Hypatia

Alexandria · the 754th year since the founding of Rome · 1 CE

Sophia’s Visions, Part 23 · Understatement, euphemism and litotes · C2

Think first. Why do people sometimes speak about terrible things in a quiet, indirect way, instead of saying exactly what happened?

While you read, notice what is not said. This is the only story in the series where the most important thing happens in silence.

Philo: “I saw Sophia weep only once. Read it gently.”

It was a bright, windy morning, and the four of them were walking back from the harbour past the temple of Caesar, where the two tall obelisks threw their long shadows across the square. A potter’s cart had lost a wheel at the corner, and its load lay smashed across the paving stones: jugs, bowls, lamps, a hundred pieces of red clay. The potter was sitting on the kerb with his head in his hands. Marcos and Demetria began to…