"The Greek gods are not dead. Or if they are then they're working a fantastic graveyard shift, and the afterlife is more potent than it seems. The priestless ruins of those once-proud temples have proven more fruitful than the gods themselves when they reigned. Travelers in any direction from Greece will find traces of their continuing presence all over the contemporary world, in every conceivable form. Perhaps it is the Romans we should blame, or thank, for it was their empire that adopted the gods and built the roads that let these mythical figures journey forth. But it doesn't matter. They were preceded, and they were replaced, but their stories were told and their truths were loved all along the way.

"The Greek gods are alive because we are alive, because we remain human and have inherited their voice. And in the great pageant of what aliveness has been under the heavens in all their colors and forms, it is always the nature of our retellings that shapes our breath. If these ancient gods are regarded as no more than primitive fantasies, then we become blind ideologues. If they are told of as mere trivia or as tranquilized tales for children, then we ourselves become trivial and tranquilized. Such is the power of great and lasting works of art to reflect us, whether or not we choose to see. And there are few greater works of art than the gods.

"Today we expect these ancient powers to present themselves in encyclopedic form. We gather information and compile chronologies and lists; we confine them to cross-referenced columns. We seem to believe that we can master them by mastering their facts. But the gods defy our feeble attempts to keep them buried in the proper order. They call to this or that living artist and declare that their stories are not merely collectable things but ancient spirits to be yanked with all the frustrated passions of contemporary ideals into the light of today."