The Just City by Jo Walton Page B

you’re that smug,” I said, sitting down but out of arm’s length.
    â€œLots of people have said yes to me already,” he said.
    â€œHere?” I was amazed, and a little jealous.
    â€œHere, and in Italy before. I know my way around. I know what women like.”
    I was completely cold now. “There’s nothing less exciting than being thought of as part of a class of beings that are all the same,” I said. “You’re treating me as a thing.”
    â€œIt doesn’t mean I don’t see you as a person,” Ikaros said; “that I want to copulate with you. Latin is an impossible language for this, and you don’t know Italian. Let’s speak Greek.”
    â€œI’d rather talk about why we have to exclude Christianity,” I said, but I did switch to Greek.
    â€œI know, but you’re misjudging me.”
    â€œYou keep changing the subject,” I said.
    â€œI see you, and I like you, and I find you attractive, and it would be a pleasant thing we could do together, like … sharing a meal. It doesn’t stop us having serious conversations that we have silly conversations with imaginary wine. It wouldn’t stop us having serious conversations if we indulged in eros. All I meant by the remark about knowing what women like is that I’m not a clumsy oaf who would hurt you, or who wouldn’t care about your pleasure.”
    The sky was darkening to mauve and the first star was visible. I stared up at it, avoiding his eyes. “I believe you,” I said. “But I’m not comfortable with that. Neither Christian nor Platonic morality condone the kind of thing you’re talking about.”
    â€œNo, I suppose it’s Hedonist,” Ikaros said. “But what Plato says about festivals and everyone drawing lots is like that. Eros separate from philia and agape. And every word Plato says about agape is about love between men.”
    â€œWhat he says about agape between men with no thought of love between men and women being like that makes me think he didn’t know any women who were capable of being seen as equals. Which from what we know about Athens at the time is probably realistic—women kept cloistered, uneducated, except for hetairas. But … if he didn’t know any women who were people, how could he have written about women being philosphers the way he did in the Republic ? It’s in the Laws too.” I’d only recently read the Laws . “He must have thought about it a lot. And nobody ever listened to him in all those centuries they were reading him. I wonder how did he come to that conclusion? It’s stunning.”
    â€œI don’t know. I suppose he must have met somebody. You’d only have to really know one woman with the right kind of soul to change your mind about their capabilities.”
    â€œAxiothea?” I suggested. “I don’t mean our Axiothea, but the original. The woman who came to him in disguise as a youth and was admitted into the Academy? Perhaps she made him realise it’s souls that matter.”
    â€œNo, she came because she’d read the Republic , the same way you came here. It’s mentioned in Diogenes Laertius. So he must have met women with philosophical souls before that.”
    â€œShowing a philosophical soul doesn’t work on everyone, unfortunately,” I said. “I wish Tullius would deign to notice the souls of the women here.”
    While I had been staring out over the sea and talking, Ikaros had moved so that he was right beside me again. “I know you are afraid,” he said. “But I also know that you want it. I saw you start. There’s nothing wrong with what we’re going to do.”
    â€œNo!” I said. “No, really no, Ikaros, I don’t want to!”
    â€œI am stronger than you and it’s too late to run away,” he said. “And you don’t really want to leave, do