"Good night."
"Good night."
Some stories last longer than others. Now my wife's feelings were hurt, Philono?'s, and no wonder: for the occasion she's made ambrosia1 with her own hands, dismissed the servants early, donned her best nightie; it should have been one dessert after another. But Bellerophon, King of Lycia, at sundown on the eve of his birthday found floating in the marsh2 near his palace a Greek novella called Perseid, story of his model hero; by the time he got to its last words he was forty and too tired.
Thus begins, so help me Muse3, the tidewater tale of twin Bellerophon, mythic hero, cousin to constellated Perseus: how he flew and reflew Pegasus the winged horse; dealt double death to the three-part freak Chimera5; twice loved, twice lost; twice aspired6 to, reached, and died to immortality7 -- in short, how he rode the heroic cycle and was recycled. Loosed at last from mortal speech, he turned into written words: Bellerophonic letters afloat between two worlds, forever betraying, in combinations and recombinations, the man they forever represent.
"You never criticize," I go on to carp shortly at the bedroom ceiling, dark. "There's something wrong with a woman who never criticizes."
After a moment, pensive9 Philono? beside me said: "Sometimes I criticize."
"No you don't. You're perfect; that's your trouble."
"My feelings are hurt, yes," Philono? is represented here as having explained. "But there's no point in criticizing a person when he's obviously upset. Though why you're upset, I can't imagine."
"Upset upset. My life's a failure. I'm not a mythic hero. I never will be."
"You are!" Their dialogue conveys the general sense of our conversation, but neither establishes Philono?'s indomitable gentleness of spirit and body and her husband's punishing self-concern, nor achieves in proportion to its length enough simple exposition. Had I understood, when I consented at the end of this novella to be transformed by the seer Polyeidus into a version of Bellerophon's life, that I might be imperfectly, even ineptly11 narrated12, I'd have cleaved13 to my original program: to fall from heaven into a thornbush, become a blind lame14 vatic figure, and float upon the marshy15 tide, reciting my history aloud, in my own voice, to Melanippe the Amazon -- my moon, my muse, my final mortal love -- as she ebbed16 and flooded me. And if Polyeidus the Seer had realized that this final and trickiest18 effort in the literary-metamorphosis way would be freckled19 and soiled with as it were self-criticism, he'd've let Bellerophon smack20 into the muck and bubble there forever, like Dante's Wrathful in the marshes21 of the Styx. Fenny22 father, old shape-shifter: here you are, then; even here. On with the story.
"It's perfectly10 obvious," Philono? went on, her voice as gentle as her gentle body, whose beauty five-and-thirty years had scarcely scarred, "that Athene's still on your side. The Kingdom of Lycia is reasonably prosperous and politically stable despite our vexing23 military involvement with the Carians and their new alliance with the Solymians and Amazons. Our children are growing up satisfactorily, take it all in all -- not like Proetus and Anteia's wayward daughters. Your fame as a Chimeromach seems secure, judging by your fan mail; even the Perseid, I gather from the excerpts24 you chose to read me, mentions you favorably a couple of times. Finally, our marriage (which, remember, is to me what your career as mythic hero is to you: my cardinal26 value and vindication27, my raison d'être) is, if no longer fiery28 as Chimera's breath, affectionate, comfortable, and sexually steady, in the main. Certainly we've been spared the resentments29 that poisoned Perseus and Andromeda's relationship as they reached our age, and while we cannot be called innocent, surely we are rather experienced than guilty.
"Now, it may very well be that your most spectacular work is behind you -- I've yet to read the Perseid, but what mythic hero isn't over the hill, as it were, by the time he's forty? However, it strikes me as at least likely that your best work may not be your most spectacular, and that it may lie ahead, if not be actually in progress: I mean the orderly administration of your country, your family, and yourself over the long haul; the patient cultivation31 of understanding into wisdom; the accumulation of rich experience and its recycling in the form of enlightened policy, foreign, domestic, and personal -- all those things, in brief, which make a man not merely celebrated36, but great; not merely admired, but loved; et cetera."
I compare to this the rich prose of the Perseid and despair. Sleep with its author, then, if Melanippe's style won't do! No, no, my love, it's not your style; you merely set the words down as they come, or long since came: once-living creatures caught and fossiled in the clay; bones displaced by alien mineral, grown with crystals, hued37 with the oxides of old corrosion38, heaved and worn and rearranged by the eons' ebb17; shards39; disjecta membra, from which the sleeping dragon is ever harder to infer. You said it. Anyhow I slept, and woke unhappy as before. As always, Philono? ungrudgingly forgave -- Melanippe is no Philono?. I didn't mean to imply that she is -- aroused and made love to me, then permitted me a post-coital nap while she prepared with her own hands a birthday breakfast: spinach40 pie and feta cheese. With this woman, Polyeidus wonders, the man was unhappy? He shouldn't wonder, Bellerophon believes (echoing for a moment, if lamely41, the prancing42 rhythms and alliterations of the Perseid), as it was he showed Bellerus as a boy the Pattern of Mythic Heroism43, fourth quadrant of which calls for the mature hero's sudden and mysterious fall from the favor of gods and men; his departure, voluntary or otherwise, from the city of his own establishment; his mysterious apotheosis44 on a hilltop, symbolic45 counterpart of the place of his divine conception; et cetera.
Bellerophon is telling Polyeidus this? Whomever the buskin fits: Melanippe, too, perky priestess of his passions, shouldn't need reminding how the undauntable docility46 of the lady here featured as Philono?, her absolute solicitude47, her angelic, her invulnerable devotion -- this is nauseating48 two-thirds of us -- had long since made Bellerophon half-desperate, most particularly for the reason least appreciated by Philono? herself in her reference to Andromeda, above. In a word, I was inescapably content -- in my marriage, my children, my royal career -- and because mythic heroes at that age and stage should become the opposite of content, my contentment made me wretched.
Pause. Melanippe the Amazon, let's say, is not at all sure she comprehends this sophistry49. You were unhappy because you were happy?
The sophistry may be insufferable: the suffering was real. There was Perseus, risen from his misery50 and shining in the sky; here was Bellerophon, miserably51 content, holding his story in his hand.
For this you left your wife and family?
And my kingdom. And my empire. That's where my story starts, when I go wandering in the Ale?an marsh, "far from the paths of men, devouring52 my own soul," et cetera.
Wait while I write that plain: wretched because nothing was wrong.
Right.
Pause. It has been remarked that this state of spiritual affairs -- the general malaise, I mean, not the specific etiology -- is figured commonly in the myths by an objective correlative: one thinks of the miasma53 that hangs over Oedipus's Thebes, or Perseus's imagined petrifaction54. Was there anything similar in Bellerophon's case?
I wonder how many voices are telling my tale. It seems to me that upon my first being transformed into the story of my life, at best a sorely qualified56 immortality, the narrative57 voice was clear and objective: in simple, disciplined prose it recounted my middle-aged58 distress59, figured conveniently by Pegasus's inability to fly, voila. Briefly60 it rehearsed my vain attempts to foment61 rebellion in my children over the question of which should succeed me to the Lycian throne; exasperation62 in my wife by endless repetitions of the tale of my youthful exploits, including my affair with her older sister Anteia; sedition63 in my subjects by continuing and escalating64 the unpopular Solymian war -- my children were filially pious65, my wife adored me, the silent majority of Lycians supported my administration. Beginning in the middle, on the eve of my fortieth birthday, this original or best Bellerophoniad proceeded with unostentatious skill to carry forward the present-time drama (my quest for literal immortality) while completing the plenteous exposition of my earlier adventures -- a narrative difficulty resolved by the simple but inspired device of making the second half of my life recapitulate67 ironically the first, after the manner of the Perseid, but with the number five (i.e., threes and twos) rather than seven as the numerical basis of the structure, and a circle rather than a logarithmic spiral as its geometric motif68. It commenced, moreover, with an echo not only of Perseid's opening lines but of its dramatic construction as well: that is, not at the beginning of the hero's second series of adventures (Perseus's departure with cross Andromeda to revisit the scenes of his youthful triumphs in search of rejuvenation69; cross Bellerophon's ditto with patient Philono? in search of the magic herb hippomanes), but at their mid-point: Perseus, while always ultimately addressing the reader from heaven, tells most of his story immediately to his mistress Calyxa in Egypt; Bellerophon, it seems to me, while always ultimately addressing the reader from pages floating in the marshes of what has become Dorchester County, Maryland, U.S.A., used to begin by rehearsing his prior history to pretty Melanippe in the marshes of the river Thermodon, near Scythian Themiscyra. The narration70 was repeated daily and lasted all day: two tideslengths, to be exact, corresponding to the halves of my life and work. The First Flood, so to speak, covered my adventures from the death of my father and my brother, through the killing71 of the Chimera, to my marriage to Princess Philono? -- roughly from my nineteenth through my twenty-seventh year; the First Ebb discovered my reign34 in Lycia and the establishment of my family, through my growing discontentment with my contentment, to Pegasus's inability to get off the ground, twenty-eighth through thirty-sixth year; the Second Flood covered my adventures from the time of my leaving Lycia to consult the Old Man of the Marsh (actually the prophet Polyeidus), through my travels in search of the horsenip herb hippomanes, to my idyll with Amazonian Melanippe, thirty-seventh through forty-fifth year; the Second Ebb discovered my attempted flight to Olympus, through my long free-fall from Pegasus, to the end of my chronological72 life, forty-sixth through fifty-fourth year. The thirty-six-year period, divided into eighteen-year cycles and nine-year quarters, was a compromise as I remember between the Polyeidic "solar" life-calendar, a seventy-two-year span based on a three-hundred-sixty-day year of twelve thirty-day months, and the Melanippic or Amazonian "lunar" life-calendar, based on four quarters of approximately fourteen years each (though Amazons do not acknowledge annual units), metaphorically73 correspondent to the phases of the moon and the four stages of female sexuality (birth to puberty, puberty to sexual maturity74, sexual maturity to menopause, menopause to death-- the life expectancy75 of Amazons, reckoned in Polyeidic terms, is fifty-six "years"; they begin menstruating at age "fourteen," on the average, and cease about age "forty-two"). It was, finally, a distinguishing feature of this ideal Bellerophoniad that while the length and periodicity of the narration were constant, the amplitude76 of the narrative varied77 like the range of the tides with the narrator's energy, itself a function of his concentration or distraction78. Yes, yes, the tale was told to its fullest heights and depths twice per lunar month, when the pulls so to speak of Polyeidus and Melanippe were perfectly aligned79; at the summer-solstitial full moon in particular, I recollect80, my tale achieved a pitch of eloquence-- a phenomenon no doubt to be accounted for by the latitude81 and longitude82 of tidewater Maryland. Contrariwise, twice each month the narration was unusually flat and shallow, especially in the neighborhood of the equinoxes -- and distracted, as though the pure Bellerophonic voice were tugged83 and co-opted now by Polyeidus this way, now Melanippe that; not to the end of dramatic harmony and tension, but discordantly84, to stalemate and stagnation85.
In posing the question, I now observe, I or someone has answered if. Full knowledge of the five tidal "constants" (geographic location, mean water-depth, configuration86 of shoreline, speed of Earth-rotation, friction87 of sea-bottom), the four periodic variables (relative positions of Sun and Moon to each other and to Earth, their respective distances from Earth, inclination88 of the lunar orbit to the Equator), and the three non-periodic variables (wind force, wind direction, barometric89 pressure) would doubtless afford a complete understanding of Bellerophoniad's narrative processes -- but such comprehension, difficult to acquire, is impossible to crave90. All I sense is the current neapness! If Bellerophon might rebegin, unclogged, unsilted! Time and tide, however, et cetera.
For God's sake, Melanippe, put this down: The winged horse won't fly! Would not, wouldn't! Vehicle of my glory, from whose high back I bombed Solymian and Amazon alike, in better days, from Bronze Age back to Stone, sank the Carian pirates, did to death the unimaginable Chimera -- Pegasus can't get off the ground! Could not, couldn't! Turned out to pasture since his master's marriage, fat and tame now, my sweet half-brother in time grew loath91 even to lift his moonshaped hooves, much less strike well-springs with them for the Muses92. Twenty years it had been my custom every morning, after breakfast, to take down from its place of honor over my throne the golden Bridle93 of Restraint, Athene's gift (Perseid reliefs, Series II, Panel 3), without which none can mount the steed sired by Poseidon on Medusa and foaled when Perseus beheaded her. My wife I'd perch94 athwart my pommel, and we'd make a high circuit of the empire, cheered by all we overlooked. Now, the Perseid under my belt, I burped to the paddock and was by the lackeys95 boosted into place; applied96 the heel, laid on the crop; clucked and chucked and urged and whistled: the beast no longer giddyapped, much less went vaulting97 starward; only grazed in circles, trailing horsefeathers where his wings like doused98 sails dragged by the board.
This Perseid is that heavy? No, no, love, it's I was heavy, drag-hoofed as this telling of my tale. Perseid takes off like its hero. Hum. Did Bellerophon's grounding happen all at once or gradually, over the years of his marriage? You know the story. I wish I were dead.
Melanippe, as she is here called, being an Amazon, is not conversant99 with the niceties either of marriage or of narrative construction. In her position as Bellerophon's lover and alleged101 chronicler, however, she makes the following suggestion: the "present" action of this part of the story (you used the term "First Ebb," I believe), must cover your attempts to deteriorate102 three separate relations-- with your late children, your late wife, and your late subjects -- and at the same time accomplish, at least in a preliminary way, as much as possible of the earlier, "First Flood" exposition: the story of your former life. Then why not attempt to alienate103 your children with anecdotes104 of your own childhood, your wife with the Anteia episode, the citizenry with boring accounts of your later adventures? Isn't that the way you said it's done in the mythical105 "ideal" Bellerophoniad? Correlate these internal narratives106 and Pegasus's descending107 altitude, with an eye to ending the First Flood at the "climax108" of the First Ebb: i.e., the morning you couldn't get Peg4 up at all and struck out for the swamp. At the same time, since First Flood, First Ebb, and Second Flood themselves comprise an internal narrative framed by our affair here on the Thermodon, punctuate109 them wherever convenient with conversation between Bellerophon and Melanippe, "giving if possible a degree of dramatic development to our tidewater idyll. That is, unless drama and development on the one hand, idyll and immortality on the other, are not irreconcilable110 sets of notions. What do you think?
I think I'm dead. I think I'm spooked. I'm full of voices, all mine, none me; I can't keep straight who's speaking, as I used to. It's not my wish to be obscure or difficult; I'd hoped at least to entertain, if not inspire. But put it that one has had visions of an order complex unto madness: Now and again, like mazy marshways glimpsed from Pegasus at top-flight, the design is clear: one sees how the waters flow and why; what freight they bear and whither. Between, one's swamped; the craft goes on, but its way seems arbitrary, seems insane.
There, love: you flew. With Philono? and the children?
Yes, yes. Yes, yes, yes. From the time our first was born he flew too, nestled in his mother's breast as she in mine, and so loved the ride that to my discomfort112 she named him Hippolochus: "dropped from a mare113." Soon little Isander took his place; sturdy Hippolochus hung on astern. Came Laodamia, gentle as her mom: the ladies rode before, the boys behind, never once squabbling which should sit next after me, and the royal family daily went sky-high.
But not.
But not so high as formerly114, or far, or fast. For this Philono? thanked me on the children's behalf and hers, thinking I reined115 us in on their account; at the same time she grounded herself thenceforward, lest the late infrequency of our flights beyond the Lycian border be a cause of the rumored116 new alliance between the Carians and Solymians, our ancient enemies. But even without her, though his range and altitude increased, Pegasus never quite regained117 his former heights; as the children grew, we found ourselves down again to the olive-tops. Not to buzz and turd my subjects into disaffection, I bumped in turn Hippolochus, Isander, and Laodamia, each time reclimbing to a lower peak, like waves on a foreshore as the tide runs out. I watched the new constellations118 wheel far over my head -- Perseus, Medusa, Andromeda, Cepheus, Cassiopeia -- and turned sour.
"It is remarkable," I'd remark to Philono? in the royal boudoir, as she kindly119 tried to rouse me, "what a toll120 pregnancy121 takes on teeth and muscle tone." Her hand would pause -- Melanippe's does, too -- for just a moment. Then she'd agree, cheerfully adding varicosity, slacked breast and vaginal sphincter, striation of buttock and thigh123, and loss of hair-sheen to the list of her biological expenses in the childbearing way -- all which she counted as nothing, since for three such princelets she'd've died thrice over. But as I was at it I should add, she'd add, the psychological cost of parentage, to ourselves individually and to the marital124 relationship: fatigue125, loss of spontaneity, diminishment of ardor126, general heaviness -- a kind of accelerated aging, the joint127 effect of passing years, increased responsibility, and accumulated familiarity -- never altogether compensated128 for by deeper intimacy129. For her part (she would go on -- what a wife this was!), she took what she was pleased to term the Tragic130 View of Marriage and Parenthood: reckoning together their joys and griefs must inevitably131 show a net loss, if only because like life itself their attrition was constant and their term mortal. But one had only different ways of losing, and to eschew132 matrimony and childbearing for the delights of less serious relations was in her judgment133 to sustain a net loss even more considerable. Nor, mind, did she regard this perspective (which she applied as well to everything from vacation trips to historical movements) as spiritually negative or bleak134: to affirm it was to affirm the antinomy of the cosmos135, which antimony she took to be not absurd contradiction but rich paradox136, the pity and terror of the affirmation whereof effected in the human soul an ennobling catharsis. I can do it. Assuredly I can do it. That I can do it, I cannot doubt. That I cannot do it; that I can begin to imagine that I cannot do it; that I can begin to wonder whether perhaps after all I cannot do it; that I can begin to begin firmly to believe that I cannot do it; I cannot begin to imagine, I cannot begin to wonder, I cannot begin to begin. Beyond question I can do it. Can I do it? I cannot do it.
Do it.
Pegasus and I flew lower. "You are descended," I told the children on Hippolochus's thirteenth birthday, "from a line of half-breed horse traders reaching back through Sisyphus and Autolycus to the shifty centaurs137."
They sat round-eyed; tutors and governesses fled to summon Philono?, who entered with her knitting and watched their faces as I spoke139, but neither protested nor interrupted.
"Your Grandmother Eurymede was a leading member of the Corinthian wild-mare cult32," I declared to them. "She claimed that Poseidon the sea-horse-god had humped her stallionwise one night as she was skinnydipping in the surf during her organization's annual harvest-moon orgy. But Dad -- your Grandpa Glaucus? -- accused her of adultery with the stable-master, if not with one of the stallions themselves, and after dragging the former to death behind his racing140 chariot, he banished141 male grooms142 and stonehorses from our spread."
Hippolochus cried "Hooray!" Isander asked to be given, on his thirteenth birthday, a pony143. Laodamia climbed into my lap and sucked her thumb. Out in the paddock Pegasus whinnied. Philono? purled.
"Horses remain a conspicuous144 motif in my biography," I guess I said, "beginning with the circumstances of my birth. Assuming Poseidon to be my father, I've a deal of actual horse-blood in my veins145, and you in yours. Insofar as we're human, the equine traits may be regarded as recessive146, but the chance that one of you may foal a centaur138 or sire a literal colt, while admittedly small, had as well be acknowledged. My interest in the subject of heredity, which needs no further explanation, has led me to sponsor research in this area, certain findings of which I'll impart to each of you on your wedding day."
Laodamia asked where babies came from. Isander decided147 to have two each of sons, daughters, trotters, pacers. Hippolochus, displeased148 with his adolescent appearance, hoped he could make use of my research to give his own offspring black manes and tails instead of bay. Philono? smiled and said, "Bay is beautiful." What I'm experiencing cannot be called an identity-crisis. In order to experience an identity-crisis, one must first have enjoyed some sense of identity. The tradition of the mad genius in literature. The tradition of the double in literature. The tradition of the story within the story, the tradition of the mad editor of the text, the tradition of the unreliable narrator. "I come now," how beautifully all this is managed in the Perseid, "to the twin-business, how I more or less killed my father and my brother." Polyeidus, old charlatan149, is that your best? No answer. But I know you're here between the lines, among the letters' curls and crooks150, spreading through me like the water through this marsh. Thank heaven I get to swat you at my peak!
"Bellerus and Deliades," I'm saying to the children, back in Lycia; "Deliades and Bellerus. From the day we were born, the country quarreled over which of us should succeed to the throne of Corinth, and my brother and I quarreled over it ourselves, for fun and profit, just as you boys will when you drive me out of town."
O Bellerophon! "Bellerus it was then, and do stop bawling151." All of you. "Twins we were; twin brothers; look-alikes and inner opposites; and Polyeidus was our tutor. Bellerus from toddlerhood passionate152, impetuous, Aphrodite's ardent153 darling; Deliades circumspect154, prudential, in all things moderate, a venerator155 of Athene. And Polyeidus was our tutor. Everyone thought Deliades legitimate156, as he shared the famous gray-green eyes of Glaucus and his forebears; but my earliest memory is of Mom and Dad squabbling in the next bedroom over me, whether I was Poseidon's son or the horse-groom's: a bastard157 to be exposed on the hillside or a demigod destined158 for the stars."
Melanippe herself, though she loves her lover and is held to be recording159 his history faithfully, can be of two minds on this point when she hears him speaking to his children so. Yes, well, even Bellerus has his doubts; but though we teased and contested which was heir apparent, Deliades alone never questioned which was mortal: I liked the kid well enough; he worshipped me.
"And Polyeidus was your tutor," the children chorused. I'm sending them supperless to bed: Isander has announced that he hates this story because its words are too big and it lasts too long. Hippolochus has kissed him and promised to repeat it all in little words at nap-time. My curly darling Laodamia sleeps in my lap; Philono? deftly160 replaces the thumb with a pacifier. Dead now, all of them: dead and dead and dead! Then do let them stay up awhile, Bellerophon, to hear the Polyeidus part.
"Our tutor he became, Polyeidus, Polyeidus, after being prophet laureate to the court of Corinth. Though featured in several other myths, on the strength of which Dad had hired him, he declared to us he had no memory of his pre-Corinthian past, or any youth. Some said he'd been Proteus's apprentice161, others that he was some stranded162 version of The Old Man of the Sea himself. At such stories Polyeidus shrugged165, saying only that all shapeshifters are revisions of tricky166 Proteus. But he dismissed the conventional Protean167 transformations169 -- into animals, plants, and such -- as mere35 vaudeville170 entertainment, and would never oblige us with a gryphon or a unicorn171, say, howevermuch we pled, or stoop to such homely172 predictions as next day's weather. For this reason, among others, he was demoted to tutor; and he urged upon us, even as boys, a severer view of magic. By no means, he used to insist, did magicians necessarily understand their art, though experience had led him to a couple of general observations on it. For example, that each time he learned something new about his powers, those powers diminished, anyhow altered. Also, that what he "turned into" on those occasions when he transformed was not altogether within his governance. Under certain circumstances he would frown, give a kind of grunt173, and turn into something, which might or might not resemble what if anything he'd had in mind. Sometimes his magic failed him when he called upon it; other times it seized him when he had no use for it; and the same was true of his prophesying174. 'It will be alleged that Napoleon died on St. Helena in 1821,' he would announce, with no more notion than we of the man and place and date he meant, or the significance of the news; 'in fact he escaped to the Eastern Shore of Maryland, to establish his base for the Second Revolution.' Most disappointingly to Deliades and me, his transformations were generally into what he came to call 'historical personages from the future': this same Napoleon, for example, or Captain John Smith of the American plantation175 of Virginia: useless to our education. But no sooner did he see this pattern than he lost the capacity, and changed thenceforward only into documents, mainly epistolary: Napoleon's imaginary letter from King Theodore to Sir Robert Walpole, composed after the Emperor's surrender; Plato's Seventh Letter; the letter from Denmark to England which Hamlet transferred to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern; the Isidorian Decretals; the Protocols177 of the Elders of Zion; Madame de Sta?l's Lettres sur Jean-Jacques Rousseau; the 'Henry Letters' purchased for $50,000 by President Madison's administration from the impostor Compte de Crillon in 1811 to promote the War of 1812; the letter from Vice66 Admiral Sir Alexander Cochrane, commander of the British fleet at Halifax, to that same president, warning that unless reparations were made for the Americans' destruction of Newark and St. Davids in Canada, the British would retaliate178 by burning Washington -- a letter said to be either antedated179 or intentionally180 delayed, as it reached its address when the capital was in ashes; the false letter describing mass movements of Indian and Canadian forces against Detroit, planted by the Canadian General Brock so that the U.S. General Hull181 would discover it, panic, and surrender the city; a similar letter dated September 11, 1813, which purported182 to be from Colonel Fossett of Vermont to General MacComb, advising him of massive reinforcements on the way to aid him against the Canadian General Prevost in the Battle of Plattsburg: it was entrusted183 to an Irishwoman of Cumberland Head whom the U.S. Secret Service, its actual author, knew to be loyal to the British; Prevost, when she dutifully turned it over to him, took it to be authentic184 and retreated into Canada, though no such reinforcements existed. Et cetera. Doctored letters. My brother and I were not very interested."
"Kill Granddad and Uncle Deliades, Daddy," Isander begged. His brother shushed him. All dead now, and sent supperless to bed. Hippolochus giddyaps happily upstairs on a fancied flying-horse to do battle with imaginary dragons, declaring to Isander, who gallops185 beside, that what might seem to be arbitrary and excessive punishment is in fact the stern discipline of mythic herohood, to which I am as lovingly apprenticing186 them as did Polyeidus me. So their mother has explained to him. Dead.
I want sons, Bellerophon. I want my belly187 full. Don't withdraw. I'm tired of Amazoning.
A novel in the form of artificial fragments. A novel in diary form, in epistolary form, in notebook form, in the form of notes; a novel in the form of annotated188 text; a novel in the form of miscellaneous documents, a novel in the form of the novel. The tradition that no one who believes himself to be losing his mind is losing his mind. The tradition that people who speak much of committing suicide are talking themselves out of committing suicide, or is it into committing suicide. Kill Glaucus and Deliades.
"Our apprenticeship189 in herohood was real enough -- all at Deliades's instigation, for Bellerus never took it seriously. My brother drew Polyeidus out upon the subject, from love of me, never presuming to the role himself." My dead son's candles gutter190 in the uncut cake; I sit in the palace dark; my wife clicks serenely191 on; I don't know who my audience is.
" 'Hurrah192!' cried Deliades -- the Corinthian equivalent of our hooray -- after one of Polyeidus's lectures: 'We don't have to hate Daddy any more!' Using, as usual, Cousin Perseus as his example, Polyeidus had enounced the first several requisites193 and features of the heroic vita: that the circumstances of conception be unusual; that the child be born to royal parents but be alleged to be the son of a god; that an attempt be made on his boyish life either by his maternal194 grandfather or his mother's spouse195; et cetera. To Deliades, ever a peacemaker, this explained and excused Glaucus's jealous quarrels with Eurymede, which, as my brother loved us all, had been particularly painful for him to overhear.
" 'You merely have to fear him,' Polyeidus replied, 'your mother's father being already among the shades. At least Bellerus does, if we assume he's Poseidon's son.' I remember replying with a merry shrug164 that I feared no one. We were young men; Deliades was comely196 in a mortal way, but Bellerus, standing33 on the Isthmian strand163, his copper197 curls lit by the descending sun -- divine!
" 'We needn't fear him either,' Deliades maintained: 'You said yourself that the attempted murder never does more than leave a mark, usually on the hero's thigh or foot, by which he'll be recognized later in the cycle -- and Perseus seems to've managed without even that. All we have to worry about is that Dad himself will get killed accidentally when the thing backfires' -- as had been the would-be ancestral assassins of Perseus, Oedipus, and countless198 other heroes, some not to be born for generations yet, with whose biographies Polyeidus documented his point.
"Our tutor smiled. How describe a man who from semester to semester seldom resembled himself? That season, I believe, he was bald, shag-chinned, ill-odored, goatish; season before he'd been leonine; season to come -- we'll come to that. He pointed199 out that to satisfy the prerequisites200 of herohood was not necessarily to be a hero; for every young Perseus or Moses boxed and shipped and rescued, scores of candidates must expire in their floating coffins201, a menace to navigation and pollutant202 of the littoral203. I hadn't proved I was the sea-god's son; Glaucus's attempt on my life might be successful. If it weren't, and I was a hero after all, the mythographical odds204 against his survival were great indeed: but he might, like Dana?'s father Acrisius, live a long and useful life before retribution overtook him. For that matter, there was just a chance that the filicidal episode would be purely205 symbolic, a moment of peril206 in the company of my progenitor207 but not at his hands: young Odysseus's accidental goring208 by the boar while hunting with his Grandfather Autolycus would be a case in point when it came to pass. All the same, he said, one in my position did well to be wary209 -- as did one in Glaucus's -- especially as the attempt must be expected quite soon. We were well past puberty; actuarially speaking, it was overdue210 already.
" 'Tell us how it's going to turn out!' Deliades demanded, as would have little Isander had he heard this far. He would if he could, Polyeidus replied, but concentrate as he might, all he came up with were the images of two odd beasts: a lovely white winged stallion who had just that moment been born into the world, and a vague monstrosity in three parts, obscured from clearer view by the smoke of its own respiration211. What these had to do with me and Glaucus, he couldn't say.
"Curling my lovely lip -- how well I see me! -- I said, 'A stallion would have to have wings to get into our stables!' Where, remember, there had been none since my conception -- a policy I opposed as contrary to nature and conducive212 to nervousness in the mares. Deliades, as fond of horses as myself, was enchanted213 with the notion of a winged one; he wished Dad had it for the chariot events in the Argonauts' Funeral Stakes, to be run that night. Here I make a three-part digression. . ."
Over my dead body. Yes. We're in a three-part digression already, sinking in exposition as in quickmire! The Deterioration214 of the Literary Unit: yes, well, things are deteriorating215 right enough, deteriorating; everything is deteriorated216; deterioration everywhere. God knows I'm not what I used to be; no help for that. But never for want of words! Too much to say, that's my complaint: everything to get said, and all at once or I'll forget it. Already I've forgotten half what I'd in mind to write; pen can't keep up; I make mad side-notes, notes of notes for notes; each phrase begets217 two more, four; I can't sleep for them; my joints218 are stiff; it's cold and damp here; this moment I should be lying with my warm young friend; instead it's scribble219 scribble the night through, red-eyed, dizzy: fine shape I'll be in at tide-turn, when the long ebb ends! What was I saying? There, gone. Digression from digression will not lead to the main stream; it's the wrong way out of the swamp. "Float with the tide," I'm told. By whom? My mistress? Monstrous220. I know who sticks in my throat.
"The Corinthian succession," I press on: "Over that we teasily disputed, Bellerus and Deliades, mocking the arguments of the polis. Deliades had been born first, by an hour or so, but as we were twins, primogeniture struck most people as a technicality. The issue more often hassled in the Corinthian bars and byways was the issue of legitimacy221. No one denied that we had different fathers, whether because they accepted it that all twins do, or because our demeanors were dissimilar, or because the royal quarrels on that point were common gossip. What one might call the conservative position was that since Glaucus was King of Corinth, his legitimate son was his legitimate heir, regardless of who had been born first; on this view, the only question was which of us was legitimate, and as was established pages ago, nearly all inclined to Deliades by reason of his verdigris222 eyes. The more radical223 position was that if one of us had been sired by Poseidon, biological legitimacy and primogeniture were both superseded224, or should be, and the proper problem was how to determine which if either of us was a demigod. Here the larger following was mine, though as the Glaucus-Deliades faction55 was fond of pointing out, popularity is not proof. Moreover, what was true in most such cases (Heracles and Iphicles, for instance) -- that one twin was immortal8 and the other not -- was not true in all; both might be either; therefore the experiment proposed in jest by Polyeidus and taken up seriously by others, of throwing us both into the Gulf225 of Corinth, say, and seeing who survived, was opposed as inconclusive as well as repugnant, since at best it would kill the King's legitimate son, and at worst terminate the dynasty without settling the dispute.
"These positions were fueled and complicated by political, historical, even logical considerations: the mare-cult itself, for example, was held to be a survival from a bygone matriarchal era, dating from the days before men realized that copulation, rather than magic, was the cause of pregnancy. The more militant226 votaries227 of the cult denied that even Glaucus had been the rightful king, and urged Eurymede to a coup25 d'état. Few favored an outright228 duumvirate of twins, but several groups called for joint rule by annual alternation, citing various actual and mythical precedents229, as a peaceful resolution of the question. Even such apparently230 irrational231 expedients232 as the toss of a coin were seriously put forward: since only the gods knew whether one of us was a demigod and if so which, let the gods decide who should rule Corinth, et cetera.
"These arguments grew more heated every year, and more inextricable from political power-alignments. Glaucus, though he took no open measures against me and made every show of treating us equally, could not conceal233 his jealousy234 and alarm, especially after Polyeidus, pressed, admitted the risks involved in 'fathering' a demigod. Eurymede, for her part, loved both her sons and took no stand on the issue of succession; even in the matter of my paternity she was shrug-shouldered by comparison to Deliades. But on one point she brooked235 no question: that it was Poseidon and no other who had climbed her in the surf.
" 'A woman knows,' she would say firmly, and Glaucus tear his hair.
"On our thirteenth birthday" -- shades of my sons, forgive me! -- "asked by our parents what we wanted in the present-way, I requested the usual hunting gear, racing mares, new tunics236; Deliades, secretly coached by Polyeidus, surprised the court by demanding our pedigree-papers. Glaucus blushed: 'They're blank. You know why. Ask for something else.' 'I want Polyeidus to fill in the blanks,' Deliades declared: 'Bring out our papers and make him turn himself into the answers.' Glaucus glowered238 at his seer. Eurymede sharply asked Polyeidus whether he could in fact make such a transformation168; if so, why hadn't he long since, to quiet the country? Glaucus protested that any such stunt239 would amount to no more than another man's opinion, on the vexed240 question, which opinion, if Polyeidus had one, he could as well state plainly without recourse to the sort of circus tricks he famously disdained241. Polyeidus nervously242 began a lecture on what he called the proto-existentialist view of ontological metamorphosis: within certain limits, everyone's identity was improvisable and responsible; man was free to create himself et cetera. A willful lad, I drew my sword: 'Fill in the blanks or die.' Polyeidus blinked, grunted243 like a costive, disappeared. Deliades kissed me and showed gleefully to the court a scroll244 that popped from nowhere into his hands: son of Glaucus and Eurymede, it read beneath his name, and under mine: out of Eurymede by Poseidon. "Thus ended, not the quarrel (which was fired additionally thenceforth by accusations246 of forgery247 and fraud), but Polyeidus's influence in the palace, at least with Glaucus; only the good offices of Eurymede, who was pleased with both her sons' behavior on this occasion, kept him on as our tutor. It was also the end, so far as anyone knew, of his 'animate248' transformations, and the first of his documentary. It was not, however, as some allege100, the invention of writing, though to Polyeidus rightly goes the credit for having introduced, some seasons earlier, that problematic medium to Corinth, where it never caught on. Writing itself, he told us in the Q & A after his act, would be invented some generations later by a stranded minstrel pissing in the sand of a deserted249 Aegean isle250, making up endings to the Trojan War. It was the seer's limited capacity to read the future that enabled him to borrow certain ideas therefrom prior to their historical introduction. Why didn't he make use of this powerful ability to take over the world? Because knowledge, not power, was his vocation251; he did not agree with Francis Bacon that the two are one; on the contrary, his own experience was that the more he understood, the less potent252 he became; the semantic and logical problems alone, to look no further, posed by such a stunt as stealing from the future, were a can of worms that no sane111 man would stir up unnecessarily. Et cetera. No one understood. 'Put it this way, then,' he grumbled253: 'when I look back at the history of the future I see that Polyeidus in fact never capitalized on this trick. Since I didn't, I can't; therefore I won't.' 'Thanks for the present,' I said to my brother. 'Many happy returns,' he replied -- not knowing, as he couldn't see seer-wise, there'd be but five."
The eyes of Melanippe's lover are gray-green: explain. Directly. Happy birthday, dead Hippolochus; happy birthday to you. Digression won't save them, dear Bellerophon; do come to it. Your eighteenth birthday. Sibyl. Chariot-race scene. The curse of God upon you, Polyeidus, snake in the grass, whom even as I bored kind Philono? decades after with this tale I didn't know to be its villain254!
"Eighteen, are we? On the beach? The horse race? Sibyl. Polyeidus had a daughter, who knows by whom. Sibyl. Younger than we. That summer she was our friend. Deliades adored her, she me. I screwed her while he watched, in a little grove255 down on the shore, by Aphrodite's sacred well. Honey-locusts grew there, shrouded256 by rank creepers and wild grape that spread amid a labyrinth257 of paths. There was about that place a rich fetidity: gray rats and blackbirds decomposed258, by schoolboys done to death; suburban259 wild dogs spoored the way; part the vines at the base of any tree and you might find a strew260 of pellets and fieldmouse-bones disgorged by feasting owls261. It was the most exciting place we knew; its queer smell retched us if we breathed too deeply, but in measured inhalations it had a rich, a stirring savor262. There they played, Bellerus and Sibyl, while Dee-Dee watched: no spite intended, but it cut him up. I told her to let him in too; I didn't mind, and he was virgin176. Nothing doing. I held her down for him to hump; he wouldn't even look.
The mad child offered to relinquish263 his claim to Corinth in my favor if she'd marry him. No deal. 'Bellerus can have Corinth the way he has me,' she would say sullenly264: 'by taking it, whenever he wants to.' I decided what to give my brother for his birthday gift that night. Now it's afternoon: Deliades has drawn265 Polyeidus out on the hero-business, above, brought him to preliminary images of Pegasus and Chimera, mentioned the Argonauts' Funeral Stakes, here we go. Ignore the myths that locate Glaucus's death at Iolchis or Theban Pontiae on the occasion of Jason's funeral games for Pelias: it happened at the regular Isthmian games, which in those days we called the Argonauts' Funeral Stakes in memory of the Pelian originals. It was a big day on the Isthmus266, especially for Deliades: as many former Argonauts as could make it were there, and assorted267 other stars; strolling through the locker268 rooms was like touring a Hall of Fame; Dee-Dee, ecstatic, knew the program by heart, pointed out to me everyone from Acastus to Zetes, rattled269 off biographies and box scores like a sports announcer, urged me to help him catch the winged horse in time for us to race as a team next year, bet his whole allowance for the lunar month on Glaucus, a very long shot, to win the unlimited270 chariot event.
" 'Not a chance,' I said. 'Those mares are crazy.' Deliades agreed, but loyally put his drachmae on the line; it would break Dad's heart, he said, to lose the biggest race on the card, which he'd placed and showed in in the two years previous and trained for all that season. We pressed Polyeidus for prediction. 'Don't be impudent,' he replied. In those days I drew sword readily. 'Your father by a quarter-furlong,' he crossly volunteered, 'with hippomanes and your help. I see you're meeting my daughter tonight in the grove again, which also happens to be on the far side of the finish line.' By full-moon-light, he declared, near the lip of the well, grew the potent herb, which only a votary271 of the goddess could find and pluck: a mild aphrodisiac and hallucinogen to males of several species, it had a graver effect on mares, and for that reason, though its sale, possession, and use were prohibited by law, it was much favored by the mare-maids for their mysteries. Sibyl having shown some talent, even as a child, for sniffing272 it out, Polyeidus had apprenticed273 her to Aphrodite and become Eurymede's exclusive dealer274 in the weed -- the supply of which, however, was so small that for some years he had been able to meet the cult's demands only by transforming himself into an amulet275 of concentrated 'hip30,' as they called it, to be sniffed276 by the company in turn. In order to ingratiate himself with Glaucus, he confessed, what a story, he had offered to become that amulet that night: at post time Dad would give his team a toke; the mares, long starved for love, would go mad for more; in the grove, where according to Sibyl a rare new crop had sprouted277, I was to pluck it at the signal, step forth245 and crush it in my hands; one whiff of the fresh and the Glaucan mares would finish first. 'Hurrah!' cried Deliades. 'Why me?' I asked. Because, Dee-Dee explained, it was a symbolic surrogate for the attempted filicide required to satisfy the Pattern: the turned-on mares, Dad at the reins278, would fly as if at me, but I'd have ample time to take cover with him and Sibyl in the grove. No one would be hurt; Glaucus would win handily; his gratitude279 for our help must overcome any residue280 of fear in him of me or ill will toward our tutor. Polyeidus paled, then gave my brother on the spot an alpha-plus for the semester in Mythology281 I.
" 'I hate fixed282 races,' I complained to Dee-Dee in the grove. 'Me too,' said Sibyl. 'Yes, well,' said Deliades. Full moon, scattered283 clouds, balmy; couldn't see a thing when the moon was hid except for the beach-fires flaring284 from the Argonautic cookout; then, between clouds, the grove glowed phosphor-green. I made the most of each obscurity to deal Dee-Dee in, preliminary to his birthday gift: with a hand on one of Sibyl's breasts I would put his hand on the other, or under her chiton, which she wore in the Amazonian manner. . ."
Even then! exclaims Melanippe. Bellerophon wonders where she's been these several pages? Long before Anteia brought the style to Tiryns, we had real Amazons in Corinth to mind the horses after Glaucus's decree, and the fashion caught on with the younger women. That's why, when Bellerophon saw Melanippe among Anteia's dykes285 and falsies, he knew at once that she alone was the real thing. Melanippe herself is less certain -- but let it go. He begs her pardon? No, please, let it go: go back to manhandling Sibyl; you're telling this to Philono??
I talk to myself. Mad Sibyl's dead, sweet Philono? -- everyone's dead except us cursed with immortality. Hum. "In every case," I run on, "she knew at touch whose hand was whose. Too bad for Dee-Dee. Now let's see. The chariots assembled down the strand. I decided we'd play a prank286 on Glaucus and not fix the race after all; Deliades objected; Sibyl went round about the well on hands and knees to pluck the herb, which we chewed till we were high as Helicon. I set her after more, promising287 to climb her in our pet fashion, stallionwise, when she was done, then whispered to Dee-Dee what I had in mind: he was to declare impatiently, for Sibyl's benefit, that he meant to take my place in Polyeidus's program, crushing hippomanes, while I dallied288, to fetch the mares on behalf of Glaucus and his own investment; but at the moon's occlusion it was my place on Sibyl he'd take instead, humping her so ardently289 hind-to that she'd be nothing wiser till too late. Stoned and love-starved as he was, the boy refused. I told him that only if he took her, as my gift, would I fix the race -- which just then started with a roar. Let's see. Hum, that stuff was strong; things went awry290; Glaucus gave the mares their dose of amulet and they went crazy; Dee-Dee -- damn you, Polyeidus! -- Dee-Dee, let's see, we were stoned and hot as rocks from Mount Chimera; who knew who was who. Our father -- Polyeidus, viper291 whose wriggles292 these words are! -- he'd, let's see, he'd tricked us all; we'd all tricked one another; Polyeidus hadn't mentioned that hippomanes would drive those mares carnivorous. He couldn't lose, God curse him, howevermany of us went. Dad's team charged crazily out front, snapping and frothing toward the grove; that hand-crushed business was a trick; we reeked293 hip to the heavens. All hid behind the well; stoned Sibyl, still on all fours, cried for love. I guess I -- well, I guess I bared her butt122 just about when the horses turned on Glaucus, going for the amulet; spilled him at grove's-edge and went at him. Sibyl made to make rescue -- mad mares eat only men -- but I rammed294 her flat into the honeysuckle. At first bite Glaucus shouted. My brother sprang to save him in my stead. The moon came out; I drove in; Polyeidus, not to be gobbled, changed from amulet-'round-Glaucus's-neck to ditto-'round-his-daughter's (and straightway lost the power of such mere spatial295 relocation); Sibyl shrieked296 'Bellerus!' as I pumped home and my brother went under the hooves. The whole team crashed into the creepers then, having gutted297 Glaucus and battered298 my brother past anyone's knowing. Sibyl, mad from that moment forward, rose up and calmed them, crooning 'Bellerus! Bellerus!' as they nuzzled the amulet between her breasts. But I leaped for my life into the well, so banging my head on its old oak bucket that I bear yet a crescent scar there and hear a roaring in my skull299 like wind or time. That blow, well, turned my eyes gray-green, let's see, impaired300 my memory, hear how I falter301. If there are discrepancies302 or lacunae in this account, you must fill in the blanks yourself. All night I trembled in the well with frogs and crawlies, would've gone under but for the bucket-rope, heard hubbub303 overhead. Toward morning, when things stilled, as I miserably watched one star wink304 like Medusa down my hole, Polyeidus cranked me up, stone-stiff. We couldn't make each other out.
" 'You're either a comer or a goner,' he advised me. By holding back and humping Sibyl, he declared, I had in effect murdered my father and my brother. If he himself bore no grudge305 against me, it was because while the shock had left his daughter more or less deranged306, it seemed also to have occasioned her first experience of second sight, on the basis of which he meant to recommend to Eurymede that she be made priestess of the grove for life. Moreover, though it went without saying that he hadn't exactly foreseen this debacle in detail, he couldn't say either that it came as a total surprise: it fit the Pattern, clearly, against which, it being preordained by an order of things transcending307 even Zeus's power much to alter, it were vain for a mere seer much to kick. Still and all, things were hot in town for both of us: my brother's supporters and Glaucus's -- especially those who'd lost their tunics at the races -- were crying Regicide and Crooked308 Track, and went so far as to accuse Polyeidus of engineering my succession. My heroic nature, he daresaid, impelled309 me straight through the waiting lynch mobs and sundry310 ambuscadoes to assert my claim; but the same Pattern which certified311 that kingly right (not to mention good diplomacy) required that I defer312 it. Just as Perseus, even as he spoke, was completing the exile trip from Seriphos through Egypt and Joppa, killing a Gorgon313 and picking up a bride before returning to rule Mycenae, so I, in my tutor's opinion, must beat it out of Corinth for the present. 'Leave it to me to calm the country and look after your mother. Take a new name. Make the grand tour. Discharge a few labors314, dispatch a monster or two, et cetera. You'll know when it's time to come home; they always do. Questions?'
"I asked for a copy of the Pattern, by way of autobiographical road map. After some pause he said he hadn't one on him just then, but would forward it me as soon as he could envision my next mailing address. To what name would he send it? He paused again. 'Bellerophon, of course. Is this a test?' We parted uncertainly in the dark. Let's see. I took off down the road. Bellerophon means Bellerus the Killer315. Questions?"
But my dead darlings were abed long since; dead Philono? was dropped off too in the drowsy316 dusk. Soon I'll wake and hurt her with the story of her sister. Questions?
Melanippe has several. Many, even, all disquieting317. If she defers318 them, let's see, let's say it's because Medusa, in the Perseid, puts off hers till the epilogue. Not that a self-respecting Amazon in any respect resembles -- but never mind. Wake her.
Let her rest in peace; let them all. O I wish --
How high now are Bellerophon and Pegasus? Gorse-top low. Wave-top low. All but sea-leveled.
Wake her then; hurt her now. The sooner begun, et cetera.
"Here's the full story of my sexual adventure with your sister," I'd wake my wife to announce. No. Aye. O. Done.
"I" On. "I believe I'm familiar with the several standard versions," let's say she'd say, rubbing her eyes. "A classical myth, however, is yawn excuse me infinitely319 retellable, and the connoisseur's pleasure is in those small variations, discrepancies, and lacunae that invariably yawn obtain among renditions. Add to that my love for both principals in this particular episode in the grander narrative of your career, and you will yawn see that no amount of pain occasioned by the events themselves can altogether spoil my pleasure in their rehearsal320. I'll make coffee."
O. Nevertheless I gnash my teeth and proceeded. "For a year or two after dropping out of Corinth I hiked across the Peloponnese, doing odd jobs, seeing the sights, reconstructing as best I could from memory the Pattern. I felt I'd completed, in the main, its first quarter, the quadrant of Departure: my conception and birth certificate were in order; Glaucus was dead; I had the regulation scar, if not in quite the regular place, to mark what could pass as his attempt to kill me; I'd crossed a sort of threshold, in proper darkness, got my travel orders at a well in a sacred grove from a certified Spielman, set out to westward321 under pseudonym322. When I reached Sandy Pylos, on the coast, I supposed that the correct thing to do was ship on as oarsman, say, aboard the next boat west, to commence my second quarter -- Initiation323 -- with a night-sea journey.
"But the more I combed the beach, the more I came to question whether I'd got off after all on just the right foot. Even allowing for some flexibility324 in the Pattern, I doubted whether any mythic hero could commence his principal tasks with blood-guilt, as we call it, on his hands: Odysseus and Aeneas, to name only two of Polyeidus's 'personages from the future,' would be obliged to retrace325 their steps laboriously326 in mid-career merely to bury a graveless shipmate lost by accident. Nor was it clear, as it seemed to me it should be, what exactly I was aiming for, even ostensibly: no hero of my acquaintance went west merely for the Pattern's sake; indeed, as many as not began by going east, in order to return to a westward home. Since I was to my knowledge homeless but for Corinth, to make it on my present course would require circumnavigation of the globe -- and Polyeidus had prophesied327 to us years past that not for centuries would it be speculated, much less demonstrated, that the earth is round. Finally, as I stood making idle water one forenoon on the strand (like that nameless minstrel Polyeidus mentioned), I thought I saw a winged white horse flap past out on the horizon. Could've been a gull328 -- the distance was far, and I was preoccupied329 with making my name in imaginary letters -- but it put me in mind of magic Pegasus, of Perseus's fancy sandals, and of my own lack of any gear besides the tool in hand, which had got me only into trouble. In short, I came to feel that at least three things were wanting before I could proceed with my career: clearer counsel on the matter of absolution; a more definite course of hero-work, with specific adversaries330, goals, and labors; and a magic weapon, vehicle, or secret with which to address the work. For all three I must apply either to the prophet or to the gods; not to lose more time I applied to both, making prayer-stops at every temple of Athene along the way back to Polyeidus."
"Athene?" Why not Aphrodite?
To entertain wife and mistress at the same time with the same tale is hard. "Dee-Dee, Athene's pet, died, Philono?, there in Aphrodite's grove, right?" "Well." And I'd been marinated, Melanippe, overnight in the sex-queen's hole. So? "It wasn't love Bellerophon needed, but advice. Come Tiryns -- as close to Corinth as I felt it safe to go -- I got both." "Um." Um.
Bellerophon wishes he had never begun this story. But he began it. Then he wishes he were dead. But he's not. Therefore he reconstructs it painfully for his darling Amazon, as he once pained with it patient Philono?. Dee-Dee (dead) had daydreamed331 of riding that white horse till the night mares made hay of him, and on Polyeidus's advice had even fasted once five days and nights in Athene's Corinth temple, to find out how to find it. On the fifth -- so he told me, right? -- he thought he heard the goddess say: "Finding Pegasus is easy; he hangs around my sister's wells and bushes; I'm surprised you haven't seen him grazing down below. But to catch and ride him's another story: for that you need this." She fetched from around her tunic237 a fine gold bridle; even let him take it in his hand. But when he woke it was only his torpid332 tool he held, as I mine later -- so he told me and Sibyl, stoned, next evening in the grove, right, the last of his life, when he let himself go, ran to Dad's rescue, got foddered. In the real Bellerophoniad this would be established in an earlier digression.
So: on the way to Tiryns it occurred to me to try again -- i.e., Bellerophon decided to do what dead Dee-Dee'd done. The first two nights, nothing: those temples were roadside shrines333, where all I could get was a fuzzy image in black and white of the horse himself, like that early one Polyeidus had picked up. On the third day I came to Tiryns, where King Proetus had a Naw AOhnhz large enough for the greatest reception. There he and Queen Anteia received me as a suppliant334; over a five-course meal (but I was fasting) I told them the story of my life (First Flood, Part One) and asked permission to fast and sleep for the next three nights in the temple.
"There's room," said the King -- a mild-mannered monarch335, middle-aged, who fiddled336 with his flatware as I spoke. "And I imagine we can arrange a purification, if you really fault yourself for that fiasco on the beach -- I must say I've heard more plausible337 accounts from my people up in Corinth. None of my business, I'm sure, but aren't you being a bit eager to take the blame?"
"I killed my brother," I insisted. "My dad too -- I mean my foster father."
Proetus sighed. "O yes, the dem
收听单词发音 |
1
ambrosia
|
|
| n.神的食物；蜂食 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
2
marsh
|
|
| n.沼泽，湿地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
3
muse
|
|
| n.缪斯（希腊神话中的女神），创作灵感 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
4
peg
|
|
| n.木栓，木钉；vt.用木钉钉，用短桩固定 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
5
chimera
|
|
| n.神话怪物；梦幻 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
6
aspired
|
|
| v.渴望，追求( aspire的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
7
immortality
|
|
| n.不死，不朽 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
8
immortal
|
|
| adj.不朽的；永生的，不死的；神的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
9
pensive
|
|
| a.沉思的,哀思的,忧沉的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
10
perfectly
|
|
| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
11
ineptly
|
|
| adv. 不适当地，无能地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
12
narrated
|
|
| v.故事( narrate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
13
cleaved
|
|
| v.劈开，剁开，割开( cleave的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
14
lame
|
|
| adj.跛的，(辩解、论据等)无说服力的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
15
marshy
|
|
| adj.沼泽的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
16
ebbed
|
|
| （指潮水）退( ebb的过去式和过去分词 )； 落； 减少； 衰落 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
17
ebb
|
|
| vi.衰退，减退；n.处于低潮，处于衰退状态 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
18
trickiest
|
|
| adj.狡猾的( tricky的最高级 )；（形势、工作等）复杂的；机警的；微妙的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
19
freckled
|
|
| adj.雀斑；斑点；晒斑；（使）生雀斑v.雀斑，斑点( freckle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
20
smack
|
|
| vt.拍，打，掴；咂嘴；vi.含有…意味；n.拍 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
21
marshes
|
|
| n.沼泽，湿地( marsh的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
22
fenny
|
|
| adj.沼泽的；沼泽多的；长在沼泽地带的；住在沼泽地的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
|
23
vexing
|
|
| adj.使人烦恼的，使人恼火的v.使烦恼( vex的现在分词 )；使苦恼；使生气；详细讨论 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
24
excerpts
|
|
| n.摘录，摘要( excerpt的名词复数 )；节选（音乐，电影）片段 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
25
coup
|
|
| n.政变；突然而成功的行动 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
26
cardinal
|
|
| n.(天主教的)红衣主教；adj.首要的，基本的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
27
vindication
|
|
| n.洗冤，证实 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
28
fiery
|
|
| adj.燃烧着的，火红的；暴躁的；激烈的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
29
resentments
|
|
| （因受虐待而）愤恨，不满，怨恨( resentment的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
30
hip
|
|
| n.臀部，髋；屋脊 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
31
cultivation
|
|
| n.耕作，培养，栽培（法），养成 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
32
cult
|
|
| n.异教，邪教；时尚，狂热的崇拜 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
33
standing
|
|
| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
34
reign
|
|
| n.统治时期，统治，支配，盛行；v.占优势 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
35
mere
|
|
| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
36
celebrated
|
|
| adj.有名的，声誉卓著的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
37
hued
|
|
| 有某种色调的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
38
corrosion
|
|
| n.腐蚀，侵蚀；渐渐毁坏，渐衰 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
39
shards
|
|
| n.（玻璃、金属或其他硬物的）尖利的碎片( shard的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
40
spinach
|
|
| n.菠菜 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
41
lamely
|
|
| 一瘸一拐地，不完全地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
42
prancing
|
|
| v.（马）腾跃( prance的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
43
heroism
|
|
| n.大无畏精神，英勇 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
44
apotheosis
|
|
| n.神圣之理想；美化；颂扬 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
45
symbolic
|
|
| adj.象征性的，符号的，象征主义的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
46
docility
|
|
| n.容易教，易驾驶，驯服 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
47
solicitude
|
|
| n.焦虑 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
48
nauseating
|
|
| adj.令人恶心的，使人厌恶的v.使恶心，作呕( nauseate的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
49
sophistry
|
|
| n.诡辩 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
50
misery
|
|
| n.痛苦，苦恼，苦难；悲惨的境遇，贫苦 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
51
miserably
|
|
| adv.痛苦地；悲惨地；糟糕地；极度地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
52
devouring
|
|
| 吞没( devour的现在分词 )； 耗尽； 津津有味地看； 狼吞虎咽地吃光 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
53
miasma
|
|
| n.毒气；不良气氛 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
54
petrifaction
|
|
| n.石化，化石；吓呆；惊呆 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
55
faction
|
|
| n.宗派，小集团；派别；派系斗争 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
56
qualified
|
|
| adj.合格的，有资格的，胜任的，有限制的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
57
narrative
|
|
| n.叙述，故事；adj.叙事的，故事体的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
58
middle-aged
|
|
| adj.中年的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
59
distress
|
|
| n.苦恼，痛苦，不舒适；不幸；vt.使悲痛 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
60
briefly
|
|
| adv.简单地，简短地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
61
foment
|
|
| v.煽动，助长 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
62
exasperation
|
|
| n.愤慨 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
63
sedition
|
|
| n.煽动叛乱 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
64
escalating
|
|
| v.（使）逐步升级( escalate的现在分词 )；（使）逐步扩大；（使）更高；（使）更大 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
65
pious
|
|
| adj.虔诚的；道貌岸然的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
66
vice
|
|
| n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
67
recapitulate
|
|
| v.节述要旨，择要说明 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
68
motif
|
|
| n.(图案的)基本花纹，(衣服的)花边；主题 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
69
rejuvenation
|
|
| n. 复原，再生, 更新, 嫩化, 恢复 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
70
narration
|
|
| n.讲述，叙述；故事；记叙体 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
71
killing
|
|
| n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
72
chronological
|
|
| adj.按年月顺序排列的，年代学的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
73
metaphorically
|
|
| adv. 用比喻地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
74
maturity
|
|
| n.成熟；完成；(支票、债券等)到期 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
75
expectancy
|
|
| n.期望，预期，（根据概率统计求得）预期数额 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
76
amplitude
|
|
| n.广大；充足；振幅 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
77
varied
|
|
| adj.多样的，多变化的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
78
distraction
|
|
| n.精神涣散，精神不集中，消遣，娱乐 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
79
aligned
|
|
| adj.对齐的，均衡的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
80
recollect
|
|
| v.回忆，想起，记起，忆起，记得 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
81
latitude
|
|
| n.纬度，行动或言论的自由(范围)，(pl.)地区 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
82
longitude
|
|
| n.经线，经度 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
83
tugged
|
|
| v.用力拉，使劲拉，猛扯( tug的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
84
discordantly
|
|
| adv.不一致地，不和谐地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
85
stagnation
|
|
| n. 停滞 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
86
configuration
|
|
| n.结构，布局，形态，(计算机)配置 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
87
friction
|
|
| n.摩擦，摩擦力 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
88
inclination
|
|
| n.倾斜；点头；弯腰；斜坡；倾度；倾向；爱好 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
89
barometric
|
|
| 大气压力 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
90
crave
|
|
| vt.渴望得到，迫切需要，恳求，请求 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
91
loath
|
|
| adj.不愿意的；勉强的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
92
muses
|
|
| v.沉思，冥想( muse的第三人称单数 )；沉思自语说（某事） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
93
bridle
|
|
| n.笼头，束缚；vt.抑制，约束；动怒 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
94
perch
|
|
| n.栖木，高位，杆；v.栖息，就位，位于 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
95
lackeys
|
|
| n.听差( lackey的名词复数 )；男仆（通常穿制服）；卑躬屈膝的人；被待为奴仆的人 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
96
applied
|
|
| adj.应用的；v.应用，适用 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
97
vaulting
|
|
| n.（天花板或屋顶的）拱形结构 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
98
doused
|
|
| v.浇水在…上( douse的过去式和过去分词 )；熄灯[火] | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
99
conversant
|
|
| adj.亲近的，有交情的，熟悉的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
100
allege
|
|
| vt.宣称，申述，主张，断言 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
101
alleged
|
|
| a.被指控的，嫌疑的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
102
deteriorate
|
|
| v.变坏；恶化；退化 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
103
alienate
|
|
| vt.使疏远，离间；转让(财产等) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
104
anecdotes
|
|
| n.掌故，趣闻，轶事( anecdote的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
105
mythical
|
|
| adj.神话的；虚构的；想像的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
106
narratives
|
|
| 记叙文( narrative的名词复数 )； 故事； 叙述； 叙述部分 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
107
descending
|
|
| n. 下行 adj. 下降的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
108
climax
|
|
| n.顶点；高潮；v.(使)达到顶点 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
109
punctuate
|
|
| vt.加标点于；不时打断 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
110
irreconcilable
|
|
| adj.（指人）难和解的，势不两立的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
111
sane
|
|
| adj.心智健全的，神志清醒的，明智的，稳健的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
112
discomfort
|
|
| n.不舒服，不安，难过，困难，不方便 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
113
mare
|
|
| n.母马，母驴 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
114
formerly
|
|
| adv.从前，以前 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
115
reined
|
|
| 勒缰绳使（马）停步( rein的过去式和过去分词 )； 驾驭； 严格控制； 加强管理 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
116
rumored
|
|
| adj.传说的，谣传的v.传闻( rumor的过去式和过去分词 )；[古]名誉；咕哝；[古]喧嚷 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
117
regained
|
|
| 复得( regain的过去式和过去分词 )； 赢回； 重回； 复至某地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
118
constellations
|
|
| n.星座( constellation的名词复数 )；一群杰出人物；一系列（相关的想法、事物）；一群（相关的人） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
119
kindly
|
|
| adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
120
toll
|
|
| n.过路(桥)费；损失，伤亡人数；v.敲(钟) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
121
pregnancy
|
|
| n.怀孕，怀孕期 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
122
butt
|
|
| n.笑柄；烟蒂；枪托；臀部；v.用头撞或顶 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
123
thigh
|
|
| n.大腿；股骨 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
124
marital
|
|
| adj.婚姻的，夫妻的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
125
fatigue
|
|
| n.疲劳，劳累 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
126
ardor
|
|
| n.热情，狂热 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
127
joint
|
|
| adj.联合的，共同的；n.关节，接合处；v.连接，贴合 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
128
compensated
|
|
| 补偿，报酬( compensate的过去式和过去分词 )； 给（某人）赔偿（或赔款） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
129
intimacy
|
|
| n.熟悉，亲密，密切关系，亲昵的言行 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
130
tragic
|
|
| adj.悲剧的，悲剧性的，悲惨的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
131
inevitably
|
|
| adv.不可避免地；必然发生地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
132
eschew
|
|
| v.避开，戒绝 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
133
judgment
|
|
| n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
134
bleak
|
|
| adj.(天气)阴冷的；凄凉的；暗淡的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
135
cosmos
|
|
| n.宇宙；秩序，和谐 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
136
paradox
|
|
| n.似乎矛盾却正确的说法；自相矛盾的人(物) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
137
centaurs
|
|
| n.（希腊神话中）半人半马怪物( centaur的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
138
centaur
|
|
| n.人首马身的怪物 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
139
spoke
|
|
| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
140
racing
|
|
| n.竞赛，赛马；adj.竞赛用的，赛马用的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
141
banished
|
|
| v.放逐，驱逐( banish的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
142
grooms
|
|
| n.新郎( groom的名词复数 )；马夫v.照料或梳洗（马等）( groom的第三人称单数 )；使做好准备；训练；（给动物）擦洗 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
143
pony
|
|
| adj.小型的；n.小马 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
144
conspicuous
|
|
| adj.明眼的，惹人注目的；炫耀的，摆阔气的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
145
veins
|
|
| n.纹理；矿脉( vein的名词复数 )；静脉；叶脉；纹理 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
146
recessive
|
|
| adj.退行的，逆行的，后退的，隐性的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
147
decided
|
|
| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
148
displeased
|
|
| a.不快的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
149
charlatan
|
|
| n.骗子；江湖医生；假内行 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
150
crooks
|
|
| n.骗子( crook的名词复数 )；罪犯；弯曲部分；（牧羊人或主教用的）弯拐杖v.弯成钩形( crook的第三人称单数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
151
bawling
|
|
| v.大叫，大喊( bawl的现在分词 )；放声大哭；大声叫出；叫卖（货物） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
152
passionate
|
|
| adj.热情的，热烈的，激昂的，易动情的，易怒的，性情暴躁的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
153
ardent
|
|
| adj.热情的，热烈的，强烈的，烈性的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
154
circumspect
|
|
| adj.慎重的，谨慎的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
155
venerator
|
|
| 尊敬者，崇拜者 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
|
156
legitimate
|
|
| adj.合法的，合理的，合乎逻辑的；v.使合法 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
157
bastard
|
|
| n.坏蛋，混蛋；私生子 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
158
destined
|
|
| adj.命中注定的；(for)以…为目的地的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
159
recording
|
|
| n.录音，记录 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
160
deftly
|
|
| adv.灵巧地，熟练地，敏捷地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
161
apprentice
|
|
| n.学徒，徒弟 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
162
stranded
|
|
| a.搁浅的，进退两难的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
163
strand
|
|
| vt.使（船）搁浅，使（某人）困于（某地） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
164
shrug
|
|
| v.耸肩(表示怀疑、冷漠、不知等) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
165
shrugged
|
|
| vt.耸肩（shrug的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
166
tricky
|
|
| adj.狡猾的，奸诈的；(工作等)棘手的，微妙的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
167
protean
|
|
| adj.反复无常的；变化自如的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
168
transformation
|
|
| n.变化；改造；转变 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
169
transformations
|
|
| n.变化( transformation的名词复数 )；转换；转换；变换 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
170
vaudeville
|
|
| n.歌舞杂耍表演 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
171
unicorn
|
|
| n.(传说中的)独角兽 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
172
homely
|
|
| adj.家常的，简朴的；不漂亮的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
173
grunt
|
|
| v.嘟哝；作呼噜声；n.呼噜声，嘟哝 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
174
prophesying
|
|
| v.预告，预言( prophesy的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
175
plantation
|
|
| n.种植园，大农场 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
176
virgin
|
|
| n.处女，未婚女子；adj.未经使用的；未经开发的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
177
protocols
|
|
| n.礼仪( protocol的名词复数 )；（外交条约的）草案；（数据传递的）协议；科学实验报告（或计划） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
178
retaliate
|
|
| v.报复，反击 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
179
antedated
|
|
| v.（在历史上）比…为早( antedate的过去式和过去分词 )；先于；早于；（在信、支票等上）填写比实际日期早的日期 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
180
intentionally
|
|
| ad.故意地，有意地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
181
hull
|
|
| n.船身；(果、实等的)外壳；vt.去(谷物等)壳 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
182
purported
|
|
| adj.传说的，谣传的v.声称是…，（装得）像是…的样子( purport的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
183
entrusted
|
|
| v.委托，托付( entrust的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
184
authentic
|
|
| a.真的，真正的；可靠的，可信的，有根据的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
185
gallops
|
|
| （马等）奔驰，骑马奔驰( gallop的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
186
apprenticing
|
|
| 学徒，徒弟( apprentice的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
|
187
belly
|
|
| n.肚子，腹部；(像肚子一样)鼓起的部分，膛 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
188
annotated
|
|
| v.注解，注释( annotate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
189
apprenticeship
|
|
| n.学徒身份；学徒期 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
190
gutter
|
|
| n.沟，街沟，水槽，檐槽，贫民窟 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
191
serenely
|
|
| adv.安详地，宁静地，平静地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
192
hurrah
|
|
| int.好哇，万岁，乌拉 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
193
requisites
|
|
| n.必要的事物( requisite的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
194
maternal
|
|
| adj.母亲的，母亲般的，母系的，母方的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
195
spouse
|
|
| n.配偶(指夫或妻) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
196
comely
|
|
| adj.漂亮的，合宜的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
197
copper
|
|
| n.铜；铜币；铜器；adj.铜(制)的；(紫)铜色的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
198
countless
|
|
| adj.无数的，多得不计其数的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
199
pointed
|
|
| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
200
prerequisites
|
|
| 先决条件，前提( prerequisite的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
201
coffins
|
|
| n.棺材( coffin的名词复数 )；使某人早亡[死，完蛋，垮台等]之物 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
202
pollutant
|
|
| n.污染物质，散布污染物质者 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
203
littoral
|
|
| adj.海岸的；湖岸的；n.沿（海）岸地区 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
204
odds
|
|
| n.让步，机率，可能性，比率；胜败优劣之别 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
205
purely
|
|
| adv.纯粹地，完全地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
206
peril
|
|
| n.(严重的)危险；危险的事物 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
207
progenitor
|
|
| n.祖先，先驱 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
208
goring
|
|
| v.（动物）用角撞伤，用牙刺破( gore的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
209
wary
|
|
| adj.谨慎的，机警的，小心的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
210
overdue
|
|
| adj.过期的，到期未付的；早该有的，迟到的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
211
respiration
|
|
| n.呼吸作用；一次呼吸；植物光合作用 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
212
conducive
|
|
| adj.有益的，有助的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
213
enchanted
|
|
| adj. 被施魔法的，陶醉的，入迷的 动词enchant的过去式和过去分词 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
214
deterioration
|
|
| n.退化；恶化；变坏 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
215
deteriorating
|
|
| 恶化，变坏( deteriorate的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
216
deteriorated
|
|
| 恶化，变坏( deteriorate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
217
begets
|
|
| v.为…之生父( beget的第三人称单数 )；产生，引起 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
218
joints
|
|
| 接头( joint的名词复数 )； 关节； 公共场所（尤指价格低廉的饮食和娱乐场所） （非正式）； 一块烤肉 （英式英语） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
219
scribble
|
|
| v.潦草地书写，乱写，滥写；n.潦草的写法，潦草写成的东西，杂文 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
220
monstrous
|
|
| adj.巨大的；恐怖的；可耻的，丢脸的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
221
legitimacy
|
|
| n.合法，正当 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
222
verdigris
|
|
| n.铜锈；铜绿 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
223
radical
|
|
| n.激进份子，原子团，根号；adj.根本的，激进的，彻底的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
224
superseded
|
|
| [医]被代替的，废弃的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
225
gulf
|
|
| n.海湾；深渊，鸿沟；分歧，隔阂 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
226
militant
|
|
| adj.激进的，好斗的；n.激进分子，斗士 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
227
votaries
|
|
| n.信徒( votary的名词复数 )；追随者；（天主教）修士；修女 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
|
228
outright
|
|
| adv.坦率地；彻底地；立即；adj.无疑的；彻底的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
229
precedents
|
|
| 引用单元； 范例( precedent的名词复数 )； 先前出现的事例； 前例； 先例 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
230
apparently
|
|
| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
231
irrational
|
|
| adj.无理性的，失去理性的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
232
expedients
|
|
| n.应急有效的，权宜之计的( expedient的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
233
conceal
|
|
| v.隐藏，隐瞒，隐蔽 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
234
jealousy
|
|
| n.妒忌，嫉妒，猜忌 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
235
brooked
|
|
| 容忍，忍受（brook的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
236
tunics
|
|
| n.（动植物的）膜皮( tunic的名词复数 )；束腰宽松外衣；一套制服的短上衣；（天主教主教等穿的）短祭袍 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
237
tunic
|
|
| n.束腰外衣 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
238
glowered
|
|
| v.怒视( glower的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
239
stunt
|
|
| n.惊人表演，绝技，特技；vt.阻碍...发育，妨碍...生长 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
240
vexed
|
|
| adj.争论不休的；（指问题等）棘手的；争论不休的问题；烦恼的v.使烦恼( vex的过去式和过去分词 )；使苦恼；使生气；详细讨论 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
241
disdained
|
|
| 鄙视( disdain的过去式和过去分词 )； 不屑于做，不愿意做 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
242
nervously
|
|
| adv.神情激动地，不安地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
243
grunted
|
|
| （猪等）作呼噜声( grunt的过去式和过去分词 )； （指人）发出类似的哼声； 咕哝着说 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
244
scroll
|
|
| n.卷轴，纸卷；(石刻上的)漩涡 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
245
forth
|
|
| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
246
accusations
|
|
| n.指责( accusation的名词复数 )；指控；控告；（被告发、控告的）罪名 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
247
forgery
|
|
| n.伪造的文件等，赝品，伪造（行为） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
248
animate
|
|
| v.赋于生命，鼓励；adj.有生命的，有生气的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
249
deserted
|
|
| adj.荒芜的，荒废的，无人的，被遗弃的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
250
isle
|
|
| n.小岛，岛 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
251
vocation
|
|
| n.职业，行业 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
252
potent
|
|
| adj.强有力的，有权势的；有效力的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
253
grumbled
|
|
| 抱怨( grumble的过去式和过去分词 )； 发牢骚； 咕哝； 发哼声 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
254
villain
|
|
| n.反派演员，反面人物；恶棍；问题的起因 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
255
grove
|
|
| n.林子，小树林，园林 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
256
shrouded
|
|
| v.隐瞒( shroud的过去式和过去分词 )；保密 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
257
labyrinth
|
|
| n.迷宫；难解的事物；迷路 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
258
decomposed
|
|
| 已分解的，已腐烂的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
259
suburban
|
|
| adj.城郊的，在郊区的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
260
strew
|
|
| vt.撒；使散落；撒在…上，散布于 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
261
owls
|
|
| n.猫头鹰( owl的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
262
savor
|
|
| vt.品尝，欣赏；n.味道，风味；情趣，趣味 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
263
relinquish
|
|
| v.放弃，撤回，让与，放手 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
264
sullenly
|
|
| 不高兴地，绷着脸，忧郁地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
265
drawn
|
|
| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
266
isthmus
|
|
| n.地峡 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
267
assorted
|
|
| adj.各种各样的，各色俱备的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
268
locker
|
|
| n.更衣箱，储物柜，冷藏室，上锁的人 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
269
rattled
|
|
| 慌乱的，恼火的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
270
unlimited
|
|
| adj.无限的，不受控制的，无条件的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
271
votary
|
|
| n.崇拜者；爱好者；adj.誓约的，立誓任圣职的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
272
sniffing
|
|
| n.探查法v.以鼻吸气，嗅，闻( sniff的现在分词 )；抽鼻子（尤指哭泣、患感冒等时出声地用鼻子吸气）；抱怨，不以为然地说 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
273
apprenticed
|
|
| 学徒，徒弟( apprentice的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
274
dealer
|
|
| n.商人，贩子 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
275
amulet
|
|
| n.护身符 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
276
sniffed
|
|
| v.以鼻吸气，嗅，闻( sniff的过去式和过去分词 )；抽鼻子（尤指哭泣、患感冒等时出声地用鼻子吸气）；抱怨，不以为然地说 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
277
sprouted
|
|
| v.发芽( sprout的过去式和过去分词 )；抽芽；出现；（使）涌现出 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
278
reins
|
|
| 感情，激情； 缰( rein的名词复数 )； 控制手段； 掌管； （成人带着幼儿走路以防其走失时用的）保护带 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
279
gratitude
|
|
| adj.感激，感谢 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
280
residue
|
|
| n.残余，剩余，残渣 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
281
mythology
|
|
| n.神话，神话学，神话集 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
282
fixed
|
|
| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
283
scattered
|
|
| adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
284
flaring
|
|
| a.火焰摇曳的，过份艳丽的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
285
dykes
|
|
| abbr.diagonal wire cutters 斜线切割机n.堤( dyke的名词复数 )；坝；堰；沟 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
286
prank
|
|
| n.开玩笑，恶作剧；v.装饰；打扮；炫耀自己 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
287
promising
|
|
| adj.有希望的，有前途的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
288
dallied
|
|
| v.随随便便地对待( dally的过去式和过去分词 )；不很认真地考虑；浪费时间；调情 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
289
ardently
|
|
| adv.热心地，热烈地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
290
awry
|
|
| adj.扭曲的，错的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
291
viper
|
|
| n.毒蛇；危险的人 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
292
wriggles
|
|
| n.蠕动，扭动( wriggle的名词复数 )v.扭动，蠕动，蜿蜒行进( wriggle的第三人称单数 )；（使身体某一部位）扭动；耍滑不做，逃避（应做的事等） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
293
reeked
|
|
| v.发出浓烈的臭气( reek的过去式和过去分词 )；散发臭气；发出难闻的气味 (of sth)；明显带有（令人不快或生疑的跡象） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
294
rammed
|
|
| v.夯实（土等）( ram的过去式和过去分词 )；猛撞；猛压；反复灌输 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
295
spatial
|
|
| adj.空间的，占据空间的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
296
shrieked
|
|
| v.尖叫( shriek的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
297
gutted
|
|
| adj.容易消化的v.毁坏（建筑物等）的内部( gut的过去式和过去分词 )；取出…的内脏 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
298
battered
|
|
| adj.磨损的；v.连续猛击；磨损 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
299
skull
|
|
| n.头骨；颅骨 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
300
impaired
|
|
| adj.受损的；出毛病的；有（身体或智力）缺陷的v.损害，削弱( impair的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
301
falter
|
|
| vi.(嗓音)颤抖，结巴地说；犹豫；蹒跚 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
302
discrepancies
|
|
| n.差异，不符合（之处），不一致（之处）( discrepancy的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
303
hubbub
|
|
| n.嘈杂；骚乱 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
304
wink
|
|
| n.眨眼，使眼色，瞬间；v.眨眼，使眼色，闪烁 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
305
grudge
|
|
| n.不满，怨恨，妒嫉；vt.勉强给，不情愿做 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
306
deranged
|
|
| adj.疯狂的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
307
transcending
|
|
| 超出或超越（经验、信念、描写能力等）的范围( transcend的现在分词 )； 优于或胜过… | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
308
crooked
|
|
| adj.弯曲的；不诚实的，狡猾的，不正当的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
309
impelled
|
|
| v.推动、推进或敦促某人做某事( impel的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
310
sundry
|
|
| adj.各式各样的，种种的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
311
certified
|
|
| a.经证明合格的；具有证明文件的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
312
defer
|
|
| vt.推迟，拖延；vi.(to)遵从，听从，服从 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
313
gorgon
|
|
| n.丑陋女人，蛇发女怪 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
314
labors
|
|
| v.努力争取(for)( labor的第三人称单数 )；苦干；详细分析；（指引擎）缓慢而困难地运转 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
315
killer
|
|
| n.杀人者，杀人犯，杀手，屠杀者 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
316
drowsy
|
|
| adj.昏昏欲睡的，令人发困的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
317
disquieting
|
|
| adj.令人不安的，令人不平静的v.使不安，使忧虑，使烦恼( disquiet的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
318
defers
|
|
| v.拖延，延缓，推迟( defer的第三人称单数 )；服从某人的意愿，遵从 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
319
infinitely
|
|
| adv.无限地，无穷地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
320
rehearsal
|
|
| n.排练，排演；练习 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
321
westward
|
|
| n.西方，西部；adj.西方的，向西的；adv.向西 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
322
pseudonym
|
|
| n.假名，笔名 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
323
initiation
|
|
| n.开始 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
324
flexibility
|
|
| n.柔韧性，弹性，（光的）折射性，灵活性 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
325
retrace
|
|
| v.折回；追溯，探源 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
326
laboriously
|
|
| adv.艰苦地；费力地；辛勤地；（文体等）佶屈聱牙地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
327
prophesied
|
|
| v.预告，预言( prophesy的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
328
gull
|
|
| n.鸥；受骗的人；v.欺诈 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
329
preoccupied
|
|
| adj.全神贯注的，入神的；被抢先占有的；心事重重的v.占据（某人）思想，使对…全神贯注，使专心于( preoccupy的过去式) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
330
adversaries
|
|
| n.对手，敌手( adversary的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
331
daydreamed
|
|
| v.想入非非，空想( daydream的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
332
torpid
|
|
| adj.麻痹的，麻木的，迟钝的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
333
shrines
|
|
| 圣地，圣坛，神圣场所( shrine的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
334
suppliant
|
|
| adj.哀恳的；n.恳求者，哀求者 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
335
monarch
|
|
| n.帝王，君主，最高统治者 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
336
fiddled
|
|
| v.伪造( fiddle的过去式和过去分词 )；篡改；骗取；修理或稍作改动 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
337
plausible
|
|
| adj.似真实的，似乎有理的，似乎可信的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
| 欢迎访问英文小说网 |