Athena is for me the most memorable goddess, apart from the supreme and supremely bad-tempered Hera. I love the ‘prussic glare’ pulling on Prussian Blue to signify her piercing cornflower eyes, and the fact that when she enters, she stops time, and lines later, when she leaves, it starts again. Now, that’s a goddess! And Daughter Prince reminds me of Elizabeth I who saw herself as a Prince as much as a queen.
I was also struck by her ‘wide-apart eyes’ – when I was a child my brothers used to make fun of me for the same oddity – if I’d known when I was four that I shared this feature with Athena, I’d have had a fine riposte.
And then,
Much like a match-flame struck in full sunlight,
We lose him in the prussic glare
Teenaged Athena, called the Daughter Prince – who burst
Howling and huge out of God’s head – sheds
From her hard, wide-apart eyes, as she enters
And stops time.
She goes,
And time restarts.
Source: Christopher Logue, War Music, London: Faber and Faber, 2001, p. 21-22
