A short fable with multiple morals - By Australis Aelius.

When Marionia Jonus stood before the 16 Women, moderators of the Heraea Games in Olympia, she gulped back tears, hanging her head in shame.

Disgraceful, they had snorted at her. An abomination they scoffed. A sin against the goddess and all we hold true, they had choked.

It was cheating, their leader Hippodameia, daughter of King Oenomaus had cried before she lectured Marionia on the drastic mistake she had made and the consequences the girl must now suffer. She was to be stripped of her winning titles, be prepared to make reparations to those she had wronged and was henceforth banned from any further competition. She was to return her olive crowns, return the gold awarded to her by those who had sponsored her in the foot races and replace the ox meat from the animals sacrificed to Hera. She lost the right to have statues dedicated and inscribed with her name and her portrait on the columns of Hera's temple would be painted over.

So how had it come to this? It was all the healer physician Balco's idea and she had been assured she'd never be caught. Sweet talking, convincing, charming Balco and his nodding assurances. Taking Balco's magical elixir would, she had admitted to herself at the time, indeed enhance her performance in the foot races and hers would be the glory and adulation of the spectators. People would treat her with the respect due a champion! Gold beyond the dreams of avarice would flow into her coffers!

And now those coffers stood empty; the gold and the glory, gone. There'd now be no gold with which to pay the poets to sing odes in her honour. She had swallowed Balco's concoction, swallowed the idea that winning was everything and was now very much alone.

She wandered mournfully away from Olympia and towards the town of Pisatis, banished and branded a cheat and then suddenly, a bright thought occurred to her! Perhaps, just perhaps her story could be told! And in that instant, all thoughts of corruption, culpability, reproach and scandal disappeared from her mind. She would travel the length and breadth of Hellas, telling her story to anyone who would listen. People would pay gold to hear the truth of it from her own lips! Perhaps, she thought, she could find a scribe to take down all her thoughts, her hopes, her dreams and aspirations... publish! Yes that was the way forward! She could offer discourse (for a gold coin or two, of course), tell her own story, instruct and address, and once more, the celebrity and the prestige would be hers.

And with that thought in mind, Marionia Jonus broke into a run.