1The Monster That Consumes Itself
In Ovid’s tales from Greek mythology, we learn of a wealthy timber merchant named Erisychthon (Er-is-ya-thon). Erisychthon is a greedy man who thinks only of profit. Nothing is sacred to him. But on Erisychthon’s land there is a special tree beloved of the gods. Prayers of the faithful are tied to its prodigious branches and holy spirits dance round its magnificent trunk. Erisychthon cares nothing for this. He looks at the tree and assesses the volume of timber it will produce, then he takes an axe to it. Against all protest he chops until the tree is withered and fallen and all divine life that inhabited the tree has fled. But one of the gods puts a curse on Erisychthon for his greed. From that day forward, ...
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