Dear Athena, can you help me? Have you seen her? Have you seen my daughter?
She seems to have vanished from the face of the earth and I don’t know what to do. I miss her so much it hurts. I know she wouldn’t just disappear like this. I feel certain that someone has taken her from me. It’s the only explanation I can think of, but who? Who?
I feel almost blinded by grief, I simply cannot think straight. I need some clarity, someone looking at this mystery from the outside in. The optimistic part of me is hoping that you know the answer and can tell me straight away, but I suspect not. This feels like a secret known only to those with the very highest authority. What I feel is more likely, is that you will plant the seed of an idea in my mind. Suggest a way to help me get them to confess. Give me a sliver of hope that I might one day see my daughter again. That is all I want. How frightened she must be without her mother. Please, tell me, where can I find her?–seasoned_with_sorrow
Athena says: I know that this will sound a little callous, but I hope you will take this as the sincere flattery that it is intended to be: having a being as mighty as you come to me seeking my assistance has to be a career highlight. Definitely one for the CV.
Apologies, fangoddessing over.
The appropriate manner in which I should have begun this response would have been something like this: you poor poor thing. The not knowing must make the pain of separation even more unbearable. You are right, I have not been let in on this particular secret. You know what a boys’ club Olympus can be. However, some ideas about how we might reveal this secret do spring to mind, so you are right there also.
What you need to do here is force their hand, strike a bargain, force them to confess, and I think I know exactly how to do that.
Ideas about how we might reveal this secret do spring to mind
You need to give the world – gods and mortals alike – the cold shoulder. Freeze them out, go into a hibernation of sorts. Life on earth, the food, the forests, the flowers, is in your power. You have the ability to deprive “those with the very highest authority” of all those lovely sacrifices and offerings which so delight them. Taking away their treats, combined with your wintry attitude is sure to have them crawling back to you. You can make them an offer they can’t refuse: breathing new life into the earth in exchange for the right information.
I probably don’t need to tell you that you’ll need to hold your nerve. They won’t want to give in easily. They’ll “have their reasons” for snatching your daughter from you and won’t be happy that someone is spoiling their plans. Yet spoil them you must, and spoil them you will.
Remind them that they reap what they sow
Knowing where your daughter is will indeed put you a step closer to a reunion, but I feel that I should also warn you that the answers to your questions may not be what you want to hear. The fact that you yourself have not been able to uncover her location suggests that she is somewhere difficult, if not impossible, to reach.
It may be wise to use your bargaining chip to ask for more than your daughter’s whereabouts. Why not go the whole hog and ask them to return her to you? They’d find it very tricky to refuse.
This does all seem rather underhand, and I am almost sorry to suggest that you stoop to their level, but let us remember that they brought this upon themselves. Neither you, nor your daughter deserved to be caught up in their schemes and treated in this way.
So go forth with a clear mind, make the most of your power, and remind them that they reap what they sow…
Dear Athena 