Chapter 5 Summary

The significance of echoes is the opening for this chapter. A beautiful mountain nymph named Echo helps Zeus with a sexual endeavor and is punished by Hera by leaving her to say only the last word spoken to her. These fragments of writing are on bits of brown leaf-like paper found in Zampano's trunk. Johnny is reading them when he suddenly feels like he's going to throw up. He coughs instead, and is fine afterward.

Johnny keeps reading passages, such as:

"Thus Echo suddenly assumes the role of god's messenger, a female Mercury or perhaps even Prometheus, decked in talaria, with lamp in hand, descending on fortunate humanity."

"Look to the sky, look to yourself and remember: we are only god's echoes and god is Narcissus."

"The apparent echoing of solitary words reminds us that acoustical echoing in empty places can be a...