All In The Riddle

"Becoming a priestess of Artemis is no simple matter of study," Dordei began. "The lady of the woods demands more from her servants than piety and knowledge. When I arrived in Ephesus, I had my robes as a novice priestess, and that was all. I could have no more. Now not everyone who goes to Ephesus does so to become a priestess of the lady. Many go for the training, the education and the experience. But becoming a priestess begins with pledging the vows, and so I vowed myself to chastity, to eating no flesh food not brought down by my own hands, to drinking no nectar of Dionysus. I abandoned all wordly things, relying wholly on the temple and the goddess and my own devices to survive. And, pledging myself to the ascetic life, I became a Melissa of Artemis."

Ophion shook his head. "It is a woman of extraordinary constitution than can take on such a life."

"That is the idea," Dordei said with a sly smile. "In my first year, I learned to get in touch with my mind and my inner self--I learned how to make this physical form fall away. I spent most of my days in Artemis' woods around Ephesus, in silent meditation and contemplation. I was subjected to tests of physical endurance: long runs, climbing, swimming, carrying weighty objects over distances. Many who began training with me did not last through the first year, and others did not want to go beyond it. For myself, nothing I had done had felt unnatural or uncomfortable to me, and this, I was told, was my sign from Artemis.

"I spent my second year exclusively in the forests of Ephesus. I slept in the trees and ferreted out what berries and plants I could, relying on my instinct to tell me which were poisonous and which were not. In that year did I become one with the wild things. They and I learned from each other, sharing wisdom, and they taught me how to communicate with them. Not just animals, of course, but the very plants and trees were alive and talking as well. The training of my first and second years combined, and I took a giant step towards my goal in becoming one with the forest.

"At the end of my second year, I was tested by Artemis herself. As you know, the deer is her sacred animal, and those woods of Ephesus are filled with herds of deer. Artemis charged me to run with the deer, by my will and my physical power. My task was to overtake the herd, and be recognized by them as their leader. This I was able to do, and Artemis was pleased.

"I cannot explain all that happened in the next two years," Dordei conceded. "This time was my introduction into the mysteries, and the mysteries by their very nature are not discussable." She looked down at her folded hands. "It is both terrifying and exhilirating to be initiated into the mysteries. Terrors and delights beyond man's reckoning awaited me. But I passed through, I came through the mysteries and arrived at my final test." Dordei paused, looking around. "At night, they took me blindfolded into the woods--part of the woods I had never before been in. They left me, naked and empty handed, to make my own way back to the temple. The test was for me to summon Artemis, on my own, of my own power, and to gain her assistance."

Arion's eyes widened. "And?"

"I summoned everything that was in me, and called out to her, in faith and confidence. And Artemis appeared to me, and she clothed me in a tunic green like the leaves. Taking my hand in hers, we walked together back to the temple of Ephesus. That was the end of my training; I was made high priestess of Artemis of Amazonia, and was honored as a full initiate of her mysteries."

"The point being," Berdine interrupted, "that no other woman alive has acheived what Dordei has in service to Artemis. There is no mortal closer to the goddess."

Dordei blushed profusely. "I have tried to serve her well," she said. "I would have been very happy to stay at Ephesus. I enjoyed another year there, mostly studying the arts of midwifing, before I received orders from Hippolyta to return to Themiscyra. And while the queen technically has no jurisdiction over me when I act for Artemis, I did recognize my secular responsibilties as well."

"So Dordei and I left Ephesus, and sailed for Themiscyra," Berdine said.

"You were sad to leave the temple?" Arion gently asked Dordei.

Dordei bobbed her head. "It is hard to qualify sad, my friend. I am a servant of Artemis, and I cannot serve her much better than as princess of her own nation."

"Halt!"

A brilliant flame flared in the depths of each eye as the Sphinx beheld the nervous band of travellers. "None of you may pass through my gates without solving my riddle," the Sphinx roared. "Only one of you may make an attempt. If you answer correctly, you may all pass through. If you answer incorrectly, you will all be destroyed."

"She certainly does not play games, does she?" Berdine said.

"There is no other option?" Arion asked.

"Only to go back where you came from, mortal."

Arion's chest heaved as he turned to Berdine and Dordei. "I believe the expression that best fits this situation is do or die," Berdine quipped.

"We have no advantage here at all," Arion moaned. "We are wagering our lives against an unknown opponent!"

"Who among us will attempt the riddle?" Ophion asked.

Arion turned to Saffi. "Can you not guess for us?"

The Sibylla shrugged her thin shoulders. "Nay, my lord. I do not know what the Sphinx asks."

"The wisest among us should take the challenge." Ophion gestured at Arion, Dordei and Berdine. "One of you three."

"Not me," Arion insisted. "I am not so wise as all that."

"Nor me!" Berdine exclaimed. "I wish not this burden on my shoulders!"

"You have a better chance than I do," the Iphisiad king declared.

"How do you figure? I do not play at word games. I would think that is your area."

Dordei, who had been standing in silence, now rubbed her chin in contemplation. Lazily, she meandered away from the group, to where the Sphinx sat at attention. "This is not terribly fair of you," she said in a carefully teasing voice.

The Sphinx growled. "Perhaps I do not care for fairness."

"Ah, but then do you enter into a tricky paradox," Dordei declared. She was blithely aware of the horrified stares of her companions on her as she spoke with the Sphinx.

"Paradox? What paradox?"

Dordei calmly paced about before the Sphinx, her arms folded. "Come now! You, a Sphinx, cannot see the paradox? It is as clear as the crescent on my forehead."

This subtle reminder to the Sphinx that Dordei was under Artemis' protection put it in a quiescent mood. However brazen this mortal might be, she could not be harmed. 

"You speak nonsense. There is no paradox."

"I think that this Sphinx is no sphinx at all."

The Sphinx's eyes glowed orange. "How do you dare!"

"Well, I mean if a mortal like myself can see an inherent paradox, and you cannot, then how can you be a Sphinx?" Dordei shook her head, chuckling softly. "I think we could walk right past you without any trouble."

"Tell me Dordei's not going mad," Arion asked Berdine in a furious whisper.

"Faith, Arion, I'm sure your princess knows what she is doing."

"No one passes me without answering my riddle!" the Sphinx boomed.

"Tell me, Sphinx, do you always stand guard here?"

"Of course not. My home is beyond the gates."

"Ah." The princess nodded. "And do you pass through the gates to get there?"

"How else would I get there?"

Now Dordei breathed deeply. She met the Sphinx's stare evenly. Without another word, she quickly passed through the gates, to stand safely on the other side. 

"Do you answer your own riddles? Yet another paradox. You are not very good at these games."

The Sphinx snapped its large head around to glare at her. "Insolent!"

"Perhaps. But a safe insolent, nonetheless. Now do you see the paradox?"

Dordei's companions were making a great fuss, but the voice of the Sphinx rose above their din. "I do see it," the Sphinx growled. "You have found the answer to a riddle greater than the one I would ask. Though I would not have asked it, you answered it nonetheless, and that fulfilled my condition."

"And I will share this information with every living thing I encounter, so that you are feared no more," Dordei affirmed, looking at her fingernails.

"No!" the Sphinx pleaded. "Be merciful, mortal woman."

Dordei bellowed in laughter. "Why should I? You would have killed us all without remorse."

The Sphinx's face contorted. "I beg you for mercy."

"My mercy has a price."

"Name it."

Dordei pointed to her companions. "Allow my companions to pass through your gates unmolested."

The Sphinx grumbled and mumbled, visibly irritated with this brazen woman. "Very well. You all may pass, provided you swear never to tell a soul I have let you through."

Arion, in a daze, cautiously looked up at the growling Sphinx as he passed underneath her murderous gaze. He met Dordei and took her arms, regarding her in astonishment. "How have you done this?"

Dordei shrugged. "Mostly, it was a guess."

"By the gods, what a guess!" Ophion exclaimed.

"The Sphinx insists that whoever passes through her gates must answer her riddle," said the princess. "And so I have done."

"How?"

Dordei bowed mockingly to the Sphinx. "By setting up a larger riddle." By now, her companions had circled her, eager for an explanation. "What is the greater riddle here? It is how to get past the Sphinx without being bothered with her riddles at all."

Arion looked to his companions, then returned to regard Dordei curiously. "Then what was the answer?"

"Is it not obvious?" Dordei grinned. "One simply walks past the Sphinx and through the gates, without playing her game."

"So it requires one as cocky as the Amazon princess to call the Sphinx's bluff," Saffi summarized, shaking her head.

"And I solved her riddle," Dordei reaffirmed.

"Yes, yes, you're very smart," the Sphinx chortled. "Now go away. And remember your promise to me."

Dordei, obviously pleased with herself, mounted her white mare. "Shall we move on?" she said lightly. They rode south again, towards Delphi, with Dordei between Arion's bewildered stare and Berdine's smirk of pride in her friend.

Emilie J. Conroy

ejconroy778@gmail.com