The Archaic Gorgon

Preface

Comest thou, my son, alive, to realms beneath,
The dolesome realms of darkness and of death!
Comest thou alive from pure, ethereal day?
Dire is the region, dismal is the way!

The Odyssey (Book XI. The Descent Into Hell)
— Homer (Trans. Alexander Pope)

Language is a constellation. As if mimicking stars, some words burn for a few thousand years and die out. Others…