Monday, October 4, 2010

In the Odyssey when a priest and a poet fall on their knees before Odysseus, praying him to spare their lives,
the hero kills the priest without a thought, but saves the poet.
Homer says that he felt awe to slay a man who had been taught his divine art by the gods.
Not the priest, but the poet, had influence with heaven--and no one was ever afraid of a poet.
-from Edith Hamiltons 'Greek Mythology'