>>5587193You think on which god to make this votive offering to. You strongly consider Brazen Ares, the god of the front-line, who surely would delight in such proficient slaughter in battle. The best offering, however, seems to you to be to the goddess who you share a name with: Winged Nike, she who brings victory to men in all contests.
She is hardly a common goddess to make offerings to, considering her close association with Father Zeus. But you, who desires nothing other than to earn glory through victories in all competitions of arms, decide to single out the blessed daughter of Pallas that she might grant you honors as well. Your prayer is simple, as your have always given offerings to the gods without verbal excess as the better-educated me might engage in.
“Lady Nike, Winged Victor who flies always besides Thundering Zeus, to your name do I dedicate this feat and these captured arms. May you fly beside me as well, that I may bring ever more victories to your altar.”
With that, your work here is done. You use a loose rag from their camp to clean off your spear but otherwise leave their bodies to be eaten by the birds and dogs. Burial of the dead is always the responsibility of allies in arms; here no allies remain to protect the flesh of the dead and speed their passage to Hades. Another pity, but one it would be utterly inappropriate to rectify even if you felt like it.
You walk back to your chariot- less than three hours have passed since you first ran into that picket. Your driver is surprised that you finished the job so quickly, but you shrug and tell him that they were easy prey. He helps you get back out of your armor and you stow it away again. It wouldn’t do to ride into town armed.
The rest of this leg of travel on the mainland goes by without trouble. You arrive at Casthanaea. The gates are open, nothing seems amiss. Excellent. You go straight down to the docks to arrange travel.
You won’t need your chariot on Skyros, so you pay an honest-looking Hellenic trader to bring it with him on the way to Megara along with the parts of your kit you can’t carry on your person on the island. Another merchant happens to making a run through the Sporades, so it isn’t any trouble to convince him to take a noble along as a passenger so long as you “assure him you’ve not roused the wrath of the gods of the sea” which, technically speaking, you haven’t.
