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the Great Gate.
    ‘Stop! Stop! O please! Stop!’
    I stumbled from the brake, snatched my skirts out of the dust and ran to him, stooped and flung my arms round him. It was our old herm, of course, standing deep in the earth with his privates jauntily displayed and his cheeky smile. I flung my arms round him and pressed my cheek to the stony curls of his head. I hated our house and would have left a curse on it if I had dared. But this was our old herm, that had been dug up after his permission had been sought and granted, dug up all those years ago by our little house in Phocis which he had guarded for so long. And now I was being dug up, torn up, transplanted without anyone asking my permission. I howled there as the sun rose on my future and I clung absurdly to my unhappy past.
    ‘I think I had better share your brake with you. Come, little Arieka. You have wept enough as is seemly and any more would be a sheer indulgence. You don’t seem like an indulgent girl to me. Come along. Now if you hold on there with your right hand – so – then put your left foot there – and lift up – good. Now sit down. He is a fine horse is he not? My hunter! But we will let my groom lead him. You know, since I am your guardian and you are my ward it would be quite appropriate for you to uncover more of your face – on the other hand the dust that is kicked up by this antiquated vehicle – you don’t really know much about me or this journey do you?’
    I said nothing for I did not know how to speak to a man. But he divined my difficulty.
    ‘Now what are you to call me? If it comes to that, what am I to call you? Shall we settle for Arieka mostly, and Young Lady on high days and feast days? I think that’s about right. As for what you call me, I think “Ion” would present you with a difficulty whereas “Ionides” with “Peisistratides” attached would do for those occasions in Delphi which are so fearfully solemn.’
    ‘Yes, Honoured Ionides.’
    ‘You are exquisitely well-mannered my child. Do you think I could be allowed to see both eyes instead of just one? It’s difficult getting used to men. You have my entire sympathy. I prefer women. But don’t tell anybody. I don’t mean I prefer women as wives or slaves – that slave of yours is far too pretty, we must sell her – no, I mean women as friends. So, from my point of view, I am delighted to have made a new woman friend and be given the privilege of looking after her. You may notice that I talk too much. You, very properly, talk too little – a paradox! You are watching the apple going up and down in my throat. It is indeed prominent. We lanky creatures suffer from that sort of exposure. I daresay you could draw the muscles of my face. Well. You seem a little more comfortable, a walking pace. Your father keeps good cattle. But I should not be talking about that! Are you curious about your own future?’
    ‘My mother told me I was to sweep floors, Honoured Ionides.’
    He smiled with sorrow lurking round his eyes.
    ‘I may have given her that impression. How foolish of me! Oh, now I understand. Yes. You will indeed carry the sacred besom in one of the processions. But otherwise –’
    ‘I wouldn’t have to go near that place?’
    ‘Now what are you thinking of? What on earth – Yes, I see. I might have known you would be profoundly religious. Of course.’
    ‘I’m not, I’m not! I’m … frightened. That’s all.’
    ‘It’s much the same thing in the long run. Forgive me, I didn’t mean to say that and you must forget it. My sense of the dramatic makes off with me. Anything for a point, a squib, a paradox, a neat apothegm – What is truth? But you believe in the gods?’
    ‘Of course, Ionides.’
    ‘It is good.’
    ‘They are there, aren’t they? You do believe they are, even without being frightened?’
    ‘I believe it is entirely right for you to believe in them, poor babe. Never let go of them. Who knows –?’
    There was a shout from