Idiokti̱sía, Ypi̱réti̱s, Políti̱s Ch. 01

Idiokti̱sía, Ypi̱réti̱s, Políti̱s (Property, Servant, Citizen)

(MC, MF, FF, MA, MD)

Jill finds an artifact in her great grandmother's belongings. She ends up happily enslaved by its ancient power.

Nana's Treasure

Mitch O'Connell had put himself through his undergraduate university education with loans and part time jobs. A bachelor's degree in Anthropology doesn't get you much work these days, so he extended his time through a masters degree. His passion for antiquity had been nurtured on the History Channel and broadened by endless reading. He had a natural talent for foreign languages, having mastered three by the end of high school. Professor Janes had recognized his talent and keen mind, giving him a research assistantship and taking him along on his annual field trips to the Eastern Mediterranean. Now nearing completion of his doctorate, Mitch learned the classical languages and became quite invaluable to Professor Janes, co-authoring papers, managing dig sites, cataloging findings upon return to the States.

Dr. Janes was one of those self centered professors who treated his graduate students as lesser beings, bleeding them dry and tossing them aside. But Mitch found the work fascinating, and positions like this were hard to come by. So he stayed on for his doctorate. He was given an instructorship to run a recitation section. Mitch did like teaching, and the position meant he was given his own office space to meet with students. The only spot available was a room in the basement he had to share with boxes and boxes of Dr Janes collections from the various field digs.

One Thursday afternoon a healthy coed found him in his basement office at the end of his student hours. Jill was short with a thin boyish body, high cheekbones, bright blue eyes, and long blond hair. After introducing herself, Jill asked, "I was told you could read ancient languages and was wondering if you could tell me what this medallion is about? I found it in my great grandmother's stuff. She died recently and while I was helping my dad and cousins clean out the place, I ran across this at the bottom of a drawer." She tipped an ancient looking leather pouch up in her hand and out slipped a large shiny coin-like object.

Mitch took the offered object, "I'm sorry for your loss. Did she suffer much, at the end?"

"No, not really. Nana had lived past a hundred, living independently in her own apartment right up to the end. Her memory stayed strong. Even her eyes and ears were in pretty good shape, considering. She died quietly, couldn't really ask for more. I've been told I look a lot like her, when she was younger."

"Sounds like a good way to go, if you ask me." Mitch turned the medallion over in his hands. His first impression was it was a fake rather than genuine antiquity. "You say you found this in her things? Any idea where she got it?"

"Not a clue. I've heard some wild stories about Nana. I always figured it was just great stories. But nothing about this."

The medallion was a disk about an inch and a half across with a bale at the top for a chain to hang around the neck. It was made of something that looked and felt like gold. Except it was not worn at all. Anything from antiquity made of gold would wear smooth over time, even something hiding in the bottom of a drawer. "Did you clean this up at all?"

"Nope, I found it just like this, in this old pouch."

The medallion had the image of a horned bull on the front. That visage was surrounded by three words in something similar to classic Greek. He recognized most of it, but the letters had a stylistic flair he didn't recognize. The obverse had more writing. It looked like a poem, or something, with the image of an eye at the center. Mitch held to his first impression, that the medallion was a fake. The letters were too finely crafted for the skills of the day. It had no sign of wear. An object of this age should be so worn as to be unreadable. That alone made him want to dismiss it. He turned back the front and squinted at the words, digging into his memory of ancient Greek.

"These three words on the front are repeated on the back. The characters are a little weird. But it could be that it is written in some island variant I am unfamiliar with. There are several hundred inhabited islands in Greece. Back then many islands had their own local dialects. The first word is Idiokti̱sía, which means property. The other two words are, I think, servant and freeman, or maybe citizen?"

When he spoke the word 'Idiokti̱sía', Jill took in a sharp breath, twitching her eyebrows as in surprize. Then she exhaled slowly, her body quivered slightly, and she gave Mitch a smile. It wasn't a big grin as from a good joke. Jill smiled warmly as if something really good had happened, like she was showing a straight A report card to her parents. Jill turned towards Mitch and almost imperceptibly, she pushed her breasts out, tiny as they were.

Mitch certainly noticed the change in Jill, but dismissed it. He didn't have a real girlfriend these days. Truth was, he'd only had a few girlfriends over the years. Though he had reasonably good looks, blond hair and blue eyes, he was always a bit of a book worm, and most girls didn't pay him much attention. He had experienced his share of rejection over the years. A cute gal like Jill probably wouldn't want him. "Jill, I have to lead a recitation at the top of the hour, so I cannot look too closely at this. May I keep it over the weekend?"

"Oh, you can just keep it. That will be fine."

"Well, I really don't want that. It's a family keepsake and all."

'No Mitch, really. You can have it. That and anything else you want." Jill gazed up at him, fluttering her eyelids, touching her upper lip with her tongue tip. And that smile.

It was too much for unworldly Mitch. Almost in a panic, he gathered his presentation materials to beat a hasty escape. "I gotta go, Jill. Come back to my office next week. I'll look more closely this weekend. Meanwhile, see if you can find out anything about the medallion, like where your Nana might have gotten it, places she travelled, that kind of thing."

He tossed the medallion in its pouch into his top desk drawer and shooed Jill out, locking his door. He glanced back as he hustled down the hall; Jill calmly watched him go, that sweet smile of contentment still on her face.

Mitch put the odd meeting out of his mind while he led the recitation section. But his curiosity grew as he returned to his office. Taking the medallion from its pouch, he examined it closely with a magnifier. The craftsmanship and condition was quite exceptional. Every letter was clearly readable. The image on the front was well defined. The fierce expression on the bull was easy to see. Small details were evident, like individual curls in the hair, scowling eyes, large ring piercing his nose.

Mitch produced a fresh notebook to start recording his findings. First he carefully copied each character into the notes, waiting to translate until later. He sketched the bull's image and the eye from the obverse, then got out his digital camera for a few shots. He added notes on his first impressions.

Now Mitch translated the text. It was definitely a variant of ancient Greek, but not so different he could not get it right, or at least close. He guessed it was early Minoan, since the bull played prominently in their mythology. Which would make the artifact some 45 hundred years old. (If it were in fact genuine.) Referring to both the medallion and his notes, he arrived at these results. The front three words were (translated):

Idiokti̱sía (Property)

Ypi̱réti̱s (Servant)

Políti̱s (Citizen)

The back of the medallion seemed to be an explanation of the front words:

Idiokti̱sía (Property)

Syllégontai ta edáfi̱ tou (Harvest his lands)

Entolí̱ stratév̱mata tou (Command his armies)

Odi̱gós idées tou (Guide his ideas)

Exypi̱retí̱sei tis syzýgous kai tis kóres tou (Service his wives and daughters)

Ypi̱réti̱s (Servant)

Zei eis ta petheriká sas (He lives unto your laws)

Políti̱s (Citizen)

Perpatá apó to dikó tou monopáti (He walks of his own path)

Mitch double checked his translation, referring to several scholarly textbooks. They seemed to be instructions of some sort, or an explanation. He spent some time trying to track down the origin of the textual variant of the characters, hoping to get a clue about the origins. Finding nothing, he put the medallion back into his desk drawer and largely forgot about it.

Jill spent the weekend calling relatives, asking questions, and making notes. She told them all she was researching Nana's history so it would not be lost. Mostly she asked about Nana's travels, only making glancing references to any sort of artifact.