‘Only a few people,’ said the priestess, ‘make truly heroic vows. When you were torn from your mother’s arms, when she saw that man cut out your tongue and take you away, she made such a vow. She promised Apollo that if he preserved your life, then she would give him hers in return. Like a sacrifice. But not a sacrifice of death. A sacrifice of life. Your mother will serve the god in one of his sanctuaries for the rest of her days. She will live well as the priestess of Apollo. She will have food and drink and a soft bed. They will teach her to serve and pray and prophesy. And she will gain the respect of both men and gods.’
Lupus opened his eyes angrily and pointed at himself, as if to say, ‘But I am here now!’
‘I’m sorry, Lukos. If we had known that you were in Rhodes we would have delayed the ceremony. But now that she has begun she must continue. The vow is very solemn and must be honoured. Can you understand that? Just a little?’
Lupus felt the anger drain away. He nodded. He understood because he had made a heroic vow, too.
Not the vow on the beach, which he had sanctified with pigeon’s blood, and repeated on board the Delphina, but a vow which no person had heard, no copper plate had recorded, no blood had solemnised. It was a vow made in his heart.
In the colossal amphitheatre at Rome, one month before, when it seemed as if Jonathan must surely die, he had prayed to Jonathan’s god, vowing that if he would save Jonathan, he would give his life in return. Lupus felt that of all the vows he had ever made, that one alone had been heard and recorded.
He suddenly realised that he and his mother had made similar vows. Only for different people. And to different gods. Jonathan’s god no longer had a temple or sanctuary, and Lupus wasn’t sure how to serve him. But one thing he did know: the voice he had heard in the skiff had been real. As real as the voice at the colossal head a few hours before. He had to honour his vow just as surely as his mother had to honour hers.
He looked at the priestess. She held his gaze for a moment and her eyes widened. ‘You do understand!’ she said softly.
Lupus nodded. Yes, he understood. But that didn’t make it hurt any less, and he felt the tears come in a hot flood.
He wept for a long time, and the priestess sat quietly beside him. The moon had dropped behind the treetops and now it was dark, but the night was still velvet warm and filled with fireflies. There must have been something like poppy tears in the tonic she had given him, for now his eyelids felt very heavy and finally he let them close.
He heard the soft rustle of the priestess’s robe as she stood, and whispering feminine voices and then someone else sat beside him there at the base of the tree. And now he could feel soft arms around him and he smelled honey and he heard a sweet familiar voice singing the words of a half-remembered lullaby: When you come home, when you come home to me.
He wanted to see her – just to remind himself of what she looked like – and so he tried to open his eyes. But his eyelids were far too heavy and perhaps it was only a dream after all.
Lupus settled himself into his mother’s arms, and presently he slept.
When Lupus woke at the foot of an umbrella pine, lying on ground felted with dust and pine needles, he thought at first that he was still a beggar-boy sleeping rough in Ostia’s graveyard.
He felt the warmth of a soft garment over his shoulders and caught a whiff of incense, but it was not until he turned his head and saw the pure brilliant light filling the sky above him that he remembered he was in Greece.
The white-haired priestess smiled at him from the altar and in the sunshine he could see that although her hair was white her face was hardly lined. She moved forward and kissed his forehead and asked him if he would like to have breakfast with her. He shook his head and wrote in the dust, telling her that he had to go back to his friends. The priestess smiled and asked if by chance one of them was a dwarf, a very handsome dwarf?
‘I’m sorry, Lupus,’ said Flavia later that morning. ‘Magnus got away. Ursus, too. They were gone by the time the soldiers reached the Colossus. Bato thinks they’ve escaped to Asia.’
Lupus had just returned and the four friends were sitting at the table on the sunny deck of his ship. The Delphina was still berthed in Monkey Harbour but she wore her dolphin sail once more.
‘Tigris returns last night just after you depart,’ said Nubia.
‘If only you could talk,’ said Jonathan, stroking Tigris. ‘You could tell us how Magnus got away.’
‘But you were a good dog,’ said Flavia. ‘You saved Lupus and he saved us.’ Tigris thumped his tail and Flavia craned her neck to see what Lupus was writing on his wax tablet.
WHERE ARE ALL THE CHILDREN?
Flavia pointed. ‘See that ship moored over there? The one with the red stripe round her hull? She’s the Medea. That’s where they are.’
They all laughed at the expression on Lupus’s face and Flavia explained, ‘Bato confiscated the Medea and he’s taken all the children on board. He’s going to take them back to their families in Ostia as soon as possible.’
FLACCUS TOO? wrote Lupus.
‘I’m not sure where Floppy is going from here,’ said Flavia.
‘Halicarnassus,’ said a deep voice and she turned to see Flaccus. He looked very handsome in a clean tunic and dark grey travelling cloak. The cut over his left eyebrow was barely visible. ‘I’m going on to Halicarnassus,’ he said.
‘You mean you’re just going to continue your tour of the seven sights?’ she said, and added coldly, ‘I suppose the Mausoleum is next on your list?’
‘Yes,’ he said, with an amused smile. ‘It’s the perfect excuse to go to Halicarnassus. Nobody will suspect that I’m really trying to find a criminal mastermind. They’ll all assume I’m a spoilt patrician poet with nothing better to do than see the Seven Wonders.’ He looked pointedly at Flavia as he said this and she felt her face grow hot.
Then she realised what he had just said.
‘You mean you’re secretly going to track down Magnus and Ursus, and find out where the other children were taken?’
He nodded. ‘All my life I’ve felt sorry for myself because of my disability – my shortsightedness. I’m always insulting important men by not recognising them in the forum or by ignoring their smiles, simply because I can’t see them. And I’ve often wondered how I can plead a case if I can’t see the jurors’ expressions. But this is something I can do that will make a difference. And it might help balance the scales as far as Zetes is concerned.’
‘Will Zetes go with you?’ asked Nubia.
‘No,’ said Flaccus. ‘He’s going back to Italia with Bato. It wouldn’t be right for him to serve me any more.’ Here he turned to Flavia. ‘And I want to do what’s right,’ he said softly, with a look that made her stomach do a strange flip.
‘Euge!’ she laughed. ‘Floppy is going to help find the missing children!’
The others laughed, too, and Flaccus smiled at Flavia. Two weeks at sea had deepened his tan and his teeth were very white. ‘There’s just one thing I’d like you to do for me, Flavia.’
‘Yes?’ Her heart was beating hard for some reason.
‘Please call me Gaius. I really do hate being called Floppy.’
Three days later, high on the acropolis of Rhodes, a priestess with honey-coloured hair looked down on the town and the harbour beyond.
A ship was moving slowly out through the columns that marked the entrance of Monkey Harbour. It disappeared for a moment behind the lighthouse, then reappeared on the open sea. As she watched, the white sail unfolded and filled and when she blinked away the tears, she could just make out a tiny leaping dolphin painted there.
The sky was blue from rim to rim, a vast bowl filled with sunlight and the joyful cries of wheeling swifts. She lifted her face to the sun and let its golden warmth caress her and she asked Apollo to protect the dolphin ship and all those who sailed in it, especially its young owner.
When she opened her eyes again, the ship was just a notch on
the horizon.
Lupus clung to the foremast and looked down at the blue-green water rushing past. The glittering light on its surface dazzled his eyes. The sun was warm on his back and he could feel the living urgency of the Delphina as she rose and fell beneath him. They were sailing towards Athens, Corinth and Ithaca.
The words of Flaccus’s poem came into his head: Always keep Ithaca in mind. Arriving there is what you are destined for.
Lupus lifted his face to the wind and breathed the sea-smell deep in. Another verse came to him, the words clear in his head: The Sirens and the Harpies, and even the Cyclops hold no danger for you. You won’t find monsters, unless you erect altars to them in your heart.
Lupus wondered, How did you erect altars to monsters?
The answer came almost at once: By thinking about them, by hating them, by vowing revenge.
Once before, Lupus had rid himself of the monsters, but now he realised that he had erected new altars to them.
He closed his eyes and prayed, and as he prayed he saw that the monsters were no more than statues of sand on the shore. In his mind’s eye he let the waves of the sea melt Venalicius the Cyclops, Zosimus the Traitor and Magnus the Colossus. He let the sea wash away every bit of anger, fear and guilt. It was surprisingly easy.
He realised he was weeping, which was strange. Because now his heart felt cleaner and smoother than the beach on which he and his childhood friends had played. There were no monsters there. No altars. Only a man, asking if he could take the helm of Lupus’s ship. Lupus gave a small nod and hugged the Delphina’s polished foremast.
He thought of the cargo in her wooden belly: Corinthian bronzes, Calymnian honey, sponges from Symi, rose-scented oil and mastic-flavoured hardbake from Rhodes. Such treasures would easily restore Captain Geminus’s fortunes. And there was another treasure on board, a much more precious treasure: people who loved him.
Another verse from the song came into his head. Pray that the voyage will be a long one, with many a summer’s evening when you enter harbours you have never seen before.
Lupus knew that one day in a sanctuary near some harbour he would find his mother again. Meanwhile there were many places for him to visit. New lands, new skies, new adventures. He had a destiny now, and someone trustworthy to guide him.
And somewhere along the way, he would discover what Ithaca meant.
FINIS
Acastus (uh-kast-uss)
mythological son of Pelias (Jason’s uncle and enemy); he was one of the argonauts
Achilles (uh-kill-eez)
Greek hero: a fast runner and the greatest warrior of the Trojan War
Acrocorinth (uh-krok-oh-rinth)
the dramatic sugarloaf mountain that rises above Corinth; site of a sanctuary and notorious temple of Aphrodite attended by beautiful priestesses
acropolis (uh-krop-oh-liss)
literally: ‘highest point of a town’, usually the site of temples and sanctuaries and very often fortified with thick walls for defensive purposes
Aegean (uh-jee-un)
sea between modern Greece and Turkey north of Cnidos
Aeneid (uh-nee-id)
long poem by the Roman poet Virgil about the Trojan hero Aeneas
Aesculapius (eye-skew-lape-ee-uss)
(Greek Asklepios) son of Apollo and Coronis, he was the god of healing
Africus (aff-rick-uss)
wind from the south (strictly south south-west) which often brings stormy seas
Agamemnon (ag-uh-mem-non)
King of Mycenae and leader of the Greeks who sailed to fight against Troy
Alexandria (al-ex-and-ree-ah)
port of Egypt and one of the greatest cities of the ancient world
altar
a flat-topped block, usually of stone, for making an offering to a god or goddess; often inscribed, they could be big (for temples) or small (for personal vows)
amphitheatre (am-fee-theatre)
an oval-shaped stadium for watching gladiator shows, beast fights and executions; the Flavian amphitheatre in Rome (the ‘Colosseum’) is the most famous one
amphora (am-for-uh)
large clay storage jar for holding wine, oil or grain
Anchises (ank-eye-zeez)
old, lame Trojan loved by Venus in his youth, his son Aeneas carried him on his shoulders as they fled from burning Troy
Anthemoessa (anth-em-oh-ess-uh)
literally ‘flowery’; island of the Sirens in the Tyrrhenian Sea, modern Capri
Aphrodite (af-fro-dye-tee)
The Greek goddess of love; her Roman equivalent is Venus
Apollo (uh-pol-oh)
Apollo was god of the sun whereas Helios (see below) was the Titan who drove the sun across the sky in a chariot
Apollonius Rhodius (apple-oh-nee-uss road-ee-uss)
poet from Alexandria who wrote the Argonautica in the late third century BC
apotropaic (ap-oh-tro-pay-ick)
having the power to avert bad luck or evil
Aramaic (air-uh-may-ik)
closely related to Hebrew, it was the common language of the first century Jews
Argo (arr-go)
Jason’s famous oared-ship, named after its old builder, Argus
argonaut (arr-go-not)
any one of the mythological heroes who sailed with Jason on the Argo
Argonautica (arr-go-not-ick-uh)
story of Jason’s search on his ship Argo for the golden fleece; the most famous version was written by Apollonius Rhodius in the late third century BC
Argus (arr-guss)
mythological ship-builder who built the Argo for Jason; he was one of the argonauts
artemon (art-em-on)
sail at the front of the ship on the foremast; used from the first century AD
Asia (aze-ya)
Roman province which included Rhodes and its surrounding islands, and much of modern Turkey
Astyanax (as-sty-an-ax)
infant son of the Trojan hero Hector
Atalanta (at-uh-lan-ta)
mythological girl who could run faster than any man; according to some ancient versions she was one of Jason’s argonauts
aulos (owl-oss)
wind instrument with double pipes and reeds that made a buzzy sound
barbiton (bar-bi-ton)
a kind of Greek bass lyre, but there is no evidence for a ‘Syrian’ bass barbiton
Berenice (bare-uh-neece)
beautiful Jewish Queen who was Titus’s lover in the AD 70s
brails (braylz)
ropes attached to the bottom of a sail, running over the front of the sail to the yard and then back down; by pulling the brails you could raise the sail, like blinds
brazier (bray-zher)
coal-filled metal bowl on legs, like an ancient radiator
Calymne (kal-im-nay)
(modern Kalymnos) island near Rhodes famous for its honey and sponge-divers
Caprea (kuh-pray-uh)
(or Capreae)
modern Capri, a beautiful island off the coast of Italy near Sorrento; traditionally the haunt of the Sirens
Caria (care-ee-uh)
southern mainland region in the province of Asia (modern Turkey) near Rhodes
Castor (kass-tur)
the mortal one of the mythological twins, the Gemini, who sometimes appeared as eerie blue lights on ships’ rigging, a phenomenon now known as St Elmo’s fire
Cenchrea (ken-cree-uh)
Corinth’s eastern harbour; one end of the diolkos was near here
Cephalenia (kef-uh-len-ee-uh)
(modern Kefalonia) largest island in the Ionian Sea, very close to Ithaca
ceramic (sir-am-ik)
clay which has been fired in a kiln, very hard and smooth
Charybdis (kuh-rib-diss)
mythological whirlpool encountered by Jason and his men on their way home, thought to be in the straits of Messina (between Sicily and the toe of Italy’s boot); the phenomenon of sulphurous gases
causing water to ‘boil’ and fish to die was documented as recently as 2003 in these waters
Cnidos (k’nee-dos)
famous town with a double harbour on a promontory in Asia Minor (Turkey)
Colchis (cole-kiss)
Jason’s destination: the golden fleece was kept there, guarded by a dragon
colonnade (call-a-nade)
a covered walkway lined with columns
Colossus of Rhodes (kuh-loss-iss)
gigantic statue of the sun god Helios made by Chares of Lindos in the third century BC; in Roman times it was admired as one of the Seven Wonders of the world even though an earthquake toppled it 66 years after it was first dedicated
Corinth (kor-inth)
busy commercial Greek port situated on an isthmus between the Ionian and Aegean seas; Nero’s canal had been abandoned by Flavia’s time, but ships could still be transported across the isthmus which was about four miles wide
Cos (koss)
(modern Kos)
Greek island near Halicarnassus, it was the site of an important sanctuary of Aesculapius
Cyclops (sigh-klops)
mythical giants with only one eye in the centre of their foreheads
Cythnos (kith-noss)
island in the Aegean; also known as Thermia because of its famous hot springs
Delos (dee-loss)
tiny island in the Aegean Sea, the mythical birthplace of Apollo and centre of slave trade during the Roman Republic
denarius (den-are-ee-us) small silver coin worth four sesterces
diolkos (dee-ol-koss)
a paved way with ruts to guide the wheels of carts carrying unloaded ships across the isthmus of Corinth at its narrowest point
Dionysus (dye-oh-nie-suss)
Greek god of vineyards and wine; he comforted Ariadne on Naxos
domina (dom-in-ah)
Latin for ‘mistress’ or ‘madame’; a polite form of address for a woman
Dorian (door-ee-un)
connected with the Doric-speaking Greeks who inhabited parts of mainland Greece as well as Crete and the southern coast of Asia (modern Turkey)
ephedron (eff-ed-ron)
a plant mentioned by Pliny the Elder still used today in the treatment of asthma
The Roman Mysteries Complete Collection Page 127