Greetings Fellow Readers,
I come bearing tidings of the pleasures and perils of delving deeply into the entrancing wisdoms of antiquity! Off the well travelled path of modernity there lays a treasure trove of themes and cadences unfamiliar and entrancing, to wit: The Classics!
I recently went sleuthing for something different and happened onto a neglected Kindle ebook copy of the Harvard Classics collection. 71 volumes of renowned literature from times past when Harvard was actually interested in such things. Among them was the text of the Oddessy, Homer’s history of Ulysses adventurous journey home in the aftermath of the Trojan War.
Even adventurous readers may find the language cumbersome at first, but after a bit of exposure the rhythm and innate poetry of the verse begins to sound almost like music, with phrases that resonate reassuringly like the themes in a symphony. It’s hard to describe but the term Lyrical rings true: “upon the rose fingers of dawn Ulysses was on his way from Troy in his hollow black ship on the wine dark sea.”
Here’s a small sample, Ulysses is enroute to certain danger as he approaches the palace of the goddess Circe, who has bedeviled his crew and turned them into swine for her future feasting. Zeus sends his messenger Hermes to help out…
“ ‘With that I went up from the ship and the sea-shore. But lo, when in my faring through the sacred glades I was now drawing near to the great hall of the enchantress Circe, then did Hermes, of the golden wand, meet me as I approached the house, in the likeness of a young man with the first down on his lip, the time when youth is most gracious. So he clasped my hand and spake and hailed me: ‘“Ah, hapless man, whither away again, all alone through the wolds, thou that knowest not this country? And thy company yonder in the hall of Circe are penned in the guise of swine, in their deep lairs abiding. Is it in hope to free them that thou art come hither? Nay, methinks, thou thyself shalt never return but remain there with the others. Come then, I will redeem thee from thy distress, and bring deliverance. Lo, take this herb of virtue, and go to the dwelling of Circe, that it may keep from thy head the evil day.”
Just a thought,
-Grouchy
PS, The Harvard Classics, Kindle-version is $0.49 on Amazon!
ADDENDUM
I just know Y’all are concerned about poor Ulysses and the witch Circe; here’s a summary of how it ends… LoL
“ She will mix thee a potion and cast drugs into the mess; but not even so shall she be able to enchant thee; so helpful is this charmed herb that I shall give thee, and I will tell thee all. When it shall be that Circe smites thee with her long wand, even then draw thou thy sharp sword from thy thigh, and spring on her, as one eager to slay her. And she will shrink away and be instant with thee to lie with her. Thenceforth disdain not thou the bed of the goddess, that she may deliver thy company and kindly entertain thee. But command her to swear a mighty oath by the blessed gods, that she will plan nought else of mischief to thine own hurt, lest she make thee a dastard and unmanned, when she hath thee naked.”
It gets a little spicy after that. So get thee to a Library!
I’m literally laughing my ass off reading Vanity Fair by Thackeray.
