"We weren't…" Medina looks around at her wives, but she's clearly being given the floor. "We didn't live in the Old City. We lived in a village east of there. The Old City was women-only, except for the princes and foreigners who had business there. In Merbakades, where we are from, men and women lived… Separately, but in the same settlement."
Kal-El frowns. "If so many women lived in the Old City, wouldn't that mean that the rest of the country was mostly men?"
Well, that depends on the make-up of those smaller villages, I guess. But it's safe to say
some of them had a lot higher mix of men to women.
"Yes." She nods. "I still find it a little strange, sometimes, that things are different here."
"After three thousand years?"
The human brain is just
not built for long-term storage, really. That's why we remember
significant things more easily.
"It…" She glances at Karyne, who nods sympathetically. "It doesn't feel like three thousand years, sometimes."
Keep doing the same thing and time can fly by, I suppose.
Yep. Routine things like the daily farming jobs just blur together.
"So if there were a lot more men than women… How did that work?"
She snorts. "We did not sport ourselves with all of them, if that is what you mean. Men who wished to sire children travelled to the City for the Festival, and we…"
I suppose it made it easier to manage
timing of births, if nothing else.
Rina nods. "We hadn't been together all that long when… When the City was invaded. None of us had children."
Chloe smiles. "Which isn't to say that none of us attended the Festival as well!"
Oh, I'll
bet, honey. Given the way your partner reacted to Kal there...
"But men and women… Didn't… I mean, outside of this… The festival…"
Medina shrugs. "It probably happened, but they kept it quiet. It wasn't normal in Themyscira. But there was no… We did not have slavery, as the Cities of Men did. Anyone who was unhappy could leave if they wanted. The men were happy enough with one another, so far as I remember."
Quite the progressive paradise, I guess. Especially compared to some of the
other city-states of the era.
Oh my goodness me Kal-El's actually blushing a little. Yes, Old Themyscira was homosexual central, and not just the women. Adult men, unlike the Athenians far to the south.
"So have any of you had children before?"
Just a gay old time, huh?
...As long as everyone involved was
consenting, of course.
Four nods, but Medina shakes her head. "I did not, which is why my darlings allowed me to go first this time."
"But… Weren't men and women living together when the Island was settled? Didn't that..? Change how they related to one another?"
Closer proximity, of course. But generations of established culture won't disappear overnight... Not without some divine dickery, anyway.
"Of course! But the men didn't… I mean, the villages…" She appears to be struggling to work out how to explain something that must be so obvious to an Amazon. "The city women just lived like we village women. The Festival was… Much the same, a time for getting with child."
"But weren't the children living closer to their fathers?"
Well, that depends on what
sex they were, after all... But a girl could
probably run across the island to visit Papa, or a son, his mother.
"I…" Medina frowns as she tries to remember. "Perhaps? It was a long-"
Rina nods. "Yes."
Memories brought to mind by the current state of things, perhaps?
"-time ago and how do you remember that?"
Rina frowns. "How do you not? The chaos of our first planting seasons is still as fresh in my mind as it was then. And no, it did not change our families overmuch. Boys still went to their uncles once they were weaned, and girls stayed with their mothers."
Some people
do simply have better memories than others...
"Their uncles?"
"Their mother's brothers. Or one of them." She shifts in her seat. "Things were… If there was no uncle, things could be different. I had two daughters, so I did not have to deal with it myself."
Handy. Could still be an issue here, depending on Medina's luck.
"So what did you plan on doing if Medina had a boy?"
Medina shrugs. "The Princess has two sons. I'm sure that we could raise one in a civilised manner."
Even though he'll someday grow old and die, assuming he doesn't choose to leave the island?
How modern.
"You said that, back in the Old City, if a man and a woman wanted to marry one another, they could leave the country. So you are aware that other countries handle relations between men and women differently."
Hmm... An interesting line of questioning. Trying to determine if she knew better or simply didn't care?
Four nods, and Rina waits to see where we're going.
"Do you remember how that worked?"
...Because
ignorance of a custom does not excuse the breaking of it. It
might mitigate the penalties...
"Their women were chattel of their fathers and husbands." Medina shakes her head. "I know that is not how things are now."
"Alright, but who raised the children?"
Well, she's not
completely ignorant of things. Will she realise how she screwed up, or...
"I… Don't know..?"
Rina spots Medina becoming uncomfortable, and interjects.
One for all, all for one, eh? A good partner in action.
"The fathers?"
"In most societies, children are raised jointly by their father and mother, with input from the extended family. The structure that Amazons use is… Unique, as far as I know. The closest I can think of is Sparta-."
...Ooh, bad idea to bring
that up. They'd be like the eternal
opposite of the Amazons, especially with their 'descended from Herakles' claims.
They all glare.
"Exactly. Is that the comparison you want?"
...He's got a point. Some people probably think of Themyscira as a
perfect little resort town with hordes of beautiful women just laying around sunbathing or playing beach games... Others probably look at it and go 'A nation of warrior women? Must be like an army camp!'
Medina drops her eyes for a moment.
"So… Felix thought that… We were courting, as if we were to be married."
Ah, the obol drops, I see. Yes, you
did rather go into things with the wrong idea, didn't you?
"Yes."
"And he was willing to have sex with me because he believed that we would raise the child together."
Not quite, but I doubt she'd grok the expected idea of 'chastity before marriage.'
"Ah, actually, he thought you were using a medicine that would stop you conceiving, but-" She frowns. "-assumed that if you did conceive that you would raise the child together."
Karyne shakes her head. "Medina, did you not even mention that you were trying to conceive?"
Though it'd be a rare case where it's not the
bride's family pushing them to marry...
"I-." She blinks, probably trying to recall the precise conversation. "I said that I wanted children. But I… Suppose that he might have thought that I meant 'at some time, after we are… Married', and not 'this is why I am having sex with you'. I… I think I owe him an apology."
Karyne nods. "Yes."
Ah, light dawns. Yes, you've rather made a
mess of things, young lady. All because you assumed he'd
understand your intentions without
explaining them...
"But… What does that mean for..?"
"Ideally, the two of you discuss things and come to an agreement- and please bear in mind the cultural differences and don't assume things- and we present that to the forum as the correct way of handling the issue. If you can't, well… Then you state your positions to the forum and hope for the best, which isn't the best approach."
And let's hope
proper communication can settle things, then.
"No. Ah. If I… Cross through the portal again, will-?"
"I'll ask Princess Diana to invite him to the embassy in New York for the talks."
Quite the bonus for him, then.
She nods, slightly relieved.
"Now, are you aware of any other women outside of your marriage group planning something similar? I'd like to get ahead of the problem."
Because I have
no doubt that one or two others
did the 'go look for a handsome man for a few days of canoodling' but went with a more
casual hook-up.
