'On the contrary – it is a master-stroke,' de la Vega had said. 'You know the Greek myth of Antaeus? For the French nobility, Paris is like the Mother Earth – as long as they are ensconced there, they have power, information, money. But Louis, by forcing them to move to Versailles, is like Hercules, who mastered Antaeus by raising him off the ground and slowly strangling him into submission.'