Exit from the Latrine

Walking with heavy steps along the stone-paved streets of Ephesus, Julius felt emotional when he looked up at the sky. Seeing the Moon beginning to wane reminded him of death. Soon the Moon would completely vanish and then be reborn in the form of a crescent. Then it would become a full moon, subsequently shrink again, and disappear to prepare for its new life. The thought that this cycle would continue forever opened a different door in Julius's mind. “Could death be an illusion?” he asked himself.

While immersed in such deep thoughts, he felt his bladder filling. He was aware he couldn't hold it for long. After all, he was an elderly man approaching 75, struggling to command his body. It was a stroke of luck that, just at that moment, he had reached the public toilet the Romans called the latrina. Julius immediately entered the latrine and stood in front of an empty hole, starting to relieve himself. Julius was not alone in the latrine. There were other people, in the same position as him, at the other holes. The latrine was exactly that kind of place. While people discharged waste from their bodies, they chatted, shared troubles, and joked with each other; all this was normal for the Ephesians.

The voice of the man beside him pulled Julius out of his reverie.
“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 need to remember. If you're done, let's go for a walk.”

Julius cleaned up, adjusted his clothes, and followed the man, whose face he couldn't make out in the dim light, outside. He had only taken a few steps when he was astonished by the change around him. Mist had settled over everything, and apart from the man with whom he had left the latrine, all was hidden behind it. But how was it that the mist did not cover that man, and that man alone? Julius was growing weary searching for the answer to this question. Meanwhile, he was trying not to get lost in the mist by following the man ahead. Unable to bear it any longer, he called out to the man.

“Stop already. Who are you, anyway? Why are you dragging me along? How is it that you're unaffected by the mist?”

When the man turned around and looked into his eyes, Julius was dumbfounded. For when he saw the winged sandals and the staff entwined with two snakes, he realized he was face to face with the god Hermes and understood what was happening to him. Julius knew that among the duties of the messenger god Hermes was to guide the souls of the deceased in their passage to the afterlife.

“I am dying,” he thought. “I am dying.”
Of course, Hermes knew what Julius was thinking.
“You've already died,” he said to Julius. “Look behind you.”

When Julius looked behind him, he saw the boundless sky. He was walking in emptiness, and the mist was beginning to scatter. When Hermes brought him before the majestic gate opening in the void, Julius shed his fears, worries, and fatigue. He was now completely free.

Written for the Ephesus Foundation by author and archaeologist Özlem Ertan.