The Gods and the Queens and the other officials of Ys have a common problem. Although some action must be taken against Gratillonius because of his defiance of the Gods, he cannot yet be destroyed or deposed because he alone can protect Ys from the barbarians and the Romans. Even Rufinus, whom Gratillonius, by the Pact of Brennilis, should have sacrificed to Taranis has become a bulwark of civilization in Armorica. Queen Innilis begs the wind for no harm to Gratillonius. (IX, 3, p. 213)
Nevertheless, the Gods make a move. Quinipilis dies. The sign comes upon Semuramat, daughter of Queen Bodilis. Mithras forbids Gratillonius to continue having sex with Bodilis after consummating the marriage with her daughter. The Gods have not yet wedded Gratillonius to his own daughter - she is too young - but They are moving in that direction.
While discussing this problem, Gratillonius and Bodilis take a picturesque walk through Ys:
2 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Also, Senuramat was only 13 when that "sign" came on her. For a decent man like Gratillonius, age 13 was far too young for sexual intercourse. Just another way of trying to bend him to the will of the Ysan gods.
Ad astra! Sean
Actually, Roman women usually married very early.
The age of consent for marriage in Roman law was 12 for women and 14 for men.
The usually pattern was for a woman in her early to mid teens to marry a man in his 20's.
This was quite different from the subsequent West European pattern, when women also married in their 20's and their mates were usually less than 3 years older. That pattern was well-established by the high Middle Ages (with some exceptions in the upper aristocracy) so there must have been a transition sometime in the post-Roman period.
Note that in those of Shakespeare's plays which are -set in Italy-, women marry much earlier, in their mid-teens -- people in England in his day were quite aware that the pattern was different there, where the older Roman setup continued.
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