Though sandier, hungrier, sun-speckled, most days meatless.

He saw us as rightfully his, for whatever purpose

He chose, to tend him and feed him, to wash him, amuse him,

Rock him to sleep in the dangerous boats of ourselves.

We did not know as we played with him there in the sand

On the beach of our rocky goat-island, close by the harbour,

That he was foredoomed to swell to our cold-eyed teenaged killer.

If we had known that, would we have drowned him back then?

Young children are ruthless and selfish: everyone wants to live.

Twelve against one, he wouldn’t have stood a chance.

Would we? In only a minute, when nobody else was looking?

Pushed his still-innocent child’s head under the water

With our own still-innocent childish nursemaid hands,

And blamed it on waves. Would we have had it in us?

Ask the Three Sisters, spinning their blood red mazes,

Tangling the lives of men and women together.

Only they know how events might then have been altered.

Only they know our hearts.

From us you will get no answer.

XI.  Helen Ruins My Life

After a time I became more accustomed to my new home, although I had little authority within it, what with Eurycleia and my mother-in-law running all domestic matters and making all household decisions.

Odysseus was in control of the kingdom, naturally, with his father, Laertes, sticking his oar in from time to time, either to dispute his son’s decisions or to back them up. In other words, there was the standard family push-and-pull over whose word was to carry the most weight. All were agreed on one thing: it was not mine.

Dinnertimes were particularly stressful. There were too many undercurrents, too many sulks and growlings on the part of the men and far too many fraught silences encircling my mother-in-law. When