Stella

Stella is Costas Arvanitis’s wife, whose life is shown through the close repetition of household routine. The novel depicts her in the scullery, at the table, and in the bedroom she shares with Costas; when he dies, she is also the person Orestes visits first. These brief scenes give her a concrete place in Costas’s domestic world without supplying a broader history or an independent account of her thoughts.

Household Routine

When Costas comes home, Stella calls to him from the small scullery beside the living area. Her questions follow a familiar daily pattern: where he has been, why he is late, whether he brought onions, and whether he has been to the coffeehouse or been drinking. The questions scarcely change, and neither do his grunted replies. She brings a plate to him and sets another at the far end of the table, a gesture embedded in the same repeated evening routine.

The household’s noise forms a contrast with Costas’s time outside. At home, Stella’s questioning and a television playing at full volume fill the rooms; the programme shows politicians speaking over one another about an economic problem with no solution. The narrative describes Costas’s life as divided between the relative tranquillity of day and the noise of night. Stella’s voice is part of the domestic pattern through which that division is made tangible.

Living Conditions

The account of Stella’s washing and appearance is shaped by the house’s physical limitations. Its shower and toilet are outside, and the water is unheated. Costas is untroubled by cold showers, while Stella uses them as a reason to avoid washing. The house has little strong lighting and few mirrors: the only small mirror is in the outside shower room, where Costas uses it to shave, and it is too high for Stella. The narration says that she is unaware when dirt darkens her skin and places her among village women who have not seen themselves for years. Her circumstances are therefore conveyed not only through personal habit but through restricted access to the means of seeing herself.

The same domestic portrait includes burnt meals, which the narrative treats as evidence that Stella has no sense of smell. At night she lies beneath a thin blanket, tossing and muttering in her sleep, while Costas lies beside her and looks toward the faded marriage crowns nailed above their bed. The crowns remain as a visible sign of their marriage within a relationship otherwise presented through habit, silence, and the small frictions of daily life.

Costas’s Death

After Costas dies, Orestes drives back to the village and goes to Stella. Her explanation is concise: “It must have been a heart attack,” she says. The doctor agrees. The scene gives her no extended speech or display of grief; instead, it places her at the first practical stage of what follows. Orestes then visits the coffeehouse, recruits two men to help collect the body, and plans to place a precious fragment of the Aphrodite sculpture in Costas’s suit before burial. Stella’s short exchange with Orestes thus connects the intimate household to the funeral arrangements, while the story’s attention moves from her home to the fate of Costas and the fragment.