Читать книгу Electra - Kerry Greenwood - Страница 20

I have won my bet. Cassandra and Diomenes are lovers now,' Aphrodite said.

'Very well, Lady of Cyprus,' said Apollo, baring perfect teeth. 'You may keep the apple, but I will not forget. Your Princess is not safe yet. There are many perils between Mycenae and Delphi.'

'Make your peace,' grumbled Demeter, Earth-Mother. 'Leave the poor mortals alone. Their life is short enough, their danger immediate, their chance of lasting satisfaction sketchy at best. They have suffered enough. Merciless and cruel, that is the nature of the children of Zeus.

'Besides, you are bidden to attend to the fate of the House of Atreus, more wicked, more dreadful even than the Gods.

'Did not Atreus cook his wife's adulterous fruit in a banquet for his brother Thyestes? Did not Thyestes then rape his own virgin daughter, Poseidon's Priestess, to father the revenge-child Aegisthus? And isn't that Aegisthus now lying with the Queen Clytemnestra in her husband's heart's blood?

'Do these outrages, and your Divine Father's order, mean nothing to you, children of Chaos and Death?'

'The child Orestes and the maiden Electra are alive,' said Athena. 'There will be revenge.'

'There has been too much revenge,' said Demeter.

Apollo's laugh was as child-like and as sweet as the sound of little bells.