"Well," she says, in the voice he has never stopped hearing,'I still want dolphins."
He nods his head, as if judiciously. His heart is full of light.
She pauses. "And a child?"
He draws a breath and steps down off the scaffolding. She smiles.
Aut lux hie nata est, aut capta hic libera regnat. Light was either born here or, held captive, here reigns free.
-Inscription in Ravenna, among the mosaics
I think that if I could be given a month of Antiquity and leave to spend it where I chose, I would spend it in Byzantium a little before Justinian opened St. Sophia and closed the Academy of Plato. I think I could find in some little wine-shop some philosophical worker in mosaic who could answer all my questions, the supernatural descending nearer to him…
W. B. Yeats, A Vision