Intermission

[Spoken]:
And so the curtain closes on Act I. You met Ares, god of war. Disguised as a scarred and ancient veteran of Roman wars, he beguiled our young hero with tales of battle and bloodshed most appalling indeed! And lastly, the goddess Aphrodite, in her guise as temple priestess. It is she who seductively leads our young man astray from his quest, and all with the batting of her pretty eyes. She lured him from the true path to glory and off into some ridiculous pagan nonsense about nymphs, dryads, and other such imp-some devils of the pit. Preposterous! But Rome turns his head at last; he's sailing for foreign shores once more to the ancient and mysterious East