By nine-fifteen in the evening it had only started getting dark and cooling down in Athens. The couple left the housing unit of the American School of Classical Studies and walked toward the front gate. Daniela had chosen a navy blue skirt and a white summer blouse to wear to the celebration. Her sandals showcased her freshly painted toenails, matching her fingernails and the shade of her lipstick. Her hair was pulled back studiously and tied, displaying a pair of jade green earrings which Nicasio tried to remember if he had ever seen before. Standing at the gate they found the same guard from the evening before, who, smiling as he gave a nod, opened the iron barrier with the push of a button.

The Gennadius Library complex was indeed directly across the street and its gate was also controlled by the same guard who waited until they had crossed over and were standing at its entryway. They had been instructed to simply wave back to him to make a clear passage into this complex, which since the 1920's, had housed as a private collection, the largest assortment in the world of texts and manuscripts relating to Hellenism and Greece since the Classical Period.

Turning back and signaling their entrance to the grounds, Nicasio could see the white marble steps leading up to the Doric-columned porch. It invited the red walls behind it of the Neoclassical Gennadius Library and reception hall. The couple could see other people arriving both behind them and already collecting in front of the grand doors of the facility. As they passed through the foyer into the central reading room, they were asked to identify themselves on a list. They were then given plastic-covered name tags, with titles and their home institution typed neatly on them. Nicasio's card identified him as European Studies Fellow from UC Berkeley and Daniela's card simply read, Art History Fellow, from the same institution. Nicasio could see a little trepidation in Daniela's face as he helped her pin the card securely onto the lapel of her white blouse.

For the evening he had put on a pair of dark suit trousers, a wrinkled, oversized white shirt, rolled at the sleeves, and for this occasion sported, while creased and travel-worn, a dark blue tie, left a bit loose at the neck. His fears of being overdressed were immediately allayed when he saw that nearly all the men were wearing proper pressed suits and meticulously ironed ties. He realized then that Theofilos' prophetic comments about the 'forgiving attire of archaeologists' may have not been simply a joke. Nevertheless, looking at Daniela and how appropriate she looked, as a radiant young scholar, he entered into the greater room confident that they were not totally out of their element.

The two, along with other guests, were directed into the newer, east wing of the facility, Cotsen Hall-a lecture auditorium and reception area. There, the couple found a large gathering of students and scholars, all attached to similar white cards, mingling and engaged in rather loud conversations. Suddenly the pair was flanked by Judy, the professor from BucknellUniversity, and her small contingent of archaeology graduate students. Stacie immediately caught his eye as she stepped out from between her professor and another student wearing a diaphanous, low-cut dress, featuring the type of prominent cleavage and shapely silhouette which seemed intended to bring the interests of males from the far corners of the world to her buxom physique.

"Hello Nicasio," she said, a little nervously in the presence of Daniela.

"Hi," he replied quickly, feeling suddenly foolish that he hadn't added more of a greeting to the entire group.

Daniela eyed Stacie's presentation quickly and looked over to Nicasio to see just where his gaze might be. His maturity prevented any such obvious entrapment and he managed to recover the situation quickly by simply looking intently into Judy's eyes.

"You know," he said affably, holding up his wrinkled tie as an icebreaker. "From the looks of you people . . . I don't believe there are any archaeologists here this evening . . . other than myself."

Judy, Stacie, and the other three students, all more properly dressed, smiled self-consciously at the complementary observation. Daniela, still appearing a bit nervous, only exhaled impatiently.

Suddenly, Theofilos, seeming uncomfortable himself in a full suit and tie, appeared in front of the group with his customary warm greetings. Nicasio looked over at Daniela and raised his eyebrows slightly as a signal for her to prepare for the evening's strategic plan. She glanced back over at Stacie's dress and the stance the young woman had taken, which now bordered on posing. Daniela unexpectedly caught Theofilos' attention by moving toward him. She then held her index finger up as a non-verbal signal that she wished to discuss something privately with him.

At that moment everyone in the room seemed to somehow know it was time to take a seat in the auditorium, causing the discussion groups throughout the room to break up. Daniela and Theofilos moved toward the entryway of the lecture hall together and Nicasio elected to stay back and enter the hall with Judy and Stacie. Once everyone had been seated, there was a formal announcement from the podium by the Director of the AmericanSchool, Dr Santori, regarding the generous funds provided for the facility by several donors from the United States. He stressed it was an unexpected endowment, but already wisely planned for.

Several other speakers took the microphone briefly to express the importance of the gift and its timeliness to the needs of the AmericanSchool. Another impeccably-suited director, speaking on behalf of the Gennadius Library, and through a heavy Greek accent, extolled the joint cooperation over the years with the Blegan. He emphasized their duel prominence as venues for historical scholarship concerning Greece.

A brief PowerPoint presentation was then shown, featuring an artist's conception of the future changes to the library and compound across the street which had apparently been on the drawing boards for years just waiting such funding. A list of rare books and manuscripts from a private collection were also featured as now possible to purchase, which seemed to please the Classical Studies community, evidenced by a loud applause by those in attendance. There followed at the conclusion of the brief program an announcement for everyone to join celebration in the adjoining banquet area for refreshments and good cheer.

As the audience moved en mass out into the next room, manicured gardens could be seen through large windows which flanked the chamber. At this point Nicasio freely allowed Stacie to walk at his side. He embraced the idea that while Daniela was doing her work for the evening, he would at least not be bored while in the presence of someone interesting to look at and with whom he could speak English.

"So how's that Greek of yours com'in along," Stacie asked in an animated Missouri accent.

"Well, I have to admit . . . it's terrible," he answered back, looking at her more gregariously now. His glance confirmed just how sexually attractive she was in her clinging white dress and sun-burnished tan. He felt the eyes of many of the guests upon the two of them as they moved together through the hallway, perceived universally as people view an attractive couple. Walking up to the table which featured an open bar with white-shirted waiters tending to the requests of the guests, Nicasio could sense from Stacie's continual gaze herself that she had maintained her obvious interests in him since earlier that day.

Concurrently, at the other end of the reception hall Daniela was confiding to Theofilos just how impressed she was with her trip to Athens. She expressed to him how she had learned already so much through shear observation about the Amazons, particularly the way they had been artistically recorded over so many centuries. As she expected, Theo seemed more interested in her than what she had to say. Nevertheless, she expressed that she wanted to know more about them through her own curiosity.

"I understand Amazons was the topic of a lot of work here a number of years ago," she said to keep him on track and to divert his gaze which seemed to be a total recognizance of her body.

"Yes . . . that's right," Theo finally replied, smiling. "It was about the time I had just returned from your beautiful state of California and your university, Cal. There was this . . . run on requests for any information we had on Amazons during that time."

"So why do you suppose that was?" she asked, careful not to look directly into his eyes.

"Well those were the days when some new hard evidence began to emerge. Findings from Cal, coincidently,"

"Really?" She replied only to keep the information flowing. "New, you say?"

"Yeah. And pretty significant. It was some archaeological details which suggested that . . . your beloved Amazons . . . might actually have been . . . a fact not a myth."

Theo was looking at Daniela's face now, obviously delighted that she was engaged in close conversation with him.

"Interesting. So do you believe they existed, Theo . . . outside of myth?"

Daniela furtively glanced around the room for Nicasio but could not locate him in the mass of scholars milling around the premises. The numerous guests were beginning to coalesce again into clusters with their animated dialogues. Once outside the main auditorium most of the Greek researchers were busily chain-smoking as they conversed in their native tongue. Theo, himself began rolling a cigarette from a pouch of tobacco he produced effortlessly from his pocket.

"You see, in the 1990's a Berkeley team was working on nomadic horse cultures up around Russia. And I guess they found some pretty compelling stuff. For the next ten years or so it sort of stimulated the whole Amazons myth thing into . . . well, more of a history debate."

"That's amazing! What sort of evidence did they find?"

"Well. . . how about female archers . . . and sword-wielding women buried with their horses?"

"Wow. I'd say that's pretty convincing." She smiled, genuinely intrigued.

"Yeah. So there were a lot of grave mounds excavated back then. Turning up weapons and horses . . . and specifically women's remains in them. Most of the mounds contained both men and women. But still a certain number had just women's skeletons along with weapons."

"Really?"

"Both jewelry and weapons. There were swords, battle axes, bronze arrow tips. And right next to them . . . rings, headbands, mirrors. . . feminine accoutrements. I think you get the idea."

"I do. So after these finds . . .?"

Theo lit up his cigarette, blowing a polluting cloud into the room. The smoke quickly coalesced with others' making the environment more difficult to breathe for half of the guests. Oblivious to this, he began again busily perusing with his gaze Daniela's physique up and down.

"So yeah . . . a huge controversy arose," he said, his eyes finally settling onto her face. "Those discoveries back then gave real legitimacy to some of our ancient Greek historians and what they had written about Amazons. Guys like Herodotus."

Daniela tried hard to keep her focus on Theo's face, to keep him speaking.

"See, in this historian's day he wrote about them pretty convincingly. And he was quite certain they lived almost a thousand years before him."

"I see."

"Herodotus claimed . . . like other writers of the times that the Amazon's connection to myth was definitely based on history.

"That is so cool!"

"Yeah. And later . . . during Roman times there were guys like Plutarch and Pausanius who wrote similar works. The warrior woman thing they all said was basically real."

"Fantastic."

Daniela looked again slyly around the room for Nicasio. She was feeling a little more confidant now that she might bring the conversation around to the missing professor.

"So Theo . . . that's what brought that group of women here to your library. Right?"

"It definitely did. Back then geographically and chronologically things about the Amazons were starting to add up in people's minds. The idea that women in that region most likely fought effectively on horseback . . . became pretty well accepted."

"Wow."

"Of course, it's never been totally resolved that . . . as all the artwork shows . . . Amazons were a true independent culture of only women. That just all may remain in myth . . . at least for now. But . . . who knows? All the ingredients are there."

"Yes. But there must be scholars who believe strongly in them. Right?"

"Yes, Daniela, there are. That group of international researchers we supported back then was definitely convinced. And they were led by a professor who probably was onto the best evidence ever to support their existence. She wrote and lectured about that possibility probably better than any of her day. And I'm talking worldwide."

"So . . . who was she, Theo?"

"One of our own Greek professors. Right here in Athens . . . Dr. Nefeli Vasiliou."

Daniela could feel her heart speeding up. She knew she was now in the territory of information Nicasio and his professor had wanted so badly. She tried not to let the fact that Theofilos was standing closer to her now and consistently admiring her body distract her fruitful inquiry.

"So . . . what ever became of these women . . . and their research? And especially this Greek professor of yours? Is she still lecturing today?"

"Well . . . there's a bit of a mystery there, if you really want to know."

Daniela heard Theofilos laugh softly and felt his hand gently touch her shoulder. She flinched briefly, refusing to look directly into his eyes. She fought the inclination to step back from him in fear it would disrupt their vital conversation.

Suddenly Theofilos changed his tack. "Would you like to get some refreshments, Daniela?" He asked this, guiding her gently with his hand in the direction of the open bar. "You see, I could really use a drink right now . . . how about you?"

"OK. . . Yes . . . that does sound nice," she answered nervously, allowing the short stroll across the room give her time to compose herself and prepare to ask more significant questions. Daniel took a deep breath. She knew that maintaining her new-found confidence and her reluctant flirtatious control of the situation might just possibly yield what Nicasio-as well as she now, wanted to find out.

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