Stone Blind by Natalie Haynes

Author:Natalie Haynes [Haynes, Natalie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pan Macmillan
Published: 2022-07-18T17:00:00+00:00

A Nereid, Unnamed

Well. This might be the most egregious insult any of us has ever sustained, and we’re immortal so there has been plenty of time. The Nereids are fifty in number and we are the daughters of the ocean. I’ll repeat this, because it seems that not every mortal has been paying attention. Nereids are immortal, and we are fifty, and so if you insult us as a group, you insult fifty goddesses at once. Ask yourself if that sounds like something you want to do.

And then ask yourself if it might be a little arrogant to compare yourself with us. Mortals have a word for this kind of arrogance: the kind that makes a person think she can compare herself favourably to a goddess. The word is hubris. And while I am all in favour of using precision to describe something, might I suggest that you would be better off not doing something so dangerous so often that you need a specific word for it? Perhaps develop your self-control, rather than your vocabulary.

What could she have imagined would happen to her? Cassiope, I mean. Is it possible you hadn’t heard? Cassiope, queen of Ethiopia. I’m sure you’re aware of her. She’s a famous beauty, apparently (by mortal standards). Married a king who doted on her, cherished her, indulged her. Allowed her to believe that she could keep her looks, no matter how many years went by. Since Cassiope believed this, she gained no humility as she grew older, only anxiety. She became more and more fearful that her beauty was slipping away, more in need of reassurance, more desperate to convince herself that the compliments she heard from her husband and her slaves were still true. And every day, she looked at her reflection and persuaded herself that somehow age had not touched her, the way it does every living creature. She looked at her daughter – who you might recall is named Andromeda – and believed they must look the same. While she was occupied with this delusion, she added another: she – and her daughter – were as beautiful as the Nereids. More beautiful, perhaps.

Can you even imagine? To have such a thought is madness and folly, equal and immense. To express such a thought? Tantamount to a death sentence.

Perhaps you are thinking: if the woman was so foolish, so deluded, what difference did her words make? Surely the gods would simply overlook them, because why would they concern themselves with the words of a stupid woman? If I know so much about her – about her frailty and her ageing – why am I angry? Carry on that way, and I’ll lose patience with you too. Nereids are not minor deities, and we will not be treated as such. We are the daughters of the sea. I bet you can’t even name one, can you?

You see, that is absolutely typical of you people. So you don’t bother learning fifty names (don’t pretend it’s so difficult; you can count to fifty, can’t you?).

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