Flag created by Sean Campbell. Digitized version contributed to WikiMedia Commons by Thomas Linard and Ensix. Licensed with CC BY-SA 4.0.
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displaced abjection (social critical feminism): a process by which a marginalized group within society turns either their figurative or actual power, not against those in authority (the dominant group), but rather against those who are parallel or slightly lower on the social scale than they are.
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Reyna and Annabeth found the squat stone building on the edge of Wellesley College's campus. The number on the door was 94, which disturbed Annabeth a bit because the other buildings had no numbers. It was a gray stone building with wood doors and didn't seem too interesting, as far as bars go.
Annabeth peeked inside the bar. There were three girls sitting at the counter, talking to each other. The barista was making a beer. The whole place was cast in pink mood lighting. In the corner, Annabeth spotted a poster advertising Lesbos Olive Oil.
There were pink-and-red striped flags hanging above the door. At the center was a flag of a labrys, a double-edged axe.
"That's a Roman symbol for the Amazons," whispered Reyna.
"It's also a Greek symbol," whispered Annabeth back. "I think it implies it's a girls' only club."
Reyna and Annabeth giggled.
"Who's Sappho?" asked Reyna. "I feel like I learned this but can't quite place her."
A woman with curled brown hair opened the door. She wore a black turtleneck and long mahogany skirt. "Are you ladies going to come in or are you going to gawk at the flags all day?"
Annabeth and Reyna looked at each other.
"Thank you for opening the door," said Reyna, nimbly finding her way inside. She headed for the barstools.
"Yeah," said Annabeth. "Thanks."
The woman followed them to the counter. "Hello, Annabeth and Reyna." She smiled and poured them ginger ale. Annabeth did not like ginger ale. "You make a lovely couple."
"We are not a couple," snapped Reyna.
The woman's laugh sounded like fairy lights. "My name is Sappho. You might have heard of me because the gods granted me immortality when other poets started calling me the Tenth Muse. Most likely you've heard of me because I am head of the school's poetry department."
"We're not students here."
Sappho seemed surprised. "How did you find this building? It's pretty tucked away. Although the bar does seem to attract certain kinds of passersby."
"We were just passing through," Annabeth said vaguely. "You're called the Tenth Muse?"
"According to Wikipedia, I was widely regarded as the greatest poet of my day. I also wrote romantic poems directed at other women. I'm from Lesbos. Guess what modern word that led to."
Annabeth wondered what Percy would have said. She could imagine him saying something numbskulled, like Uh, I dunno. Olive oil?
Reyna said, "Aphrodite told me that there's no demigod to heal my heart. But you're no half-blood. Maybe you can do it."
The question annoyed Annabeth because she had already given Reyna advice. Then again, nothing wrong with getting a second opinion, especially from a relationship expert. Her annoyance faded to admiration.
"Oh, dear sweet Reyna. I love Aphrodite as much as the next woman, I really do. I don't think you're ready for that. I always tell folks: you need to be happy for yourself before you can be happy for a partner. I can't heal your heart for you. Only you can do it."
"No, I can't," said Reyna miserably. "She said so."
Sappho's gaze was distant. "I met a woman once who looked for joy directly. She looked everywhere for someone who was perfect. Someone handsome and tall and strong and compassionate and hard-working and patient and incredibly wealthy. She believed that she'd randomly bump into someone and just instantly know, like a meet cute. They'd spend the rest of their lives together. She believed you needed to fall in love with someone before even dating. She believed that being in love with another person was a feeling of constant bliss. Do you know what she did?"
"She probably died tragically."
"Actually, she'd created an unreachable ideal. No one she knew was perfect. No one she met outside her circle of friends was perfect. Not even the gods could live up to her ideals. All the while, she berated herself for being lonely."
"What did you tell her?"
"Romantic attraction is not happiness."
"You don't get it. Everyone I know is in a relationship."
"Are they all happier than you?"
"Yeah. I'm going to die alone."
Annabeth was tempted to joke about how she and Reyna would die together on their stupid quest, but she didn't think that it would raise Reyna's spirits.
"Maybe happy people are more likely to end up in relationships because of their personalities," said Annabeth, immediately regretting her words for being too analytical. She was also implying that Reyna had a bad personality.
"It's not that getting into a relationship necessarily makes you happy."
"Wonderful," grumbled Reyna. "I'm not in a relationship because I'm miserable to be around."
"No you're not. I've had a wonderful time on this quest because of you."
Good save, thought Annabeth.
Reyna stared at her ginger ale. The silence grew.
Okay, thought Annabeth. Not such a good save after all.
Sappho sighed. "There's a reason that doves are sacred to Aphrodite. I think of true love like a dove that might land on your shoulder, but never if you beat it away because it's not a good enough bird. Improve your life and find things that spark joy. Open your heart to other people. Give others a chance. The dove will land when you're not looking."
Reyna looked as lost as a butterfly underground. She blinked. Once. Twice.
Sappho moved away to tend to the other girls at the bar. The girls left together. Annabeth noticed that one of the girls had blue hair. Sappho put their money away in the cash register.
When Sappho came back, Reyna muttered, "Thank you."
Sappho beamed. "I hope that's what Aphrodite meant by all the healing-your-heart business. I know the gods can be cryptic and misleading sometimes. I wish you the best, Reyna."
Annabeth took a swig of the ginger ale. It wasn't as bad as she was expecting. She felt like Sappho's interaction with Reyna was a lot better than the way Annabeth would have handled the situation. She had a lot to learn from Sappho.
"See?" Annabeth said. "You'll find someone one day."
"Why would I choose to focus on that?" teased Reyna. "Because a woman's worth is determined by her relationship status?"
Annabeth laughed. It felt nice having an intellectual equal. "You got me."
"Always do."
Annabeth swirled her drink in her cup.
Sappho's hints jogged Annabeth's memory. Sappho. Lesbos. The word sapphic. It clicked when Annabeth remembered the number 94 on the door, which had seemed out of place until now. Most of Sappho's work had been lost to history. Much like most surviving primary sources from classical antiquity, only fragments were left. In a poem about a woman, Sappho's 94th fragment had been, in part:
"and on soft beds
... delicate...
you quenched your desire."
The all-important in-betweens had been lost to the entropy of time, which left scholars to debate about the meaning of the words. Annabeth had read a scholar arguing that Sappho was not expressing love, but that the woman had been sleepy and "quenched her desire" for a good night's sleep. Somehow Annabeth doubted that particular interpretation.
Sappho looked directly at Annabeth. "Pretending that girl was my friend and nothing more was erasure," said Sappho. "Love between women was seen as normal, even beautiful back then, but when new values took hold, it became harder to speak about love openly. It's so hard for us to learn our history when they work so hard to explain it away."
Annabeth said, "I've been going crazy looking for primary sources about the true nature of the gods. It's taken me out here. I've been reading so much...yet it's like the truth's been lost to time. And then I doubt myself. How do we know that anything is true? Who cares if the truth's been obscured? Is it even important?"
"You're a true scholar, Annabeth. You know you're a historian by whether your search ends in a library or continues after you've visited immortals all over the country."
"In some ways I don't care about history," admitted Annabeth. "Why did my search for truth cause me to believe the gods are incapable of ruling over demigods? Did I already believe that and just look for things that confirmed what I already believed? Or did what I read and come to that conclusion on my own?"
"I don't know, but maybe you should care about history, just a little."
"What do you mean?"
"History is a story that we tell ourselves about ourselves. History is a story that tells us what is possible," said Sappho.
Annabeth thought about that. From history, she had learned that it was impossible to win under the threat of mutual destruction. From history, she had learned not to invade Russia in the winter. Likewise, the majority of demigods believed that the gods had always been destined to rule from the beginning. Annabeth's reading contradicted that assumption. Annabeth's revised history revealed new obligations and opened new doors of possibility.
"Weren't you thinking about joining the Hunters of Artemis, Reyna?" asked Sappho.
"Uh, how did you know that?"
"Artemis spoke to me."
"What did she say?"
Behind the counter, Sappho began polishing perfectly clean pint glasses. "Reyna, dear, I often encourage girls to join the Hunt, but only if I sense it is right for them. I do not get that impression from you. Of course, I could be wrong. Only you can tell me."
"I haven't joined yet," Reyna said miserably.
"I can see that women's societies are very attractive to you and your sister. You lived for a number of years on Circe's Island, where you were happy. Hylla gladly lives and fights with Amazons, but maybe they're too violent for you. You should study here at Wellesley. You'd like it." Sappho winked.
Reyna grimaced. "You have the wrong idea."
"In places like Camp Jupiter, it is too often that we view other women as a threat. We succumb to the pressure to tear women down. It's tempting to turn on our equals or those below us, instead of using our power against the people who create the hierarchies," Sappho said. "We support womxn here. We view each other as sisters, not adversaries. That's why I think you'd like it here."
Reyna said, "Annabeth? I'm giving your plan a second thought. Maybe it's...maybe you're right. We need to change the gods' relationship with demigods."
They were sitting side-by-side, so Annabeth hugged her with one arm. "Thanks."
Sappho said, "I've always admired demigods. You have so much more bravery than I ever will."
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A/N: This was my favorite chapter to write! I hope you enjoyed! :)
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