“I have no difficulty understanding why. How can you possibly argue that she was justified in what she did to him? She lost her temper. I have lost my own temper with students often enough to recognize that. It isn’t the slow ones that make me do it, it’s the insolent ones. Sokrates had some good arguments, but he was behaving like an insolent ephebe pushing the limits. He wanted to make her angry, and he did. But anger and power go badly together, and she is a goddess. Power comes with responsibility. She killed him, or the next thing to it. She was wrong to do what she did and walk away.”

Ikaros rubbed his eyes again. “She is wisdom. She had reasons we don’t understand. She must have.”

“Why is it hard to understand that she lost her temper?” I asked. Kreusa went by with two of her apprentices, all carrying baskets of herbs. She nodded to me, and I waved.

“You’re trying to understand her as if she were human. But she’s an angel,” Ikaros said.

“It seems to me that she’s a Homeric god, acting exactly the way Homer described the gods acting. We know that gods exist, gods like Athene, who have incredible powers that nevertheless have limits. We know they can make mistakes, and lose their tempers. We might think they should be more responsible, but we can’t affect that. We also know they can be open to persuasion. For instance, Athene agreed to take us to rescue art treasures for the city, though she hadn’t wanted to at first. She changed her mind. We know they can be kind to their worshippers. Athene brought all of the Masters here because we prayed for it. For me it was a rescue, and for most of the others too.”

“For me, certainly,” he acknowledged. “I was dying. She brought me here and healed me. But this is part of her goodness, her perfection.”

“But we also know she can be unkind and imperfect, as witness losing her temper. You have to acknowledge that too.”

He frowned, and reached toward his eyes then drew his hand back. “We don’t understand everything she did, so it seems to us unkind. But if we knew more, we would understand. Exactly like the way Klio explained my actions so that I understand I committed an injustice, only the other way around. If it were explained to us properly, we would see that what she did was just, however it seems.”

“I don’t think there’s any need for such an explanation—” He rubbed his eyes hard and I broke off. “Is there something wrong with your eyes?”