Aphrodite: mœurs antiques

A Galilaean with long golden hair (source of her Greek nickname), Chrysis is proud of her beauty and her skill at winning the devotion and servility of men.

Piqued into desire by her resistance, Démétrios is spurred to commit theft and murder for her, to win the three objects she demands in return for her charms: a rival courtesan's silver mirror, the ivory comb of an Egyptian priestess, and the pearl necklace that adorns the cult image in the temple of Aphrodite.

He then uses her nude body as a model, posing it in the violent attitude in which he had seen her in his dream, to create the statue of Immortal Life.

The success was due in part to a rave review by François Coppée, and no doubt also to the libertine scenes throughout the book.

In his Alexandria, a dreamlike reconstruction combining erudition and fin de siècle Orientalism, amoral and violent pleasure takes first place (the loves of Chrysis, the relationship between two young musician girls, the feasts of Aphrodite, the banquet and orgy concluding with the crucifixion of a female slave); only Démétrios has an ideal, distinguishing "the just from the unjust according to the criterion of beauty," far from the "narrow virtues of modern moralists": he regrets his crimes only because he lowered himself to commit them.