Author(s): Paul Donovan

Fiction

Set in classical-era Greece, this novel imagines the life of Servilia, whose mother -- an Ionian Princess -- died during childbirth. The unwitting cause of her mother's death, Servilia is left with a lingering guilt as she struggles to open herself to love. Epicurus, her childhood sweetheart, is a rising young philosopher, conflicted by the clifftop disappearance of his mother and its whodunit aftermath. United by loss, the two become lovers, albeit a fiery relationship.At first, it seems they may be able to forge a common path together, serving humanity: Servilia as a devotee of the Eleusinian Mysteries, with its emphasis on mother-daughter grief; while Epicurus departs for Lampsacus, brimming with youthful conviction, to foster his 'School of the Garden'. Anticipation shifts to distress with tidings that pirates have captured Epicurus, selling him to the notorious 'slave-breakers' of Phoenica. Fearing that Epicurus is dead, Servilia falls into a heart-wrenching depression, in which her rich Roman father gives up all hope.Epicurus had cut his journey short to teach at Mytilene rather than continue to Lampsacus -- unknowingly avoiding the pirate attack. After many adventures, he returns home, looking for Servilia -- only to find that she is now an ordained priestess at Eleusis. Moreover, disturbing family secrets come to light. Epicurus retreats in dismay, reconciling himself to his teaching -- the ageless collision between Destiny and Romance comes full circle. A bitter-sweet denouement finds an aging and ill Epicurus, the first-person narrator of this novel, leaving the now famous community he founded, to travel by rambling donkey-cart from Athens to Eleusis -- one last visit to his beloved, the High Priestess and Hierophant of the sacred Eleusinian Mysteries, Servilia. All their dreams had come true, yet as the Fates decree, in improbable ways of which they had no inkling -- never in the manner their young bodies had imagined.Yet the Fates are not necessarily so grim, arcing across time to forge unexpected connections.2018 AD - American Center for Antiques Research - Boston - Massachusetts.Professor Fiona Roberts and David, her research assistant, are unravelling the ancient scrolls.