nekkidass

EROS

2012-02-14T17:35:00.000-08:00

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eros

EROS as Cupid or St. Valentine?

2012-02-14T17:21:00.000-08:00

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EROS puerile facto pro nobis purifixus est misellus ;\

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Apollonian castigation

2012-01-25T13:00:00.000-08:00

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hideless Marsyas squirming / stretched upon the X of excoriation / extreme Apollonian castigation

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from Shelley's Ode to the West Wind

2012-01-21T22:18:00.000-08:00

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"Make me thy lyre, even as the forest is:
What if my leaves are falling like its own!
The tumult of thy mighty harmonies

will take from both a deep autumnal tone
sweet though in sadness. Be thou, spirit fierce,
my spirit. Be thou me, impetuous one!"

"Be through my lips to unawakened earth the trumpet of prophecy, O Wind:
if Winter comes can Spring be far behind?"

Percy Bysshe Shelley: Ode to the West Wind

Betise folly

2011-12-03T21:10:00.000-08:00

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Beware the Kelpie! Riding her grasping hide ye'll nae escape when she carries ye under dark waters.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kelpie

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Plato's ION, my translation 535-536b

2011-11-17T23:17:00.000-08:00

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SOCRATES: Hold this thought now, Ion, and tell me without reservation
what I am about to ask you: When you give a good recital and astound
your audience as you sing of Odysseus leaping forth upon the
threshold, revealing hmself to the suitors and pouring out the arrows
in front of his feet, or of Achilles dashing at Hector or some part of
the piteous tales about Andromache or about Hecuba or about Priam, are
you then in your right mind or out of it?

ION: How clear to me, Socrates, this part of your proof appears!
For I'll tell you plainly, when I recite a tale of woe, my eyes are
filled with tears. And when it is one of fear or awe, my hair stands
on end with terror and my heart leaps.

SOCRATES: So then, can we say, Ion, that such a person is in his senses
at that time or is full of fear as he stands before twenty thousand or
so friendly people, none of whom is ripping his clothes or harming him in any way?

ION: No, by Zeus, not at all, Socrates, to tell the very truth!

SOCRATES: Are you also aware that y'all work these same effects on many people in your audiences?

ION: Yes, I am very well aware, for I look down upon them from the stage above, seeing fear on their faces and wonder in accord with what I am saying.
For it's necessary for me to fix my attention very closely on them, so that if I get them to crying, I myself shall laugh as I'm taking their money; but if to laughing, then I myself shall cry as I'm losing money.

SOCRATES: Are you aware then that your spectator is the last of the rings of which I spoke as receiving from one another the power from the Heraclean stone? And you, the rhapsode and actor are the middle ring; and the poet himself, the first; but it is the god himself who through all these rings attracts the souls of men thither, holding them suspended one from another with his power.

And just like from the lodestone. there is a chain of very many choral performers and of their masters and tutors suspended from the rings that hang down from the Muse.
One of the poets is suspended from one Muse, but another from another---we call this state 'he is held fast' or fascinated; this is about the same as saying he is owned [hip slang, pwned] or possessed.
And from these first rings (the poets and/or musical composers) are suspended a variety of others, some inspired by Orpheus, others by Musaeus, but the majority are held fast [fascinated] or possessed by Homer.

*****

18November2011 Marginal Note from Hilde Monro:

"Ion: ἡ λίθος

"Did you notice that when Socrates talks about this famous magnetic stone,
he calls it ἡ λίθος? I am sure that we all learnt that λίθος was
masculine, when we first came across the word. In fact, any common and
garden stone is ὁ λίθος, and it only turns feminine when it becomes
something special.

"J.K.Rowling's 'Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone' was translated by
Andrew Wilson into ancient Greek as 'ΑΡΕΥΙΟΣ ΠΟΤΗΡ καὶ ἡ τοῦ φιλοσόφου
λίθος'.

"Hilde

Rimbaud's most famous quote - with my translation

2011-11-16T17:52:00.000-08:00

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Un soir, j'ai assis la Beauté sur mes genoux. Et je l'ai trouvée amère. Et je l'ai injurieé. < Une Saison en Enfer

One evening I sat Beauty upon my knees... And I found her vexing... And I abused her.

*****

Rimbaud from 'A Season in Hell' [preface]

'vexing' is, I deem, the sense here rather than the literal French "bitter, harsh; painful, grievous; biting, galling" definition of the lexicographers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rimbaud

Plato's ION, my translation 533D - 534C

2011-10-27T15:05:00.000-07:00

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For, as I was just saying, this is not art, with which you are speaking well about Homer; but rather divine power which moves you like that in the stone Euripides called a magnet but most people call Heracleian.

For this stone not only attracts iron rings but also charges them with a power by which they to do the same as the stone and draw other rings. So that sometimes a long chain of pieces of iron and rings, suspended from one another, is formed: all depending for this power on that stone. And so also the Muse inspires men herself, and by means of these inspired men the inspiration spreads to others and keeps them connected like a chain.

For all the great epic poets sing all their beautiful songs not from art, but because they are enthused with inspiration and possessed by a divine power, and in like manner the lyric poets, just like the priests of the Great Mother don't dance in their right minds, so also the lyric poets composing these lovely lyrics are not in their right minds. But when they get into the harmony and rhythm, they are dancing in Bacchic frenzy and possessed by a divine power, just as bacchantes are out of their minds and possessed when drawing honey and milk from the rivers, so also the soul of lyric poets performs this work, which is the same thing, so they say.

For the poets tell us, it seems, that the lyrics they bring us from the honey-dripping fountains in certain gardens and groves of the Muses, just as the bees, and winging the same as these [with their winged words]; and they are speaking the truth. For a poet is a light and winged and sacred being, and not able to create unless entered into a different state of consciousness and outside his normal senses, and his own mind is no longer in him, for as long as he holds onto that possession, every man is unable to create poetry or sing an ode.

So as it is not by art they are composing and saying so many things about the deeds of heroes, just like you do about the poems of homer, but rather by divine muses, each is able to compose only that to which the Muse motivated him: one man, dithyrambs; another, another, encomiums; a third, musical productions; a fourth, epodes; a fifth, iambics; but each is useless about the others' specialties.

Odyssey 20:180 & 183 wi' my reading

2011-10-10T11:56:00.000-07:00

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180 πάντως οὐκέτι νῶϊ διακρινέεσθαι ὀΐω πρὶν χειρῶν γεύσασθαι πρὶν χειρῶν γεύσασθαι

No way are we two going to part from one another without a tasting of each other's fists.

Twitter Remix: methinks we'll nae part w/o tasting fists

******

183,4 τὸν δ᾽ οὔ τι προσέφη πολύμητις Ὀδυσσεύς, ἀλλ᾽ ἀκέων κίνησε κάρη, κακὰ βυσσοδομεύων.

...but wily Odysseus gave him no reply, but bobbled his head while pondering evils in his heart.

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ODYSSEY Book 20 Lines 166-171 with my translation

2011-10-09T17:40:00.000-07:00

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"ξεῖν᾽, ἦ ἄρ τί σε μᾶλλον Ἀχαιοὶ εἰσορόωσιν,
ἦέ σ᾽ ἀτιμάζουσι κατὰ μέγαρ᾽, ὡς τὸ πάρος περ;"

"Guest, do the Achaeans regard you more favorably
or are they dissing you in the feasting hall just like before?"

τὸν δ᾽ ἀπαμειβόμενος προσέφη πολυμήτις Ὀδυσσεύς·
"αἲ γὰρ δή, Εὔμαιε, θεοὶ τισαίατο λώβην,

And replying, Odysseus of the many wiles said,
"Ah, Eumaeus... would that the gods exact vengeance

ἣν οἵδ᾽ ὑβρίζοντες ἀτάσθαλα μηχανόωνται
οἴκῳ ἐν ἀλλοτρίῳ, οὐδ᾽ αἰδοῦς μοῖραν ἔχουσιν."

on these agressors wantonly making whoopee in
another's house, and having not a bit of shame."
*****

Platonic Syntax in the ION Dialogue, 532-D,E Pt.2

2011-10-07T14:39:00.000-07:00

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Σωκράτης: βουλοίμην ἄν σε ἀληθῆ λέγειν, ὦ Ἴων: ἀλλὰ σοφοὶ μέν πού ἐστε
ὑμεῖς οἱ ῥαψῳδοὶ καὶ ὑποκριταὶ καὶ ὧν ὑμεῖς ᾁδετε τὰ ποιήματα, ἐγὼ δὲ οὐδὲν
ἄλλο ἢ τἀληθῆ λέγω, [532e] οἷον εἰκὸς ἰδιώτην ἄνθρωπον. ἐπεὶ καὶ περὶ τούτου
οὗ νῦν ἠρόμην σε, θέασαι ὡς φαῦλον καὶ ἰδιωτικόν ἐστι καὶ παντὸς ἀνδρὸς
γνῶναι ὃ ἔλεγον, τὴν αὐτὴν εἶναι σκέψιν, ἐπειδάν τις ὅλην τέχνην λάβῃ.
λάβωμεν γὰρ τῷ λόγῳ: γραφικὴ γάρ τίς ἐστι τέχνη τὸ ὅλον;

My Englishment Soc: Oh, how I wish that you would tell the truth, Ion! But surely it
is you rhapsodes and expounders and the men, whose poems you keep singing,
that are wise. I however speak nothing other than naked truth such as seems
right to a common man. And then about this thing regarding which I asked you
just now, notice how simple and commonplace is what I just uttered: even
everyman knows the consideration is the same whenever anyone has mastered an
art: he has the whole of it.

Paul Baronoweki SOC: I would wish that you were telling the truth, Ion: but, in
reality, it is you rhapsodes and interpreters and they who sing [chant] the
poems who are wise, but I say nothing but the truth, the same as a common
man. Seeing also that I asked you about this (question) just now, observe
how paltry and amateurish it is and (in the power of) every man to know what
I mean, the inquiry is the same,whenever anyone comprehends an art as a
whole. Let us assume by analogy: Is (the art of) painting some art as a
whole?

Hilde Munro Socrates: I wish your words were true, Ion: but I suppose it's you
rhapsodes and actors who are wise, and they whose poems you sing, but I just
tell the truth, like a simple layman. And as for what I asked you just now,
see how ordinary and commonplace my theory is – something that any man might
discover – that when one has acquired an art as a whole it is the same
method of examination. Let's take an example for this assertion: Painting is
an art as a whole?

Michael F Pajack Socrates: If only you were right, Ion, but it is perhaps you rhapsodes and actors and the men whose poems you sing who are wise; I merely speak the truth as it befits an unskilled man. For concerning these matters which I
asked you just now, look how simple and unskilled it is, and what I said is
within the capacity of every man to know, that the mode of inquiry is the
same when anyone has grasped a whole art. For let us take one art for the
benefit of our discussion. For example, there is an art of painting as a
whole?

*****

Platonic Syntax in the ION Dialogue, 532-D

2011-10-07T14:11:00.000-07:00

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Σωκράτης: οὐκοῦν ἐπειδὰν λάβῃ τις καὶ ἄλλην τέχνην ἡντινοῦν ὅλην, ὁ
αὐτὸς τρόπος τῆς σκέψεως ἔσται περὶ ἁπασῶν τῶν τεχνῶν; πῶς τοῦτο λέγω, δέῃ
τί μου ἀκοῦσαι, ὦ Ἴων;

My Englishment: SOC: And whenever anyone has acquired any other art whatsoever as a
whole, will the same way of considering hold true through all the arts? What
do you need to hear from me, as to how I am saying/meaning this, Ion?

Paul Baronowski SOC: Accordingly, whenever someone comprehends also any other art
whatsoever as a complete entity, will the method of inquiry about all the
arts be the same? Do you need to hear from me, Ion, how I mean this?

Hilde Munro Socrates: Well then, if someone acquires any other art at all as a
whole, will there be the same sort of examination for all the skills? Would
you like to hear me explain this, Ion?

Michael F. Pajak MFP Socrates: Therefore when someone takes any other art whatever as a whole, the same method of inquiry will be in all the arts? Do you need to
hear what I mean by this, Ion?

*****

Thoughts about Friendship from Diogenes Laertius bio of Aristotle

2011-10-01T15:00:00.000-07:00

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ἐρωτηθεὶς τί ἐστι φίλος, ἔφη, Μία ψυχὴ δύο σώμασιν ἐνοικοῦσα.

[my translation; Upon being asked what a friend is, he said, "One soul in two bodies."]

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ᾧ φίλοι, οὐδεὶς φίλος.

["My friends, but there is not one (real) friend (among you all)".]

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ἐρωτηθεὶς πῶς ἂν τοῖς φίλοις προσφεροίμεθα, ἔφη, Ὡς ἂν εὐξαίμεθα αὐτοὺς ἡμῖν προσφέρεσθαι.

[ Upon being asked how we ought to behave toward friends, he said, "As we would pray that they continue to behave toward us." ]

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Telemachus - Odyssey XX, 128-133

2011-09-25T16:48:00.000-07:00

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.. στῆ δ᾽ ἄρ᾽ ἐπ᾽ οὐδὸν ἰών, πρὸς δ᾽ Εὐρύκλειαν ἔειπε·
"μαῖα φίλη, τὸν ξεῖνον ἐτιμήσασθ᾽ ἐνὶ οἴκῳ

Telemachus stood on the sill, about to go, and said to Eurycleia:
"Nursey dear, did you honor our in-house guest with

εὐνῇ καὶ σίτῳ, ἦ αὔτως κεῖται ἀκηδής;
τοιαύτη γὰρ ἐμὴ μήτηρ, πινυτή περ ἐοῦσα·

bed and food, or lies he by himself, neglected?
For such is my mother's way even though she is prudent:

.. ἐμπλήγδην ἕτερόν γε τίει μερόπων ἀνθρώπων
χείρονα, τὸν δέ τ᾽ ἀρείον᾽ ἀτιμήσασ᾽ ἀποπέμπει."

Mother foolishly honors some get of sentient humankind,
though inferior, but sends a superior man away unhonored."

*****

PS. Had a lot of fun tracking down the signification of
μέροψ, μέροπες which most lexicons say is an epithet of
βροτοι, ἀνθρωποι with "meaning unknown" & μεροποσπόρος, -ον
"'begetting men',ὥρη Man.4-577"LSJ (Manetho: Astro'ogus)

PPS. Perhaps this section is the origin of the dislike some
scholars and critics have for Telemachus?

Telemachus - Odyssey XX, 124-127

2011-09-19T09:13:00.000-07:00

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.. Τηλέμαχος δ᾽ εὐνῆθεν ἀνίστατο, ἰσόθεος φώς,
.. And Telemachus got out of bed, looking like a god:

.. εἵματα ἑσσάμενος· περὶ δὲ ξίφος ὀξὺ θέτ᾽ ὤμῳ· 125
ποσσὶ δ᾽ ὑπὸ λιπαροῖσιν ἐδήσατο καλὰ πέδιλα,
.. put on his raiment, slung a sharp sword about his shoulder, tied stout sandals beneath his feet;

.. εἵλετο δ᾽ ἄλκιμον ἔγχος, ἀκαχμένον ὀξέι· χαλκῷ·
.. then grabbed his stout spear, tipped with sharp bronze...

Can Anacreon and Edgar Allen Poe be juxtaposed?

2011-09-16T21:03:00.000-07:00

"For being an idle boy lang syne,
Who read Anacreon, and drank wine,
I early found Anacreon rhymes
Were almost passionate sometimes--
And by strange alchemy of brain
His pleasures always turned to pain--
His naivete to wild desire--
His wit to love--his wine to fire--
And so being young and dipt in folly
I fell in love with melancholy,
And used to throw my earthly rest
And quiet all away in jest--"
from Poe's ROMANCE, also known as INTRODUCTION.
1st text, 1829; but this section first appeared
in the 1831 text.

Videlicet nunc: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poe

Of Anacreon, Prof. David A. Campbell wrote, "Anacreon's
extant poems are mostly witty pieces about love and wine;
he wrote in gay, simple metres, and the architecture of his
poems was masterly... Asked why he wrote hymns not to the gods
but to boys, he replied ὅτι οὗτοι ἡμῶν θεοί εἰσι, 'they are our
gods'...Most of his poems were pieces in lyric metres, especi-
ally the slight and graceful anacreontics and glyconics...but
the SUDA mentions also his elegiacs and iambics... Anacreon is
perhaps the most meticulous craftsman of all the early lyric
writers. He chooses his words carefully and positions them ef-
fectively... He is also the wittiest of these writers and makes
his points concisely... His images are fresh and clearly expre-
ssed... Posterity thought of him as a libertine and a drunkard."
David A. Campbell, GREEK LYRIC POETRY, Macmillan, 1967

Videlicet nunc: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anacreon

******

"And long may the sons of Anacreon intwine the myrtle of Venus with Bacchus' vine."

from the lyrics of "The Anacreontic Song", official song of the Anacreontic Society of London, U.K.

ODYSSEY Study Group 13 September 2011

2011-09-15T22:20:00.000-07:00

DJG David Goldfarb
HMU Hilde Munro
LXD Lorcan Despanais
MB Mark Brunkahl
ML Mark Lightman

Odyssey υ-93 μερμήριζε δ᾽ ἔπειτα, δόκησε δέ οἱ κατὰ θυμὸν ἤδη γιγνώσκουσα παρεστάμεναι
κεφαλῆφι.

DJG And he considered anxiously, and it seemed to his heart that now she knew
him and was standing by his head.

HMU then he pondered and in his heart it seemed to him that she had already
recognized him and was standing by his head.

LXD and when he was turning it over in his mind, it seemed to him in his
heart that, already recognizing him, she stood by his head.

MB and then he considered, and it appeared to him in his mind as if she
already understood and would stand next to his head.

ML Then he was conflicted. But she seemed, to his way of thinking, by now,
knowing him, to be standing by his head.>

Is Penelope the subject of δόκησε? If it's impersonal, why is γιγνώσκουσα not accusative?
Mark Lightman

Mark Brunkahl repied:
I must confess that I had great diffifulties with the whole last assignment.
Maybe it has something with this: When the subject of the infinitive is
identical with that of main verb it is out in the nominative, e.g. ἄξιος εἶναι
νομίζει: "she hopes to be worthy (herself)" while
ἄξιον εἶναι νομίζει αὐτόν : "she hopes him to be worthy". So if the participle
is understood adjectively this could account for the nominative.
If you want to do some research along these lines yourself I can only say that
I found this in my grammar under the header of "Substantives with Infinitives".

Otherwise I can only say: The participle is correct because Homer said so!
Mark Brunkahl
Am Mittwoch, 14. September 2011 06:04:09 schrieb Mark Lightman:

Hilde Munro repied:
Looking at other occurrences of δοκέω in Homer, used both personally and
impersonally, I found several examples with the nominative where we might
have expected the accusative. (By the way, this looking up process is made a
lot easier by the Chicago Homer.)
I do not think that Mark B.'s idea works here, as Penelope is not the
subject of both clauses.

Here are some examples:

Ιl.23.459/60 ἄλλοι μοι δοκέουσι παροίτεροι ἔμμεναι ἵπποι, ἄλλος δ᾽
ἡνίοχος ἰνδάλλεται

Il.23.470/7 δοκέει δέ μοι ἔμμεναι ἀνὴρ Αἰτωλὸς γενεήν, ...

Od.01.227/28 ὥς τέ μοι ὑβρίζοντες ὑπερφιάλως δοκέουσι δαίνυσθαι κατὰ δῶμα.

Od.02.033 ἐσθλός μοι δοκεῖ εἶναι, ὀνήμενος.

Od.08.388 ὁ ξεῖνος μάλα μοι δοκέει πεπνυμένος εἶναι.

Od.17.415/16 οὐ μέν μοι δοκέεις ὁ κάκιστος Ἀχαιῶν ἔμμεναι, ἀλλ᾽ ὤριστος,

Od.18.382 καί πού τις δοκέεις μέγας ἔμμεναι ἠδὲ κραταιός,
Hilde

Lorcan replied: Methinks you are more nearly correct, Mark, on this verse than most of
us who may have been misled by dokei's usual habit of being
impersonal. The giggly participle is, of course, the feminine
nominative, modifying the feminine subject implicit in the aorist
indicative active verb (and also of the perfect active infinitive).
Lorcan ---- POSTSCRIPTUM: I meant Mark Lightman in my reply. Also The main verb of the second clause (which is co-ordinate and not dependent) is the 'governing verb' and has the same subject as the infinitive, and that is why the subject of the infinitive is not in the accusative. viz: Smyth, GREEK GRAMMAR, #1973 & #937

Athena Visiting Upon Odysseus

2011-08-15T15:13:00.000-07:00

Came just now across this image

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Milo%C5%A1,_Marko_i_vila.jpg

which is very close to the image I get from Homer's Odyssey XX,30-33.

ARION

2011-07-30T10:39:00.000-07:00

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by the blessings of APOLLO... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arion

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Pedantry

2011-06-14T01:12:00.000-07:00

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'Twas a cony and cunning conundrum that coined his eponym, euphemized from the then unspeakable CUNT.

*****

from Aristophanes' Nubes

2011-06-13T22:10:00.000-07:00

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Aristophanes' CLOUDS, line 723 Socrates: Have you [thought of] anything? Strepsiades: Nothing other than the penis in my right hand...
Choryth Ldr: Don't go soft! Cover its head for it must search out a scheme for cheating and getting rid of creditors. Line 728

*****

Who were the Phaeacians?

2010-07-30T16:04:00.000-07:00

Reading Homer's Odyssey, I find myself confusing the Phaeacians with the Phoenicians and the Achaeians. My lexica and other references elude this topic except for Georg Autenrieth's 'A Homeric Dictionary' which has, "Φαίηκες: the Phaeacians, a fabulous people related to the gods, dwelling in Scheria, where they lived a life of ease, averse to war and devoted to sea-faring. The ships in which they escort guests to their homes, however distant, are themselves possessed of intelligence to find the way. The names of nearly all the Phaeacians mentioned are significant of the love of ships, not excepting that of Nausicaa [ναῦς means a ship], the most charming of them all...."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phaeacians

mannjafnaðr and Viking Sexuality

2010-07-18T09:55:00.000-07:00

Searching mannjafnaðr on Bing, I found this paper about Viking sexuality and insults :

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/pwh/gayvik.html

THOR

2010-05-02T21:38:00.000-07:00

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norse_mythology

Archilochus Iambic fragment #42 : my translation

2010-03-24T11:49:00.000-07:00

...through an embrasure
...gonna slip with stealth
--(for I already know and have had
enough of such a plant of another kind)
thinking this deed arises from my nature:
my parsley stalk...
thinking on slipping it to you...
...sprung from under my chlamys...
eager to penetrate...

from this Greek text:
ἰητρ ]τομῆι
]λήσομαι
ἐσθλὴν γὰρ ἄλλην οἶδα τοιοὐ του φυτοῦ
ἰη σιν ]δοκεω·
]κακά·
ἐ]πίφρασαι·
]ησομαι
]ου λίνου
]ταθη
]ν μενοινιω[
].εισιω[
]....εͺ.[

Prof.J.M.Edmonds in his 1931 Loeb edition translated Fragment 42 as:
"For I know of another good cure for such a growth." But his text was:

ἐσθλὴν γὰρ ἄλλην οἶδα τοιούτου φυτοῦ
ἴησιν. (Toup : εἴκασιν) He this prefaces with:
"Sch. Theocr. 2. 48 [ἱππομανές]· . . λέγες γὰρ καὶ Ἀρχίλοχος τὸ φῦμα φυτόν.

Now, according to my reading of Theocritus' verse, τὸ φυτόν refers to an herb
there that acts as a sexual stimulant on horses. I read Archilochus as using this
as a figure for his speaker's penis in his poem.
Prof. Henry Harmon Chamberlain in his 'Late Spring: A Translation of Theocritus',
Harvard, 1936, translates the stanza:

"In Arcady there grows a bitter spurge;
Stallions that crop it and swift mares run wild
Over the mountains; may like madness urge
Delphis, of reason utterly beguiled.
So let him run madly about my door,
So let him quit the gleaming wrestling floor!
O magic wheel! bring my man home to me!"

Relevance of Latin and Ancient Greek

2010-03-16T17:08:00.000-07:00

"The reason we should boost the study of Latin and Greek is that they are
the key to a phenomenal and unsurpassed treasury of literature and history
and philosophy, and we cannot possibly understand our modern world unless we
understand the ancient world that made us all." Boris Johnson in The Telegraph

Ἡ ἈΡΆΧΝΗ

2010-02-27T19:00:00.000-08:00

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arachne

nympholepsis (gazing at 'Lake Avernus, Fates, & Golden Bough' by JMW Turner)

2010-02-18T21:08:00.000-08:00

So benignant do these dancing Fates appear,

Yet rule in awesome potency o'er all who live;

I was momentarily aMUSEd,

an' ta'en away wi' the Fae.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/7258607/Golden-Bough-from-Roman-mythology-found-in-Italy.html

Tempests on Planet Academe: STEM and the "careful manipulation of metaphor"

2010-02-17T10:34:00.000-08:00

This discussion is interesting and of great importance even for us hobbyist amateurs. Don't miss the 'Comments'?

http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2010/02/12/worley

Ἡ ἝΩΣ ἡ θέα AURORA, the Dawn

2010-02-14T23:44:00.000-08:00

from 1881 painting by William-Adolphe Bouguereau

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eos

Aeneid I: 462 : sunt lacrimae rerum et mentem mortalia tangunt.

2010-02-10T10:05:00.000-08:00

This line of beauty from Virgil's epic has evoked much comment and criticism from all sorts of classicists. Please read this marvellous piece from the RAMINAGROBIS blog:

http://whenhernameyouwriteyoublot.blogspot.com/2006/11/thou-majestic-in-thy-sadness-at.html

IMAGES PERTINENT TO THE AENEID

http://personal.monm.edu/AODDSON/academics/aeneid%20or%20dante/aeneid/pages/images_of_the_underworld.htm

http://www.turnermuseum.org/matisse.htm

Culture Study : Carthaginian Child Sacrifice

2010-02-04T00:03:00.000-08:00

A cutural anthropology study of Phoencian or Punic or Carthaginian child sacrifice, that explores the loaded semantics and politics involved:
http://www.stanford.edu/dept/archaeology/journal/newdraft/garnand/paper.pdf

So far, I've read to page 22 : "Bernal’s expectation of a static British/Jewish Phoenician identity reveals the appeal of
essentialism — the reduction of peoples to their static essence — one of the broad categories of
ills that he and Said wish to combat. In reference to identity, this essentialism portrays and
understands social and cultural practices and institutions 'as what they are for all time, for
ontological reasons that no empirical matter can either dislodge or alter' (Said 1995 [1978]:70). It
is a distortion that suppresses temporality and 'assumes or attributes an unchanging primordial
ontology to what are the historically contingent products of human or other forms of agency'
(Herzfeld 1998:189). Of the forms of essentialism addressed by Said and Bernal, I summarize two
here: racism, and Orientalism."

'Supposititious', appearing in that below, means " (1)fraudulently substituted as a genuine heir; (2) illegitimate; (3) of the nature of, or based on, a supposition; hypothetical."

http://rogueclassicism.com/2010/02/17/child-sacrifice-at-carthage/

Latest: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/low/africa/8536313.stm

GANYMED - first stanza with my translation

2010-02-03T21:24:00.000-08:00

"Was schläfst du, Bergsohn, liegest in Unmut, schief,
Und frierst am kahlen Ufer, Geduldiger!
Denkst nicht der Gnade du, wenns an den
Tischen die Himmlischen sonst gedürstet?" Friederich Hoelderlin

Why stay you there, mountain boy, sulking askew,
Chilling on the shore so bare, gentle shepherd boy!
Don't you think of that world, where formerly upon
Olympian banquet tables. thirsty was the longing?

The Boy and the Eagle

2010-02-01T20:55:00.000-08:00

'Ganymed' by Hermann Hubacher, 1952
on Lake Constance, Zurich, Switzerland

http://bit.ly/3sTcdM

MERCEDEM PACIS - my own Latin poem

2010-01-29T12:19:00.000-08:00

Pax Romana gratia iam visa est

sed defectus virium ad secutum

utideo pax idem bello

eti mercedem exiget.

(id est defectus virtutis virilis viriumque)

http://classicsreloaded.blogspot.com/2007/08/soft-men.html

Notes about the BEES of Rilke & Balthus

2009-12-29T17:24:00.000-08:00

"The word beauty is coming back into style, after having been under something of a cloud all during the twentieth century. . . . ' We are the bees of the invisible,' Rilke wrote to a friend in November, 1925: ' . . . our task is to impress this preliminary; transient earth upon ourselves with so much suffering and so passionately that its nature rises up again ‘invisibly' within us. . . . We ceaselessly gather the honey of the visible, to store it up in the great golden beehive of the Invisible.'" Louise Cowan, Ph.D. http://dallasinstitute.org/listenandview_read_thefrailstrengthofbeauty.html

A BIT OF POETRY
"Everything beckons to us to perceive it,
murmurs at every turn, 'Remember me!'
A day we passed, too busy to receive it,
will yet unlock us all in its treasury.

"Who shall compute our harvest? Who shall bar
us from the former years the long-departed?
What have we learned from living since we started,
except to find in others what we are?

"Except to re-enkindle commonplace?
O house, O sloping field, O setting Sun!
Your features form into a face, you run,
you cling to us, returning our embrace!

"One space spreads through all creatures equally --
inner-world-space. Birds quietly flying go
flying through us. O, I that want to grow!
The tree I see outside it's growing in me!

"I have a house within when I need care.
I have a guard within when I need rest.
The love that I have had! -- Upon my breast
the beauty of the world clings, to weep there." Rainer Maria Rilke
http://www.math.buffalo.edu/~sww/0Gurdjieff/beesoftheinvisibleworld_web.pdf

"Balthus' adolescents are Rilke's 'bees of the invisible,' taking in from books, from daydreaming, from as yet ambiguous longing, from staring out windows at trees, sustenances that will be available in time as Proustian ripenesses, necessities of the heart.... Where in Greek writing you always find a running account of all the senses in intimate contact with the world, in Latin you find instead a pedantry accustomed to substituting some rhetorical convention for honest and immediate perception. Balthus has Greek wholeness." Guy Davenport, "Balthus" in 'Every Force Evolves A Form', North Point Press, San Francisco, 1987.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balthus

Aeneas slaying Turnus (Aeneid XII)

2009-12-28T18:56:00.000-08:00

from oil painting by Luca Giordano (1634-1705)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turnus

ANACREONTA #12 : my translation

2009-12-21T13:11:00.000-08:00

[ pro comiti mihi amicoque, SamWise ]

ANACREONTEA #12

Folks say the girly Attis went
mad, howling in the highlands
after his lovely Kybaby; folks
drink the prophesying waters
of laureled god Phoibos Apollo
along Claros' slopes, go mad
and shout prophecy. I want to
get loose wi' the Loosener god.
Satiated with the sweets of my
girlfriend, I want more madness!

Greek Text:

οἱ μὲν καλὴν Κυβήβην
τὸν ἡμίθηλυν Ἄττιν
ἐν οὔρεσιν βοῶντα
λέγουσιν ἐκμανῆναι.
οἱ δὲ Κλάρουπαρ' ὄχθαις
δαφνηφόροιο Φοίβου
λάλον πιόντες ὕδωρ
μεμηνότες βοῶσιν.
ἐγὼ δὲ τοῦ Λυαίου
καὶ τοῦ μύρου κορεσθεὶς
καὶ τῆς ἐμῆς ἑταίρης
θέλω, θέλω μανῆναι.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attis

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claros

ANACREONTA #53 : my translation

2009-12-20T22:23:00.000-08:00

Dedicated to my friends Paul Erdunast and Thomas Copley Catterall,
upon the occasion of their receiving accepts from the Worcester
and St. Anne's Colleges of the University of Oxford.

When I push my way into a throng of young men,
my youthful vigor returns, and then, I must dance;
although an old man, I turn into a bird on the wing;
then I am totally crazy; I am in an euphoric frenzy:
Hand me a garland! I want to be clad in a beast pelt!
Grey old age is at this moment far from me,
and I shall dance as a youth among youths.
Some one bring me the harvest wine of Bacchus,
so the god may see for himself the strong old man:
who has learned to celebrate;
who has learned to carouse;
who has learned to gracefully be mad.

Greek Text:
ὅτ ἐγὼ 'ς νέων ὅμιλον
ἐσορῶ, πάρεστιν ἥβα.
τότε δή, τότ' ἐς χορείην
ὁ γέρων ἐγὼ πτεροῦμαι,
παραμαίνομαι, κυβηβῶ.
παράδος· θέλω στεφέσθαι.
πολιὸν δ' ἑκὰς τὸ γῆρας·
νέος ἐν νέοις χορεύσω,
Διονυσίης δέ μοί τις
φερέτω ῥοὰν ὀπώρης,
ἵν ἴδῃ γέροντος ἀλκὴν
δεδαηκότος μὲν εἰπεῖν,
δεδαηκότος δὲ πίνειν,
χαριέντως τε μανῆναι.

Aphrodite Anadyomene

2009-12-19T15:55:00.000-08:00

A First Century mural in Pompei thought to be a copy of Apelles' painting, with Campaspe, sexual initiator of Alexander the Great, as model. Alexander is said to have liked the painting so well that he gifted ( μπαξίσι ) Apelles with Campaspe.

Seize the Day! EPODE XIII & ODE XI, L.1 of Horace

2009-12-16T19:21:00.000-08:00

[ 'EPODE' conveys the sense of 'an enchantment' with special rhythm and repetition schemes (Xenophon & Plato), emerging participially from ἐπαείδω (Attic ἐπᾴδω ), future ἐπάσσομαι, meaning "to sing as an incantation"{Xen,Plat.) and later, "to sing to/in accompaniment"(Herodotus,Euripides). Absolutely, ἐπαείδων = "by means of charms"; 'ODE' derives from the Ancient Greek word for 'a song', and is a lyric, usually marked by exaltation of feeling and style.]

EPODE XIII

Horrida tempestas caelum contraxit et imbres
nivesque deducunt Iovem; nunc mare, nunc siluae
Threicio Aquilone sonant. rapiamus, amici,
Occasionem de die dumque virent genua
et decet, obducta solvatur fronte senectus.
tu vina Torquato move consule pressa meo.
cetera mitte loqui: deus haec fortasse benigna
reducet in sedem vice. nunc et Achaemenio
perfundi nardo iuvat et fide Cyllenea
levare diris pectora Sollicitudinibus,
nobilis ut grandi cecinit Centaurus alumno:
'invicte, mortalis dea nate puer Thetide,
te manet Assaraci tellus, quam frigida parvi
findunt Scamandri flumina lubricus et Simois,
unde tibi reditum certo Subtemine Parcae
rupere, nec mater domum caerula te revehet.
illic omne malum vino cantuque levato,
deformis aegrimoniae dulcibus adloquiis.

ODE XI, Liber 1

Tu ne quaesieris (scire nefas) quem mihi,quem tibi
finem di dederint, Leuconoe, nec Babylonios
temptaris numeros. Ut melius quicquid erit pati!
Seu pluris hiemes seu tribuit Iuppiter ultimam,
quae nunc oppsitis debilitat pumicibus mare
Tyrrhenum, sapias, vina liques et spatio brevi
spem longam reseces. Dum loquimur fugerit invida
aetas : carpe diem quam minimum credula postero.

A Dangerous Experiment translated from the Latin of Fabulae Faciles

2009-12-09T16:03:00.000-08:00

RUFUS Latin Fables Translation Group

This week’s participants are . . .

DJS David
DLP Diana
KAC Kathryn
LXD Lorcan
MJM Mark
YG Yaroslav

================

December 7 Collation
A Dangerous Experiment

TR 1 .. Dum fIliae rEgis hoc mIrAculum stupentEs intuentur, MEdEa ita
locUta est: "VidEtis quantum valeat medicIna.
TR 1 DJS As the king’s daughters observed this miracle, Medea spoke
thus : « Do you see how powerful this medicine is?
TR 1 DLP While the king’s daughters were looking upon this miracle in
astonishment, Medea said: “You see how powerful the art of healing
is.
TR 1 KAC While the daughters of the king, astounded, regarded this
miracle, Medea spoke thus: “You see how strong the medicine is.
TR 1 LXD While the king's daughters, being astounded, are staring in
wonder at this prodigy, Medea spoke thus, "You are seeing how powerful
this medicine is. (Rev.ed. ars magica - magic)
TR 1 MJM While the King’s astounded daughters were intently watching
this wonder, Medea said this: “You all see how he may be healthy
through this medicine.
TR 1 YG While king’s daughters looked at this miracle in amazement,
Medea said so: “You see how strong medicine is.
NOTE: The editor of the edition in Gutenberg, Kirtland, made a few
minor changes in the text. That’s an interesting one. That Medea
uses herbs seems more in line with ‘medicina,’ but her results seem
more like ‘ars magica’; but then I’d expect eye of newt and toad
venom.

TR 2 .. VOs igitur, sI vultis patrem vestrum in adulEscentiam
redUcere, id quod fEcI ipsae faciEtis.
TR 2 DJS So if you want your father to be brought back to his youth,
do the same things I have done.
TR 2 DLP So, if you wish your father to be restored to youth, you
yourselves will do that which I have done.
TR 2 KAC You therefore, if you wish your father to turn back into a
young man, should do that which I did yourselves
TR 2 LXD So y'all, if you wish to take your father back to his
adolescence, you will do the same things that I did.
TR 2 MJM Therefore, if you want your father to be restored to youth,
that which I did you all may yourselves do.
TR 2 YG Therefore, if you want to bring your father back to youth, you
will do yourself what I have done.

TR 3 .. VOs patris membra in vAs conicite; ego herbAs magicAs praebEbO."
TR 3 DJS Throw your father’s members into the vessel; I shall furnish
the magic herbs.
TR 3 DLP You, toss your father’s’s limbs in a cauldron; I will provide
the magic herbs.”
TR 3 KAC Throw the limbs of your father into a vessel; I will provide
the magic herbs.
TR 3 LXD Put your father's limbs into the kettle; I shall supply the
magic herbs.
TR 3 MJM Pile your father’s limbs together into a vase; I will provide
the magical herbs.
TR 3 YG Throw limbs of your father into the vase; I shall supply magical herbs.

TR 4 .. Quod ubi audItum est, fIliae rEgis cOnsilium quod dedisset
MEdEa nOn omittendum putAvErunt.
TR 4 DJS When they heard this, the king’s daughters thought that the
advice which Medea had given them should not be disregarded.
TR 4 DLP When they heard this, the king’s daughters believed that
Medea’s instructions must be followed to the letter.
TR 4 KAC When they had heard this, the king’s daughters did not think
they should disregard the plan which Media had given them.
TR 4 LXD Which, when it was heard, the daughters of the king had
thought they should disregard what Medea would give them.
TR 4 MJM When this was heard, the King’s daughters decided not to
neglect the advice which Medea had offered.
TR 4 YG Once this was heard, king’s daughters thought that the advice
which Medea gave should not be neglected.

TR 5 .. Patrem igitur Peliam necAvErunt et membra eius in vAs aEneum
coniEcErunt; nihil autem dubitAbant quIn hoc maximE eI prOfutUrum
esset.
TR 5 DJS So they killed their father Pelias and threw his body into
the vessel; and they had no doubt but that this was going to be of
great advantage to him.
TR 5 DLP Therefore, they killed their father, Pelias, and threw his
limbs into a copper cauldron; for they had no doubt at all that this
would benefit him greatly.
TR 5 KAC Therefore they killed their father Pelias and threw his limbs
into a bronze vessel; however they doubted not that this would be of
great benefit to him.
TR 5 LXD So they killed their father Pelias and threw his limbs into
the copper kettle, for they didn't doubt that this would be very
beneficial for him.
TR 5 MJM Therefore they killed their father Pelias and piled his limbs
together into a bronze vase; moreover they did not doubt in any way
that this would be the greatest benefit for him.
TR 5 YG So they killed their father Pelias and threw his limbs into a
bronze vase; moreover, they didn’t doubt that by doing this they
helped him greatly.

TR 6 .. At rEs omnInO aliter EvEnit ac spErAverant, MEdEa enim nOn
eAsdem herbAs dedit quibus ipsa Usa erat.
TR 6 DJS But the king turned out completely otherwise from what they
were expecting, for Medea did not give them the same herbs which she
herself had used.
TR 6 DLP But the affair turned out altogether differently than they
had hoped; for Medea did not administer the same herbs which she had
used before.
TR 6 KAC But the matter came out entirely otherwise than they had
hoped, for Medea did not give them the same herbs as those which she
had used herself.
TR 6 LXD But it turned out altogether otherwise than they had hoped,
for Medea didn't give them the herbs which she had used.
TR 6 MJM But the affair turned out entirely otherwise then they had
hoped, for Medea did not give them the same herbs which she herself
had used.
TR 6 YG But things came out wholly different than they hoped, for
Medea didn’t give the same herbs that she had used herself.

TR 7 .. Itaque postquam diU frUstrA exspectAvErunt, patrem suum rE
vErA mortuum esse intellExErunt.
TR 7 DJS And so, after they had waited for a long time, they realized
that their father has in fact died.
TR 7 DLP And so, after they had waited a long time in vain, they
realized that their father was, in fact, dead.
TR 7 KAC And so after they had waited in vain for a long time, they
realized that their father was truly dead.
TR 7 LXD So they waited in vain for a long time afterwards, before
they knew for a fact that their father was truly dead.
TR 7 MJM Therefore after they waited for a long time in vain, they
realized that their father was really dead.
TR 7 YG And so after they waited in vain for a long time, they
understood that their father was really dead.

TR 8 .. HIs rEbus gestIs MEdEa sE cum coniuge suO rEgnum acceptUram
esse spErAbat; sed cIvEs cum intellegerent quO modO PeliAs periisset,
tantum scelus aegrE tulErunt.
TR 8 DJS Having accomplished all this, Medea was expecting that she,
together with her spouse would receive the throne; but when the
subject heard how Pelias had perished, they were greatly indignant.
TR 8 DLP With these deeds accomplished, Medea hoped that she would
receive the crown with her husband; but his subjects knew how Pelias
had perished, and they were indignant at so evil a crime.
TR 8 KAC Having managed this situation, Medea hoped that she would
seize the kingdom with her husband, but when the citizens understood
in what way Pelias had perished, they could scarcely bear such
wickedness.
TR 8 LXD After these deeds were carried out, Medea was hoping that she
was going to receive the royal authority along with her spouse, but
the citizens, when they learned how the king had been destroyed, took
such wickedness ill.
TR 8 MJM While these things were happening, Medea was hoping that she
along with her husband would receive royal power; but the citizens,
when they understood in what manner Pelias had perished, bore so great
a crime with difficulty.
TR 8 YG After these things carried out, Medea hoped that she and her
husband would receive the throne; but citizens, when they learned how
Pelias had perished, were indignant at such great crime.

TR 9 .. Itaque IAsone et MEdEA E rEgnO expulsIs Acastum rEgem creAvErunt.
TR 9 DJS And so with Jason and Medea expelled from the realm, they
made Acastus king.
TR 9 DLP Accordingly, they banished Jason and Medea from the realm,
and made Acastus king.
TR 9 KAC And so, with Jason and Media expelled from the kingdom, they
made Acastus king.
TR 9 LXD And so they made Acastus king, after Jason and Medea were driven out.
TR 9 MJM Therefore, when Jason and Medea were banished from the
kingdom, they appointed Acastus king.
TR 9 YG And after they banished Jason and Medea from the kingdom, they
made Acastus the king.

If interested in joining us in this or another Latin or Greek study group, see:
http://www.hortuslegendo.com/home

http://www.quasillum.com/study/index.php

Exhibition on love in antiquity opens in Athens, Greece

2009-12-09T15:13:00.000-08:00

Exhibition on love in antiquity opens in Athens

By NICHOLAS PAPHITIS

ATHENS, Greece — When it came to endearments, Philonides wasn't a man of subtlety.
The lid of a small 5th century B.C. Greek vase, intended as a gift to a
flute-player named Anemone, bore a picture of male and female genitalia. To avoid any
misunderstanding, Philonides and Anemone's names were inscribed next to the appropriate parts.

The 2,500-year-old find, from a Greek museum's collection, is part of a groundbreaking new exhibition at the Museum of Cycladic Art in Athens dedicated to the ancient Greek god of love Eros.

What organizers say is the biggest-ever display of its kind brings together more than 270 artifacts from Greek and international museums, spanning a millennium from the 6th century B.C. to early Christian times.

Exhibits, representing the sacred and profane, the graphic and mundane, range from a 2,500-year-old love note and a spurned lover's deadly curse to a recreation of a Roman brothel.

"It is very easy to write about love, to read about love, even easier perhaps to fall in love, but it is extremely difficult to convey love through art," Cycladic Museum director Nikos Stampolidis said Wednesday,"Which is why there have been very few (archaeological) exhibitions about love."

"We tried to look at it not only as an abstract force of fertility or a god
as represented in ancient sculpture or painting, but also as a human value and a daily act," Stampolidis said.

Most exhibits make for easy family viewing, including marble masterpieces such as the Louvre's winged Eros stringing his bow — a Roman copy of a late classical bronze — and the 2nd century A.D. complex of Eros kissing goddess of the soul, Psyche, from Rome's Capitoline Museums.

Early Greek writers refer to Eros, whom the Romans called Cupid, as a primordial force second only to Chaos and Earth in the order of creation. Others see him as a lesser divinity whose mother was Aphrodite, goddess of love and beauty.

"Ancient writers used hundreds of adjectives for love," Stampolidis said.
"Invincible, immortal, uncertain, sleepless, thief of reason, sweet but also bitter, running swiftly on a path of fire."

The display unblushingly looks into love in religion and marriage, the status of women in ancient society, homosexuality and prostitution.

First comes Aphrodite suckling the baby Eros, a theme reflected in Christian
representations of the Virgin and Child, aiming his darts and even as an allegory of death.

The baroque affairs of the ancient gods are followed by love in everyday life: Demure vase paintings of marriage in classical Greece; a love note from one Arkesimos bidding his girlfriend Eumelis to come "with as much haste as possible;"
a curse on a lead tablet from a woman wishing a deadly fever on a certain Hermias who spurned her affections.

The earthier section is upstairs, where museum officials advise parents
accompany children under 16. There's a recreation of a room from a Roman brothel excavated in Pompeii, vase paintings with 'graphic sex scenes involving all imaginable combinations — what Stampolidis called "a kind of Kama Sutra" — even a stone altar shaped as a giant phallus.

"Nothing was obscene for the ancients," Stampolidis said. "We must look at things in an open way, and we wanted to present the beauty (of love) through the aesthetics of ancient Greek and Roman art so as to gain a different reading of the ancient world."

"Eros, from Hesiod's Theogony to late antiquity" opens Thursday and runs until April 5.

On the Net:

http://eros.fabulous.gr/

Σαλούστιος, Salustus the Philosopher

2009-12-09T08:57:00.000-08:00

"The world, one may say, is a Myth in which bodies and things are visible; but souls and minds, hidden." Σαλούστιος, 'Sallustius the philosopher", or Sallust, a Fourth Century A.D. philosopher and a friend of the Roman (and Byzantine) Emperor Julian, wrote the treatise 'On the Gods and the Cosmos', which has been called a catechism of Fourth Century GrecoRoman Pagans. Sallustius' work owes much to Iamblichus of Chalcis, who synthesized Platonism with Pythagoreanism and theurgy, and also to the Emperor Julian's philosophical writings.

http://www.hermetic.com/texts/on_the_gods-1.html

http://nekkidass.blogspot.com/2008/07/emperor-julian-attempting-to-make-peace.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_the_Apostate

Διόδωρος Σικελιώτης (Diodorus Siculus)

2009-12-09T07:01:00.000-08:00

Diodorus Siculus, whose name I first encountered this morning in Gregory Nagy's 'Greek Mythology and Poetics'is known for his universal history, 'Bibliotheca historica', which seems to have been the equivalent of an NYT bestseller among the literati of the GrecoRoman world around the time of Julius Caesar and Augustus Caesar and Jesus Christ.

One can get a taste of this important work at:
http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/home.html

Friendship & Community

2009-11-29T12:12:00.000-08:00

"The great sociologist Max Weber identified a pattern in the development of religious groups that he called the 'routinisation of charisma'. This is the phenomenon whereby the followers of a 'charismatic' religious teacher attempt to perpetuate their cohesion and purpose by codifying a doctrine, formulating rules and founding institutions. This process is probably necessary, yet how often, in the history of religious movements, it seems to contribute to the loss of what was most vital in the founder's vision.
A striking historical example of this phenomenon is the rapid rise and equally rapid ossification of the Franciscan Order within the Catholic Church. The Order, inspired by the leadership and example of Saint Francis himself, grew very swiftly in his lifetime. Not long after his death, however, a serious conflict developed between two wings – the 'spirituals', who wanted to stick to the pure vision of Francis, and the 'conventuals', who wanted to establish the Franciscans on the same lines as the other monastic orders of the time. The conflict finally ended in the triumph of the conventuals and – tragically – the execution of some of the spirituals.
Although Franciscans remain numerous in the Catholic Church to this day, they are divided into many separate orders, for the same tension has been played out again and again since that time. What is more, the bitterness of the original conflict seems to show that Francis failed to transmit his own inspiration fully. The most likely explanation of his failure is that he allowed his order to grow too fast for the successful communication (and therefore the preservation) of his spiritual vision. There was no possibility that his influence – his spiritual friendship, as one might call it – could be transmitted throughout such a rapidly expanding body.
One lesson from this story is that a spiritual community can only expand at the speed at which a circle of friendships can grow. Otherwise it becomes merely an institution. An institution may still be a force for good in the world: it may still be animated here and there, from time to time, with flashes of the original fire, but in itself it is something less than a spiritual community. A mere institution lacks the spiritual community's harmonious unity – its 'oneness in mind' – and its spiritual vitality.
Let me emphasise that I am not saying that 'institutions' as such are the enemy of harmony or vitality. Actually, they are indispensable if a spiritual group wishes to grow beyond a small, private circle, to have a real influence on the world. But institutional growth must be the servant of an expanding network of friends, not a substitute for it.
A test of the spiritual vitality of any spiritual institution is therefore whether there are strong friendships among its members. A clue would be found in the relative importance given to friendship over other kinds of relationship. If, on examining such a group, one saw that even married members put more emphasis on their spiritual friendships than on their family relationships (while not shirking their family duties, of course) it would augur well for the survival of that fellowship as a true spiritual community. One should also, however, consider whether the members not only got on well among themselves, but were also friendly to people beyond their own charmed circle. True friendship is not exclusive; it always includes a willingness to make new friends."
http://www.urbandharma.org/udharma8/friendship.html

Kuan Yin Myth http://www.urbandharma.org/udharma8/

'The Red Pagan' by Alfred George Stephens (1865-1933)

2009-11-14T21:48:00.000-08:00

"Literature is the human mind's effective manifestation in written language. That is put forward as the best definition attainable. For effective, if you like, read forceful or forcible. Everything is in the adjective. Artistic would be more satisfying in one sense; but what is artistic? — where is your criterion of art or of beauty? No; beauty must be construed in terms of strength — it is a mode of strength, as heat is a mode of motion. When you say effective, you do not eliminate the taste-cavil, the quality-cavil, but you refer it to a quantity standard that is more intelligible, more ponderable. How much, and how many, and for how long, does a book impress, and move, and thrill? What active energy does it disengage? What is its equivalent in thought-rays? in emotion-volts? What is its force, its effect? Estimate that, find that, judge that, and you will know a book's universal value as Literature. This standard of force is the ultimate standard. Tastes differ with individuals, countries, and eras; but three and two are five, and twice five are ten, everywhere in the universe. The scale inevitably adjusts itself. Uncle Tom's Cabin impressed many, and much; but for how long? Catullus has moved much, and long ; but how many? We argue that Catullus writes better Literature than Harriet Stowe — because people of 'taste', people of 'culture', people of 'learning', prefer Catullus. Well, if it be so, in the long run Catullus's total force of achieved impressions will outweigh Harriet Stowe's. Her work dies; his lives through the ages. His mind's 'effective manifestation' surpasses hers.

Style is a requisite of Literature ; but what is style ? Merely an aid to effect. Individual taste may prefer the florid or the simple ; but florid style or simple is valuable only in so far as it impresses, gives force. Having defined Literature as the mind's effective manifestation in written language, you can proceed to define the things that go to make effect, and style is one of them. But style, and thought, and emotion, and interest, and melody, and picture — these are only factors in the total. The total is force. In the last resort Literature must be judged, like everything else, by the force it develops — the quantity of latent energy which it makes active. Then one must wait ten thousand years to judge what is Literature. Yes; and longer than that. But you can make provisional judgments as you go along. If the literary effect of Mrs. Stowe is at this century's end equivalent to I0;r, and the literary effect of Catullus is equivalent to only Jx, you can still calculate on the future and defend your preference of Catullus, or of Mrs. Stowe. Nobody does, of course, but that is the only way to do it which will hold logic-water. Between any human mind, as agent, and the whole multitude of human minds, as objects, the sole fixed standard of measurement possible is a standard of how much force exerted, on how many, for how long. All the other standards shift with time, and place, and individuals, and circumstances.

So that, for humanity, Literature is the human mind's effective manifestation in written language. But, for the individual appraiser, there is a standard much more satisfactory, much more easily applied. Truth is — what you believe. Literature is — what you like. Admire the corollary: What I like is Literature....

Literature is one road to the Golden Age, one help to fix the date of the good time traditionally coming. And the object of existence on this earth is to have a good time. The only human way of having a good time is to get emotions, impressions, sensations — the most and most varied and most intense sensations that your brain can give. Every human being tries instinctively to live the most intensely conscious kind of life that he is capable of living, and to remain conscious for the longest possible period. A wise man would deliberately set himself to improve his brain and its attached body to the utmost limit of the cosmic and hereditary tether. He would get his sensations as he extended his capacity for sensations, but he would always look forward to the time when his brain would be as keen and full as he could make it by normal vital processes. Then, when his brain was full, he would start to absorb fully the world of sensations. Joy, grief, pleasure, pain, natural beauty, artistic beauty, the satisfaction of knowledge and the satisfaction of power, love, fatherhood, peace, war, the light of dawn and the light of woman's eyes, books and friends, music and mystery ; — he would welcome them all to the limit of his power to receive them all, when considered together with his mortality, his chance of continuing to receive all in the most intense measure. Deliberately he would milk the world of sensations into the bucket of his brain. And deliberately, if he understood that there was an intensity of sensation that transcended the normal power of his brain, he would artificially stimulate his brain, counting the cost, and realising that he was giving perhaps a day of normal life for a moment of life transcendent. Deliberately, a wise man would know excess and fatigue, intoxication and abstinence — for the pleasure of knowledge, and for the pleasure of excess and intoxication. And his motto would be, not 'Never too much', but 'Rarely too much' — 'Too much' accepted with the knowledge of his power to refuse if he so willed; 'Too much' welcomed because, on a calculation of chances, 'Too much' paid. Of course many philosophies contradict this philosophy. Yet observe that every philosopher adopts this philosophy. Disciples may swallow the universe in a pill of dogma, but the teacher compounds the pill from tested sensations.

Before the sheep can follow safely, the shepherd must know the path. Thus we see a long line of prophets, from Buddha to Tolstoy, engaged in regenerating the race with the elderly morals drawn from their unregenerate youth, and urging the duty of life-renunciation upon men who have never known the pleasure of life-acceptance. That is not pretty Nature's way. 'The world was made when a man was born. He must taste for himself the forbidden springs. He can never take warning from old-fashioned things. He must fight as a boy; he must drink as a youth. He must kiss, he must love; he must swear to the truth of the friend of his soul. He must laugh to scorn the hint of deceit in a woman's eyes that are clear as the wells of Paradise. And so he goes on till the world grows old; Till his tongue has grown cautious, his heart has grown cold; Till the smile leaves his mouth and the ring leaves his laugh. And he shirks the bright headache, you ask him to quaff. He grows formal with men, and with women polite, and distrustful of both when they're out of his sight. Then he eats for his palate and drinks for his head, And loves for his pleasure — and it's time he were dead....'

But, instead of dying, he lies down under a bo-tree or dons a peasant's smock, and distils delusive wisdom from the dregs of pomp and gayety that he can no longer enjoy. EXPERIENCE teaches; but only one's own experience. To gain your gospel you must earn your gospel. When Mrs. Besant visited our land Australia, I remember asking her if she could have accepted Theosophy at the outset of her public career. She reflected, and doubted, and opined, No; she had needed struggle: her life had fed a lamp to light her path. Ponder the exemplary case of Annie Besant. To many people she is a puzzle, a paradox. They contrast the creed she forsook with the creed she embraced, neo-Materialism with neo-Theosophy; and they see that the two are absolutely antagonistic, mutually exclusive. Yet here is a woman who passes from one to the other 'somewhat suddenly', in Bradlaugh's weighed and guarded phrase ; almost without a struggle, as it appears to others. In a moment she turns her mind upside-down, astounding friends by the ease with which she quits long-cherished convictions, and becoming immediately no less ardent and obstinate a champion of her new faith than of her old. The fruit of twenty years of strenuous thought tumbles at a single glance from the 'brilliant eyes' of Madame Blavatsky. Admitting her honesty, her sanity, how possibly account for a revolution so radical? But consider. The very violence of the contradiction between Annie Besant the Materialist and Annie Besant the Theosophist implies a close bond of unity. For it is of the essence of things that likeness breeds opposition, unlikeness apposition. Extremes meet ; complexity is nearest sim- plicity; and the universe rings with the chime of contraries. Perchance our paradox may sit on the in- most verge of harmony...."

There's a lot more to this book, 'The Red Pagan', from which this selection was excerpted; read more at:
http://www.archive.org/details/redpagan00steprich

SATYRICON - a translation project 83.12 - 84.3

2009-11-07T17:19:00.000-08:00

SATYRICON sentences 83.12 - 84.3

83.12 Ecce autem, ego dum cum ventis litigo, intravit
pinacothecam senex canus, exercitati vultus et qui videretur
nescio quid magnum promittere, sed cultu non proinde
speciosus, ut facile appareret eum hac nota
litteratum esse, quos odisse divites solent.

LXD But look, while I'm litigating with the breezes, an old white-haired man, with a troubled look, entered. There seemed to hang about him some nebulous promise of greatness. From his neglected grooming, it was evident that he was a man of letters, the sort whom wealthy men usually despise.

83.13 Is ergo ad latus constitit meum.

LXD Then he stood close beside me.

83.14 "Ego, inquit, poeta sum et, ut spero, non humillimi
spiritus, si modo coronis aliquid credendum est, quas etiam
ad imperitos deferre gratia solet.

LXD "I," said he, "am a poet and, I hope, not one lacking in talent, if one is to put any stock by laurels (which however grace is accustomed to grant also to the inexperienced).

83.15 'Quare ergo, inquis, tam male vestitus es?'

LXD "Why then," you ask, "are you so shabbily dressed?

83.16 Propter hoc ipsum.

LXD On account of this very fact.

83.17 Amor ingenii neminem unquam divitem fecit.

LXD The love of creative genius never made anyone rich.

83.18 "Qui pelago credit, magno se fenore tollit; qui pugnas
et castra petit, praecingitur auro; vilis adulator picto
iacet ebrius ostro, et qui sollicitat nuptas, ad praemia
peccat.

LXD 'Whoever trusts the sea gains great profits for himself. Whoever seeks battles and barracks girds himself with gold.
The fawning flatterer lies drunk in his purple-bordered toga, and whoever wrecks marriages, sins for financial reward.

83.19 Sola pruinosis horret facundia pannis, atque inopi
lingua desertas invocat artes.

LXD Eloquence alone shivers from the frost in tattered rags, and calls upon the abandoned arts with his plaintive song.'

84.1 "Non dubie ita est: si quis vitiorum omnium inimicus
rectum iter vitae coepit insistere, primum propter morum
differentiam odium habet: quis enim potest probare diversa?

LXD "Without a doubt, it is thus: if anyone is unfriendly to all vices and sets in to conduct his life uprightly, he is regarded with hatred, primarily because his behavior is different; for who is able to tolerate differences?

84.2 Deinde qui solas exstruere divitias curant, nihil volunt
inter homines melius credi, quam quod ipsi tenent.

LXD And then, they who only care about accumulating wealth, don't want anything else to be considered better among all mankind than what they themselves possess.

84.3 Insectantur itaque, quacunque ratione possunt,
litterarum amatores, ut videantur illi quoque infra pecuniam
positi.

LXD So they persecute the lovers of letters in any way they are able, so that they may be seen as inferior to those with money.

END

Evelyn Waugh

2009-11-03T14:03:00.000-08:00

"My knowledge of English literature derived chiefly from my home. Most of my hours in the form room for ten years had been spent on Latin and Greek, History, and Mathematics. Today I remember no Greek. I have never read Latin for pleasure and should now be hard put to compose a simple epitaph. But I do not regret my superficial classical studies. I believe that the conventional defence of them is valid; that only by them can a boy fully understand that a sentence is a logical construction and that words have basic inalienable meanings, departure from which is either conscious metaphor or inexcusable vulgarity. Those who have not been so taught — most Americans and most women — unless they are guided by some rare genius, betray their deprivation."
-- Evelyn Waugh

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200305/hitchens

Kali & Shiva Bhairava in Union

2009-10-31T18:13:00.000-07:00

SATYRICON - a translation project

2009-10-31T17:39:00.000-07:00

SATYRICON lines 83.1-83.11 October 31, 2009 Happy Halloween!

83.1 In pinacothecam perveni vario genere tabularum
mirabilem.

LXD I walked into a gallery displaying a variety of wonderful paintings.

83.2 Nam et Zeuxidos manus vidi nondum vetustatis iniuria
victas, et Protogenis rudimenta cum ipsius naturae veritate
certantia non sine quodam horrore tractavi.

LXD There I saw the work of Zeuxis not yet marred by the wounds of time, and also handled (not without some measure of awe) Protogenes' cartoons, which rivaled the Truth of Nature herself.

83.3 Jam vero Apellis quam Graeci mon(kthmon appellant, etiam adoravi.

LXD But when I saw Apelles', he whom the Greeks call 'peg-leg' ( μονοκνημον ), I even kowtowed.

83.4 Tanta enim subtilitate extremitates imaginum erant ad
similitudinem praecisae, ut crederes etiam animorum esse
picturam.

LXD For his figures were limned with such subtlety that you would believe the picture to be of their souls as well.

83.5 Hinc aquila ferebat caelo sublimis Idaeum, illinc
candidus Hylas repellebat improbam Naida.

LXD In this one, the eagle was carrying the boy [Catamitus] from Mt. Ida up to the sublimity of heaven; in that, the candidly chaste Hylas was resisting the wicked Naiad.

83.6 Damnabat Apollo noxias manus lyramque resolutam modo
nato flore honorabat.

LXD Apollo was damning his noxious hands and decorating his harp, just now unstrung, with the new-born flower, Hyacinth.

83.7 Inter quos etiam pictorum amantium vultus tanquam in
solitudine exclamavi: "Ergo amor etiam deos tangit.

LXD Lost among which visions from beloved pictures, as though in a desert solitude, I yelled out,"So Love moves even the gods.!"

83.8 Iuppiter in caelo suo non invenit quod diligeret, sed
peccaturus in terris nemini tamen iniuriam fecit.

LXD Jupiter didn't get to find somebody in his heaven that he could love, so he was going to sow his wild oats on Earth, but wronged nobody.

83.9 Hylan Nympha praedata temperasset amori suo, si venturum
ad interdictum Herculem credidisset.

LXD The Nymph who ravished [deponent ppl.] Hylas would have had [plpf. subjunct. imperasset & credidisset] her longing under control, had she believed Hercules would be coming to debar her.

83.10 Apollo pueri umbram revocavit in florem, et omnes
fabulae quoque sine aemulo habuerunt complexus.

LXD Apollo brought back the shade of his beloved boy transformed into the Hyacinth flower. And they (of similar myths) all enjoyed unrivaled Love's embrace.

83.11 At ego in societatem recepi hospitem Lycurgo crudeliorem."

LXD But myself, I have attracted an elective affinity [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elective_Affinities] more harrowing than with that Spartan lawgiver, Lycurgus, himself.
---------------------------

Catullus : Lesbia Nostra

2009-10-30T15:20:00.001-07:00

Catullus 58 :
Caeli, Lesbia nostra, Lesbia illa,
illa Lesbia, quam Catullus unam
plus quam se atque suos amavit omnes,
nunc in quadriviis et angiportis
glubit magnanimi Remi nepotes.

My translation :
Caelius, our own dear Lesbia, that very Lesbia,
our adored Lesbia, her whom alone Catullus
loved more than himself, more than his all,
down the crossroads and dark alleys she is
cleaning the bongs of great Remus' godsons.

The Belfort of Brugge (aka Belfry of Bruges)

2009-10-28T20:44:00.000-07:00

"Drinking Song" from 'Belfry of Bruges & Other Poems'

2009-10-28T20:34:00.000-07:00

"Come, old friend! Sit down and listen!
From the pitcher, placed between us,
How the waters laugh and glisten
In the head of old Silenus!

Old Silenus, bloated, drunken,
Led by his inebriate Satyrs;
On his breast his head is sunken,
Vacantly he leers and chatters.

Fauns with youthful Bacchus follow;
Ivy crowns that brow supernal
As the forehead of Apollo'
And possessing youth eternal.

Round about him, fair Bacchantes,
Bearing cymbals, flutes, and thyrses,
Wild from Naxian groves,of Zante's
Vineyards, sing delirious verses.

Thus he won, through all the nations,
Bloodless victories, and the farmer
Bore, as trophies and oblations,
Vines for banners, ploughs for armor.

Judged by no o'erzealous rigor,
Much this mystic throng expresses:
Bacchus was the type of vigor,
And Silenus of excesses.

These are ancient ethnic revels,
Of a faith long since forsaken;
Now the Satyrs, changed to Devils,
Frighten mortals wine-o'ertaken.

Now to rivulets from the mountains
Point the rods of fortune-dowsers;
Youth perpetual dwells in fountains,---
Not in flasks, and casks, and cellars.

Claudius, though he sang of flagons
And huge tankards filled with Rhenish,
From that fiery blood of dragons
Never would his own replenish.

Even Redi, though he chaunted
Bacchus in the Tuscan valleys,
Never drank the wine he vaunted
In his dithyrambic sallies.

Then with water fill the pitcher
Wreathed about with classic fables;
Ne'er Falernian threw a richer
Light upon Lucullus' tables.

Come, old friend, sit down and listen!
As it passes thus between us,
How its wavelets laugh and glisten
In the head of old Silenus!"

Nota Bene the prudent New England temperance the poet works into this 'drinking song'.

Here's another diamond from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's same book:
http://www.portitude.org/literature/longfellow/pt-carillon.php

ΑΡΕΤΗ ΚΕΛΣΟΥ

2009-10-25T12:49:00.000-07:00

What did ΑΡΕΤΗ (VIRTUS) actually mean to the Ancients?

President Teddy Roosevelt with his family

2009-10-18T23:10:00.000-07:00

President Theodore Roosevelt

2009-10-18T23:05:00.000-07:00

Seems President Roosevelt is suddenly controversial.

I see some pundits claiming recently that Teddy Roosevelt was too this or that. Here's a pretty representative rundown on their opining:

http://volokh.com/posts/1230483606.shtml

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly. So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat." T. Roosevelt

Cicero Denouncing Catiline in the Roman Senate (ed.2)

2009-10-17T22:25:00.000-07:00

A Caricature by John Leech (1817-1864)
{Left clique will show more character in the caricature.)

My first translation from Sallustius : Bellum Catilinae

2009-10-17T21:35:00.000-07:00

Here's my translation of a section of Gaius Sallustlus' The Catiline Conspiracy, from around 65 B.C. when the Roman Republic was on its last legs, about to succumb to tyranny. I was quite impressed with the contemporaneousness of this text which was written circa 2,070 years ago.

"Is cum se diceret indicaturum de coniuratione, si fides publica data esset, iussus a consule quae sciret edicere, eadem fere quae Volturcius de paratis incendiis, de caede bonorum, de itinere hostium senatum docet; praeterea se missum a M. Crasso, qui Catilinae nuntiaret ne eum Lentulus et Cethegus aliique ex coniuratione deprehensi terrerent, eoque magis properaret ad urbem accedere, quo et ceterorum animos reficeret et illi facilius e periculo eriperentur."

That fellow [L. Tarquinius] was declaring that he was ready to give information about the conspiracy if immunity (security of public faith) was granted him. Ordered by the consul to tell what he knew, he told the senate nearly the same things as [the previous witness] Volturcius about the preparations made for incendiary raids, about the slaughter of patriotic citizens, about the enemies' itinerary. Furthermore, that he had been sent by M. Crassus, who was wanting [optative subjunctive] to alert Catiline lest Lentulus and Cethegus and others from the conspiracy, having been taken into custody, might deter him, rather should he continue hastening toward the City to gain access, by which he may restore the courage of the others and they may be more easily snatched away from legal action.

"Sed ubi Tarquinius Crassum nominavit, hominem nobilem maxumis divitiis, summa potentia, alii rem incredibilem rati, pars tametsi verum existumabant, tamen quia in tali tempore tanta vis hominis magis leniunda quam exagitanda videbatur, plerique Crasso ex negotiis privatis obnoxii, conclamant indicem falsum esse, deque ea re postulant uti referatur."

And when Tarqinius denounced Crassus, an aristocrat with very great wealth and maximum political influence, some reckoned the denunciation untrustworthy, a portion of senators, even though considering the testimony true, yet, because the power of the man, was so great at such a time, glossing over the affair seemed better than stirring up trouble. Also a good many senators in their private affairs being corrupted by Crassus, all of a sudden the senators are wailing in coyote chorus that the informer is mistaken; and concerning that indictment, they beg that the legal processing be withdrawn.

Bearded Dragon

2009-09-17T00:43:00.000-07:00

Pogona vitticeps, native to Central Australia; also a popular pet in Europe and USA.
[Left Click to enlarge and see more colors]

Doesn't he have a look of intense devotion, rather like a SADHU?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sadhu

Vailala Madness

2009-09-16T23:50:00.000-07:00

Caroline Mytinger combined her art with a natural bent for anthropology, painting fine pictures of the indigenes of the South Pacific. Years ago my good angel (eudaimwn) led me to buy a copy of her 'New Guinea Headhunt', which has now become a rather rare book. She wrote in it (pp.323ff) of a Papuan, 'Emp' ("as big and black as Eugene O'Neill's Emperor Jones"), suddenly doubling-up, clutching his belly in painful spasms. This sort of attack was known to the indigenes as 'iki haveve', translating as 'belly-go-round'. The attack was resolved by her guide grabbing the man by his hair, jerking his head back, and then giving "the boy a blistering smack across the side of the head." Later she had read a paper by anthropologist F.E.Williams entitled "Vailala Madness" which, she wrote, appeared to explain the phenomenon as a 'cargo cult' manifestation.

I can recall scenes in early 20th Century cinema, especially in detective and psycho-drama, where a sudden slap was utilized to cure the 'emotionally out-of-control'. Perhaps Ms. Mytinger, not having much access to American pop culture, only saw this among the South Pacific indigenes. One wonders if this is still a socially acceptable reponse to such phenomena, or is it now ruled out as 'politically incorrect'?

Other 'cargo cult' manifestations were said to resemble the phenomena called 'getting the Holy Ghost' among some Christian churches and assemblies.

La Maddalena by Jacopo Tintoretto (1598)

2009-09-15T14:14:00.000-07:00

[Left click to enlarge]

Three exciting writers from the drab Forties & Fifties

2009-09-10T13:43:00.000-07:00

"He was an erudite and an elegant writer and none of the artifices of rhetoric was unfamiliar to him. His style was rich in simile and metaphor, metonymy, synecdoche and catachresis. He never let a noun go by without an escort of two stalwart adjectives. Images sprang to his mind as profuse and fat as mushrooms after rain, and being well read in the Scriptures, the works of the Fathers and the Latin moralists, he was never at a loss for recondite allusion. He was learned in sentence structure, simple, compound and compound-complex, and could not only compose a period, with clauses and subclauses, of the most choice elaboration, but bring it to a conclusion with a triumphant clang that had all the effect of a door slammed in your face. This manner of writing, to which an ingenious critic had given the name of Mandarin, is much admired by those who affect it, but it has the the trifling disadvantage of taking a long time to say what can be said in brief; and in any case it would be discordant with the plain, blunt style in which this narrative is written; and so, instead of making a vain attempt to reproduce the good father's grandiloquence, the author of these pages has thought it better to give the gist of the matter [Inquisition 'auto de fe'] in his own simple way."
W. Somerset Maugham: 'Catalina', Doubleday, 1948, pp.89-90

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._Somerset_Maugham

Maugham and Michener and Han Suyin are the writer of the postWW2 period that I most enjoy reading. Suyin's autobiographical works are quite excellent history.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tales_of_the_South_Pacific

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Han_Suyin

Man's Rage for Chaos: Biology, Behavior & the Arts

2009-09-04T19:02:00.000-07:00

Man's Rage for Chaos by Morse Peckham, Professor of English at Univ. of Pennsylvania,
later Distinguished Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of
South Carolina, is his much neglected 1967 breakthrough analysis of behavior and the arts.
Cultural criticism has been too obsessed with the rage for order to be able to grasp
the import of Peckham's search for "some human activity, which serves to break up orientations,
to weaken and frustrate the tyrannous drive to order, to prepare the individual to observe
what the orientation tells him is irrelevant, but what may be very relevant."
This book is destined to force a sharp turn in critical cultural studies, because it addresses
the rage for chaos in traditional "high culture," not just in popular culture.

4th Cent. B.C. Mosaic from Pella, Makedonia

2009-08-28T23:19:00.000-07:00

Dionysos is riding Acimonyx jubatus (a cheetah).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dionysus

Human Blood Sacrifice in Qinghai, P.R.C.

2009-08-25T08:19:00.000-07:00

Mountain Gods continue to receive human blood sacrifices (Bon tradition) in Qinghai Province, P.R.C. as seen in this news report video: http://tinyurl.com/n893q6

About Qinghai Province: http://tinyurl.com/4xdt2l

Immanuel Velikovsky & Cultural Amnesia

2009-08-23T13:58:00.000-07:00

Papers of the 1974 international symposium at the University of Lethbridge regarding Immamuel Velikovsky's works:
http://www.grazian-archive.com/quantavolution/vol_14/rfs_fw.htm

Especially interesting for me is the fifth paper, by Irving Wolfe, proposing that catastrophic experiences are metamorphosed in the Collective Consciousness of the artists' Unconscious, providing inspiration for works of narrative art:
http://www.grazian-archive.com/quantavolution/vol_14/rfs_05.htm

Review: The Riverrun Trilogy by S.P. Somtow

2009-08-23T02:59:00.000-07:00

The Riverrun Trilogy' by S.P. Somtow is one of the most enthralling novels I've read. The story is told in the first person, by several of the characters; each character relating individual perspective on events. Literary quotes, often poetic, occur in the beginnings of each long chapter, thus setting the mood for coming events. Characters are well developed and the story enrapturing, making one care how it may unfold.
This book makes me look into my own sociological workings, as well as the characters'. There are some memorable quotables to be found therein: for a little taste, "You've spent your entire life mythologizing the mundane. . . . Is that not the function of poetry?"p. 148; "Sometimes when I dream of Katastrofa she is like a dragon and she sucks me into herself and folds her wings around me---"p. 21; "Every man IS an island. The universe splits off a million million times each millisecond, and each of us carries a private universe around with him wherever he goes. Where the universes intersect, that's when we think we encounter other people and we think they are our friends and our parents and the other people we love. But we never really know them because we never cross from our little bubble of reality into theirs."p. 82.
I recommend this book to anyone (who can tolerate a little sexual content and explicit language).
Would that it were better known, so more could enjoy it!

S.P. Somtow: The Riverrun Trilogy

2009-08-21T22:43:00.000-07:00

I'm finding the reading of Somtow Papinian Sucharitkul (surname is first) a strong tonic to my imagination. I had been reading only the Greek and Latin classics for the past few years. The text is The Riverrun Trilogy, 1996 edition, in English.
ISBN 1-56865-194-5

William Blake Tarot of CreatIve Imagination

2009-08-21T22:28:00.000-07:00

This tarot (for my Self at this time anyway) is the ultimate object of contemplation.

Check the links at the Yahoo group for more info:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/William_Blake_Tarot/

EUPHORIA

2009-08-13T14:43:00.000-07:00

Euphoria is medically recognized as an affect (emotional and mental state) defined as a series of great elation and well-being. The term is is often used colloquially to define an emotion of intense transcendental happiness combined with an overwhelming sense of well-being. In Greek the word ἘΥΦΟΡΊΑ [frequentative from εὖ + φερεῖν] means "power of easily bearing or carrying, contentment, sense of well-being, grace of movement, fertility".
Euphoria is generally considered to be an exaggerated state resulting from psychological or pharmacological stressors and not typically achieved during the course of human experience, although some natural behaviors, such as acivities resulting in orgasm or the triumph of an athlete, can induce brief states of euphoria. Euphoria has also been cited during certain religious or spiritual rituals and meditation.
Kakaphoria, if such a were word used by the Ancient Greeks, would mean the opposite to euphoria.

Oregon sk8board parkrats & the Portland Paradise

2009-08-09T19:11:00.000-07:00

All about the Portland Paradise
http://tinyurl.com/kknetb

Oregon sk8boardparks
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5uKJHwTkek

Pilgrims:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofP7lD5HdYI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=roPfmW9U_nY

August 21 Update: But digg this new skatepark in Shanghai, China:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vntRpNbxc_g

RadioHead's 'Harry Patch (in memory of)'

2009-08-09T14:59:00.000-07:00

Harry Patch, recently dying at 111 years of age, was the last survivor of UK's World War I military forces. He had, and is himself, a message for us.

One may enjoy this eerily beautiful song through the player in the article.

http://tinyurl.com/lemt34

'Cult of Personality'

2009-08-07T13:10:00.000-07:00

'Cult of personality', a concept which appears to have been coined by Karl Marx, seems to be the dynamic underlying the creation of mythic heroes down through the ages. This can be seen with clearest objectivity in reading the Greek Classics, especially the Iliad, Xenophon, Thucydides and Herodotus. Among the Ancient Greeks there were temples and even worship, including prayer and sacrifices, of demigods and heroes.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cult_of_personality

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_hero_cult

DAVID BOWIE, 'subter personas'

2009-07-24T13:49:00.000-07:00

Who or what is behind the artistic personas of David Bowie? (Quisquis est subter David Bowie personas?
Nonne leoninam pellem induere solet?) Isn't he used to wearing the skin [or playing the role] of the lion?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6en0mExSrw Romy Haag & David Bowie

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2p-Jdkd7zs human side of Bowie?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Bowie

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JGMbSrJzaI "V-2 Schneider"

Progressive Governance

2009-07-24T10:13:00.000-07:00

Progressive Governance if well-intentioned, powerful, and efficient should be able to make a better life for its citizens. Is that not so? Walter Williams shows, on You-Tube, actual results of Progressive Governance as experienced in Philadelphia:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1r-r6iLBEI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DS0XXFdyfI

Do you think 'Global Governance', for which Progressives long, would do any better?

"...what it once was like in America when men were free"

2009-07-23T00:49:00.000-07:00

It seems we need to be reminded,

as President Ronald Reagan pointed out in 1961,

how important living free is for individual citizens and the entire Nation.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=fRdLpem-AAs

Could US Liberals be turning Fascist?

2009-07-12T11:07:00.000-07:00

Fascism does indeed favor the social intervention so beloved of US Liberals, also the ultimate governmental control of industry, production, finance, etc.

The fascist governments of the past, however, while actually resulting in national destruction, were seemingly very nationalistic.

Our US Liberals however decry Nationalism and Colonialism, seemingly ready to give up our US sovereignty to a global government, perhaps by bankruptcy, to achieve peace at any price. 'Parafascist' seems a more correct term for them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ryr4o90odww

http://tinyurl.com/nc7vw8

Michael Jackson, C.S. Lewis, & 'the face of God'

2009-06-30T11:00:00.000-07:00

"When I look at a child I see the face of God" said Michael Jackson in an interview in which he recommended his 'Childhood' music video for understanding his Weltanschauung:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVJscGa5vbc

A Psalm attributed to King David (Septuagint #23, Masoretic #24) says, "This is the generation seeking him, seeking the face of the God of Jacob." (my 'nekkid' translation)

C.S. Lewis wrote in 'The Weight of Glory': "if we are made for heaven, the desire for our proper place will be already in us, but not yet attached to the true object,... In speaking of this desire for our own far-off country, which we find in ourselves even now, I feel a certain shyness. I am almost committing an indecency. I am trying to rip open the inconsolable secret in each one of you --- the secret which hurts so much that you take your revenge on it by calling it names like Nostalgia and Romanticism and Adolescence; the secret which pierces with such sweetness that when, in very intimate conversation, the mention of it becomes imminent, we grow awkward and affect to laugh at ourselves; the secret we cannot hide and we cannot tell, though we desire to do both. We cannot tell it because it is a desire for something that has never actually appeared in our experience. We cannot hide it because our experience is constantly suggesting it, and we betray ourselves like lovers at the mention of a name. Our commonest expedient is to call it beauty and behave as if that settled the matter.... The books or the music in which we thought the beauty was located will betray us if we trust to them; it was not IN them, it only came THROUGH them, and what came through them was longing. These things ... are not the thing itself; they are only the scent of a flower we have not found, the echo of a tune we have not heard, news from a country we have never yet visited." C.S. Lewis speaks more to this mystique in his autobiographical book 'Surprised By Joy' and in various published letters. "We may ignore, but we can nowhere evade, the presence [that is, 'the face'] of God. The world is crowded with Him. He walks everywhere incognito." as Lewis wrote in his 'Letters to Malcolm'.

http://planetnarnia.wordpress.com/about/

Hesychasm and the 'Jesus Prayer'

2009-06-28T17:59:00.000-07:00

Isn't the 'Light' the same in both the Quaker and Hesychastic traditions?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hesychasm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quaker

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cappadocian_Fathers

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desert_Fathers

Chronological Snobbery

2009-06-21T21:55:00.000-07:00

So what's the good word,you say? Well,'chronological snobbery' is

a mighty fine one to consider.

It was a fine gift to our generation of novelty and change seekers

from the astute creator of the world of Narnia; viz., C.S. Lewis.

Can those who are blinded by their chronological snobbery produce

a sound fiscal policy? Or a better world?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chronological_snobbery

ΓΝΩΘΙ ΣΑΥΤΟN

Abenteuer im Wunderland

2009-06-09T13:13:00.000-07:00

Hearkening to political gobsheen?

Plato : σωφρόνως γε οἰκοῦσα πόλις εὖ ἂν οἰκοῖτο : A state with habits of self-control would be well governed.

President John Adams : his gnomes

2009-04-30T14:01:00.000-07:00

President John Adams was the first US Vice President (1789-1797), during the presidency of George Washington, and the second US President (1797-1801)

"Be not intimidated... nor suffer yourselves to be wheedled out of your liberties by any pretense of politeness, delicacy, or decency. These, as they are often used, are but three different names for hypocrisy, chicanery and cowardice."

"Nip the shoots of arbitrary power in the bud, is the only maxim which can ever preserve the liberties of any people."

"Power always thinks it has a great soul and vast views beyond the comprehension of the weak."

"The jaws of power are always open to devour, and her arm is always stretched out, if possible, to destroy the freedom of thinking, speaking, and writing."

"The moment the idea is admitted into society that property is not as sacred as the law of God, and that there is not a force of law and public justice to protect it, anarchy and tyranny commence."

"The right of a nation to kill a tyrant in case of necessity can no more be doubted than to hang a robber, or kill a flea."

"In my many years I have come to a conclusion that one useless man is a shame, two is a law firm, and three or more is a congress."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Adams

ΒΙΟΣ (BIOS) & ΖΩΗ (ZWH)

2009-04-27T18:08:00.000-07:00

Richard Chenevix Trench, in his 1880 tome on Greek synonyms, tells us that both English and Latin are impoverished by not having words more precise than 'life' and 'vita', Ancient Greek in its Attic and Koine dialects having the contrasting synonyms βίος 'bios' and ζωή'zwh'. For an Anglican archbishop, he was surprisingly free of party-line blinkers; blinkers being the equine tack that limits the vision of draft horses so as to keep them conforming to the driver's will. Political parties seem to exert a similar control of their true believers through less obvious devices. 'Readings' perhaps?

http://chronicle.com/free/v55/i33/33b00601.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Chenevix_Trench

Memo to Ted Mathys

2009-04-22T23:41:00.000-07:00

Lieber Ted,

I've been finding The Spoils a damn fine read,

and already I feel a bibliogenic lust for s'more

before the eternal returning of der Uebermann.

http://www.coffeehousepress.org/thespoils.asp

http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/20599

ROMAE DIES NATALIS

2009-04-22T09:01:00.000-07:00

Romans celebrate the City's 2762nd birthday.

http://eternallycool.net/category/birthday/

http://eternallycool.net/

Disciples at Emmaus Recognizing their Master, Back from Hell

2009-04-14T02:09:00.000-07:00

from a 1602 Painting by Michelangelo da Caravaggio, who took care to show Jesus' shadow

Cappadocian Fathers

2009-04-12T16:14:00.000-07:00

Θεὸς Θεοῖς ἑνούμενος ( from the Speech on the Theophany )
" Ὢ τῆς καινῆς μίξεως ὢ τῆς παραδόξου κράσεως ὁ ὢν γίνεται καὶ ὁ ἄκτιστος κτίζεται καὶ ὁ ἀχώρητος χωρεῖται διὰ μέσης ψυχῆς νοερᾶς μεσιτευούσης θεότητι καὶ σαρκὸς παχύτητι. Καὶ ὁ πλουτίζων πτωχεύει, πτωχεύει γὰρ τὴν ἐμὴν σάρκα͵ ἵν΄ ἐγὼ πλουτήσω τὴν αὐτοῦ θεότητα. Καὶ ὁ πλήρης κενοῦται, κενοῦται γὰρ τῆς ἑαυτοῦ δόξης ἐπὶ μικρόν͵ ἵν΄ ἐγὼ τῆς ἐκείνου μεταλάβω πληρώσεως. Τίς ὁ πλοῦτος τῆς ἀγαθότητος; Τί τὸ περὶ ἐμὲ τοῦτο μυστήριον; Μετέλαβον τῆς εἰκόνος καὶ οὐκ ἐφύλαξα· μεταλαμβάνει τῆς ἐμῆς σαρκός͵ ἵνα καὶ τὴν εἰκόνα σώσῃ καὶ τὴν σάρκα ἀθανατίσῃ. Δευτέραν κοινωνεῖ κοινωνίαν͵ πολὺ τῆς προτέρας παραδοξοτέραν· ὅσῳ τότε μὲν τοῦ κρείττονος μετέδωκε͵ νῦν δὲ μεταλαμβάνει τοῦ χείρονος. Τοῦτο τοῦ προτέρου θεοειδέστερον, τοῦτο τοῖς νοῦν ἔχουσιν ὑψηλότερον. "
http://www.ellopos.net/elpenor/greek-texts/fathers/gregory-theologian.asp Bilingual Anthology (English by the side of Attic Greek)

""O new commingling; O strange conjunction; the Self-Existent comes into being, the Uncreate is created, That which cannot be contained is contained, by the intervention of an intellectual soul, mediating between the Deity and the corporeity of the flesh. And He Who gives riches becomes poor, for He assumes the poverty of my flesh, that I may assume the richness of His Godhead. He that is full empties Himself, for He empties Himself of His glory for a short while, that I may have a share in His Fulness. What is the riches of His Goodness? What is this mystery that is around me? I had a share in the image; I did not keep it; He partakes of my flesh that He may both save the image and make the flesh immortal. He communicates a second Communion far more marvellous than the first, inasmuch as then He imparted the better Nature, whereas now Himself partakes of the worse. This is more godlike than the former action, this is loftier in the eyes of all men of understanding.""
[Official 'Church of Greece' translation]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregory_of_Nazianzus

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregory_of_Nyssa

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basil_the_Great

V Gemina & Digamma

2009-04-12T15:58:00.000-07:00

"" ...Quintilian in various places (e. g., Institutio Oratoria 1.4.8, 1.7.26, 12.10.29) discusses the "Aeolic letter" or "Aeolic digammon", which is his
term for the sound in words like "seruus" and "ceruus".
At one point, he refers to the doubled "u" in such words as "u gemina", and, since the "w" is essentially the same letters, though used differently, perhaps this
would do as a Latin name for "w"."" 12 April 2009
Terrence Lockyer, Johannesburg, South Africa

http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/quintilian/quintilian.institutio9.shtml Latin text

http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Quintilian/Institutio_Oratoria/9A*.html#1 English translation

Is the 'V gemina' perhaps comparable to the Greek 'digamma' ?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digamma

Quintilian also recommends the use of figures (which he prefers to call tropes) 'for they add force and grace to things.'
"nam et vim rebus adiciunt et gratiam praestant." [Institutio Oratoria IX, 1]

Devil to Pay

2009-04-10T19:28:00.000-07:00

"What's that you say, Mr. Citizen?

Is it old Mr. Debbil we must pay?"

"Don't you know damnation pays everyman's scores? ...We knew we should have the Devil to pay one time or another, and now you see, like honest men, we have pawned our Souls for the whole Reckoning." Thomas Brown, Letters From the Dead to the Living, 1707.

http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/devil-to-pay.html

QVIDAM IMPERIVM FREQVENS PETEBANT ACQVE VIROS LIBEROS OPPRIMERE CVPIEBANT

Apollo Purifies Orestes of Matricidal Guilt

2009-04-07T20:25:00.000-07:00

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orestes_(mythology)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clytemnestra

Recalling a 1984 Beijing Dawning

2009-04-05T21:11:00.000-07:00

The gibbous old alma bent to her broom as

Sweep : Sweep : Sweep : Amah sweeps up

Dust into billowing Dust into reddening Dust

Right in the Red Dawn of another rising Day

Messallina (17/20-48 A.D)

2009-04-03T08:57:00.000-07:00

Marble sculpture, circa 45 A.D.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messalina

The 'wolf-girl' and empress immortalized by writings of Tacitus, Suetonius, Juvenal, and Robert Graves.

Kappadokia and Roma with Joan Lewis

2009-03-20T10:24:00.000-07:00

Today 'Joan's Rome' blog was added to our Links. Excellent pictures of the rugged terrain of Cappadocia with its many caves, crags [some resembling that "monstrous marvel" Polyphemous of Homer's Odyssey, IX:190ff] and the fairy chimneys are to be found in her 19 March post as well as the latest 'news of the Holy See'.

Explication of fairy chimneys: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairy_chimney

Holy See, Batman?? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_See

Menander Monostichon 422

2009-03-14T00:32:00.000-07:00

Ὁ μὴ δαρεὶς ἄνθρωπος οὐ παιδεύεται seems to get translated usually as "Male eruditur ille, qui non vapulat". I don't think that translation reflects the original Greek syntax very well. Smyth describes this syntax in his Greek Grammar (Harvard University Press, 1920) Sections 2280 and 2286. μὴ is used in the protasis because the "clause expresses something that is conceived or imagined ... the principle clause [apodosis] states the conclusion as a fact on the supposition that the protasis is true...."p.513

In light of his explanation, I render the monostichon in English as "If the man was not beaten, he is not educated" or "The man, who was not paddled, is not educated."

Isidore of Seville (560-636 A.D.)

2009-03-12T20:25:00.000-07:00

Saint Isidore is one of the greatest cultural lamps of the dark ages, preserving the light of knowledge from ancient Greece and Rome.

A great encyclopaedist, scholar, and sage, his major treatise is The Etymologies, also known as The Origins.

http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Isidore_of_Seville

Prayer before logging onto the Internet:
http://www.preces-latinae.org/thesaurus/Varia/SIsidore.html

George Herbert (1593 - 1633)

2009-03-07T22:41:00.000-08:00

"JORDAN

"Who says that fictions only and false hair

Become a verse? Is there no truth in beauty?

Is all good structure in a winding stair?

May no lines pass, except they do their duty

Not to a true, but a painted chair?

"Is it no verse, except enchanted groves

And sudden arbors shadow coarse-spun lines?

Must purling streams refresh a lover's loves?

Must all be veiled while he that reads divines,

Catching the sense at two removes?

"Shepherds are honest people: let them sing:

Riddle who list, for me, and pull for prime:

I envy no man's nightingale nor spring;

Nor let them punish me with loss of rhyme,

Who plainly say, My God, My King."

-- by George Herbert, 1593 - 1633

http://www.absolutelypoetry.com/author/george-herbert/jordan.html

http://www.archive.org/stream/herbertsworks02waltuoft/herbertsworks02waltuoft_djvu.txt

"MORTIFICATION

"How soon doth man decay!
When clothes are taken from a chest of sheets
To swaddle infants, whose young breath
Scarce knows the way ;
Those clouts are little winding sheets, [as in breech clouts]
Which do consign and send them unto death.

"When boyes go first to bed,
They step into their solitary graves;
Sleep binds them fast ; only their breath
Makes them not dead.
Successive nights, like rolling waves,
Convey them quickly, who are bound for death.

"When youth is frank and free,
And calls for musick, while his veins do swell,
All day exchanging mirth and breath
In company ;
That music ruminons to the knell, [ruminates? summons?]
Which shall befriend him at the houle of death.

"When man grows staid and wise,
Getting a houle and home, where he may move [house?]
Within the circle of his breath,
Schooling his eyes;
That dumb inclosure maketh love
Unto the coffin, that attends his death.

"When age grows low and weak,
Marking his grave, and thawing every year,
Till all do melt, and drown his breath
When he would speak ;
A chair or litter shows the biere [foreshadows or prefigures?]
Which shall convey him to the houle of death.

"Man, ere he is aware,
Hath put together a solemnity,
And drest his hearse, while he has breath
As yet to spare.
Yea, Lord, instruct us so to die
That all these dyings may be life in death."

-- by George Herbert, 1593 - 1633

also cf.: http://user.itl.net/~geraint/miscpoem.html

Dast anyone say 'dast'?

2009-03-07T14:35:00.000-08:00

Dast anyone say 'dast'?

Yes indeed we do dast.

Let dastards blast, all

Though down we be cast

Nekkid to write this dast.

http://www.grammarphobia.com/blog/2008/10/nobody-dast-blame-this-man.html

Howse 'at, Barak Obama?

2009-03-04T14:59:00.000-08:00

Observations from across great waters:

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/christopher_howse/blog/2009/01/21/barak_obama_as_hebrew_hero

"Quid enim est stultius quam incerta pro certis habere, falsa pro veris?"
Marcus Tullius Cicero: Cato Maior de Senectute, 19.68

http://la.wikisource.org/wiki/Cicero

Czestochowska Matka Boska

2009-03-01T15:13:00.000-08:00

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Black_Madonna_of_Cz%C4%99stochowa