I thought for a moment as we walked past a smithy, with the scent of quenched iron hanging heavily on the air. “I think what’s so appealing, both then and now, is the idea of forgiveness for sin. If you’re genuinely sorry for what you’ve done, you can be forgiven and your wrongdoing taken away.”

“You give up responsibility for it?” She was frowning hard.

“Yes. You’re washed clean of it.”

“Without making restitution to people you harmed?” she asked.

“It’s the spiritual side of it,” I said, feebly. “But you’re right of course, it’s between you and God, not you and whoever you wronged.” But Ikaros had come to apologize to me. My forgiveness had been important to him, not just God’s forgiveness.

“And God is all-powerful?”

“Yes. That’s appealing. And of course, there’s the whole thing where everyone is really sure, and there’s the hope of an eternal afterlife.”

“We’re really sure about Athene.” She was still frowning. “And Jesus incarnated himself as a human?”

“Yes, that’s also part of the appeal. Think of a god doing that, giving up his powers, to live like us, to redeem us.”

Simmea laughed. “If that’s why he did it! Maybe he just had questions he wanted answered.”

I was startled. “Questions?”

“About being human. Assuming he was ever real and actually did it. But thank you, I do see now why people might like it. Do you have an opinion on whether we ought to allow it?”

We walked past Crocus’s colossal statue of Sokrates Awakening the Workers. I was almost used to it by now. “Banning it gives it too much power. And it would be impossible to keep it out entirely now that it’s the official religion of the City of Amazons, if we’re going to have any contact with them at all. Forbidding it might make it seem attractive to rebellious Young Ones,” I said.

Simmea sighed. “Alkibiades is being rebellious, though not in religious directions, which considering everything is a good thing.”

“I think we ought to allow it but laugh at it, and keep showing how silly it is. Because it is silly. There are a whole lot of absurdities. And we know Athene is real and has real but limited abilities and knowledge. We can deduce certain things from that, but not that there’s an omnipotent, omniscient and omnibenevolent deity who wants us all to become angels.”

“I’ve read some of Ikaros’s theses, but only some of them. They make my eyes cross. And of course they don’t have their holy book. Having a holy book nobody can read but which you can quote from whenever you want is a bit too convenient!”