March 3: International Writers Day

They called me “kore”, “girl”, but I was not a child. I reached the age that suited me – and that I would keep Some of my friends were already married. But I was too high a prize, daughter of the king of heaven and the queen of earth. And then, there was the prophecy. A frightening monster would come for me and snatch me from my mother’s house. To avoid such a fate, I could have sworn the oath. My halfsisters Artemis and Athena had. Never to come close, never to kiss, never to commit. Never to marry. But that was not my mother’s wish. “I will find you a husband. Someone with the purest ichor in his veins. Someone who will bring honour to the house and who will take care of you.” I didn’t need taking care of. I needed space to breathe. So many have tried to explain what comes next. From “kore” I became “despoina”, “mistress”. Queen of Souls. The poets have called me helpless, desperate, as well as powerful, even ruthless, but if one thing, I have been resilient. Nobody has heard my story. So watch out for it this autumn.

Bocca Bacciata, Dante Rossetti, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, USA