Walking with heavy steps on the cut stone paved roads of Ephesus, Julius was moved when he raised his head and looked up at the sky. Seeing the moon begin to wane reminded him of death. The moon would soon disappear completely and then reborn in the form of a crescent. Then it would become a full moon, then wane again and disappear to prepare for its new life. Thinking that this cycle would continue forever opened a different door in Julius’ mind. “Could death be an illusion?” he asked himself.
While he was in such deep thoughts, he felt his bladder filling up. He was aware that he would not be able to hold it in for long. After all, he was an old man who had difficulty controlling his body and was approaching 75. It was a great chance that he had arrived at the public toilet, which the Romans called latrina, just at that moment. Julius immediately entered the latrina and went across from the hole he found empty and started to do his business. Julius was not alone in the latrina. There were people in the same situation at the other holes. Latrina was exactly such a place. People would chat with each other, share their troubles, joke around while they were emptying their bodies, and all of this was normal for the Ephesians.
The voice of the man next to him brought Julius out of his thoughts.
“Hello Julius. I saw you looking at the moon. You were thinking about death.”
Julius was surprised. How could this man know what he was thinking?
“Excuse me,” he said to the man. “Do I know you?”
“Actually, you do, but you should remember. If you’re done with your work, let’s go out and take a walk.”
Julius cleaned himself up, adjusted his clothes, and went out after the man whose face he couldn’t make out in the dim light. He had only taken a few steps when he was surprised to see the change around him. There was fog everywhere, and everything except the man he had left the latrina with was hidden behind the fog. But how was it that the fog didn’t cover him, just him? Julius was getting tired while searching for the answer to this question. At the same time, he was following the person in front of him so as not to get lost in the fog. Unable to wait any longer, he called out to the man.
“Stop now. Who are you anyway? Why are you dragging me behind you? How come you are not affected by the fog?”
When the man turned around and looked into his eyes, Julius was at a loss. Because when he saw his winged sandals and his staff wrapped around a double snake, he realized that he was face to face with the God Hermes and what had happened to him. Julius knew that one of the duties of the messenger god Hermes was to guide the souls of the dead to the afterlife.
“I am dying,” he thought. “I am dying.”
Hermes knew what Julius was thinking, of course.
“In fact, you are already dead,” he said to Julius. “Look behind you.”
When Julius looked behind him, he saw the endless sky. He was walking in the void and the fog was about to disperse. When Hermes brought him in front of the magnificent door that opened in the void, Julius was freed from his fears, worries and fatigue. He was now completely free.
Written by Author Archaeologist Özlem Ertan for the Ephesus Foundation.