Day 12
Had to take Toxophone aside and explain to her that the local women keep asking about her prowess with the spear because they're engaged in a metaphor in their head. She looked terrified of this prospect, sent her along to the hetairai with a note they help her figure herself out.
The people of this polis are adjusting well to our rule- another dozen or so men have agreed to become women to retain their citizenship, and four asked if the Lady of the Mountain would accept them into her mysteries. The metamorphearch will be happy.
Derinoe continues to make eyes at me. Ever since she spoke with the woman from the far-off country, the one with the uncanny eyes who advised the strategoi to adopt the great pike for our phalanx, she has begun to speak of the "delightful contrast" between the molded muscles of my cuirass and the body beneath. Not infrequently, she uses some phrase from the language of the uncanny-eyed woman, which seems to have something to do with cows. I assume she's calling upon cow-eyed Hera.
Day 13
Xanthippe translated it for me. It's not about eyes at all. That girl...
I shall have to ask about the herbs and seeds she suggested I add to my meals- it's from the lands beyond the Indus, and called "methi", but Derinoe referred to it as "fenugreek"...