For the happy man! - Collected writings DEPRESSION: Ed Atkins

precedent for a fictional trope. So although Herodotus should
be understood with a great scoop of salt, the corrosive processes
of history – of histories – have certainly rendered the
decapitation of a criminal harmless, ahistorical, truly. A-legal,
certainly. Through this fictional prism, I picture some Classical
detective pitting his wits against the puzzle of the situation; but
when I take it away – that lens – I can see the simple, terrible
corpse, sprawled, decapitated on the stone. The missing head
simply adding more horror. The story spread like wildfire, of
course. Plenty of us lost sleep over it – the guard in particular.
It was a far more superstitious time, is what you should remember.
Things like this were inevitably read as omens, and almost
always of imminent tragedy. Burning the body on a pyre;
black smoke rising in a great column – a fetid incense to calm
the gods. Ares in particular – but also Hermes, Hades and, of
course, the horrible Zeus.
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