Mythos: The Greek Myths Retold Quotes
"It is enough to say that the Greeks thought it was Chaos who, with a massive heave, or a great shrug, or hiccup, vomit, or cough, began the long chain of creation."
"Science today agrees that everything is destined to return to Chaos."
"Time began with the union of Gaia and Ouranos."
"Without Time, words like 'before,' 'during,' 'when,' 'then,' 'after lunch,' and 'last Wednesday' had no possible meaning."
"The Greek word for 'everything that is the case,' what we could call 'the universe,' is COSMOS."
"Your own children will overthrow you as you overthrew me."
"The Titanomachy, a ten-year war, caused mountains to bellow fire and the ground itself to quake and crack."
"The triumphant Zeus was set to inherit an earth, sea, and sky infinitely richer than the ones into which he had been born."
"Hades became King of the Underworld, symbolizing both death and riches."
"Poseidon, as truculent, stormy, vain, capricious, inconsistent, restless, cruel, and unfathomable as the oceans he commanded."
"Demeter, responsible for the harvest, was the goddess of growth, fertility, and the seasons."
"Hera, the Queen of Heaven, proud, imperious, jealous, and vengeful."
"Over the course of the war against the Titans, she and Zeus developed into a natural couple."
"Crackling with tension, impatience, and distrust, theirs was nonetheless a great marriage."
"Zeus imagined something more enlightened and rationally constituted than the bloody and brutal tyrannies that had gone before."
"As the Titans had made Othrys their mountain home, so Zeus now chose for his headquarters Mount Olympus."
"First she would give birth to the greatest of the gods, a boy whom she would call HEPHAESTUS."
"Ares—MARS to the Romans—was unintelligent of course, monumentally dense and unimaginative for, as everyone knows, war is stupid."
"War may be stupid, but it is also inevitable and sometimes—dare one say it?—necessary."
"Love and war, Venus and Mars, have always had a strong affinity."
"Hephaestus—god of fire, of blacksmiths, artisans, sculptors, and metalworkers—at work in his forge."
"Aphrodite was confident too and pushed her lover forward with encouraging words."
"In the very hall of heaven, a gentle smile on his lopsided face, stood Hephaestus."
"It was a moment of sweet revenge for Hephaestus."
"Hephaestus would make gifts for Aphrodite and for all the gods."
"Hephaestus—god of fire, and of blacksmiths, artisans, sculptors, and metalworkers—was home."
"Zeus and Hera walked slowly up and down, sniffing, tapping, prodding, tasting, sipping, and licking their way round the entries."
"Zeus, like most busy and important beings, had no patience with fussiness or self-pity."
"Zeus’s eyebrows gathered in a dark and troubled frown."
"Zeus raised the amphora of honey high above his head."
"For my queen and my beloved wife, I bless this amphora."
"Equipped with armor, shield, spear, and plumed helmet, Athena rises out of the head of her father, Zeus."
"Athena, like Demeter, remained untouched by man."
"Apollo was lord of mathematics, reason, and logic."
"The silence that now fell on the wedding feast was as dark and forbidding as the storm clouds that had massed earlier."
"The whole world seemed to believe that being the all-powerful one, sitting upon the throne of Olympus and commanding the heavens and the earth, was the easiest job there was."
"Her oldest son had made a brilliant marriage and Zeus had sworn oaths of fidelity and fealty to her before all who mattered in the world."
"Artemis, goddess of the chase and the chaste, of hounds and hinds, queen of archers and huntresses."
"The Muses Calliope, Euterpe, and Terpsichore stepped forward and clapped their hands."
"The competitors behind the trestle tables held their breath."
"But Zeus, for all his might and majesty, was always constrained by the cabinet government principles of consensus and collective responsibility that allowed him to rule."
"The apparent gentleness of those grey eyes belied a new kind of ideal."
"They would play semi-serious war games together."
"Athena’s kind of beauty was expressed in aesthetics."
"Metis could no more control him than a whisper can quieten a tempest."
"With a slightly unpleasant slurping sound Zeus’s head closed up its wound and healed itself."
"It was clear at once to all present that this new goddess was endowed with levels of power and personality that raised her above all the immortals."
"Zeus gazed at the daughter who had caused him so much pain and smiled a warm smile."
"When Zeus had tricked Athena’s mother into becoming a fly in order to use his lizard tongue to reel her in, Metis had been uncharacteristically foolish."
"Those who speak truth to power usually end up in chains or an early grave, but inside Zeus’s head Metis could never be silenced."
"In the same way that I suggested Artemis and Athena might be considered to represent opposites."
"Hermes proved himself to be the most extraordinarily pert and precocious baby that ever drew breath."
"Hermes thought quickly and gathered up long blades of grass which he plaited together into something like a bovine version of horseshoes."
"Hermes looked at the cows and the cows looked at Hermes."
"Apollo’s usually smooth brow was drawn into a frown, his blue eyes blazed, and his rose-red lips compressed themselves into a grim line."
"Perhaps we only imagined these first days of beautiful simplicity and universal kindness so that we could have a high point of paradisal sublimity against which to judge the low, degraded times that came after."
"It was natural that, of all the immortals, the one who loved humankind best should be their artist-creator Prometheus."
"To approach the godlike status that his creation deserved, mankind needed something more. They needed fire."
"Prometheus had never disobeyed Zeus before. Not in anything big."
"Yet Prometheus was determined on his course of action. Much as he had always loved Zeus, he found that he loved mankind more."
"Prometheus, whose gift of foresight never deserted him, was keenly aware that Zeus’s anger had yet to be assuaged."
"When the loss is so personal, unforeseen, absolute, and impossible to understand, those feelings are amplified to the most terrible degree."
"Psyche was flying high above the ground, safe in the strong but gentle arms of ZEPHYRUS, the West Wind."
If you want your freedom," she said, "separate out all the different grains and seeds and sort them into their own heaps. Finish this task before next sunrise and I will free you.
"The instant that human spirits departed their bodies, they were led to where the River Styx (Hate) met the River Acheron (Woe)."
"Love, as the Greeks understood, is complicated."
"She selected a chiffon gown of lapis blue—loose, comfortable, and exciting."
"Psyche, sweet Psyche. Harrowed by great trials as you are, do not pollute my clean waters with your death."
"The more clumsy than you might think of a slim athletic god, he tried to clamber through the window with the pig under his arm without making a noise."
"Eros himself, while later portrayed by Renaissance and Baroque artists in the manner I have described—a giggling, pert, and dimpled cherub."
"The instant he left, everything fell apart. The walls of the palace rippled, faded, and dissolved into the night air."
"Apollo sang and played on his lyre, Pan joined in with his syrinx. Hera danced with Zeus, Aphrodite danced with Ares, and Eros danced with Psyche."
"All was laughter and delight at the wedding of Eros and Psyche."
"Love said to Soul, you must not look at me."
"It is easier to hide a hundred mountains from a jealous wife than one mistress."
"When lust descends, discretion, common sense, and wisdom fly off."
"The alphabet was adapted by the Greeks into the writing system more or less in use there today."
"I am overcome with delight and gratitude."
"You too shall be a snake and endure the stares of strangers."
"He turned himself into a stag, a beautiful plump young heifer with shivering flanks and large, gentle eyes."
"For the last thirty years I have known in my heart that in killing that cursed water snake I killed any chance of happiness for me or my wife."
"Believe me now when I swear by the waters of this river that I will always look after you, care for you, protect you, honor you."
"One the fecund and bountiful herald of the harvest, the other the mercilessly cruel harbinger of hunger and blight."
"Food inside him acted like fuel on a fire, causing the hunger to burn ever more fiercely."
"Every week Erysichthon would offer his daughter to a rich suitor and accept the bride-money."
"The grateful serpent had licked Asclepius’s ear in thanks, whispering as he did so many secrets of the arts of healing."
"A single drop of the silvery-gold ichor that keeps the gods immortal is fatal for humans to touch or taste."
"He raged. As soon as he heard the news he took himself off to the workshop of Hephaestus and with three swift arrows shot dead Brontes, Steropes, and Arges."
"With a cry of grief he leapt through the flames and from her womb cut out their child who was still living."
"Zeus was intolerant of any threat to his authority and always moved swiftly to put down the slightest hint of insurrection."
"Sisyphus is still there in the halls of Tartarus, pushing that boulder up the hill and getting almost to the top before it rolls back down and he has to start once again."
"When word reached Leto that this jumped-up Theban was insulting her in such a fashion, and daring to set herself up over her, she burst into tears in front of her sympathetic twins."
"Despite Selene’s radiant beauty and the luxurious moon palace she installed him in, the kidnapped Cephalus found himself missing his wife Procris dreadfully."
"No matter what silvery arts of love the goddess of the moon employed, she failed to arouse him."
"Disappointed and humiliated, she agreed to return him to his wife."
"I ride over the world by night and see what people do in the dark. That’s not cynicism, it’s realism."
"Honeyed words and silver coins turn the most virtuous to treachery."
"The change of wardrobe that had inexplicably appeared by the roadside seemed to beckon to him."
"I’m married!" she tried to say through the seeds and pulp.
"Procris stared in disbelief. "Cephalus? Is that you?"