*
Kallias was defensive at first. His guilt over not allowing Melaina to be buried within his family plot showed. His shoulders sagged, and he had no spring to his gait. Still, Myrrhine couldn't help but wonder if part of it was caused by sadness over the death of Melaina. He spoke to Myrrhine while shouting to his slaves where to look for his horses.
Myrrhine spoke words of sympathy over their disappearance.
"Ah! We'll find them," he said. "I've a list of those who most coveted them for the Olympic games. They'll not be gone long."
Then Myrrhine approached him about the children. "Please, Lord Kallias," she said. "It would be a crime against the Mysteries, Demeter herself, to allow the children to be exposed."
"The loss will be unfelt," he said, a great arrogance seeming to come opon him. "The two sacred offices can be filled from within my family, the Kerykes."
"You can't be serious. The Hierophant and priestess of Demeter have come from the Eumolpids since Demeter herself initiated the Mysteries."
"That's of little concern. I can't take the children. I'm to be married."
"Again? So soon after Melaina's death? It would be unseemly."
"My marriage to Melaina was never consummated because she was pregnant. The marriage was never official."
"Kallias, you're my last hope. Aeschylus orders that they be exposed."
"Elpinice would never agree. We'll have our own children."
"Elpinice? Kimon's sister? Surely this can't be! Elpinice has been cohabiting with her brother in a shameful union. Every woman in Hellas has words of their filth on her tongue. She's even been over-intimate with Polygnotus, the painter. This will cast a shadow on the Mysteries. After all, you are the Dadouchos."
Kallias backed up and motioned Myrrhine away with a sweep of his hand. "She's been living with her brother due to poverty. She has no dowry. Until now, that has excluded her from a suitable match. I'm also to pay her father's fine, which cost him his life. He died recently in debtor's prison."
"But Kallias, have pity! Save these innocent lives."
"I'll hear no more. You've become abusive of late. Out with you!" He turned his back to her.
"I know you have Melaina's dowry. I'll expect it back."
Kallias didn't respond.
Myrrhine turned on him, her voice reeking vengeance. "I've always thought stories of you getting your wealth by theft and murder at Marathon were lies, but be they true or false, Kallias, you touch so much as one obol of Melaina's dowry, I'll slip you hemlock."
Myrrhine then walked to the toppled icons of Demeter and Kore outside the ashes of the Telesterion. "Dear goddesses, soften someone's heart toward the babes. Deliver them from cruel death on Kithaeron."
She carried them about Eleusis' ruins, searching for she knew not what. She spotted a horse coming along the Sacred Way, a lone rider slumped over its mane. It was young Sophocles riding a pony. As he came near, she realized that he didn't recognize her. With her long chiton, Myrrhine felt as though she didn't walk but glided upon the earth, as would a wraith soon meant for the Undergloom. Her hair, which she'd chopped short before the funeral, had turned solid silver in the last five days. She'd lost so much weight that her cheekbones pushed beneath the skin. Her face was skeletal and scabbed from the clotted mourning lacerations.
"Young Sophocles," she said, "please recognize me. I'm Melaina's mother although I've changed so in but these few days. All the desperate forces of the universe have sent you to me."
Sophocles dismounted and stood beside the pony, reins in his hand. Myrrhine knew he too had been grieving. "You're right, I didn't recognize you," he said. "But I've also been decimated by Melaina's death. How little compassion the gods have for such suffering. Her demise is shameful for them and pitiful for us."
"Oh noble Sophocles, how welcome are your words for Melaina. I'd thought the whole world abandoned her memory."
"No more honorable one has ever been than she. But please, I'm anxious to continue my journey. Make your plea, and if it's within my power, I'll grant it."
"Aeschylus speaks death for the children."
"How could anyone choose that, unless fiends had made his mind witless? Did he give a reason?"
"Pollution from epilepsy. But some other devious calculation lies behind it, I'm sure. Just realize, he means the death of them."
"I know you speak the truth because I've wondered myself why, when they were hardly out of the womb, Aeschylus unleashed a campaign against them. He prevented me from attending Melaina's funeral. I can't imagine what has hardened him so."
"Dear Sophocles, Melaina held you in highest esteem. Would you take them, save them from an evil fate?"
"I'm on my way to Delphi on an urgent mission for my father, but I believe these children are destined to fulfill a design of the gods. They may not be divine as some think, but I'll do what I can. Even so, I can only find a safe place for the male child. You'll have to find another for the female."
Myrrhine felt doomed. She'd not thought of splitting them up. Surely they should be raised together. "Alright," she said, feeling as if the words came from another's mouth. "Take little Zakorus. I'll find another savior for Theonoë."
"I'll do one further thing to keep Aeschylus off their trail. When I return I'll tell him you gave both to me and that I exposed them. The lie will ease his mind and set his conscience to worry. But you must get the little girl out of Eleusis. If he hears of her again, surely it'll mean her death."
"Oh gallant Sophocles, ever I'll be indebted. May the gods watch over you always."
"I greatly esteemed your daughter. Sweetest maiden I've known in my short life. Even in legends such valor was only found in Antigone, daughter of Oedipus. I'm off now, but beware! Aeschylus lurks about. I saw him talking to Kallias."
Sophocles mounted his pony, and Myrrhine handed up the male child with the papyrus Melaina had written for him safely tucked within his wrappings. Overwhelming grief stopped her. She pulled back little Zakorus. He'd voiced a sweet noise, and the stark reality of his impending departure overcame her. She summoned more courage than she thought possible, realizing that the child's life depended on her giving him up.
Myrrhine took a deep breath and passed the child up to Sophocles, again. The pony, with Sophocles astride him and the babe cradled in his arms, disappeared into the failing light, leaving Myrrhine with the emptiness of the child's absence. She hugged little Theonoë. "Girls are worth so little in this world," she said. "Who can I find willing to give you love and shelter?"
Myrrhine walked to the blacksmith's shop as if blown by some holy wind. There, she stood amid hammers clanging hot metal, smelled the sweet easy sweat of men at heavy work. Akmon and Damnameneus seemed golden spirits of providence since they'd become her partners in crime. Finally, Palaemon noticed her.
"I've come for another miracle," she said. "I need you to save Melaina's daughter."
The smith looked older than his years, his deformity overpowering. "Oh, priestess, surely another's help would be more suitable. What's an old cripple to offer a child?"
Myrrhine knelt before him, tears streaming her scab-scarred cheeks. "I come to you as a suppliant. Never have I been more desperate. O dear Palaemon! I found a savior for the boy, but you are the little girl's last hope. She's been ordered abandoned to Kithaeron's cold slopes on penalty of both our deaths. Take her and flee, to what destination I know not, nor care. Just fly far from Eleusis so that her enemies never cast eyes on her sweet face."
The smith took her by the shoulders and raised her to her feet. "What can I possibly offer that another, any other, can't duplicate manyfold?"
"Life itself. For only in your arms will she find safety. I've tried all others and feel ashamed for not coming to you first."
"What a terrible fate then is hers. Of course I'll do it, since you know it's no mistake to put the child in my care."
"Will it be such a burden to help the little one?"
"You've given me a jo
y such as I've never dreamed. My life has always been lacking. Not only will I do it for sake of moral virtue but also from deep sympathy for this child. Already, I love her more than life itself. I've been thinking of returning to Ionia since the Persians have been driven out. Eleusis is in such a desolate state. I hear they'll not rebuild the Telesterion. Never fear, I'll care for the infant as if she were my own."
Myrrhine looked straight at him, squeezed his callused hands in hers. "No! Not 'as if.' She must never be brought back here. She's yours! Henceforth, you are her father." She sat the bundle in his arms and fled, fled from her own weakness, knowing one look at the little girl or one small sound from her could overcome her resolve.
On her way home, Myrrhine saw in the street a girl who reminded her of Melaina. She chased but lost sight of her, then broke into tears, ran again, only to collide with Aeschylus. His large form, reeking of body odor, took hold of her, shook her.
He shouted at her, "Kallias tells me you tried to convince him to take the children. You went against my word as soon as my back was turned."
Myrrhine felt her body quake, shiver with cold. "Kallias had to be told of the twins' fate. When he married Melaina, he said he'd be their father. I could have died at his hand if I'd exposed them without telling him. But he rejected them also, so I've done as both you bid. Young Sophocles is on his way to Delphi by way of Kithaeron and has agreed to expose them. Ask upon his return, if you don't believe me."
He gave her a stern look and still held her by the shoulders, as if he'd like to shake her brains out. "Exposing them will end Kallias' claim to them and put your precious Mysteries back in the hands of Eumolpids. Eleusis will keep its power structure, and all I've done will be erased. Let this be the end of it. The stain of epilepsy will also die with them."
"In doing so, you'll slay me too. Go ahead, kill me if that's your desire," she said. "You've already murdered my soul."
When he was gone, Myrrhine sensed still more strongly her daughter's presence. Finally, she spoke aloud, "Ah me, what can I do bereft of thee?" and returned home.
The Mysteries, A Novel of Ancient Eleusis Page 89