Myrtis

I have a name

I knew it once

My mother gave it to me

I knew her once too

I was a child on the cusp of life

When the gods abandoned us

When Athena closed her eyes in despair

When Athens in all her justice fell to the sickness

I felt the fever first

The ache in my head and stomach

The cough

I laid there motionless

Too exhausted to move

My mother, delirious with disease, watched over my bed

I longed for sleep

To sleep and wake in the past

Before the world ended

I slept

In a bed of 150 souls

Our spirits intertwined and drifted as one

We dreamt together; only once

We dreamt of years unseen

Of the length of an uncut thread

In my dreams I grew up

I married; had children

Lived a full life; died of old age

My dreams left me quietly

I was frozen in time and death

For only just a moment

100 years

500 years

1000 years

2500 years

My memories faded and frayed like old thread

The dirt moved

And the sun shone

For the first time I could remember

It breathed new life into my memory

My death

My youth

My face

The things too far away for remembering

My mother

My city

My world

Everything I was

Everything I could have been

But threads are not cut in vain

I have a past

I have a future

I have a purpose

And by will of gods

Or men

Or maybe even fate

I have a name

 

 

In 1995 a mass grave was uncovered in Greece. It contained the remains of 150 victims of the 430 BC Plague of Athens. Among them was the well preserved skull of an 11 year old girl. After scientists reconstructed her facial features she was made a symbol for the UN’s fight against disease and poverty to inspire the development of medicines and healthcare programs that could have saved her life. 2500 years after her death she was renamed. They called her Myrtis.