Starting a new theme this academic year here’s the first contribution from a beach in Naxos.
Theseus “From there the thread led into a passage all in darkness, where I could only feel my way along the walls. My face tickled with cobwebs, and a rat ran over my foot. I thought of snakes and trod delicately. The passage sloped upwards, and the air felt warmer. At the end was another lamp, and a great room full of archives: shelves of scrolls rustling with mice; mouldy rolls of ancient leather; bundles of palm leaves inked with faded signs; chests and baskets full of clay tokens and tablets. The dust made me sneeze and the mice went scampering.
Mary Renault (1958) The King Must Die. London: Virago p. 287