The Ambassador of Athena

The sun and the hot and dry wind made me sweat within seconds after I left the boat in Vathi, the main village on Ithaca. A man picked me up, and thank the gods his car had AC, so the drive up to Mount Athos was not that bad. The driver, a typical Greek with black hair and a black scrubby beard talked with me about the island, the archaeologists and his family. The Island was very small, only about 120 km2, just 3000 inhabitants, 8 villages and many bays and beaches. The rest of the island was covered with woods and rocks, hiding the remains of nearly 4000 years of settlement.

When we stopped, we were at the end of a dead-end road in the middle of the woods. The driver told me that I had to hike up the mountain to the top to find the base camp of the archaeology team, I couldn’t miss it. So I started walking, and after 5 minutes I was soaked in sweat. The way to the top was rocky, literally, and also very steep. When I finally reached the top I was exhausted, but the view paid for that: The trees were cut down here to enable the archaeologist to work, so you had a marvellous view over the whole island. Walls could be seen on the flat top, men and women digging, brushing, drawing, excavating and whatever you do otherwise as an archaeologist. One of them, probably their boss, recognised me and came over to me.
“Hello, my name is Frank Marsch, and this is our playground” he introduced himself. He was about my height, had red hair and a red moustache. I guessed his age at around 40.
I introduced myself and asked him: “So what is my job here?”
He gestured at the walls. “We try to find prove that these walls were once the palace of the famous hero Odysseus” he said “Your job will be to translate inscriptions and explain paintings we might find, and you can also help us with the excavation work. Our former expert broke her leg when she slipped on the stairs at her home, so you are now our main man” He smiled at me.
I liked him instantly. He was unlike other archaeologists I’ve met before uncomplicated and funny, but nevertheless a good scientist. Frank led me to a tent where I could deposit my backpack. “In a few days a specialist from the Greek Culture Ministry will arrive here, just in case we find something important. You know, bureaucracy.”

So I started my work at the top of Mount Athos. I helped carrying away tons of earth and mud, translated the signs engraved in some pots that only told us the former owner of this house obviously liked olives from Athens and pottery from Crete and helped the woman that had to draw a map of the excavation site to measure the outer walls. The days were spent in that way only interrupted by the meals and, at sunset, the walk to the little hotel on the other side of the mountain. After a week I’ve developed a routine, but it was interrupted by the excited scream of an archaeologist.

“Hey. Come here!” he shouted, and all of us, 10 people, ran over to him. What he found didn’t seemed to be special, just a stone, but I immediately understood what we saw.
“A stair” Frank said. And so it was. The rest of the day was spent with carefully digging up the staircase that led downwards. When the sun just disappeared we reached the bottom, where a huge block of stone sealed a doorway. We all were excited, and Frank called the Culture Ministry. They promised that their expert would be in Ithaca by tomorrow at noon, and so it was. When the expert arrived we’ve already prepared a system of ropes, rolls and pulleys to lift the block out of the doorframe. I wasn’t surprised when the expert tapped on my shoulder and said: “There you are”
It was Palla, of course. She had mentioned she worked for the Greek Culture Ministry and had to return to Greece soon, so it didn’t surprised me when she was our expert. She looked awesome. Brown Khaki shorts, a tank top and hiking boots, normally not the definition of sexy, but she could even look hot in that kind of clothes. I cracked a smile
“I’ve expected you earlier” I said. She smiled too, and then gathered the other archaeologists to finally open the door. We all pulled hard, and after a while the block was pulled out wide enough to fasten the claws on top of it. We slowly lifted it out; centimetre by centimetre we pulled it up the stairs till it finally lay on the lawn in front of the staircase. Frank had prepared 3 flashlights and decided he, me and Palla would go downstairs to have a first look at the mysterious discovery we’ve made. He knew here too, they’ve met several times before at excavation sites, so they were joking with me when we entered the room behind the doorframe.

The air in the room smelled dusty and old. The walls, lit by our flashlights, were painted with pictures of gods, beasts and other creatures, but none of them gave us a hint of the owner of the palace. Along the walls the remains of shelves piled up, together with broken amphorae and clay pots. A door led onwards deeper into the mountain. We opened the door that was surprisingly easy to open if you think about it that it was closed for almost 2000 years. Behind it was a simple plain corridor with 5 doors. We opened one door after the other. Behind the first one, we found an armoury full with ancient Greek javelins, swords, shields, spears and bows, all in a great condition, behind the second stood an iron loom, the remains of its last work still in the frame, the third door led to something that must once have been an ancient bathroom and the fourth door revealed a room full of scrolls and clay plates. With every door we got more excited. These rooms held more of ancient artefacts than ever discovered before, and when we discovered the scroll room Frank looked as if he’d start to cry. But behind the last door we found the jackpot:
A life-size statue of a woman in full Greek battle armour with helmet and shield at her feet with stretched-out arms that held a bow and quiver full of arrows, obviously made of bronze stood on a pedestal that read in ancient Greek: “The bow of Ulixes”
We stood there in awe, till I finally said: “We’ve found it, this is the palace of Odysseus.
We just started to examine the statue when a scream from outside interrupted us, followed by a horrible bellow as loud as a jumbo jet.

Notes

Sorry it took so long to write, I just moved and couldn't set up my computer