[lit-ideas] The Wedding Cake
- From: jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
- To: lawrencehelm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 21 Jan 2008 17:14:32 -0500
Update on this and that
Dear L. K., and list.
An update then of things military and other. Yesterday I bought two rather
expensive books: "The illustrated history of Greece" (OUP, ed. Boardman and
co.) and "The Penguin Historical Atlas of Greece". They are pretty good, if not
extravantly good. The Atlas better than the History, which doesn't have as many
illustrations as I hope it would. It was originally published as "The
illustrated history of the Classical World" and said by a critic to be 'highly
readable', which is what I expect from a book, even in English.
I only got a few more Loebs. Notably the Apollodorus, two-volume edition of the
Bibliotheca. Ed. by Frazer, who _knew_ his stuff. Old school of scholarship, a
la Gilbert Murray. No nonsense with erudite philological fine distinctions and
goes to the grit of the matter.
I see that some of my posts have been distributed now. I have to be more
serious: this 'eschatological' thing is leading me nowhere. Also, I think I
mispelled 'sargeant'. Isn't it 'sergeant'? Anyway -- I don't think it's a
classical word, and in most Romance languages it is "sar-" (as in "Sarge").
Doing some research on Greek colonies on the Western Mediterranean: my part of
the world, since the Eastern Mediterranean, where Greece is, sounds to Eastern
to me. See that "Genua" was named after Gk. for 'knee' as it ankles between the
two riviere (levante, where my ancestors come from, and ponente -- La Spezia)?
Nicaea (Nizza) was a victory over the Ligurians. Incidentally, are you familiar
with the bronze statuette, "The kiss of Victory" by Alfred Gilbert. Very
beautiful. I was going to paste it but failed. It represents a soldier being
kissed by a lady which represents Victory. Very clever. (I have the bio of
Gilbert, "Under the shadow of Eros". He was good, but went bankrupt and had to
leave London and settled in Bruxelles, but he is the best representative of art
nouveau in English bronze sculpture, and I love his designs for "Icarus",
"Perseus Arming" and a few others. He had my taste for things. He is so
refined, it almost hurts.
Finally, the third colony (as I was saying) was Marseilles (Marsillia), Greek
too and in former Liguria. I had heard of the little story which tells how the
Greek prince married the Ligurian princess (whose name was Gyps, or something
like that). A typical mytheme to justify exogamy, as with the Rape of the
Sabines, which only explained mythological, the Indo-European contest of the
Aryan of the native population in the Latium, I think).
"Italic" dialects are a bother, I'm afraid. Think Ligurian! They don't even
know if it's pre-Indo-European, Indo-European or post-Indo-European. All I care
is that it once was a Roman colony (well, almost) and partly Greece. I cannot
connect with Muslims! Also I find 'ligurino' is a little bird (green linnet --
but 'ligurinus' has been replaced by 'cardenalis' in Linnean nomenclature it
seems). What it's odd is that most of the Ligurian food I'm so farmiliar with,
like the 'torta pascualina', and apparently, faina. These things were brought
to the Ligurians to Buenos Aires, and I see that it all derives from this song
in "Cuore" -- the Ligurian book par excellence. Sorry to bother you with
details, but I have to see also what you mean by things Presbytereans. I'm glad
to hear you are not a 'sissified' one as you expressed online.
I will possibly be researching on two wars more seriously: the British
invasions of 1805 and 1806 and the Falklands War.
Went to see "Sweeney Todd", the film. Not very good. Rather macabre. But then
put the blame on Tim Burton who married Helena Bonham-Carter who co-stars. I
liked the 'seaside' number. Very naive. Sonnheim is an acquired taste, and
doubly acquired if you are a Ligurian.
Let me know more about your readings, especially 'classical'. Don't you hate
the epithet, "neo-classical"? Some people call themselves neo-Griceans and the
epithet I find just as disgusting (almost).
I was going to do some study on "European" or French architecture in Buenos
Aires town/country, and realised: why call it "European" or 'neo-classical' or
what have you? It's JUST Classical! Let's see if you see what I mean!
Anyway, cheers,
J. L.
I named this post as I did, in memory of that disgusting neo-classical building
in Rome, 'the Wedding Cake' -- which is _not_ classical, and hardly
'neo-classical'!
________________________________________________________________________
More new features than ever. Check out the new AOL Mail ! -
http://webmail.aol.com
Other related posts:
- » [lit-ideas] The Wedding Cake
