Nous, filles de Sparte

Dame Héra. Je vous fais le serment, sur ma propre vie sur tout ce qui m'est cher, que si mon époux commet ce terrible crime, je fais le serment que je le tuerai à mon tour.

Elle se sentait puissante de pouvoir enfin accéder au monde secret des mots silencieux.

Helen the whore, Helen the disappointment, Helen the unwanted.

Even after all these years, she still mattered. She was still somebody, to young men in foreign lands if not to anybody here in Sparta. Suddenly, with those few words, Helen felt brighter than she had in a long time.

There were times she felt frustrated to have been born a girl. She wanted freedom. She wanted authority. She wanted to do something other than work wool all day. [...] But each time she felt those frustrations rising, she pushed them down. She had to make her peace with that which could not be changed.

But perhaps it was not too late, she thought. Perhaps she could still bring him back, and they could share their lives as man and wife should. Perhaps she could still find the love she hald always longed for.