2001 Ghost Story Contest

2001 HistoryWalker Ghost Story Contest runner up

Oh, Musai! Let me tell the story of a poor man, whose sacrilege brought him a tragedy.

There was a thief in a city of Greece. He always attacked richer people, who exploited others. Of all the objects he had stolen, he offered 1/10 to Gods, especially to Hermes, the guardian of theives. He took only 1/10 and 8/10 were shared by poor people.

Oneday, he broke into the house of the cityÅfs tyrant. He was, however, captured and put into a jail. Anger of the tyrant made him to kill the thief without and trial.

Until the day of his execution, the thief prayed to Hermes to help him. In the early morning of the execution, just before Helios drove his chariot, Hermes appeared and told him that he could escape. ÅgBut how can I get out from here?Åh asked the thief. ÅgPut your hand on the wall!Åh said Hermes.

How surprising the godÅfs power is! The theifÅfs hand went through the wall as if nothing existed there. When he looked back in surprise, the god had already gone. Thanks to the godÅfs miracle, he could easily escape from the jail and went back his house in safe.

This amazing skill made his job easy and safe, but gradually he could not satifsied with stealing from usual houses.

The city was dedicated to Athena, whose temple on the acropolis housed precious treasures. In the night when Selene, the goddess of the moon, absented from the sky, he climbed the acropolis. For no guard was standing there, he could easily enter the temple. But how could he cheat AthenaÅfs eyes?

He tried to walk through the wall as usual, but something prevented him to get out. Eventually he tried to get back into the room, but he could not. He was captured inside the wall! He could only move within the walls of the temple.

He expected he was going to die, but Athena did not allow him to be so and turned his body into bronze. He had to live inside the walls of the temple as te guardian for everÅc..

Soon the rumour of a ghost on the acropolis spreaded to the city, as well as to the Greek world. One said that he saw a face on the wall, other said that a thief attempted to steal from the temple was captured by the ghost and disappeared into the wall.

Even after many years later, when people did not believe in gods and most sanctuaries were robbed, nobody tried to steal from the temple.

When the Greek world was fallen to neighboring civilization, its emperor heard the story and expected that really precious treasures were kept there. He brought hundreds of slaves to destroy the temple. They started destroying the temple and removed each block. Even though the ghost possessed super-human power, how could he fight against hundreds of people? Everytime they removed the block, his world was getting smaller. Then finally he was locked inside one small block.

Suddenly, a slave cried out. He saw that the face of the ghost emerged from the block and stared at him. People who saw the face all went crazy and even the emperor suffered serious fever.

After his prophetÅfs suggestion, all the treasures were buried to the ground, on which the block was placed.

Somewhere in Greece, he is still protecting the treasures. But donÅft look for it! DonÅft bring a tragedy to you and your city.