Eternity would not suffice were I to describe all the monsters that assailed me in my solitude, from whales rigged like ships to a shower of red insects which changed the water of my fountain into blood.
But none were as disgusting as the harpies whose offal polluted the leaves of my sycamore." "Harpies," observed Lactantius, "are female Monsters with birds' bodies.

They have a woman's head and breast.

Their forwardness, their shamelessness, and their obscenity proceed from their female nature as the poet Virgil demonstrated in his 'Aeneid.' They share the curse of Eve." "Let us not speak of the curse of Eve," said the Lord.

"The second Eve has redeemed the first." Paul Orosius, the author of a universal history that Bossuet was to imitate in later years, arose and prayed to the Lord: "Lord, hear my prayer and Anthony's.

Do not make any more monsters like the Centaurs, Sirens, and Fauns, whom the Greeks, those collectors of fables, loved.