Reading The Aeneid

Do not worry, Sonya, this is fiction. If Dido's fate breaks your heart, and it will, your mind will help you to recover, and you will. Or if Aeneas appears in the guise of a warped hero, just another imperial lackey, do not worry: your soul will cast forth other men, whose strength or beauty or a measure of both will reassure you. And if even later you grow weary of blood shed as you read deeply through the restless night, until new light edges across the treeline, consider this: time itself is a table replete with every good thing, and the feasts of time are yours for the asking... Oh, when you are too moved to speak, attendants, once called angels, float among you to serve your wise silence. One will lean close over you. and whisper so softly the air must poise itself to carry his gentle sounds: 'Do not worry, Sonya, ' he will say, 'this too is fiction. It is a conspiracy of heart and mind, of soul and body, in my holy presence, to make all things simply true.... '