As Ichor Burns
Hebe, goddess of youth, poured ambrosia and nectar, the sustenance of the gods. Yet behind the banquet’s sweetness lay ichor, the fluid in divine veins that scorched mortals on contact. Poets saw in ichor both music and fire, a reminder that power carries risk. Today’s ichor is data. Handled with care, it circulates through systems, sustaining innovation and insight. Mishandled, it burns—bias distorts, breaches expose, excess overwhelms. Hebe dispensed divine fire with caution; so must we, ensuring the stream that fuels creation does not consume.
Pittore del Louvre E739, Hydria Ricci, Etruria, ca. 530 BC. Public domain, Villa Giulia (Rome). The vase shows Heracles entering Olympus in a chariot guided by Hebe. (Ancient sources differ: Hebe pours ambrosia and nectar, or is it ichor as the blood of the gods?)
Listen: “Hébé” by Ernest Chausson →