Over the Wine Dark Sea

  'You've been grumbling about that ever since we left Syracuse,' Sostratos said. 'The weather couldn't have been much better.'   'That's true, but it didn't have to stay good,' Menedemos replied. 'And when have you ever known a sailor who didn't worry about the weather?'   Sostratos didn't answer that. He eyed the birds overhead flying south for the winter. Sure enough, there was a long, straggling line of cranes, bigger than any of the other birds he could see. Aristophanes had had it right. But he was still wrong about Sokrates, Sostratos thought.   If he said that, he would start a real quarrel, and he didn't feel like one now, not with the Aphrodite so close to home. Instead, he chose something he reckoned harmless. 'It'll be good to get back to our family.'   But his cousin only grunted. 'Good for you, maybe,' he said at last. 'You wait. My father will say he could have done better and made more money.'   He's probably right, Sostratos thought. Uncle Philodemos is never satisfied. Aloud, he said, 'Why don't you just smile and dip your head and tell him he's bound to know best?'   'Ha!' Menedemos rolled his eyes. 'For one thing, he cursed well doesn't know best. And for another, if I told him he did, he'd fall over dead from the shock. I don't want his blood on my hands even by accident, the way Oidipous had Laios'.'   And you're just as stubborn as your father, and you won't yield to him even by a barleycorn's breadth. One more thing Sostratos thought it better not to say. He did say, 'Whether the two of you argue or not, he'll be glad to see you. We've come back safe, we only lost one man, and we made money. What more could he ask?'   'More money, of course,' Menedemos replied.   'Oh, foof!' Sostratos said. 'Once we get into port, the family will throw a celebration the polis will buzz about all through the winter. Your father wouldn't do that if he didn't care about you, and you know it. My mother and sister will be green with envy because they aren't men and won't be able to come.'   'Maybe.' Menedemos did his best not to sound convinced. 'I wonder if my father's second wife will even care.'   'Of course she will,' Sostratos said. 'Baukis is young -  I remember that from the wedding, though I doubt I've seen her since, naturally. She'll want something she can gossip about with her friends.'   'Maybe,' Menedemos said again. He turned away from Sostratos, plainly not wanting to discuss it further. Sostratos wondered if he was angry at his father for remarrying after his mother died. If Uncle Philodemos had a son by his new wife, that would complicate the family inheritance.   As the Aphrodite neared Rhodes, the island stretched across more and more of the horizon. 'The vines look good,' Sostratos said, even though he was too far away to make any real guess about how they looked. It let him talk about something besides