“A wild pig passing through that night stepped on the pick, sliding it just enough with her hoof that it fell through the boards and into the space beneath where the players of a local troupe had abandoned their props and costumes after a failed performance of Euripides' The Bacchae. Our lover fell into Dionysus' horned shoe and remained there in the misery of darkness for longer than he imagined. And because he was too young to understand that time heals even the greatest wounds, when he transformed back into a human, he didn't know whether to thank Fate or Virtue.”