“Hail, Byssa! Avenger of thyself and of thy people.”
Byssa stood motionless, pale with emotion. Lyrcus made a sign that he wished to speak; but the people cried: “No, no, let thy wife speak.”
Byssa blushed and lowered her eyes, but she did not lose her presence of mind.
A death-like silence reigned over the whole place and, though Byssa did not speak loudly, every word uttered by her clear, resonant voice reached the farthest ranks of soldiers.
“Cychreans!” she said, “women, it seems to me, should be silent among men; for only a man is fit to answer men. Yet, since you give me liberty to speak, know that I have only fulfilled a higher command. So raise your voices with me and say: Praised be the supreme god, Zeus Hypsistos.”
Then a deafening shout was raised by hundreds of voices. Even the cliffs repeated:
“Zeus Hypsistos.”
From that day Lyrcus never asked Byssa to accompany the other women to Melite’s sanctuary. And when some talked of the miracles performed by the goddess of the place he smiled like one who knows better and said:
“Yet Zeus is the mightiest.”
