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some man or other and our procession ground and clopped to a halt. Men dismounted and hurried into the thorn bushes by the road. Ionides got down and went too. I had watched the floor of the vehicle or Ionides’ face. Now I lifted my eyes to the view and cried out. The whole of the deep blue gulf lay before me, and far away the great central mountains of the Peloponnesus lifted their snowy heads into the sky. Just across the gulf, yet seeming near enough to touch, was the glitter and smoke of Corinth with the fortress of Acrocorinth. I had not known that the world could look like this and I could have gazed at it for ever.
    But the men had done their business and were returning. Ionides jumped up into the brake and nodded to the leader of the armed men. The leader gave a shout and dust began to rise again as we ground on up the road.
    ‘Honoured Ionides –’
    ‘Yes?’
    ‘The sacred besom.’
    ‘The god has his household too, you know – his cook, his bodyservant, his sweeper. You wouldn’t expect a god to do his own sweeping would you? But it’s entirely symbolic. His bodyservant shakes a few grains of gold dust out of a shoe and you wave the sacred besom over it seven times. I think it is seven times. On these occasions it is usually either three or seven and just now and then, nine. The gods can count, you see.’
    ‘I suppose so.’
    ‘I think you are feeling braver already.’
    ‘Look at all that, that world!’
    ‘I do, often.’
    ‘And our forest down there, and the pastures – Oh, Aetolia is beautiful!’
    ‘I am not an Aetolian myself, but yes, Aetolia is beautiful. By the way, I am an Athenian. You have heard of Athens?’
    ‘That is where the barbarians were beaten.’
    ‘Yes. A long time ago. Since then – Athens would be over there on our left, way beyond those hills, more or less in a line with Megara.’
    ‘That’s Corinth across there. Sicily would be on our right wouldn’t it?’
    ‘My goodness, you do know a lot. Yes. Sicily would be on our right and a bit south and also a long, long way away.’
    We were silent for a time. I thought of my brother but said nothing about him. What was there to be said? Ionides broke the silence at last.
    ‘Now what are you wondering?’
    ‘The future. My future. All the questions. Where? How? What?’
    ‘As you probably remember there are two Pythias. One, the reigning Pythia, is a very distinguished lady indeed. She is blind but only to this world from which we are travelling backwards. The other is a younger lady. She is not … not such as the blind Lady. But the god permits himself to speak through whom he will. There is no merit in being an oracle, a Pythia. They are as they are, the reigning Lady is ancient, distinguished and, I would say, holy. The younger one is as you will find, for – symbolically – you will be her servant. Of course, we have slaves to do the actual work. Not that pert creature of yours, slaves born to the Foundation. Really, I sometimes think they know more about it than we do! Each of the gods, of the many, many gods, has his priest, his servant. Together they make up all souls and I am their Warden, or did I tell you that? Probably. It is my only claim to fame though. You are a good listener, my dear, and bring the worst out in me, I mean the most loquacious. You will live in your own apartment in what we call the palace of the Pythias. You will have your own servants. I shall teach you the duties and the methods of the position which I hope one day you will hold.’
    ‘What is that, Ionides?’
    ‘You will learn to listen and to speak the very words of the god.’
    It was as if the world had fallen on me.
    ‘God help me! No! Ionides –’
    He raised his voice.
    ‘It is a matter of some half-burnt fish and a child that recovered at the door of death.’
    ‘Ionides, please! It was a mistake – people made it bigger –’
    ‘Yes. Of course it was a mistake. Two mistakes. But you are exactly right. You are’