Sublime

Ananke derives from a root that spreads through Old Egyptian, Akkadian, Chaldean, and Hebrew terms for “narrow,” “throat,” “strangle,” “constrict,” and the yokes and rings laid on the necks of captives.18 Ananke takes you by the throat, holds you prisoner, and drives you like a slave.

They deserve what they got. And what they’re going to get.” These last words were the lines that would end up in my play.

Socrates declining Perdiccas’s invitation “so as to avoid dying a thousand deaths” (by accepting a favor he couldn’t pay back).