Sónnica

Sónnica is by Vicente Blasco Ibáñez and translated from the Spanish by Frances Douglas. The contents list names, among others, chapters titled At Aphrodite's Temple, Dancing Girls from Gades, Greek and Celtiberian and The Hungry City. The Saguntine pilot Polyanthus brings his ship off the port of his native land, and the mariners and fishermen, their vision sharpened by ever watching the distant horizon, have already recognized his saffron-dyed sail. The Greek knows those customs well, and the port is like many others he has seen: the temple on the hill to guide the navigator, and below, wine in abundance, easy love, and the sanguinary fight as a termination of the feast.

The text describes the dance with which the Celtiberians terminated their banquets as a violent exercise which put their muscles to the test. Alorcus and Actæon are left alone in the great smoke-filled room when the warriors retire long before midnight. People of savage aspect, possessed by the delirium of starvation, drag themselves cautiously through the streets armed with clubs, stones and missiles, and Euphobias guides them, giving counsel with majestic emphasis.