“This timeless Grecian Etna, in her lower-heaven loveliness, so lovely, so lovely, what a torturer!

Not many men can really stand her, without losing their souls. She is like Circe.

Unless a man is very strong, she takes his soul away from him and leaves him not a beast, but an elemental creature, intelligent and soulless. Intelligent, almost inspired, and soulless, like the Etna Sicilians.

Intelligent daimons, and humanly, according to us, the most stupid people on earth. Ach, horror!

How many men, how many races, has Etna put to flight? It was she who broke the quick of the Greek soul.

And after the Greeks, she gave the Romans, the Normans, the Arabs, the Spaniards, the French, the Italians, even the English, she gave them all their inspired hour and broke their souls.”

✍🏻 D. H. Lawrence