Classics in Contemporary Culture

Israelis and Palestinians on a Tragic Stage

Louis Rene Beres writes a column (WorldNetDaily) [ah, on further investigation, it's a retread of the author's 1995 essay with very similar title--"Oslo" rather than "disengagement" in the title] in which he interweaves his opinions on the current situation of Israelis and Palestinians with references to Greek tragedies, Aristotle, Thucydides, Homer...and specifically compares Israel and/or Ariel Sharon to Orestes.  Here's a snippet--the second quoted paragraph I can make no sense of...any thoughts?

"High Tragedy," as it has evolved from fifth-century Athens, is always unequivocal on one crucial point: The victim is one whom "the gods kill for their sport, as wanton boys do flies." This wantonness, this capriciousness, is what makes tragedy unendurable to human reason and sensibility. But now, with "disengagement" and the accompanying release of almost 1,000 murderous Arab terrorists, Israel's tragic fate will be largely self-inflicted.
...
In authentic tragedy, there can be no deus ex machina. In tragedy, the human spirit remains noble in the face of largely inescapable death. If there is anything remotely tragic in Israel's Oslo-roadmap-"disengagement"-afflicted condition, it lies only in the original Greek meaning of the term – "goat song" – from the dithyrambs sung by goatskin-clad worshippers of Dionysus. In every other sense, Israel now exhibits behavior that desecrates its sacred Jewish heritage and its equally sacred Jewish obligations.

Meanwhile, a book review by Re'uven Pedatzur (Ha'aretz) also compares Sharon to a tragic hero:

Like the hero of a Greek tragedy, Sharon has been forced to undergo "a painful dialectic process" and to confront the outcome of his own actions. There is a price to pay for building settlements and being an occupier. The prime minister is reaping today what he has sowed for the last four decades.

Latin Jocks...er...um...

Oh sure...I'll take links wherever I can get them (?!). Oh no--what if the post pointing this silly link out is also linked from the Latin Jocks page? Right...

The Next Survivor?

Survivor: Roman Empire...(screenshot of someone's desktop).

Moons - Trojan and Otherwise

Newly discovered moons of Saturn have been named classically (BBC; PhysOrg) [unlike some others recently found--Ymir et al.--as you can see from this factsheet]: Methone, Pallene, and Polydeuces. The first two are interesting, since they were taken from Greek place names--although maybe someone who has followed such nomenclature more closely knows better...The newly named Polydeuces is (as you might expect) one of a pair: it's a so-called "Trojan moon," which means it orbits in tandem with another body...That body, however, is Dione (not the companion you might have been expecting). The term "Trojan moon" appears to be an extension of "Trojan asteroid," which indicates a class of asteroids occupying specific points in relation to the Sun and Jupiter: in theory, those at one "Lagrangian node" are given names of Greeks associated with the Trojan war [the first-discovered of which is "Achilles"], those at another names of Trojans--but the complications continue:

Following Wolf's lead these asteroids were given names associated with the Iliad—in fact, those in the L4 point are named after Greek heroes of the Iliad (the "Greek node" or "Achilles group"), and those at the L5 point are named after the heroes of Troy (the "Trojan node"). Confusingly, the latter group are sometimes called Patroclean asteroids after the most prominent of those, even though Patroclus (the hero) was on the Greek side. However, 617 Patroclus (the asteroid) was the first discovered asteroid at the L5 point, and was named before the Greece/Troy rule was devised. The Greek node also has one "misplaced" asteroid; 624 Hektor.

As the Iliad deals with the events of the Trojan War, the asteroids came to be collectively known as Trojan asteroids. Over time, this term has come to be more generally applied to any planetoidal body at the triangular Lagrangian point of any two bodies—besides Jupiter's Trojans, Mars and Neptune have one Trojan each, plus there are Trojan moons around Saturn (Telesto–Tethys–Calypso and Dione–Helene). Strictly speaking, the term Trojan applies only to those in the L4 and L5 points of the Sun-Jupiter system.

Got that?

De Mediis (Rebus)

The RogueClassicist had a post on the phrase in medias res yesterday, and suggested off-the-cuff that "In Media Res" would be a good name for a blog.  I, of course, misread, didn't get the joke, etc., and went off to find a blog with the name "In Medias Res"; so now, suitably chastened, I have gone off a second time, and found the blog "In Media Res" (with the intentional play on "media").

It galls me, however, that the phrase in media res gets about 1/4 of the number of Google hits received by the correct in medias res (26,000:105,000)--I don't think all those thousands are making the same wordplay...And unfortunately, one of those 26,000 hits is a blog entry for a French enterprise devoted to bringing the world Greek and Latin quotations one day at a time...There was further discussion of the phrase in a long-ish comment thread for a post on useful Latin expressions at the Mormon blog Times & Seasons (hence quite a few comments on why Latin is relevant for Mormonism), which thread also yielded the final fruit of my "research"--a naughty little limerick quoted by a commenter:

The "True" Location of Troy

So, I've been seeing this book, Trojan Odyssey by Clive Cussler, on display at bookstores recently; a few weeks ago I checked it out of the public library and um...ended up reading a little of it...and mostly skimming through to find out about the shocking new location proposed for Troy...Well, well, well:  England.  Mycenae was in France.  Ithaca was at Cadiz.  Odysseus' adventures:  in the Atlantic and Caribbean...Cussler depends on the recent Where Troy Once Stood, by Iman Wilkens--and also on the more ancient  Theophile Cailleux ...

All well and good, but how does he know that Troy wasn't in Croatia???  Or  in the Baltic area???  Or in Atlantis [Sanskrit Lanka]???

More outlandish theories are welcome in comments...and is there a website anywhere devoted to, er, shall we say, non-mainstream identifications of the site of Troy?

[CLARIFICATION:  The theories don't have to be "more outlandish"--just outlandish, and more of them is what I'm after...]

[UPDATE 2/24/05:  N. S. Gill at About.com points to an essay by Tom Slattery, hosted by About.com, speculating about the possible relation between smallpox, Troy, and the Exodus story...Not a different Troy location, but interesting in this context.]

Oedipus and Dr. Dre

At GorillaMask.net:  "The Greatest Essay Ever Written"--a/k/a "Planes, Trains, and Plantains:  The Story of Oedipus."  It's a pseudo-paper, with pseudo-instructor's-comments, and (it boggles the mind) has a pseudo-grade of D-.  A typical excerpt:

Dr. Dre got most of his inspiration from the Greek story of Oedipus.  Soon Oedipus's smarts saved the town of Thebes, and he was made king.  Infact the only reason Dr. Dre produced, "The Chronic" because the Bible tells you to smoke lots of pot, and Oedipus used to blaze with the makers of Aqua Fresh toothpaste.

[sic]

Not for the faint of heart.  [Thanks (I think) to Cemetery Gates.]

But What Have You Done For Me Lately?

Recently the RogueClassicist pointed out an article in the Scotsman on the just-begun BBC series What the Ancients Did for Us (hosted by Adam Hart-Davis).  Note also the BBC's page on the program, including articles, galleries, games, and so on...

Kambanellis' Clytemnestra

An English version of Iakovos Kambanellis' Letter to Orestes--the play consists of a one-woman monologue by Clytemnestra (played by Carleigh Welsh)--is having its New York premiere (at the Marquee on Bowery)  in a few days, as announced here and here.

Clytemnestra reads, writes and revises her letter in real time as she hopes to reach her estranged son Orestes as well as her alienated daughter Electra and change the course of their tragic destiny. The letter illuminates and expands upon scenes both accounted for by the canon of Greek mythology as well as an alternate history, replete with more scenes and insights as envisioned by the playwright. Through her voice, Kambanellis richly expands upon the doomed and normally despised Queen’s character, exploring her predicament and developing her perspective - one which has renewed relevance at present. While the story is Clytemnestra’s, it also belongs to every mother who loses her children to war.

Spafford's Iliad

At a Seattle art gallery, showing through the end of the month:  Michael Spafford's "Iliad Series" of woodblock prints--and some oil paintings and drawings.  Here's a description of one:

...Zeus brooding over a black, blank world. Zeus is an engaged god, awash in desire. The world is blank to him because there are no battles in it. His eyes are dark holes cast downward into a larger dark. Halfway through the past century, when religion appeared to be fading from human affairs and even theologians debated the prospect of God's death, Wallace Stevens, in "Sunday Morning," mocked the idea of needing gods in the first place: "Jove in the clouds had his inhuman birth./ No mother suckled him, no sweet land gave/ Large mannered-motions to his mythy mind."
...
[Spafford] drew Zeus in profile, whispering the battle dream in Agamemnon's ear. Zeus' lacy beard turns up again as smoke from a funeral pyre. In the final frame, the god again broods in heaven, looking down on the dead, their bent knees raised toward the downward vertical projection of his face.

Between the first and last frames are ritualized yet raw forms of combat, reduced to a streamlined, formal essence, each its own kind of common tragedy. Sword, tongue and phallus serve terrible ends. Black cuts into white space and shadow imposes itself on light. The forms are silhouettes, a strategy Spafford employed decades before Kara Walker. His are nearly all anonymous, swimming in a tide larger than themselves, trapped in their assigned parts.

Spafford does not illustrate the text. He replaces it with a pictographic code that is both prehistoric and completely new.

And if you don't happen to be in Seattle this month, see these pictures on the gallery's website.