heat of Egypt.

I take it that you are new here, began the physician once Thales was seated. You are still garbed in the Greek style. It takes time to adjust to Egypt and its torrid weather. But you shall learn that the native linen clothing is more comfortable than what we Greeks bring here.

Thales gave his name and place of origin.

Are you in Naucratis on commercial business? inquired the doctor.

No, said the patient, starting to reflect. My mission is to acquire Egyptian knowledge and learning. But a horribly painful ailment is afflicting my head, what the common people call megrims. You physicians term it migraine or hemicrania. I myself believe that the most accurate word is cephalalgia, an illness far more complex that any of us can understand, I fear.

The large doctor grinned. Forgive me for smiling, but I am amazed at your knowledge in my own field. How did you come to it, may I ask?

I have studied many areas of learning in many different places, answered Thales. My beginning was as a trader between Miletos and the other cities of Ionia. My accumulated fortune is now sufficient to allow me to dedicate my life to the pursuit of greater, higher knowledge. It was that impulse that brought me to Egypt, not any desire to engage in trade. I came here to discover and learn the truth about everything that either interests or puzzles me.

The physician thought a moment, then spoke.

Have you ever been given massage of the head? I have acquired that specific skill from the Egyptian doctors who use it to treat cranial pains.

Thales told him that it had never been tried on him, but that he was willing to receive such treatment if it held any promise and would do him no harm.

Good, nodded Nikias. There is a pallet on the floor in the adjoining room. Go in there and lie down on it. I will take some medicaments from my dispensary and give them to you with water before beginning massage treatment on your head.

By the time he left the building that afternoon, Thales was already feeling brain attacks less frequently and painfully. Their force was growing weaker. He promised the wise, adept healer to return the next day and for as many more sessions after that as were needed.

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Dr. Nikias encouraged his new patient to relate his personal history during the series of massage treatments that followed.

Thales told him how, as a merchant of olive oil, he had constructed an improved press for squeezing out the precious oil. Later, by careful, continuous observation, he had formulated precise rules for predicting what the weather was going to be. That turned out to be a great boon to agriculture in Ionia. Then, for several years, he had worked supervising the construction of a great water canal in the nearby land of Lydia.

I picked up an important reason for coming here to Egypt, confessed the Miletian. I heard that Pharaoh Necho is planning to connect two seas across the Isthmus of Sinai. My plan was to travel to his capital at Saites and I hoped to win the position of chief engineer over the great project. But the high officials in charge turned me down flat. No foreigner is allowed to lead anything so enormous in Egypt. It is considered too dangerous to trust such important matters to outsiders from afar.

Nikias stopped massaging, bit his lip, and darkly frowned.

That is why our position in this country worsens, he muttered with anger. The last Greeks to be given meaningful assignments by the Pharaoh or his government were navigators and sailors sent out on an exploring voyage to map out the dimensions of the land island on which Egypt rests. Pharaoh Necho is curious to learn the shape and extent of this continent we are on. But no more Greeks are to be recruited for any further exploration, none at all.

That is too bad, for both Egypt and the Greeks, sighed Thales. There is much that we could contribute to the prosperity and well-being of this kingdom if the opportunity were furnished to us.

The doctor thought for a short time, then spoke.

All the Egyptians are not hostile to us, he softly whispered. "I have a friend who has come to live with us in Naucratis. He is a priest without a post in any of the temples. This man was once a scribe in a scriptorium dedicated to the god named Thoth. The high priests came to fear and hate my friend and expelled him for the independence of his thinking. He did not fit in with the strict dominance by superiors in the Egyptian temples.

I believe that you would be deeply fascinated by the ideas that he has and the highly ambitious project he still holds in the back of his mind.

That sounds interesting. What is this person’s name?

Iffa, answered the physician. "I will arrange for him to come here some evening when you feel well. In the meantime, you must continue to take the compounds that I have mixed together to rid you of the pains that you feel in your head.

You shall now have something to look forward to, grinned the doctor.

II.

Thales set out for the house of his healer, where he was going to meet the expelled Egyptian priest. He passed by the Greek temples built by various groups of settlers in Naucratis. The Aeginians had constructed the temple of Zeus, the Samians the one dedicated to Hera, and his own colony of Milesians the magnificent shrine of Apollo.

At the center of the city stood the Hellenion, common to all the gods honored and worshiped at many points of origin of the early colonizers of Naucratis.

Nikias took the patient into a small reception room bright with light from several oil lamps. The two said little to each other, waiting for the arrival of the Egyptian priest no longer attached to any particular temple.

How many Egyptians reside here in the city? asked Thales out of the blue.

Nikias gave him a broad smile. Only a few outcasts like the individual you shall soon meet and come to know. Our population is made up primarily of Greeks who migrated here to carry on various trades and businesses.

A house servant brought a towering figure in a dark blue robe into the room. Nikias rose and clenched hands in greeting with the surprisingly light-complected Egyptian. Then, the doctor led him to where Thales was standing and made the formal introductions.

Once the three were seated, Iffa began to talk directly to Nikias as if Thales was not at all there.

"It is difficult to deal with these Greek potters. They are perfect masters of their craft, far in advance of anyone else. Until they came to Egypt, no one had any knowledge of how to put a glaze on ceramic material. But I do not know which of them can be trusted to keep silent about what I plan to accomplish. That is why the fate of the project depends upon you, my dear Nikias.

You have become the key to how it comes out.

The physician turned to Thales with the purpose of bringing him into their exchange.

What do you know about the craft of the potters in Miletos? he inquired.

When I was engaged in trade, I often bought pottery to take elsewhere for sale. The kilns used by potters of my city reminded me of the ovens of our bakers. I was surprised that they would throw not only straw but also the dung of animals into their clay before it was molded by them. This made it less stocky. Few buyers were aware of this unusual addition. I never revealed to buyers that there was often human excrement mixed into their fine, expensive pottery.

Surprisingly, the huge Egyptian laughed upon hearing this. He set his sparkling almond eyes on the Greek stranger with the silver hair.

You appear to be curious about the nature of things about you, noted Iffa.

Yes, that is quite true, admitted Thales. All categories of objects interest me. That was my main motive for coming to Egypt: to learn all that can be learned here. I mean to investigate all sorts of questions. That is why I have mastered your language and asked so many questions of people. I possess a curiosity that is never totally satisfied or fulfilled. That is my most unique personal characteristic, I have to confess to you.

The priest leaned forward, his eyes fixed on the face of the stranger.

Tell me this: what is the human body composed of? Do you know that? he inquired in a sharp, demanding tone.

Thales replied at once, without having to take time to think at length.

Primarily, and mostly, of water, he stated with confidence. In my thinking, water happens to be the fundament of the world that we inhabit. Everything else, whether air, ground, or fire, originated from water. And when we ourselves were created, the main ingredient was the same precious liquid. Water is the universal creative factor.

Can you tell me how the living race of human beings came to be? asked Iffa.

Thales gave him a radiant smile. "I have collected several accounts that exist here in Egypt. Some hold that the ram-headed god called Khum fashioned man on his pottery wheel. Two different figures are shaped out for each person: the physical body and the spirit. There is therefore both a real person and an invisible shadow. It is said