More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
But you’re familiar with Hercules?” “Yeah.” “He was given twelve tasks to complete after he killed his wife and children.”
He killed his wife and their children and, as punishment, was given twelve impossible tasks, things like slaying the hydra monster or capturing Cerberus, the three-headed beast that guarded the entrance to the underworld.”
When Persephone was abducted by Hades, Demeter—Persephone’s mother—tasked her closest friends with finding her daughter. But they couldn’t search the sea, so Demeter gave them tails like fish so they could look for her. That’s how sirens came into existence, and over time they grew to be vengeful, dangerous creatures.” She pushed an open book toward me. “The sirens on those three tiny islands we saw on
the pottery are said to guard Aeaea. Their songs beckon sailors to the water. To their deaths.
She is one of the Moirai,” Circe said. “One of the Fates. Clotho, if my theory is correct.
She scanned the shelves and pulled down a jar of dried marigold.
Tagetes erecta,” I said. “Four feet tall. Native to Mexico and Central America. They can grow in almost any condition, even drought.”
They’re edible. They repel rabbits. And you can co-plant them with tomatoes to keep away pests.
Strung in a garland, straight from the garden, they ward off evil. Scattered under your bed, they’ll keep you safe while you’re sleeping. Walking over fresh petals with your bare feet will allow you to talk to birds. In November, we grow and stock hundreds of them for those in our community celebrating Día de los Muertos.
To raise the winds, saffron.
Celandine to aid in escaping, euphorbia for protection, black hellebore and wolfsbane for temporary invisibility.”
When Zeus freed the Cyclopes from their imprisonment in the Underworld, they gifted him the lightning bolt to use in his war against the Titans. They also forged Poseidon’s trident and Hades’s helmet. Zeus had his weapon but he needed more than that to overthrow the Titans, and so he forged an all-seeing eye and placed it at the top of a tower—a lighthouse. It allowed him to see across land and sea, even time.
Hermes laughed and leaned his head back to look up at the light twirling in the top of the lighthouse. “Immortality makes you godlike. No one will disagree with that. But my father was Zeus himself.” He scoffed as he said the word. “My mother was the daughter of Atlas, of Pleione. Her blood was the blood of the makers of the universe.”
That sword? Hermes lent it to Perseus to slay Medusa,” Circe said. “The shoes, too.
The siren’s tail flexed like a muscle covered in slick evergreen scales, the wide fin pressed into the deck, allowing the creature to steady itself. Its upper torso was humanlike, but this creature was not some fairy tale sea-princess. Slits between the flesh of its ribs opened and closed as it heaved. Its webbed fingers ended in sharp bony protrusions. A clear membrane closed over the eyes as it blinked, and a scant layer of thin dark hair covered its head in patches. This was the
