Lives of Alcyone

Life XLII
We come now to a set of four lives, three of which were spent
in India, which were devoted entirely to the working out of past
karma. The Great Ones, though usually in the neighbourhood, took
a less prominent part in these than in the earlier lives. In a general
way I think we may regard these four principally as a preparation for
the four which followed them.
Alcyone was born this time in the year 4970, as the daughter
of an old and noble house, in a small kingdom called Tirganga,
which was under the suzerainty of protection of the Maharaja of
much larger district called Sravasthi. Alcyone’ s name was
Manidevi. Her horoscope foretold that she would suffer much, and
also said that she would be the mother of a king. As a child she was
boyish and impulsive. Her education seems to have been limited in
scope, and included little but reading and writing and the recitation
of innumerable texts; though she also learnt weaving and cooking
and housewifely duties of various sorts, as well as the science of
herbs and of compounding unguents and salves for wounds, and
indeed medicines generally.
She did not at all wish to be married, but her desires were little
consulted; when her father and mother saw in this at least a possible
step in the direction of the fulfilment of the prophesy, and when a
fine son (Helios) was born to her she naturally had her hopes,
though it did not seem likely that he could come into the line of
inheritance.