Anna smiled once Sophia brought up 'Hercules.'     Still remembered her sister running enthusiastically about in her t-shirt, playing with that pegasus doll.<span style="font-style: italic">So frickin' cute....</span><br/><br/>And, she remembered when that child's interest had rather unexplainably transmuted into something more.   Deeper...almost like she was prepping herself to teach courses in Greek history, or something.   She sometimes wondered why Sophia hadn't veered in that direction of becoming a teacher.   It was like she wanted the knowledge, yet had no interest in doing the usual, typical thing with it.   Not that that was bad.    While Sophia had never been rebellious, like herself, so much --  she wasn't a conformist, either.   In her own quiet way, she had always marched to the beat of her own drum.    And this eclectic interest of hers was probably just a product of that part of her nature, Anna reckoned.<br/><br/>While continuing to listen to the two converse, Anna enjoyed a bite of the<span style="font-style: italic">horiatiki</span>salad she had decided to sample first. Horiatiki... yes, that was it.   Meant<span style="font-style: italic">village</span>, didn't it? She must have heard that from her sister, at some point...<br/><br/>"Yes, that's quite correct," Mr. Tuono said, in response to Sophia's own question and assertion.<br/><br/>"Well, Sophia, my family's lineage is Greek.  Not uncommon for the native residents of this part of Italy. My family is also rather staunchly Catholic.  My childhood included a lot of church going, as well the attendance of private, Catholic schools.   And I, well...it would be fair to call me a headstrong individual, even as a youth.  I do like to blaze my own trail, rather than stay within the lines.   Anyway, interests in subjects such as mythology were not encouraged either at home, or in school.    It was really by a funny fluke that I came by the interest.   In my middle teens, there was this girl by the name of Maia Battista, whom I developed a rather mad crush upon.     You know how it is, with young love --  I was consumed by her, wanted to drown myself in her, and so forth.   When I learned she was named for a nymph of Greek mythology --  why, naturally, I wanted to read the myth.   Which I did --  and it all sort of went from there.   I found myself fairly enthralled by the exploits of the Greek pantheon --  as colorful, fantastic, and intriguing as any comic book superheroes.   Yet, also so very human in their motives, their foibles."<br/><br/>The jovial entrepreneur paused for a moment, dipped his bread in olive oil, had a bite, then continued ---<br/><br/>"As for Zeus, specifically -- well, my family name means Thunderbolt --   so there was a nice symbolic reference there.  Particularly after I began forging my way as an entrepreneur, which I had already begun doing, when I was somewhere between yours and Anna's ages.   Who doesn't like to be king, eh?   It's good to be, as the old saying goes.   It seemed a dynamic, easy to remember image to play upon, once I began seriously looking at how I would unify the individual companies I'd been running.  And, I feel the old Thunderer and I have certain things in common.   Aside from being distinguishedly handsome, I mean," he added with a wink, plainly in easy going humor.<br/><br/>"But, you might even say I'm trying to learn from some of the mistakes he made, more so than follow his example.   Zeus was rather bad at listening to others, you know.    Well.  Greece is, sadly, not having such a good time of it, in our modern day.    Their debt crisis has been quite serious, over the past five years or so, as you may have heard.   Unfortunate. Truly a beautiful country, and a warm, vivacious people.   But one under something of a shadow, at the moment..."