L) You decide to keep walking towards the polis. With each step you grow more and more weary. Finally, after what seems like an eternity, you hear the sounds of a city. Shouts, the braying of donkeys, and the creak of wagons carrying heavy loads, all mix together to create the clamor that is common in and around the city of Athens. As you walk you see what appears to be a funeral procession. You see the body of the dead person being carried by five men. Many women and children follow behind crying and wailing. The men lower the body, and a woman places a coin in the dead man's mouth. You remember that your father's slave, Saracles, told you that the Greeks always placed a coin in a person's mouth after death, so that in the underworld they can pay the ferryman, named Charon, to ferry them across the river Styx. The river Styx in Greek mythology separated Hades, the land of the dead, from the land of the living. You wonder if this is all true. As the men begin to carry the body to the tomb, some of the women cut their long, dark hair with sharp knives. They then toss the locks of hair on to the body as a sign of grief. One woman starts scratching her cheeks until they begin to bleed, she wails in sorrow. "Greek funerals are an interesting sight!” you think to yourself. You hope that you will not end up as the guest of honor at a funeral like this in your quest to recover the golden statue of Athena.

THE END