a magnificent fountain of the three Graces. The Charites, as was their original name, were depicted naked, embracing each other lovingly. They represented humanity’s best qualities, hence their prominent place in the Plaza, which Io found both sexist and hypocritical. The former because more than two-thirds of government employees were male, the latter because they pretended to worship the goddesses when they treated their descendants, the grace-born, like harlots. But that was Alante for you: alabaster duplicity.
