In beauty of face no maiden ever equaled her. It was the radiance of an opium-dream - an airy and spirit-lifting vision more wildly divine than the fantasies which hovered about the slumbering souls of the daughters of Delos.

Edgar Allan Poe
About This Quote

Delos is an island in the Mediterranean Sea, off the coast of Greece. The island is famous for its Temple of Apollo, which was considered one of the seven wonders of the world. According to the Greek historian Herodotus, the Temple was built by Phoebus Apollo himself, who had turned himself into a swan and flown across the sea to Delos. The swan-shaped temple was made of bronze and marble and offered an amazing sight to anyone who viewed it.

One of its most striking features was a statue of Dido, queen of Carthage, who was the largest woman in antiquity. Legend has it that this statue was so beautiful that no man could look upon it without losing his mind. The story goes that when Dido was young she fell in love with Aeneas, a Trojan prince who fought against Troy.

Aeneas left her to fight on the front lines against Troy. After he died at Troy's hands, Dido went mad with grief and killed herself by throwing herself into a well. The mourning over her death was so great that her father King Pygmalion transformed her body into stone so she would always be with him.

Since then, Delos has been associated with beauty and being an object of desire.

Source: Ligeia

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