[“From time to time ... one must redo one’s personal Pantheon, even if it is with a suspicious eagerness that one throws the once honorable bones out onto the streets.” – Alain Badiou] This bunch of gods has failed me for the last time. I’ll never buy one from a Greek again. … [Read more...]
“Face of Stone” / Memorable Fancies #1513
10 April, 2016 by Leave a Comment
[“At a more remote period, the Greeks worshipped uncarved stones.” – Pausanias] “These raw stones,” I told him, “pulled from the earth or found at the base of a cliff – these are images of the gods.” “But,” he said, “I always thought that the gods looked pretty much like us – don’t they? If they didn’t, how could we worship them?” I stared at him with a face of stone. … [Read more...]
“Nihil est” / Memorable Fancies #473
28 September, 2013 by 1 Comment
Current scholarship holds that the philosopher Metrodorus of Chios lived “at some time during the fourth century BCE.” It is believed, by those who keep track of such things, that Metrodorus wrote one treatise, and perhaps two others also. But all this is conjecture. One fragment of the writings of Metrodorus survives, dutifully recorded by generations of careful philologists: “None of us knows anything, not even whether we know or do not know, nor do we know whether … [Read more...]
“Tour Bus to the Gate of Hell” / A Memorable Fancy #268
2 March, 2013 by Leave a Comment
“‘Gate of Hell’ they told the tourists. What a fake! Yes, there’s a hole in the ground, a rotting iron grate, a lock a child could break.” They gape, grab a shot, then the bus goes on to Aulis, Delphi, some other place. “I’ve seen the Gate of Hell itself!” they say, back at home. “Here’s one of the kids,” posing and squinting up at harsh Apollo before the Gate, the very place – “But the real Gate of Hell’s in Byblos,” Herb interrupts, “We saw it last year, when we took that … [Read more...]
Memorable Fancies 