Persephone of Eleusis: A Romance of Ancient Greece

The Project Gutenberg eBook, Persephone of Eleusis, by Clare Winger Harris
by CLARE WINGER HARRIS
1923 THE STRATFORD COMPANY, Publishers Boston, Massachusetts
Copyright, 1923 The STRATFORD CO., Publishers Boston, Mass. The Alpine Press, Boston, Mass., U. S. A.
In this tale of Greece in the fifth century B. C., fact and fiction are so closely intervolved that a detailed explanation of their respective boundaries would be both tedious and superfluous. Suffice it to say that I have with reluctance departed from history only when the narration of the personal affairs of the characters made it necessary to do so. The difficulty of accurate adherence to historical facts seems insuperable. C. W. H.
“What have I to do with the heroes or the monuments of ancient times? With times which never can return, and heroes, whose form of life was different from all that the present condition of mankind requires or allows?... At least we compare our own with former times, and either rejoice at our improvements, or, what is the first motion towards good, discover our defects.” Samuel Johnson in “Rasselas”
“In gay hostility and barbarous pride,
With half mankind embattled at his side,
Great Xerxes comes to seize the certain prey,
And starves exhausted regions in his way.”
Samuel Johnson.
The reddening glow of an evening sun was shed upon the little town of Anthela in Locris as Zopyrus, a young Persian officer in the army of Xerxes passed quickly from the shadows of the temple to Demeter into the narrow street. In his general bearing and physique he was truly a Persian; large of frame, broad of shoulders, with a proportionally small but well poised head. But the tight clusters of blond curls, clear blue eyes and sensitiveness of mouth were not distinguishing traits of Persian parentage. There was a seriousness in his expression far in advance of his years which may have numbered four and twenty.