STRANGE ENCOUNTER — Episode 4 | "Which God?"
This short-form fiction series is set in Rome in the late first century AD. You can read the previous episodes by clicking the link below.
[Felix’s thoughts were interrupted by a loud knock at the front door.]
Felix knew it couldn’t be Asclepius himself at the door—the gods don’t make housecalls very often. Still, he remembered his outburst of anger toward Asclepius and tiptoed towards the door with trepidation. Who would be knocking at this hour?
“Who’s there?” Felix asked, with a little bit of force, in case it was trouble.
“It’s me, Hermes, your neighbor upstairs.” Hermes was speaking very quietly. “Decimius told me Anna was ill. I’ve come to check up on her. Open the door.”
Hermes knelt down to inspect Anna, and he spoke to Felix with a professional tone, without taking his eyes off of her. “Tell me exactly what happened.”
As Felix opened the door, he saw the flicker of Hermes’ oil lamp. Felix also noticed that Hermes was carrying a bag of…something?
“What’s in the bag?” Felix asked.
Hermes brushed past Felix without answering his question and marched into the apartment, noticing the candlelight in the bedroom and heading straight to Anna.
Hermes knelt down to inspect Anna, and he spoke to Felix with a professional tone, without taking his eyes off of her. “Tell me exactly what happened.”
Felix was surprised—and maybe a little bit offended—by Hermes’ bossiness. But he was desperate enough for anyone’s help that he complied.
“She came home from work feeling sick. She sat down, and nearly collapsed. Athena told me about a wound on her leg”— “Show me,” Hermes interrupted.
Felix gently turned Anna’s body to show the infected section on the back of her leg.
Hermes took a careful look at the infection and pulled some clothes out of his bag. He gently wiped away pus and pulled his lantern close to inspect further.
Then he sat on the bed right next to Anna’s head—in fact he accidentally sat on the clay snake Felix had put beside Anna for good luck. Hermes picked up the snake charm from under him, looked at it, realized what it was, and shoved it into Felix’s hands. “Put this somewhere else.”
Hermes put his hand on Anna’s throat, as if he was checking something. But Felix was confused as to what Hermes was doing with her throat.
Felix blurted out, “We need a rooster!”
“Shhh! I’m concentrating.” Hermes barked back, gesturing for Felix to lower his voice.
Felix was getting fed up with Hermes. Felix tried again.
“We need to sacrifice a rooster to Asclepius. Anna is getting worse. We need to get Asclepius’ attention!” Hermes could hear the desperation in Felix’s voice. Felix didn’t want to lose another loved one, especially his soulmate.
Hermes responded with a patient tone: “I can help her. I will explain later.
Hermes pulled some herbs out of his mystery bag and began to rip them into small pieces and put them in the bowl of water for Anna. He mixed the bowl and started to get Anna to drink. She was still fading in and out of consciousness.
“Hermes!” Felix was trying to be polite, but needed answers.
Hermes responded with a patient tone: “I can help her. I will explain later. I need you to trust me. Go down to the tavern, and get vinegar and honey. Okay? We need to treat the wound right now.”
Vinegar? And Honey? Is Hermes a healer—or a chef?!, Felix wondered. Felix found himself at a crossroads. Do I listen to Hermes (if so, why?), or do I dismiss him and find a rooster to sacrifice to Asclepius?
Felix was mentally throwing dice, as if letting chance or fate decide.
Hermes was attending to Anna, assuming that Felix was leaving to fetch the items. When Hermes didn’t hear movement, he’d looked up and stared at Felix, as if to say, “What are you waiting for?”
Felix was mentally throwing dice, as if letting chance or fate decide. He made his decision, he muttered “okay, okay” in a barely audible tone, and started to move towards the front door. As he looked back, he could see Hermes pull out from his bag a small vile of oil. Hermes poured a little bit on the wound, and then wiped a little oil across her forehead while he said a quiet prayer. As Felix walked down to the tavern, he thought to himself, So, Hermes is pious after all, he was clearly praying to a god—but to which god?
This short-form fiction series serves as companion to Dr. Nijay K. Gupta’s book Strange Religion: How the First Christians Were Weird, Dangerous, and Compelling. Stay tuned for Episode 5: “Can I Trust You?”
The tension Nijay Gupta builds into Episode 4 of Strange Encounter captures the sheer desperation of a first-century Roman insula tenement room. Watching Felix pace the dim candlelight as Anna lies shivering with that infected wound really drives home the ancient world's vulnerability to sudden illness. While skimming an in-depth ancient Mediterranean literature analysis and classical social history review on Veer Game Login, it hit home how much the common plebeian lived on the knife-edge of survival, where a simple fever or scraped leg could spiral into a fatal crisis within forty-eight hours.
Having Hermes knock late at night carrying mysterious satchels of herbs instead of urging Felix to rush down to the local temple for a sacrificial slaughter sets up such a fascinating cultural clash. Ancient Romans were conditioned to appease transactional deities like Asclepius through paid animal offerings. A classical antiquity scholar on Jai club login posted a great breakdown yesterday detailing early Christian urban ministry, noting that followers of the Way bewildered their pagan neighbors precisely because they paired physical, hands-on nursing care directly with quiet prayer instead of demanding expensive temple sacrifices.
What makes this fictional companion to Strange Religion so compelling is that it shows rather than tells why early Christianity felt so utterly bizarre to Roman citizens. Felix cannot comprehend why an upstairs neighbor he barely knows would risk contamination and reputational shame just to clean a poor woman's festering wound. Stumbled into an engaging dialogue regarding Roman social stratification and early church hospitality over at Raxi Win Login earlier today, and readers were emphasizing that crossing rigid social barriers to offer free aid was viewed with deep suspicion before it was recognized as radical love.
Hermes barking at Felix to lower his voice and run to the tavern for vinegar and honey instead of wandering into the dark looking for a sacrificial rooster is brilliant characterization. Vinegar acted as a proven ancient antiseptic, while honey provided natural osmotic antibacterial barriers for open wounds. Caught an insightful historical overview detailing Greco-Roman wound care practices over on DmFirst Login last night, pointing out that practical empirical remedies often went hand-in-hand with private intercession in early Christian house circles.
That internal monologue where Felix wonders which god Hermes is actually praying to hits right at the core paradox of the series title. In Rome, piety was loudly public, civic-minded, and strictly transactional; whispering prayers to an unseen, crucified artisan who demands no blood sacrifices must have sounded entirely alien. A theological history writer on Dmwin Login noted this morning that the Romans initially branded early Christians as "atheists" simply because they kept no idols, built no grand marble altars, and refused civic imperial cult rituals.