-I will make you Queen of the Passavas1 my only love. -On our tower you will be my lord, the crown on my head and master Everything changed two years later. She seemed not much older, still at 22. However, families, bitter-tongued sisters and sisters-in-law kept murmuring that “these things are obvious from the very beginning”. Some of them were widowed young, when the gthikiomos between the Michalolianos family and the Petropoulianos family claimed their husbands, and so their hearts turned into stone, similar to those of Kotronas and the whole Mani. Others, which remained single, taking care of disabled elders, felt a secret joy for the “worthless one”. At Sundays, in the family’s church they would not come near her, not even to say good morning. As if she had a contagious disease which would infect the other females. Thomas was not old. At 27, dark-haired just like Despoina, he was tall as a tree, over 6 feet. He had a soft spot for her, he considered her to be his haven. Before Despoina, you see he was a great lover and there was no stopping him. He used to ride his black horse and go to the harlots of Tzimova, when he did not find the bedroom door of his slave girl Persephone open. Every single one of them, the ladies and the sluts, dreamt to be his mate. A rich man, in every meaning of the word; energetic and handsome, he was a talker, and also generous. He didn’t like this situation either, not on the account of his family, but he loved children and he wanted a child with Despoina. He dreamt of her becoming a mother, the child stuck on her breast, suckling, and him carving a bright sun on its crib. Together they would raise him with honey and nuts, like a true prince.
1
Refers to the Castle of Passavas; a Frankish castle whose ruins now lie in Mani 10
kilometers from Gytheion.