[Delphi] "'I waited for the answer in the seclusion of a remote garden surrounded by great rocks. I sat on a mat, and for hours I looked at the few blades of grass and moss near a seeping spring. I splashed my face and head and drank the sacred water from my cupped hands. The longer I sat, the more I concentrated on the things in the garden: the texture of the moss, pebbles of varied oval shapes. In the wetness they glowed with a subtlety of rose or tan or gray-green that cannot be justly described. My eyes were overwhelmed with a beauty that would have been unnoticed in a larger setting. I felt such peace that it was an interruption to be called to hear the fateful answer'"
[Goddess worship] "A carver of former days had seen the likeness of the Great Mother in the curving swells of an ancient olive tree. A human-sized form had been hewn from its gnarled clefts. With head lifted, her mouth curved up at the corners in a baffling smile of sensuality, and her eyes were dark hollows of primitive knowledge. A serpent encircled her long neck and curving shoulders, and her arms crossed under projecting breasts. With his simple tools the carver had emphasized the roundness of thighs, hips, belly and fecund triangle of procreation. Every surface was incised with spirals or zigzags. Her entire figure generated a potency that caused my breathing to deepen and my skin to prickle. I turned to Paris and our eyes locked. We clasped hands, and tuning back to the Goddess, bowed our beads to receive Her nearly palpable blessing. After a long time of quiet, allowing her presence to enter us, Paris and I backed away from the Goddess form and left the shrine."
[Hector] "Hector stood taller and larger than his younger brother Paris. He had bull-like shoulders and an athlete's grace. Dark hair fell over his forehead, giving him a boyish air despite his mantle of Commander of the Trojan Army."
[Hecuba] "'I shall find her,' I said and hurried up the stairs to the Queen's apartment, barely permitting a maid time to announce me before rushing in to her. She sat at the window, looking across the rolling land that stretched south to the battlefields. 'I have lost two sons to this despicable war. Two more are badly wounded. Why have you come, Helen? What is the urgency? Is it death, more death that can not wait for the telling?' She gripped the arm of her chair so that her knuckles shone white. Her head was held high and proud, prepared for whatever the fates had in store for her.'"
[Index]
