Summary

In Chapter 5, "Calliope", we return to Calliope’s story. She is amused as the poet shakes his head in disappointment at her inspiration. He doesn’t understand what she’s trying to do; he doesn’t understand that she’s in charge. Calliope delights in the scale of the story she will tell through him: "I’m offering him the story of all the women in the war… Epic in scale and subject matter" (40-41). If only he’d stop complaining, and get on with it.

Chapter 6, "The Trojan Women", takes us back to the Trojan shore where the women of Troy await their fate at the hands of their new Greek overlords. Hecabe sits on some rocks by the sea, her body aching from hunger, thirst and fatigue. "Even slaves need to eat" (42). She looks around her and realises that Creusa is...