Porphyry laughed. “He didn’t get here until well after Father was dead,” he said. “He told me explicitly that he didn’t come as a psychopomp, and seemed surprised at the idea. And while he seems intrigued by everyone and everything, he has been paying a great deal of attention to your Thetis. He’s very strange, not how I would have imagined Hermes at all. What do you think?”

Hermes. Was he? Of course he must be. It wasn’t really warm enough for anyone human to be comfortable naked. I felt icy cold inside and out. Though I suppose it did explain both why the sex had been so wonderful and how he could have forgotten. If he was a god, probably it was always like that for him. I wished I hadn’t revealed what I’d admitted to Dad.

I had often heard the story from Grandfather of how, when my grandmother Simmea discovered that he was the god Apollo, she had said, “Then that’s why you’re so awful at being a human being.” For the first time, I understood it.

I took a sip of my own wine. It was watered three to one, which was correct for a funeral, of course, but at that moment I could have done with something stronger.

“Why do you think he came now, and not before?” Dad asked. “The Olympians must know we’re here. Zeus put us here. And we’re worshipping them. Some of that must get through. But none of them have ever come before.”

“Except Athene,” I said, knowing Dad would know what I meant and that Porphyry and Aroo would think I was talking about the Relocation.

“Excuse me, do you believe gla to be one of your Olympian gods?” Aroo asked. (“Gla” was the special Saeli pronoun for divinity. I knew it because of the negotiations about temples. I’d never heard it in normal conversation before. The Saeli didn’t generally use it for Pytheas and his children.)

“Yes, that’s Hermes,” Dad replied.

The three of them had been moving through the crush and were now beside us. “Father, Aroo, Marsilia, this is Hermes,” Thetis said, beaming. He was lovely. Of course he was. He was a god. How could I not have guessed? I felt furious with myself.

We exchanged conventional wishes of joy, though my voice seemed choked in my throat. Hermes still showed no sign whatsoever of recognizing me. He did remarkably well at the Saeli sideways head-bow, which takes most people a long time to master. But then, he was a god. “I think you all know Jason?” Thee went on.

“Yes,” Aroo said, making the head-bow to Jason. “You are in charge of the boat where Marsilia and Hilfa work. Joy to you, Jason.”