The Argonautica - Apollonius Rhodius

“And many, smitten before raising their feet from the earth, bowed down as far to the ground as they had risen to the air, and rested there with the damp of death on their brows.”

Excerpt From: Apollonius Rhodius. “The Argonautica.”

Not such a great Greek epic. A bit perfunctory in some aspects. Medea was the most complete character with her torment.

Plus in the 'Jason and the Argonauts' film, its not Achilles' heel they unscrew and kill. Rather it's 'Talos', a big bronze greek geezer made by Hephaestus to protect Europa on Crete! The heel bit is akin to the 'lost wax' method of casting bronze statues (or so say Mr Wiki)

Xenophanes of Colophon

Mortals consider that the Gods are born, and that they have clothes and speech and bodies like their own. The Ethiopians say that their Gods are snub nosed and black, the Thracians that their Gods have light blue eyes and red hair. But if cattle and horses or lions had hands or were able to draw, horses would draw their forms of their Gods like horses, cattle like cattle.

“Only Hope remained there in an unbreakable home within under the rim of the great jar, and did not fly out at the door; for ere that, the lid of the jar stopped her, by the will of Aegis-holding Zeus who gathers the clouds.”

 Hesiod: Works and Days.

The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde

"How sad it is! I shall grow old, and horrible, and dreadful. But this picture will remain always young. It will never be the older than this particular day of June"

Hubert Selby Jr. - Last Exit to Brooklyn

“...and yet there was not a definable thought in his mind. Only a terrifying effort to get from one side of a match box to another.” -  Hubert Selby Jr. - Last Exit to Brooklyn

That was a difficult read. No-one that you could like or you could feel deserved much more than they actually got

metamorphoses - Publius Ovidius Nasooooooooooooo

Publius Ovidius Naso

Has everything from birth, death, transformation, magic, Lucifer, love, rape, slaughter, deluge, and more. Just took so chuffing long! Why use 10 words to say something when you can use 1,000

Below is from Wiki
The Metamorphoses, Ovid's most ambitious and popular work, consists of a 15-book catalogue written in dactylic hexameter about transformations in Greek and Roman mythology set within a loose mytho-historical framework. Within an extent of nearly 12,000 verses, almost 250 different myths are mentioned. Each myth is set outdoors where the mortals are often vulnerable to external influences. The poem stands in the tradition of mythological and aetiological catalogue poetry such as Hesiod's Catalogue of Women, Callimachus' Aetia, Nicander's Heteroeumena, and Parthenius' Metamorphoses. The first book describes the formation of the world, the ages of man, the flood, the story of Daphne's rape by Apollo and Io's by Jupiter. The second book opens with Phaethon and continues describing the love of Jupiter with Callisto and Europa. The third book focuses on the mythology of Thebes with the stories of Cadmus, Actaeon, and Pentheus. The fourth book focuses on three pairs of lovers: Pyramus and Thisbe, Salmacis and Hermaphroditus, and Perseus and Andromeda. The fifth book focuses on the song of the Muses, which describes the rape of Proserpina. The sixth book is a collection of stories about the rivalry between gods and mortals, beginning with Arachne and ending with Philomela. The seventh book focuses on Medea, as well as Cephalus and Procris. The eighth book focuses on Daedalus' flight, the Calydonian boar hunt, and the contrast between pious Baucis and Philemon and the wicked Erysichthon. The ninth book focuses on Heracles and the incestuous Byblis. The tenth book focuses on stories of doomed love, such as Orpheus, who sings about Hyacinthus, as well as Pygmalion, Myrrha, and Adonis. The eleventh book compares the marriage of Peleus and Thetis with the love of Ceyx and Alcyone. The twelfth book moves from myth to history describing the exploits of Achilles, the battle of the centaurs, and Iphigeneia. The thirteenth book discusses the contest over Achilles' arms, and Polyphemus. The fourteenth moves to Italy, describing the journey of Aeneas, Pomona and Vertumnus, and Romulus. The final book opens with a philosophical lecture by Pythagoras and the deification of Caesar. The end of the poem praises Augustus and expresses Ovid's belief that his poem has earned him immortality.

John Wyndham, The Midwich Cuckoos

“But, as I understand it, your God is a universal God; He is God on all suns and all planets. Surely, then, He must have universal form? Would it not be a staggering vanity to imagine that He can manifest Himself only in the form that is appropriate to this particular, not very important planet?”

Croesus to Cyrus

In peace sons bury fathers, but in wars fathers bury sons

Herodotus. Book 1,87

NOTES D’UN SOUTERRAIN - FEDOR DOSTOÏEVSKI

L’homme du souterrain est un solitaire, un misanthrope, qui se veut lucide et intransigeant. Mais homme du paradoxe, il s’avoue lui-même la victime du labyrinthe qu’il a lui-même tissé…ployant sous le mécanisme de passivité-agressivité dont il est dépendant, il se reconnaît comme la victime consciente de la jouissance de la souffrance.

“I say let the world go to hell, but I should always have my tea.” 

“I could not become anything; neither good nor bad; neither a scoundrel nor an honest man; neither a hero nor an insect. And now I am eking out my days in my corner, taunting myself with the bitter and entirely useless consolation that an intelligent man cannot seriously become anything, that only a fool can become something.” 

“I agree that two times two makes four is an excellent thing; but if we are dispensing praise, then two times two makes five is sometimes a most charming little thing as well.” 

“You don't need free will to determine that twice two is four. that's not what I call free will” 

Been to Yarmouth today

Donuts and chips off the market. Tuppence slots in the arcade. Some things never change x

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nous avons beaucoup poste venir via notre boîte aux lettres