Then came Silas.

As the world becomes louder, faster, and crueler, there will always be a place for the gentle lowing of a cow and the insistent bleat of a goat, tangled together in a story that asks for nothing more than the reader’s open heart.

In Greek myth, gods often transformed into animals to woo mortals. Zeus became a bull (cow-adjacent) to seduce Europa. Pan, the goat-legged god, lusted after nymphs. But a direct cow-goat romance was considered comedic—Aristophanes’ plays often mocked the idea of mismatched animal lovers.