Heroes: Mortals and Monsters, Quests and Adventures

by Stephen Fry

‘Relaxation without focus leads to failure.’ ‘Focus without relaxation leads to failure just as surely,’ said Athena. ‘So concentrate …’ said Perseus. ‘Exactly.’ ‘… but calmly?’

The rise of a spirit of rational enquiry and scientific understanding pushed the immortals further from us. The world was being reshaped as a home fit for mortal beings only. Today, of course, some of the rarer and more vulnerable mortal creatures that have shared the world with us are undergoing the same threats to their natural territories that caused the end of the nymphs and woodland spirits. Habitat loss and species extinction have all happened before.