Pythias is her father's daughter. A slave to his own curiosity and intellect, Aristotle has never been able to resist wit in another--even in a girl child who should be content with the kitchen, the loom and a life dictated by the womb. Pytho is smart, able to best his own students in debate and match wits with a roomful of Athenian philosophers. Pythias must suffer that argument, but she is also (mostly) secure in her father's regard. But when Alexander dies a thousand miles from Athens, Aristotle and his family are forced to flee to Chalcis. Ailing, mourning and broken in spirit, Aristotle soon dies. His orphaned daughter, only 16, finds out that the world is a place of superstition, not logic, and that a girl can be played upon by gods and goddesses, as much as by grown men and women.