Thyone, Goddess of Frenzied Inspiration (thyone) wrote in history_dot_com, @ 2012-09-28 17:49:00 |
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Entry tags: | ~thor, ~thyone |
Fools Rush In [Ancient Gaul, Swiss Alps] (tag: Thor)
Northern Γαλλία, situated at the foot of the range of mountains topped with snowy peaks, was a market where every language and dialect of Western Europa was overheard. Raeti and Lepontii goat herders that lived up on those peaks came down with meat and milk to sell, while the Celts brewed their peculiar mead to sell while zealously guarding how it was made. The Greek merchants who traveled so far in the name of commercialism came bearing iron, bronze and pottery, accompanied by the peculiar breed of entrepreneurs from far off lands such as Egypt and Persia, even Carthage, who saw opportunity in the wake of where the Greeks settled. It was a tricky thing to do business so far north, as Gauls did not have coinage to trade with, putting them at a severe disadvantage with the rest. It was a delicate process to arrange fair bargains when one was a goddess new to those parts.
Thyone did not speak the local dialect, whichever that happened to be. She simply spoke and she was understood, which she thought was a blessedly underappreciated ability that came with being apotheosed. The idea of having to go around learning a language every time a civilization rose and collapsed in order to communicate properly was a daunting prospect if one considered just how often that happened in a thousand years. She’d seen many cities come and gone, their names and kings forgotten, and still she was young. How many more times would the world change in another thousand, two thousand years? What an absolute mess it would be if she had to learn a new tongue every single time only to see the tongue die along with its moribund speakers a short while later. Beyond frustrating. She’d give up and become a disagreeable hermit who would talk to animals only.
Overall, Thyone was pleased with what she’d accomplished. She smiled, gratified, at the young girl manning the family’s booth and pulled the new purchase over her head. It was not anything ostentatious or terribly expensive. The cord was stretched, braided leather with a woven pendant hanging from it. She was certain it was somehow meant to be a religious artifact for protection granted by some local deity. The only flashy thing about it was that between the cortinate weave there was a garnet stone, giving the pendant the appearance of an all-watching eye. It hung in the center of her collarbone, gleaming in the sunlight. It brought to mind adornments of another time, of the office she had held as a priestess and the symbols that had come with the position.
Thyone toyed with the pendant absently as she moved on to the next stall. The smells of offal, both cooked and not, mixed with the earthy meads, the sweat of working hard under the sun. She did not consider herself as standing out in any way from the myriad of people that filled the market, eyes too accustomed to the numinous nature of Olympus and her own perceived mundanity in that hallowed place to consider that she was a selcouth novelty in the market as a swan wandering in a clutch of hens would be.
The garnet coruscated the more she twisted it between her fingers as she perused, idle with her time since there was nowhere in particular she had to be. If anyone had need of her, all they had to do was reach out to find her. Thyone found shopping a soothing experience, and she intended to take her time with it.
It was only as she knelt down to greet a stray dog that was obviously well-fed by various hands that Thyone’s peace was broken. She felt nothing until suddenly her neck was painfully jerked as a quick hand shot out and yanked at the pendant. The leather did not want to give and Thyone was too surprised to do anything but make a pained noise before the clever thief, all within a second, realized that approach was not going to work and dragged the necklace up and over her head, disheveling her hair and leaving a good scratch on her jaw along the way. Thyone winced and watched the thief run off, plunging into the crowd with practiced ease. It had had all taken less than five seconds.
Impressive, actually.