Free Goddess of Yesterday by Caroline B. Cooney Page A

cottage, an old woman milking her goat let me drink out of the pail. It was warm and thick.
    “This Main Land,” I said to Tenedos, “is a wondrous place. I did not know there were mountains as high as gods. I never dreamed of roads, or roads made of stone. You know, the first time I saw stairs—” I chopped off my statement. It was Anaxandra who could remember the first time she saw stairs. Callisto had been born into a house with stairs. “Tell me about the family of King Menelaus,” I ordered him.
    Tenedos broke off high slender grass and chewed the end of it. “The household is confusing. Menelaus married Helen, a daughter of the king of Sparta. From this marriage, Menelaus' land greatly increased. All you see within the embrace of those distant mountain ranges and all the way back behind us to the sea is the kingdom of Menelaus. Now, Helen also has twin brothers, much older than she, named Castor and Pollux, who also possess much land.”
    “I know about Castor and Pollux,” I said delightedly. “They sailed with Jason on the
Argo
to bring back the Golden Fleece. Every bard who ever visited Siphnos sang of Jason's voyage.”
    “You will hear them sing even more now,” said Tenedos dryly. “Castor and Pollux never tire of hearing how wonderful they are. The twins have even coaxed the astronomers at the palace to name stars in their honor.”
    A princess should not let a slave speak badly of his betters. I should have Pyros use his whip. But I wanted Tenedos silent about my stair mistake, so I let it pass. I said, “I have never heard of the naming of stars.”
    He stared at me. “But how do you study them, as theycross the sky every night?” When I had no answer to this, Tenedos chewed down hard on his grass and said, “Queen Helen has a sister Clytemnestra, and Clytemnestra married the older brother of Menelaus, who is Agamemnon, strongest king in the world. So two sisters married two brothers. Agamemnon's far-flung lands are beyond those mountains on the north. When the brothers visit each other, they do not cross the mountain range, for the pass is fit only for wild goats. Each king returns to the sea and sails to his brother's port.”
    I drew a picture in my head of marriage lines between the brothers. I drew lines down for the children of each king. With a sickening thud in my heart, I realized that I had paid little attention to the genealogy of Callisto. No noble child exists who cannot preach the family genealogy. I would be expected to recite it back ten generations. I began piecing together the lineage. I knew the parents and grandparents of both Petra and Nicander. Could I recall anything more than that?
    “The sisters Helen and Clytemnestra are the most beautiful women in the world,” said Tenedos. “Helen is so lovely that goddesses are jealous. But even the jealousy of a goddess cannot hurt Helen. In fact, nothing can hurt Helen, for she does not have an earthly father. She is the daughter of the Lord God Zeus.”
    I had known this, of course; all the world knew. But now I would meet her. Was Helen fully human or would I be able to tell that she was half god? Was her blood red like mine? Would she know things, the way immortal gods did? Would she know, for example, that I was not Callisto? “What did Zeus look like?” I asked. “Did Helen's earthly mother tell anybody? Was he a giant with huge muscles and a curly beard?”
    Tenedos shook his head. “Zeus came to Helen's mother in the form of a swan.”
    “Oh.” I was blank. “What is a swan?”
    Tenedos sucked in his breath and held it.
    In his silence, I heard a thousand noises: the creak of wheels and axles; the panting and wheezing of donkeys and mules; the clopping feet of oxen and horses; the slap of sandals; the talk and laughter of men.
    “Little princess,” said the slave softly, “the court of Menelaus and Helen is sophisticated, and you have been isolated. You have never seen glass, don't know what a river is, have