I went down to the Piraeus

In June, I contracted covid-19.  Due to a combination of exam stresses and the debaucheries that followed, the infection caught me when my immune system was at its very weakest.  With only a single dose of vaccine for protection, I unfortunately succumbed to long covid.  For the last three months, I have been suffering from severe fatigue, dizziness and migraines, which various remedies have failed to treat.  The result was that my summer took on a shape I did not imagine after I had graduated from Durham.  Gone was the post-graduation holiday, and nights out were no longer an option.  However, my summer itinerary has been no less exciting than I first imagined, and actually involved much more travelling. I was lucky enough to be bedridden in an environment with a well catalogued library.  When you read, you escape from the environment around you.  The concerns of your body dissipate as your mind contemplates the contents of the pages.  It is...

  I've been experimenting with writing some Greek myths to improve my fiction.  This was my favourite of the handful I wrote, and has now become my favourite myth.  It is devoid of the banal love at first sight, or cruel incomprehensible deities that cloud others like Perseus and Medusa.  It is the purest of love stories that also captures the ephemerality of life and fortune.   Hymen, in raven-form, circled above the wedding.  Although it was Orpheus’ honeyed song that hailed him, it was a different strumming than his fabled lyre that reverberated to the god’s ears.  The immortal could hear the caress of scissors against the bride’s thread by the dread Fates.  While he, now transformed, blessed their union and garlanded them with priceless gifts, all he could hear was the cackling of the Morai filtering through the earth.  His trepidation was infectious, there was a nervousness and fidgeting in the god’s mannerisms.  However hard h...