Ariadne

by Jennifer Saint

What I did not know was that I had hit upon a truth of womanhood: however blameless a life we led, the passions and the greed of men could bring us to ruin, and there was nothing we could do.

If the gods held me accountable one day for the sins of someone else, if they came for me to punish a man’s actions, I would not hide away like Pasiphae. I would wear that coronet of snakes, and the world would shrink from me instead.

I would not let a man who knew the value of nothing make me doubt the value of myself.

all a woman can do in this world is take what she wants from it and crush those who would stand in her way before they break her into fragments

The price we paid for the resentment, the lust, and the greed of arrogant men was our pain, shining and bright like the blade of a newly honed knife.