Page 102 - THE DECAMERON: 100 Days on 100 Etchings by Petru Rusu
P. 102

“Cimon and Iphigenia“



             The protagonist here is a young man called Galesus. But                      before they jump ship and flee for Crete. But, as Panfilo
              everybody calls him Cimon, which means “idiot.” Cimon’s                     has told us in the story of Alatiel, Fortune is a fickle

              father, Aristippus, is a nobleman of Cyprus and is so                       mistress. A storm blows their ship off course and they
              ashamed of his idiot son that he sends him to live in the                   wind up in Rhodes. Iphigenia wants to kill Cimon. She’s
              country. Cimon isn’t stupid. He’s just a caveman: he won’t                  sure that the storm is a sign of the gods’ displeasure
              wear fashionable clothes or be educated. He probably                        at Cimon’s actions. Come to think of it, Panfilo never

              doesn’t wash every week like his normal brothers. So off                    tells us that Iphigenia cares for him at all... Cimon and
              he goes to the country. On the way, he finds himself in a                   Iphigenia try to escape into the woods off the coast of
              beautiful wood. And in that wood is a beautiful maiden                      Rhodes, but the sailors capture them and bring them to
              asleep by a fountain. She’s practically naked. Cimon thinks                 the magistrate. So things stand like this: Cimon and crew

              that she might be a goddess, so he’s afraid to wake her.                    land in the clink and Iphigenia stays with some ladies of
              Instead, he just stares at her while she sleeps. But when                   Rhodes until her wedding day. Pasimondas has a brother
              she wakes up, we find out that she’s a mortal and her                       called Ormisdas, who’s sweet on a girl named Cassandra.
              name is Iphigenia. She knows Cimon by his idiot reputation.                 But the magistrate (Lysimachus) aims to marry Cassandra,

              He’s handsome and rich, but he’s also big and stupid, so                    even though Pasimondas is pushing hard for a double
              she’s a little worried when he follows her all the way to                   wedding for himself and his bro. Lysimachus schemes to
              her door. But Iphigenia turns out to be Cimon’s eureka                      carry Cassandra himself. Sound familiar? He goes to Cimon
              moment. After he meets her, he starts behaving like a                       with his plan and offers him a deal. Cimon and Lysimachus

              proper gentleman. He dresses well, begins to educate                        think it would be a great idea to abduct the women from
              himself, and maybe even bathes. Cimon not only becomes                      their own wedding feasts. What could go wrong? So Cimon,
              a proper gentleman, he becomes a real lover. He learns                      Lysimachus and crew crash the wedding quite literally.
              to sing and play instruments. Panfilo explains that all of                  Cimon kills Pasimondas and then Ormisdas when he gets

              these virtues must have been locked up in Cimon’s heart                     in the way of their retreat. They hop back on the ship and
              and that Love released them. Cimon begs Iphigenia’s father                  this time, they make it to Crete, where they marry their
              for her hand in marriage, but she’s already promised to                     beloveds. Their respective families have to clean up the
              Pasimondas, a gentleman from Rhodes. Push finally comes                     mess they left behind in Rhodes, but after a while (and

              to shove: Pasimondas sends for Iphigenia so they can get                    probably a lot of cash), they work it out. The men return to
              married. Cimon fits out a ship for war and ambushes the                     their respective homelands with their brides, and they live
              ship carrying Iphigenia to her fiancé. He explains himself                  happily ever after. At least, the men do. We hear nothing
              and demands Iphigenia. Cimon has to rough them up a bit                     further about the opinions of Iphigenia and Cassandra.


                                                                                                                                “Cimon and Iphigenia” retrieved from publicly source: shmoop
     DECAMERON      102                                                                                       <https://www.shmoop.com/study-guides/literature/decameron/summary/fifth-day-first-story>
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