I lay back and tried not to think of the minutes passing. Just yesterday we had a wealth of them. Now each was a drop of heartsblood lost.

When I first started studying Greek, one of my absolute favorite parts was realizing that so many English words had these old, secret roots. Learning Greek was like being given a super-power: linguistic x-ray vision.

A part of what makes myths live is their multiplicity, the way different voices retell them in every generation. Homer survives because his poetry was outstanding, yes, but also because he's been passed down by so many by luminaries like Vergil and Ovid, Shakespeare, James Joyce and Margaret Atwood, but also by countless others. I wanted to do my part for these tremendous stories.

He is more worth to you, perhaps. But the stranger is someone else's friend and brother. So which life is more important?

. . .nothing could eclipse the stain of his dirty, mortal mediocrity.

The door snicked shut.

Chiron had said once that nations were the most foolish of mortal inventions. "No man is worth more than another, wherever he is from.