REAL GODS.

“Who has not asked himself at some time or other: am I a monster or is this what it means to be a person?”

And it was Death itself who stood behind me, with his arms wrapped around me as tight as iron bands, and his lipless mouth kissing my neck as if in love. But as well as the horror, I felt a strange longing.

That craving for darkness, the lust to feel what it does to you when your teeth meet in divinity, in the flesh.

‘I am not unhappy,’ she said. 'Nor am I content. There is nothing in my heart. I care for no one, and for nothing. I dream of dogs with bared teeth. I am dead. It is not so bad to be dead.’

She is not afraid of gods. She leaves her skin, still coiled, a great throat collapsed. Gods have entered and left.

“I myself am an absolute abyss.”

I have the whole world raging under my skin. I’ve always been a girl armed for war.

PHAIDRA: What have I done? Where have I gone from my own good mind? I went mad, a god hurt me, I fell.