# the Priestess — The Jewels of Aptor character guide

> the Priestess in The Jewels of Aptor by Samuel R. Delany.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** The priestess, The Priestess, the priestess

**First appearance:** 0003-i

## Snapshot

A priestess of Argo whose authority on the island is matched only by her willingness to test a young student's conscience against history's horrors.

## Who they are

She holds rank among Argo's priestesses, the power that dispatches the ship-borne company toward Hama's hidden temple and the third jewel. Her teaching method is brutal: she screens a real atrocity for a girl not yet sixteen, then demands she find the reason behind it rather than flinch. That insistence — that history must be understood, not merely felt — makes her both guide and moral pressure on the quest's early course.

## In the story

### [I](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_jewels_of_aptor_se/chapters/i)

A high priestess of the Goddess Argo; recruits Geo, Urson, and Snake for a voyage.

### [Chapter VIII](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_jewels_of_aptor_se/chapters/viii)

Blind priestess of Argo; explains the history of Aptor and Hama's fall; shows Geo and Iimmi the room.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_jewels_of_aptor_se/characters/the-priestess
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_jewels_of_aptor_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_jewels_of_aptor_se/characters