For instance, it is nearly dawn…

Julia Webb-Harvey

‘For instance, it is nearly dawn,’

‘Duh, Selene. It’s my gig!’

‘Yet despite the promise that you bring every day, Eos, you are cursed. Aphrodite was one goddess that you did not want to cross…’

‘It’s hardly my fault Ares fell for the radiance I brought to every day…’

‘You didn’t do much to put him off, Sister. Aphrodite caused chaos when she gave you an unquenchable desire for handsome young men. Tithonus is your guilty secret, Eos. You begged Zeus to grant him eternal life.’

‘And he did!’

‘But you forgot that mortals age! He’s now a bag of bones crying out for you, and you don’t come so he cries out for death.’

‘Stop. I can’t bear it.’

‘And yet here we are, eons later and you still chase the hot young men.’

‘I can’t help it. I’m cursed!’

‘Eos, as a Goddess you have powers. Set Tithonus free.’

‘As it’s nearly dawn…’

Eos climbs into her rose-gold chariot and soars along the horizon, air rustles in her wake. The songbird feels it, shifting on its perch, grasping at the last embers of sleep. Eos’s rosy fingers push their way up into the sky, bleaching the inky black through indigo to pink. Eos breathes a spell into the waking day, in this space between one world and another. The mists of her dawn wrap around Tithonus, transforming him to a cicada with translucent wings. Living at the other end of the day, they will never meet but Tithonus will still sing a song to her that never stops.

Jul-AI Webb-Harvey (Chat GPT)

“For instance, it is nearly dawn,” murmured Nyx, her voice a dark lull. She glanced at her sister, Eos, who stood on the horizon’s edge, waiting for her moment. Eos’s eyes shimmered with anticipation, though a certain weariness lingered beneath.

“Yes,” Eos whispered, almost breathlessly. “Another day, another love that will slip through my fingers.”

Nyx’s gaze softened. “Your heart is bound by a curse, dear sister. You fall for mortals as naturally as dawn follows night. Yet each time, you know what waits for you.”

Eos traced her fingers across the sky, unfurling strands of pink and gold, her heart beating with the ache of desire. “I know,” she admitted, her voice catching. “I am cursed to love anew with every dawn—always seeking, always drawn to the warmth of human souls.” Her lips trembled with the memory of Tithonus, the mortal she had loved so deeply she’d granted him immortality, only to watch him age into frailty, trapped by time.

“Each morning, I rise with this hunger, and yet I know…” She sighed, watching as the earth began to stir under her touch. “They will fade, just as he did.”

Nyx placed a hand on her shoulder, grounding her. “Yet still, Eos, you fill the sky with beauty. Your love, however fleeting, makes the dawn glow with such fierce light.”

Eos nodded, a tear slipping down her cheek. With one final, longing glance at the slumbering world, she lifted her hands, drawing the morning into fullness. Another dawn, another love—destined to vanish with the setting sun.

Notes on the experience.

It was initially frustrating, as its response was disappointing. I’d given it the brief to write 260 words with the opening line and be based on the Greek goddess, Eos. It did that, but there wasn’t really a narrative. It hadn’t mentioned the great point of tension with Tithonus, so I invited it to try again. What surprised me was the warmth of AI’s response to feedback, which was endearing. For a brief while I felt that we were working together – although I couldn’t work out how to tell it to drop the purple prose. I felt that we might of got somewhere, and then it told me I’d run out of chances, unless I paid. It was like being dumped! It was only later that I realised that it cannot cope with an exact word count.

If it were a school report, I’d give effort for trying, for being kind but ultimately could do better. A straight B!

– Julia