“Thus did the Holy Harlots unhinge the brains of man,
and when they met and clashed with the pure Mountain Maidens,
they raised their white arms high, their armpits smelled of musk,
and, as the rites decreed, both fought their verbal war:
"God swoops from mountain peeks to eat and play on earth;
we are his food and drink and even his sacred toys —
and learn, O sterile maids, we are his soft, sweet mates.
Let her now leave who fears to merge with her dread God!"
The scornful savage mouth of Krino flashed reply:
"We will not leave! We guard the innocent soul of man!
God is a spirit with pure white wings, a soul that sails,
light, disembodied, deep in our thoughts, without embrace.
It's we who keep the world in bloom with virgin souls!"”
From the Bull Ritual, Book VI, line 197
The Odyssey : A Modern Sequel (1938)
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Nikos Kazantzakis 222
Greek writer 1883–1957Related quotes

Elegy, p. 60
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Fragment 63 Voigt
The Willis Barnstone translations, Dream
“Fruitlessly doth he groan, beholding the face of the Colchian maid; then over all the mountain pain contracts his limbs, and all his fetters shake beneath her sickle.”
Gemit inritus ille
Colchidos ora tuens. totos tunc contrahit artus
monte dolor cunctaeque tremunt sub falce catenae.
Source: Argonautica, Book VII, Lines 368–370