(dûmmuz’ta lit. beloved of Tammuz/Adonis).
Ambie: “King Felis was born a girl. I don’t know how else to put it but that's literally what we say when his birth is brought up. Some sort of transmutation must have happened, either by sorcery or the gods.”
Matha had her great-grandmother’s voice, a Siren of Oursea. The Mediterranean. Wings would’ve never been allowed in the House of Pallas but the voice was a blessing our ancestors kept. Many times Matha told me how only a few notes of the Sailors Song would lull unsuspecting men into killing themselves for her. She said she’s only used the full extent of her power three times in her life.
She had a pose of confidence in every situation. She smelled of nobility and I did too. In every situation. She would not hug me or sing to me softly while her hair tickled my face or sooth circles in my arms. Don’t you dare think for a second that she did that.
“May I ask why you are here this morning?”
“Yes. I wanted to see if you snored.”
I blinked. I didn’t think Matha was capable of thinking of things like snoring.
"Your father“You knew him at this age?” I asked.
She shook her head. “Don’t mind me. I’m simply sentimental from last night’s celebration. One more year and you’ll be the age I was when I had you.”
“Yes, I’ve been thinking similar things.”
I hadn’t. Eri Princess Erish, Midas's older half-sister. "I could refer to Eri by her nickname because of her denounced status. Midas was always prince." often complained that I should be more sentimental; I tried for a few months when I was 10 but it never came naturally enough to continue. Matha was often sentimental but only with herself and to herself and never with tears. She also dragged the secretaries up––I assumed she already sent them down again by this time in the morning.
I was in a classroom full of children who were half-beasts.
“For most of the history after Homer, we did not believe Troy was real. A far away nothing place like Atlantis.
It wasn’t until the 20th century when the Ottoman Empire declined did archaeolgists uncovered the hilled city. Had existed before and after the Trojan war for hundreds of years on both sides. There are nine layers of Troy. The Fourth is the Pa Of Priam, from around 1200 BC.”
A strained voice:
“BCE”
“Over three thousand years ago. Around the same time, the Bronze Age civilazations collapsed. Was the siege the cause? Troy was an important trade city, on the coast of the Black Sea and the border of the Hittites' Anatolia and the Aegean—–Greeks.
Evidence shows however that there were famines, floods, droughts and a bronze scarcity that helped it.
After the Trojan War—–this was the first record of the Sea Peoples attacking. They were probably Western Mediterranean in origin, some maybe from Sicily and the fact that we have found Greek art in the Levant. One even had a name sounding code to ‘Achaean’ the name the Greeks call themselves in the Epic Cycle. Blood whores.”
“Inappropriate.”
“Blood thirsty. But we will never know.
They first attacked Cyprus, then the Hittite Empire. Both fell. They ran across the Eastern Mediterranean, burning everything, to Egypt where they were barely defeated by Ramses 3.”
“From the Bible?”
“Sure. They came on boats. They were mostly migraters, again to Greek pottery. But some didn’t settle. They destroyed and burnt and then left.”
“What happened?”
“They returned to the Sea of course.”
“Sardinia?”
“They returned back to the Sea. The humans had been punished enough for their hubris, for reaching for the stars. The gods commanded that the task was finished and to never show favor towards mortals again. The Sea Peoples returned to their pearly and smooth-stoned kingdoms, never to return to Land again. They would never forget the human’s slight, nor the gods’ blessings upon them. Why would these seafolk interact with humans unless out of pleasure or wrath? The wrath was over, pleasure was outlawed. The Sea Peoples returned to The Sea. All things were equal again. As everything should be. A fish and bird could fall in love, but where would they live?”
“My mom told me there are flying fish. And that some birds skim on the water.”
“That’s not the point. Besides, they can't be together. When you are separated from your mom, aren’t you sad?”
“My mother said separation is a natural part of life.”
“Would your mother want to be separated from you?”
“No, but she said I’ll have my own house when I grow up. And she’s a very busy lady. She told me—–it just makes the time more valuable.”
“The Sea Peoples do not care about Human Morals. They returned to the cold sea, where they stay to this day.”
The teacher looked in my eyes.
“That’s why those ice caps are melting.”