In Greek myth, the monstrous Hydra is doorman to the Underworld.
-- Erica (Prelude)

Importance: This quote is from the beginning of the novel and thus foreshadows the sad quality the island ultimately acquires in Erica’s perspective. Despite being a scenic location for escape, Hydra is a place where sorrow comes into the characters’ lives. In the context of this quote, there is a fatalistic quality to all of Erica’s observations in the ensuing chapters. The reader is prompted to consider Erica’s observations as the explanation for why Hydra is, ultimately, a dismal place. To use an analogy: the quote can be thought of as a hypothesis, and the ensuing chapters can be thought of as the collection of evidence to adduce the hypothesis. The reader witnesses how it is the inevitability of women accepting domesticity that qualifies the quote.

Here they come, more and more of these bludgers, lured by...
-- George (chapter 3)