Cybele

Excerpt

There was a lover of mine who worshipped me, and became reckless with his life, which was soon taken from him—more abruptly than I would have wished, and more cruelly; for I came to pity him in the end.

It was said by many people that his premature death was a tragic one. It was frightful, and pointless, and certainly very ugly. A disgraceful end, some said. And how especially horrible for his children, and his former wife. . . . No one seems to have said that it was an appropriate death though we know that all deaths are appropriate.

His business associates were incredulous, and saddened, like his former neighbors; his children were stricken with grief and will not readily cast off their father's shame; his wife was—if not surprised, shocked. Most bitter of all deaths are those that cannot be mourned, and cannot even be spoken of.

There are tears of grief that are tears of fury as well. But they are not cleansing. Nor does the earth greedily soak them up.

Epigraph

Everything is entirely in Nature,
and Nature is entire in everything.
She has her center in every
brute.

—Schopenhauer

The center of gravity should be in two people: he and she.

—Chekhov

Reviews

• Library Journal, March15, 1980, p745
• Booklist, May 15, 1980, p1348
• Notes on Contemporary Literature, v11, 1981, p2-8

Other Editions