Love cannot live where there is no trust.

Mortals were such fickle creatures. They called into the dark demanded answers and attention from forces they could not comprehend and yet when they had that attention and those answers they complained about them.

The belief that myths are somehow less true than the symbolic dream we call reality may be the greatest myth of all.

The more formidable the contradiction between inexhaustible life-joy and inevitable fate the greater the longing which reveals itself in the kingdom of poetry and in the self-created world of dreams hopes to banish the dark power of reality. The gods enjoy eternal youth and the search for the means of securing it was one of the occupations of the heroes of mythology and the sages as it was of real adventurers in the middle ages and more recent times. . . . But the fountain of youth has not been found and can not be found if it is sought in any particular spot on the earth. Yet it is no fable no dream-picture it requires no adept to find it it streams forth inexhaustible in all living nature.

When reading the history of the Jewish people of their flight from slavery to death of their exchange of tyrants I must confess that my sympathies are all aroused in their behalf. They were cheated deceived and abused. Their god was quick-tempered unreasonable cruel revengeful and dishonest. He was always promising but never performed. He wasted time in ceremony and childish detail and in the exaggeration of what he had done. It is impossible for me to conceive of a character more utterly detestable than that of the Hebrew god. He had solemnly promised the Jews that he would take them from Egypt to a land flowing with milk and honey. He had led them to believe that in a little while their troubles would be over and that they would soon in the land of Canaan surrounded by their wives and little ones forget the stripes and tears of Egypt. After promising the poor wanderers again and again that he would lead them in safety to the promised land of joy and plenty this God forgetting every promise said to the wretches in his powerYour carcasses shall fall in this wilderness and your children shall wander until your carcasses be wasted. This curse was the conclusion of the whole matter. Into this dust of death and night faded all the promises of God. Into this rottenness of wandering despair fell all the dreams of liberty and home. Millions of corpses were left to rot in the desert and each one certified to the dishonesty of Jehovah. I cannot believe these things. They are so cruel and heartless that my blood is chilled and my sense of justice shocked. A book that is equally abhorrent to my head and heart cannot be accepted as a revelation from God.When we think of the poor Jews destroyed murdered bitten by serpents visited by plagues decimated by famine butchered by each other swallowed by the earth frightened cursed starved deceived robbed and outraged how thankful we should be that we are not the chosen people of God. No wonder that they longed for the slavery of Egypt and remembered with sorrow the unhappy day when they exchanged masters. Compared with Jehovah Pharaoh was a benefactor and the tyranny of Egypt was freedom to those who suffered the liberty of God.While reading the Pentateuch I am filled with indignation pity and horror. Nothing can be sadder than the history of the starved and frightened wretches who wandered over the desolate crags and sands of wilderness and desert the prey of famine sword and plague. Ignorant and superstitious to the last degree governed by falsehood plundered by hypocrisy they were the sport of priests and the food of fear. God was their greatest enemy and death their only friend.It is impossible to conceive of a more thoroughly despicable hateful and arrogant being than the Jewish god. He is without a redeeming feature. In the mythology of the world he has no parallel. He only is never touched by agony and tears. He delights only in blood and pain. Human affections are naught to him. He cares neither for love nor music beauty nor joy. A false friend an unjust judge a braggart hypocrite and tyrant sincere in hatred jealous vain and revengeful false in promise honest in curse suspicious ignorant and changeable infamous and hideoussuch is the God of the Pentateuch.

Aeneas mother is a starNo a goddess.I said cautiously Venus is the power that we invoke in spring in the garden when things begin growing. And we call the evening star Venus.He thought it over. Perhaps having grown up in the country among pagans like me helped him understand my bewilderment. So do we he said. But Venus also became more...With the help of the Greeks. They call her Aphrodite...There was a great poet who praised her in Latin. Delight of men and gods he called her dear nurturer. Under the sliding star signs she fills the ship-laden sea and the fruitful earth with her being through her the generations are conceived and rise up to see the sun from her the storm clouds flee to her the earth the skillful maker offers flowers. The wide levels of the sea smile at her and all the quiet sky shines and streams with light...It was the Venus I had prayed to it was my prayer though I had no such words. They filled my eyes with tears and my heart with inexpressible joy.

Persephone is just a name for a spirit of beauty at a certain time in history. Im sure we could argue a biblical place for her if it matters. Your wife has the name of that pagan goddess but the fact remains that shes your mortal bride in the Year of Our Lord 1888- and shes Catholic so pray for her damn it I dont care how confusing it is. And pray for us to anyone. If the dead are about to flood Athens divine goodwill couldnt hurt. Your prayers can be in Hindu if you like. Now go home.

Forget the chicken-nugget smoke screen. Percy wanted Leo to invent an anti-dream hat.

I believe in everything until it's disproved. So I believe in fairies, the myths, dragons. It all exists, even if it's in your mind. Who's to say that dreams and nightmares aren't as real as the here and now?