Page:Plutarch's Lives (Clough, v.5, 1865).djvu/143

 DEMETRIUS. 135 his daughter Stratonice, whom he had married to Seleu- cus, was remai'ried to Antiochus, the son of Seleucus, and proclaimed queen of Upper Asia. For Antiochus, it appears, had fallen passionately in love with Stratonice, the young queen, who had already made Seleucus the father of a son. He struggled very hard with the beginnings of this passion, and at last, re- solving with himself that his desires were wholly unlaw- ful, his malady past all cure, and his powers of reason too feeble to act, he determined on death, and thought to bring his life slowly to extinction by neglecting his per- son and refusing nourishment, under the pretence of being ill. Erasistratus, the physician who attended him, quickly perceived that love was his distemper, but the difficulty was to discover the object. He therefore waited continually in his chamber, and when any of the beauties of the court made their visits to the sick prince, he observed the emotions and alterations in the counte- nance of Antiochus, and watched for the changes which he knew to be indicative of the inward passions and in- clinations of the soul. He took notice that the presence of other women produced no effect upon him ; but when Stratonice came, as she often did, alone, or in company with Seleucus, to see him, he observed in him all Sappho's famous symptoms,* — his voice faltered, his face flushed up, bis eyes glanced stealthily, a sudden sweat broke gut on his skin, the beatings of his heart were irregular and violent, and, unable to support the excess of his passion, he would sink into a state of faintness, prostration, and pallor. • " Blessed as the gods the man flame runs through me, my eyes who sits beside you, hears you are blinded, my ears tingle, a cold speak, and sees you smile. For sweat overflows me, all my body me, at the first sight of you, my trembles, my color goes, my very speech fails, my tongue breaks, thin death seems coming upon me."