“…SHE CRISPED AWAY.”

“…SHE CRISPED AWAY.” I posted here about how I have always found it striking that the Greek gods often appear as comic figures. Gogarty’s version of Leda and the swan captures this comic joy. RAB quotes a student (in this one of her posts about how students will make up new words and new usages): “Zeus made love to her in the form of a bolt of lightening, and she crisped away.” (The reference is apparently to Semele, who was persuaded by Hera (or Juno) to ask Zeus to let her see him in all his glory with an unfortunate result). The student’s new usage is a reminder that encounters between the Greek gods and humans were usually terrible rather than comic. Yeats’s version captures this terror.