Extraits

“We have 18 or 19 plays by Euripides, for example, yet he is known to have written almost 100. Only 7 of Aeschylus’s 80 remain, while just 7 plays of Sophocles have come down to us out of 120 known titles. Almost every character you come across when reading the Greek myths had a play about them written by one, other, or all three of the great Athenian masters. The loss of so many of their works might be regarded as the greatest Greek tragedy of them all.”

“I will never forget my puzzlement when, in a vocabulary list, it presented the verb thaumazo, offering this helpful thought: “thaumazo, I wonder, or marvel at. This is easily remembered by thinking of the English word ‘thaumaturge.’” And I suppose that was true, since I’ve never forgotten it.”

“After all I've done for you? Medea kept her voice steady. 'Who was it who helped you defeat the fire-breathing oven and the great spent of the Grove of Area? Who was it who overcame Talos of Crete...'

Yes, yes, yes. But...”

“But when the day came, Admetus had a radical change of heart. He realized how much he loved Alcestis and how much less of a life he would have without her. In fact, he now saw that a long and endless existence alone would be worse than death.”

“Together Perseus and Andromeda look over their unruly shower of meteor children, the PERSEIDS, whom we can still watch showing off in the night sky once a year.”

“It is the fate of the young never to learn,” the centaur sighed. “I suppose it is arrogance and unwavering self-belief that propels them to their triumphs, just as surely as it is arrogance and unwavering self-belief that unseats them and sends them plummeting to their ends.”

“The Graeae’s names, as so often in Greek myth, have meanings. Pemphredo is “she who guides the way,” Enyo “warlike,” and Dino “terrible” (as in dinosaur, which means “terrible lizard”).”

“I had a disturbing dream last night. Most disturbing. Would you like to hear it?” “Absolutely,” lies Zeus, who has, in common with us all, a horror of hearing the details of anyone else’s dreams.”

“In the early days of gods and men, the divine trod the earth with mortals, befriended them, ravished them, coupled with them, punished them, tormented them, transformed them into flowers, trees, birds, and bugs, and in all ways interacted, intersected, intertwined, interbred, interpenetrated, and interfered with us.”

“Well, there is one thing. Perhaps you could change the child’s name.” “Change his name?” said Amphitryon. “How would that help?” “If you were to call him ‘Hera’s glory’ for instance? ‘Hera’s pride.’” And so it was decided. From now on Alcides would be called Heracles.”