A silent, apprehensive crowd congregates at the bottom of the stairs leading up to the Parthenon. Limestone pillars rise up towards him. In front of the temple, a small group of figures stand around the marble altar. Incense fills the air, wafting up into the clouds where it tickles Thanatos's nose. He watches nervously.
The young woman tied to the altar trembles, tears falling down the sides of her face into her ashy, brunette hair. She grips the rope that force her arms to stretch out towards two of the altar's corners and her knees bend slightly, more rope binding her ankles to the bottom of the altar. She wears a white ritual robe that falls around her and bleeds into the off-white marble.
Thanatos itches to go down, to tell her it will be fine, that he has found a way, but Hades demanded he not intervene. The red-tipped white and black wings behind him flutter as the priest approaches the altar, continuing his droning chant that Thanatos blocked out a while ago. He does not care for the prayers. They are never for him, though he is often the responder. That's how it has always been, but luckily, Hades has an exploitable soft spot that stays with him half of the year, and it's spring: when the god would be at his most sympathetic. Hades will not break his end of a deal, but nevertheless, Thanatos's heart is in his throat. He feels as if he might vomit it up as the blade in the priest's hand rose.
Thanatos's fists ball so tightly his nails draw blood from his palms. He forces his eyes to stay open. The priest brings the blade down. Macaria screams, a shrill sound that twists into choking that brings Thanatos to his knees among the clouds. She is so far, but he can see her blood clearly, can hear her choking and coughing as if she were right in front of him.
Image: The Sacrifice of Iphigenia, François Perrier c. 1632-33
https://www.wga.hu/html_m/p/perrier/sacrific.html
Depicts Agamemnon's sacrifice of his daughter Iphigenia
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The Goddess of Blessed Death
Historical FictionA sacrifice and a lover leads Macaria to face her Fate as a goddess of death. An exploration of the story of how Macaria becomes Makaria the Goddess of Blessed Death and somewhat also an exploration of some of the gender issues that can be found in...
