Lamplighting Quotations

Rubens and the Classical Tradition (I)

On December 11 we make a cultural visit to the Museo del Prado , with students of Classical Mythology course (provided by me for the Bachelor of Art History at the University of Córdoba). Our purpose was to discuss a selection of pictures of mythological themes. The visit was interesting and entertaining, I think, but tired (we did the trip back and forth on the day.) There were two problems: bureaucratic rigidity of the rules of the museum, because although we had a group entry previously agreed, with this we were not allowed access to the temporary exhibition "Velázquez's Fables" (especially interested us because included several pictures of mythological), so we had to leave the museum, get a second entry (individual) and re-enter, the second difficulty is that some of the pictures we planned to see, especially followers of Rubens (Cornelis de Vos , Jacob Jordaens), were not exposed in the permanent exhibition but stored in the warehouse. However, the visit was worthwhile.

Enough of the pictures that we were interested Peter Paul Rubens (1570-1640) or his workshop. The Prado has many paintings of Rubens' mythological theme for one simple reason. The Flemish painter in the last decade of his life when he was a respected and sought-after artist, coveted by all courts and aristocratic houses of Europe, received a major order of the English King Philip IV: decorate the walls of the Torre de la Parada (a mansion of rest, located in Monte de El Pardo, the king used for hunting) with about 120 boxes of mythological and hunting themes. Most of the mythological-themed paintings are inspired by episodes narrated by Ovid in his Metamorphoses . Do not forget that Metamorphosis of Ovid were the basic handbook of mythology for European artists, especially since the Renaissance. Well, after many ups and downs (as most of the paintings from the Torre de la Parada were lost in 1710 due to the looting of the stand by the troops of the Archduke Charles during the War of Succession), about fourteen boxes Rubens's mythological, from the series, on display at the Museo del Prado.

Rubens had received a liberal education, classical quite complete. When analyzed with students their mythological works, I like to have an impact on some details that reveal and suggest that knowledge, rather than superficial, of the classic texts. For example, Rubens tried at least two pictures the episode of Achilles' stay on the island of Skyros: "Achilles discovered by Ulysses (in collaboration with Van Dyck) and" Achilles discovered among the daughters of Licomedes "at we will refer immediately.

The story is known. The sea goddess Thetis, Achilles' mother, wanted to deliver his son to participate in the Trojan War (the first known case in the history of "conscientious objection"). For this, the disguised girl, when the child was 9, and hid (girl-like) on the island of Skyros, where there was Licomedes between Deidamia (daughter of the King) and her ladies. But the Greeks needed the participation of Achilles, as the seer Calchas had prophesied that Troy could not be conquered if Achilles was not part of the Greek contingent. So Odysseus and Diomedes, disguised as merchants, go to the island, offering clothing and trinkets, mixed with weapons Deidamia and their ladies. Then she reveals the masculine identity of Achilles, for while all the girls are interested in the ornaments, Achilles eyes will go towards weapons. This tells. Well, This episode is captured beautifully in the following table by Rubens, "Achilles discovered among the daughters of Licomedes"

The two characters who whisper to the right are Ulysses and Diomedes. Deidamia is on the left, dressed in white and surrounded by her sisters and ladies. And Achilles occupies the central position, dressed as a girl, but interested in the weapons (it is fitting a helmet on his head.) At this point, I asked the students an apparent banality: what color is the hair of Achilles and why it represents and Rubens?

The answer is: Achilles is depicted as red (interestingly, her dress also matches the color of your hair) and because it represents Rubens knew mythographic detail that when the hero remained in Skyros, disguised as a girl, took the name Pyrrha female (which means, in Greek, "the blonde" or "the redhead"). In fact, the son who would eventually have to Deidamia, which had made her pregnant when he left for the war, also called Pyrrhus (or Neoptolemus), but that's another story.

The episode of the table has, for example, in Ovid, Metamorphoses 13162-170, but that does not mention the name of Pyrrha detail. Sí lo comenta expresamente Higino, en Fábulas 96, pasaje que muy bien pudo ser la fuente mitográfica concreta de Rubens para esto. He aquí el texto latino, y un traducción:

ACHILLES

Thetis Nereis cum sciret Achillem filium suum, quem ex Peleo habebat, si ad Troiam expugnandam isset, periturum, commendavit eum in insulam Scyron ad Lycomedem regem, quem ille inter virgines filias habitu femineo servabat nomine mutato; nam virgines Pyrrham nominarunt, quoniam capillis flavis fuit et Graece rufum "pyrrhon" dicitur. Achivi autem cum rescissent ibi eum occultari, ad regem Lycomeden oratores miserunt, qui rogarent, ut eum adiutorium Danais mitteret. Rex cum negaret apud se esse, potestatem eis fecit, ut in regia quaererent. Qui cum intellegere non possent, quis esset eorum, Ulixes in regio vestibulo munera feminea posuit, in quibus clipeum et hastam, et subito tubicinem iussit canere armorumque crepitum et clamorem fieri iussit. Achilles hostem arbitrans adesse vestem muliebrem dilaniavit atque clipeum et hastam arripuit. Ex hoc est cognitus suasque operas Argivis promisit et milites Myrmidones.

AQUILES

La nereida Tetis, como supiera que su hijo Aquiles, el que tenía con Peleo, moriría si iba a luchar contra Troya, lo confió al rey Licomedes en la isla de Esciros. Éste lo alojaba entre sus hijas doncellas, cambiándole el nombre; pues las chicas lo llamaron "Pyrrha," it was fair-haired and in Greek "red" is said pyrrhon . For its part, the Achaeans, after learning that was hidden there, sent legates to the king Licomedes, asking him to hand him over to help the Achaeans. He said although he was not at home, were granted permission to record the palace. Unable to find them who was the girls Achilles, Odysseus put women's dresses in the area of \u200b\u200bthe hall, mingling among them a shield and spear, and suddenly ordered to sound the bugle and the formation of arms and crying noisily. Achilles, believing that the enemy attacked, tore her dress as a woman and grabbed the coat and lance. For this he was recognized and promised their own work to the Argives and their soldiers, the Myrmidons.

In the next post , second and last of the series, I will discuss another aspect of the knowledge of the classics of Rubens, as an example of practical application to everyday life Classical Tradition. Until then, Merry Christmas.

Indigo Online Leafeon

There is no sex life in the grave (II) Changes in the blog

I spent as a post , long ago, the topic of literature that could be labeled as "No sexual life after the grave" ("There is no sex life in the grave"), the thread of a appointment of Jaime Gil de Biedermann. See here . Then commented that he had located a text, supposedly Auden, on the subject. But given the unsubtle style of the poem, I was inclined to think that it was not for this author. A more careful investigation has produced results: Auden's poem, but in reality is an excerpt from a "antimasque" (sort of bizarre or grotesque farce) entitled The Entertainment of the Senses . Moreover, the text is put into the mouth of a monkey (yes, a monkey). Hence, perhaps, his vulgarity. Then reproduce this post a short article on the issue I posted in the journal CA News 36 (June 2007), pp. 7-8 (with the collaboration of Monica M. Martinez), in which we trace the history of the subject in classical and English poetry.

Note: CA News is the body The Classical Association (Society of British Classical Studies).

THERE IS NO SEX LIFE IN THE GRAVE :
FROM THE GREEK ANTHOLOGY

TO WH AUDEN

The carpe diem is one of The Most Celebrated and ancient tropes in Western Literature. It is an epicurean exhortation to seize the day and to enjoy love and wine as a kind of solace for the brevity of human life. This invitation becomes an instrument of seduction when the poet attempts to convince the female addressee that she should love him now, while she is still young and fresh like a rose, being her beauty as ephemeral as that of the flower. As an argument to strengthen his case, the poet may adduce then the post mortem nulla voluptas argument: there is no sex life in the grave. Statements of this kind did already occur in the Anacreontea (IV, IX, XXXVI) and in the Greek Anthology . Among the many epigrams on love and death in the latter, the following (V 85), written by the Hellenistic poet Asclepiades of Samos, is by far the most meaningful:

Φείδῃ παρθενίης. καὶ τί πλέον; οὐ γὰρ ἐς Ἅιδην
ἐλθοῦσ' εὑρήσεις τὸν φιλέοντα, κόρη.
ἐν ζωοῖσι τὰ τερπνὰ τὰ Κύπριδος· ἐν δ' Ἀχέροντι
ὀστέα καὶ σποδιή, παρθένε, κεισόμεθα.

Around 1888, Andrew Lang wrote an English version of the Greek epigram:

TO A GIRL

Believe me, love, it is not good
To hoard a mortal maidenhood;
In Hades thou wilt never find,
Maiden, a lover to thy mind;
Love’s for the living! presently
Ashes and dust in death are we.

This motif is developed in English Literature. Andrew Marvell (1621-1678) resorts to it in his famous “To his coy Mistress”, a poem included in many compilations of seventeenth-century poetry. In the first part of this poem (ll. 1-20), Marvell pictures the hypothesis that he and his lady could enjoy their love without limits of space and time: in that case there would be no need to hurry or seize the day. In the second part (ll. 21-32), Marvell envisages the corruption of the tomb, developing the post mortem nulla voluptas argument :

But at my back I alwaies hear
Times winged Charriot hurrying near:
And yonder all before us lye
Desarts of vast Eternity.
Thy Beauty shall no more be found;
Nor, in thy marble Vault, shall sound
My echoing Song: then Worms shall try
That long preserv’d Virginity:
And your quaint Honour turn to dust;
And into ashes all my Lust.
The Grave’s a fine and private place,
But none I think do there embrace.

As death is not only inevitable but joyless, the pleasures of life, specially love and sex, must be boldly seized. This is the conclusion reached by the poem’s speaker in the third part (ll. 33-46).

There are other occurrences of the post mortem nulla voluptas motif in English literature. One quite famous in contemporary poetry appears in The Entertainment of the Senses (1973), an antimasque written by W. H. Auden (1907-1973) and Chester Kallman (1921-1975). The characters of this play are five apes, who represent the five senses and speak by turns, and a CHAMBERLAIN, who introduces and closes the antimasque. All of them encourage the audience to enjoy the pleasures of the senses before the arrival of Death. The FIRST APE, who represents Touch, asserts:

When you see a fair form, chase it
And if possible embrace it,
Be it a girl or boy.
Don’t be bashful: be brash, be fresh.
Life is short, so enjoy
Whatever contact your flesh
May at the moment crave:
There’s no sex-life in the grave .

Incidentally, this passage is quoted in the film Gruppo di Famiglia in un Interno (1974), by L. Visconti. Where Marvell had Lady historical Warned of time's fleeting nature and the imminence of death, urging her to consummate Physically Their love, These contemporary poets Their audience urged to seize the day promiscuously. In Both we can see the Refusal to exchange the pleasures of the present for a dubious promise of happiness in a world to come. They Knew for sure: there is no sex life in the grave.

Gabriel Laguna Mariscal (University of Córdoba)
Mónica María Martínez-Sariego (University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria )

How Fuel Zippo Normal

I tell my readers and friends I've pruned this blog, Classical Tradition of unwelcome growths. As of today, Entries will focus exclusively on aspects of classical culture and tradition. The articles on academic rinses, corruption university and inbreeding have been deleted from this blog, and relegated to another, newly created (and I expect to be updated as little as possible): English University

: inbreeding and corruption

Travel Changing Blanket

During the Middle Ages, such was the prestige of Virgil, who was considered a magician. Practiced a method of divination, known as Sortes Vergilianae . The person who wanted to search his future formulated a query. The seer chose at random a passage Aeneid of Virgil, he read and interpreted by way of response to the query.

Right now, I like to imagine that I am the client who, overwhelmed by this ungrateful and anxious about the uncertain future, delves into what (you) lie ahead. In my query, I guess (or I) opens the text of Virgil at random, and read the following passage from Book I of the Aeneid . Aeneas and his fellow Trojans have just arrived off the coast of Libya, after its defeat in Troy and a tiring journey by sea. Aeneas, though pricked himself, his teammates and comforted with words that are the most exciting y conmovedor de la obra:

'O socii—neque enim ignari sumus ante malorum—
O passi graviora, dabit deus his quoque finem.
Vos et Scyllaeam rabiem penitusque sonantis 200
accestis scopulos, vos et Cyclopea saxa
experti: revocate animos, maestumque timorem
mittite: forsan et haec olim meminisse iuvabit.
Per varios casus, per tot discrimina rerum
tendimus in Latium; sedes ubi fata quietas 205
ostendunt; illic fas regna resurgere Troiae.
Durate, et vosmet rebus servate secundis.'

Compañeros de viaje (pues no somos ajenos a desgracias anteriores):
peores males hemos sufrido: un dios pondrá fin también a estos. You
topásteis you with the rage of Scylla and the pitfalls to
resonate from the depths, you have also suffered the rocks of the Cyclops:
raise your spirits and keep away from that sad fear;
perhaps even one day we'll be happy to remember this.
Among various vicissitudes, among so many dangers
we went to Lazio, where the fate
promises a permanent dwelling, there is written that the kingdom of Troy reborn.
Resist, and preserve you yourselves, happy moments.

Aeneas, after a brief vocative (O socii ) organizes his speech wonderfully comforting in three movements: past, present and future.

1. In the past (lines 198-202a), reminded his colleagues who have had troubles worse. Keyword: to (v. 198).


2. For this , asked presence of mind and courage (lines 202b-203a).


3. And for the future , he predicts happy times (203b-207). Keyword: olim (v. 203).

sections of past and future are exactly the same length (four verses and a half).

this passage reminded me of a story, of eastern origin, from tales of Thousand and One Nights , Which is accessible on the Internet and entitled "This too shall pass." Shows the same conviction that shadowy moments pass, and there will come a better future.

There was once a king who told the wise men of the court:

- I'm making a beautiful ring. I got one of the best diamond possible. I want to keep the ring hidden inside a message that can help me in moments of utter despair, and to help my heirs, and heirs of my heirs, forever. You must be a small message, so it will fit under the diamond ring.

All who heard were wise, great scholars, could have written great treaty, but give a message of no more than two or three words that would help in times of total despair ...

thought, looked in his books, but could not find anything. The king had an old servant who was also his father's servant. The king's mother died suddenly and the servant took care of him, therefore, treated him like family. The king felt an immense respect for the elderly, so also consulted. And he said:

- I am not a scholar nor a scholar nor an academic, but I know the message. During my long life in the palace, I met all sorts of people, and once I met a mystic. He was a guest of your father and I was at your service. As he left, as a gesture of thanks, gave me this message "the old man wrote in a tiny paper, folded it and gave it to the king. But do not read, "she said keep it hidden in the ring. Open it only when all else has failed, when they find out the situation.

That moment came quickly. The country was invaded and the king lost his kingdom. His horse was running for his life and his enemies were after him. He was alone and the pursuers were numerous. Came to a place where the road ended, there was no outlet: front had a deep precipice valley fall for him would be the end. And he could not return because the enemy blocked his path. I could hear the trotting of the horses. He could not go forward and there was no other way ...

Suddenly, he remembered the ring. He opened it, took the paper and there he found a small tremendously valuable message: Just say "This too shall pass."

I want to thank the readers of this blog your words of encouragement and appreciation. Especially, some comments have verbalized desire to return to post more entries, you do not let the dust and neglect covered the blog. Thank you the support, appreciation, and being and being. Travel Partners : we are here.

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From This too shall pass where no one returns

Now it seems that the Catholic Church has abolished the doctrine of limbo, I do not know if he's also into question the belief in hell as a place where the souls of sinners go after death to suffer everlasting punishment. I am convinced that the Catholic Church assimilated, largely his conception of Hell classical pagan beliefs, and not (or not so) of the Scriptures. Of course, adapting to his purpose. But I will not dwell on this today.

The Greeks and Romans had no unique and unambiguous conception of the afterlife, to which was the fate that awaited the souls of men, when they died. The most widespread belief is that the souls of the dead went to a site located in the basement, called Hades (or Hades). There the spirits are a kind of "life" (if you can call it what, in fact, is non-life) rather bland and faded. Yes, "faded" in a double sense: because his mood is sad, depressed and hopeless, and because the physical and visual appearance of these ghosts is translucent and dark. That is, the Greeks and Romans thought the same as Joaquín Sabina "There is life beyond, but not life."

A peculiarity of Hades is that it is very easy to access this site, but it is very difficult, or impossible, to return there, once you have downloaded. This detail became a literary motif. Here are some examples.

When Catullus mourns the death of Lesbia's bird (in his poem 3), complaining that the animal up now for a road from which no return (vv. 11-18):

qui nunc it per iter tenebricosum
illuc, unde redire quemquam disclaimer.
at vobis male sit, malae tenebrae
Orci, quae omnia bella devoratis: tam bellum
abstulistis passerem mihi.
or factum male, or miselle passer,
tua nunc opera meae puellae
flender turgiduli rubent ocelli.

This is now moving that way
dark where they say no one returns.
damn you, damn
darkness of Hades, which engullís all things beautiful!
I have robbed a bird so beautiful!
What Unfortunately, what penalty bird!
Because of you now my girl
loops of red and swollen from time to mourn.

As is known, in Book VI of Virgil's Aeneid, Aeneas asks the Sibyl of Cumae instructions to descend to Hades, with the intention de recabar información de los muertos, y regresar después al mundo de arriba, el de los vivos. La sibila le advierte que el descenso es fácil, porque el Averno, como si se tratara de una tienda "after-hours", está abierto las 24 horas del día. Lo que resulta realmente complicado es regresar (vv. 124-129):

Talibus orabat dictis arasque tenebat,
cum sic orsa loqui vates: «sate sanguine divum,
Tros Anchisiade, facilis descensus Averno:
noctes atque dies patet atri ianua Ditis;
sed revocare gradum superasque evadere ad auras,
hoc opus, hic labor est.

Con tales palabras [Eneas] le imploraba y tocaba los altares,
cuando la sibila took the floor and "blood lineage of the gods, Trojan son of Anchises
is easy descent to Avernus:
the nights and days the door is open Dite;
but make your way back and escape the air above,
that hard, that leads to suffering. "

In the famous soliloquy "To be or not to be" (of which I spoke here ) of Hamlet in Shakespeare's eponymous tragedy, the protagonist confesses that she committed suicide to avoid having to continue supporting the evils of life, were it not fear the past, which he defines as an "undiscovered country from whose bourn no traveler returns "

For Who Would Bear the Whips and Scorned of time, [...] When I Himself Might
historical
Quietus make With a bare Bodkin? Who Would These Fardles Beare
To grunt and sweat vnder a weary life, But That
Something after the dread of death,
The vndiscouered Countrey, from Whose Borne
Traueller not returned, Puzels the will, And Makes
Rather vs. Beare Those illes we haue, Then flye to
Others Not That we know of.
(vv. 70, 75-82)

For who would bear the whips and downs of the time, [...]
when he himself could obtain peace
with a simple dagger? Who would endure suffering these defects,
to groan and sweat under the burden of life,
if not for the fear of something after death,
to that unknown country from whose edge
no traveler returns, confused
will and makes us bear those ills we have,
before escaping towards others ignored?

The contemporary poet Luis Alberto de Cuenca, from whom I have already quoted several texts on this blog (see here , here and here), because it assimilates and develops nicely several classic songs, is the same reason in a sense poem published originally in the book Verses (1995), and the singer of rock music has Loquillo:

WHEN I THINK ABOUT THE FRIENDS

When I think of old friends who have gone
of my life,
women agreeing with terrible fear and feeding their children the cover of
to have them around, controlled and powerless.

When I think of old friends were
the country of death, no return trip,
only because they sought pleasure in the bodies
and oblivion in drugs that relieve the sadness.

When I think of old friends who, deep sea
memory, I was offered
one day the strange sensation of not feeling alone
and the complicity of a frank smile ...

For the image, possibly of Cuenca was inspired by the poem of Catullus 3, which he had translated well in the relevant verses: "Now march by a sinister path / to the country where no one returns. " It is curious that in Catullus not read any equivalent to the word "country", but Luis Alberto de Cuenca enter the word "country" both in his translation of Catullus as in free imitation of the subject in an original poem. No one should be very prudent to suspect that this term took Luis Alberto de Cuenca (perhaps unconsciously) Hamlet's parliament, where, in the context of the same reason, we use the noun "country." And, sometimes, the lines of influence of the classical tradition are complex and sinuous.

Sony Tv To External Drive

When love sleepless

Classic conceived of love as a real disease, with corresponding causes, symptoms and treatment. It is believed that among the common symptoms of this syndrome were pallor, fever, loss of appetite, agitation y. .. Yes, insomnia. This whole concept is expressed and documented, of course, literary texts, but it was not only a literary convention, but this conviction in daily life and medical science (and I mentioned this in this article ).

Today modern medicine (and especially the specialty of neurology) has been explained on a more scientific these symptoms of love. It seems the love affair raises the secretion and release in the brain of endogenous drugs, such as phenylethylamine or dopamine, which have physiological effects in the body of the lover. Specifically, the PEA is similar in effect to amphetamine, and as such is responsible for symptoms of love such as tachycardia and sweating, loss of appetite and (what concerns us here) insomnia.
Speaking of insomnia
love, I recently finished reading the book The hundred blows of the young Italian woman Melissa P. ( the novel the film is being currently ). Here the author recounts his experiences erotic-sentimental. A young man in love with her singing a serenade ( is, apparently, a traditional Sicilian song ). Here is the text:

My votu and my rivotu suspirannu,
passu li notti 'senza nteri sonnu,
e li tò biddizzi vaju cuntimplannu,
tipenzu of fine to jornu notti. Pi
non pozzu n'ura ripusari aunt, non havi chiu paci
st'afflittu cori. Lu
vo quannu Sapirie t'aju to lassari? Quannu
finisci e la vita mia mori.

round and round I sighed,
step up all night, staring at your beauty
,
think of you in the overnight.
For you I can not stand even a moment, I have no
serenity, so sad that the heart is.
Want to know when you leave?:
When my life is over and die.

This song (slightly different version) you can see and hear in this video:



In Greco-Roman classical literature is documented very often the topic of insomnia, love, and from Homer. But the central passage significant (in itself, and the subsequent impact it has had) and that moves me most to me is a famous text of Book IV of the Aeneid . Carthaginian queen Dido, in love with Trojan prince Aeneas, aware of the intention of the hero is abandoned, and reveals the anguish of love. Note the contrast between the calmness of the environment and the unhappy love insomnia ( Aeneid 4522-532):

Nox erat et placidum carpebant soporem
corpora fess per terras, et saeua quierant siluaeque
Aequor, cum half considers uoluuntur lapsu,
cum tacet omnis ager, pecudes pictaeque uolucres, 525
quaeque lacus liquids late quaeque aspera Dumisa rural
Tenent, sleepiness positae sub nocte silentio.
at non infelix Phoenissa animi, neque umquam soluitur in sleepiness
529 aut pectore noctem oculisue
530 Accipiter: ingeminant curiae rursusque resurgens
saeuit magnoque love irarum fluctuat aestu.

was night and people, exhausted by
enjoyed pleasant dream land, forests and rough seas at rest,
when stars glide through half its orbit, (525)
silent when the entire field, livestock and colorful birds, animals
living in clear lakes in its entirety
and fields bristling with thorns, lying in the silent night. (529)
In contrast, the Phoenicians, unhappy in his heart, never (530)
gives his eyes to sleep or receives the night in his chest
their troubles grow and love, back again, and fluctuates
rages in the huge waves of his wrath.

Sachi Andrea (1599-1661): Dido abandonée Didon ou sur le crop.

Greetings, and happy dreams (or insomnia).

Catering Cost For 150 People

tapéis the sun I Ab ipso ferro



Diogenes of Sinope was a Greek philosopher of the sect's most famous cynical. He lived in the fourth century BC. It was a very interesting and controversial figure. He lived like a beggar, had minimal requirements, he was sincere with the powerful to the impertinence. He attributed many anecdotes, collected from different sources, especially in the work of philosophers distinguished Lives, written by his namesake, Diogenes Laertius in the third century AD

The curious anecdote from the famous philosopher attributed to concerns to meet with the Emperor Alexander. It is said that while Diogenes in Corinth, he slept in a cask or barrel. Once the city came to Alexander, with his spectacular military. The entire population of Corinth was to meet the emperor, but Diogenes was absolutely indifferent to the trappings of king, and was napping at his barrel. So was Alexander the Great himself, knowing the reputation of the philosopher Diogenes sought. He offered to present him with the gifts that the philosopher requested. But Diogenes asked only one thing: that the emperor to depart, that will not clog up the sun. The episode is narrated or alluded to in numerous ancient Greco-Latin sources, including Cicero ( Tusculanae Disputationes 5.32), Valerius Maximus (4.3.ext.4) and Plutarch (Life of Alexander 14). Here is the fullest account of the three, that of Plutarch in English translation: Gathered

Greeks at the Isthmus, decreed march to Alexander in the war against Persia, made general, and as were many statesmen and philosophers who visited him and gave him the good wishes, hoping that would do the same on Diogenes of Sinope, who lived in Corinth. But he made no account of Alexander, but spent his life quietly in the neighborhood called Craneto, and so Alexander had to go see him. Hallab casually lying in the sun, and having built a little to the arrival of so many characters, stared at Alex. Saluted it, and then asking if it was any thing, "too little," he answered, that you take off the sun. " It is said that Alexander with that sort of contempt was so amazed at such elevation and greatness of mind, which, when removed from there those who accompanied him began to laugh and make fun, he said, "For me not to be Alexander, was willingly Diogenes."

I received today a book acquired by Internet auction site: Ramón de Campoamor, Poetry , Madrid: Talleres Typographical Velasco, 1930.



This anthology contains the poem "The two great things" in Campoamor (belonging to the group of poems Doloras ). This poem tells the story quoted at length:

The two great things

One proud, another lawless
and two are talking.
"I am Alexander the King. Diogenes
"And I can.

"I come to make your life more honest
spiral.
What you want from me? - Yo, nothing
not take away the sun.

"My power ... "It's amazing, but to me nothing
amazes me.
"I can make you happy.
"I know, making me no shadow.

"You'll have riches without measure,
a palace and a canopy.
- What do I want
house larger than this barrel?

- Royal robes will spend
of gold and silk. - Nothing, nothing!
Can not you see me more
shelters patched this layer?
-Rich
devour delicacies.
-Yo with me bread allan.
-Bebo Cyprus tops the gold.
"I drink the water in his hand.

- will send as you send?
- Vanity vain!
What about the miseries as large
call these men?

- My power to those who groan,
help you with glory.
- Glory! layer of the crime;
layer crime without power!

- All land, hateful,
I have ridden with me.
- And you own the world, owning
not you?

- I know that the orb owner
of the world will be happy.
- I know your last dream
be your first rest.

"I impose my arbitrary laws.
- unjust Both coats?
"I've beaten a hundred kings.
- Good Bandit crowns! I can live

-hated,
die but not forgotten.
-Viviré unknown
hated but never die.

- Goodbye! I can not break because of your cynicism
crucible.
- Goodbye! How happy stay,
because I do not take away the sun! -

And as with mutual grievance
a haughty, another implacable,
- Miserable! says the wise king
and says: - Miserable!

The purpose of the meeting between Diogenes and Alexander was also the subject of various iconographic representations, and since ancient times. The following is a marble bas relief ancient times, although its right half (including the figure of Alexander) was restored in the eighteenth century:

The next picture was painted by Italian artist Sebastiano Ricci (1659-1734 ):



drafting this post , I thought I do not want more than what I have: no more money, influence, recognition, professional thrive. Sometimes aspire to, just, to the many poor, gangsters, backbiting, jealous and treacherous that abound in this petty university let me simply in peace, stop doing (me) shadow, I grant, in order the supreme privilege of not cover my sun.

Sudden Bright Red Blood And Clots

Yes, yes, I'm back, despite the long absence and the troubles experienced in recent months. Just did not want to disappoint follow my readers that during this break of silence followed by posting glowing feedback or encouragement in this blog . Thank you all for not giving up, to continue there, continue to show some appreciation or giving any value to these trifles. Thanks, really, for being and living. Incidentally, this blog turned its second year of publication last year (2006), in December. Two years already running but not continuous and smooth, but with ups and downs, gaps ( nomen omen, lol), febrile periods of neglect and other publication, joys and sorrows, successes (few) and failures ( many): Is not that the pace in short, normal life?

I will say, in passing, that became a contest to celebrate the merits (of the first edition realized here and here ) for access to a position as professor at the University of Jaén, in December 2006. And to exempt members of the commission, instigation and indoctrinated by the illustrious President of the University, returned to apply the law on mandatory , as in the first edition, but this time in a revised and expanded. I will not pass over in silence this ominous and serious issue, but it takes me an account of the details for another occasion. Now I want to talk about a cultural issue (of which I like), although its content related to the vicissitudes suffered. Ab ipso

ferro "iron itself." That was the slogan that was attached Fray Luis de León. As emblem (that is, by the Latin text with a chart) was used in the covers of early editions of his poetry. The shield emblem appears with a tree with branches pruned and fresh emerging leaf buds. At the foot of the tree, lies a hatchet (which is supposed to just be used for pruning). The legend surrounding the entire reason:

FERRO AB IPSO

The Latin phrase comes from Oda 4.4 of Horace, verses 57-60. Hence the Latin poet states that the Romans are recovering from their losses and emerge with renewed strength, like the oak coppice with redoubled force after being clipped to iron:

Duris ut ilex tonsa bipennibus
nigrae feraci frondis in height,
per Damn, ab ipso per caedis
ducit opes animumque ferro

As the oak tree, pruned by the hard axes, black
of foliage, in the fertile peak,
despite injury and cuts, the same forces and making iron

force Fray Luis de Leon said these verses paraphrased and Horace in several places in his work. In his Ode XII ( A Felipe Ruiz ), vv. 31-35, introduces a translation of the verses paraphrased Horace: Well as

gnarled oak, high cliff with ax felled
powerful

of being torn iron-rich and hard turns;

is not unreasonable to assume that Antonio Machado took account of Horace's verse or the version of Fray Luis (or both) when he wrote the famous poem "To a dry elm" from the book Campos de Castilla (1912). Biographical motivation of this poem is clear. Machado wrote the poem in May 1912, when Eleanor, his young wife was very ill (he would die in July). Dying elm symbolizes Leonor. But the poet must hold a Ray of hope as the elm can spring greenup, Leonor can recover the "hack" of their disease. I can not resist copying here, once again, the full text of this wonderful poem:

DRY AN ELM Al

old elm tree split by lightning
and his half rotten with rain
April and May sun,
some green leaves have emerged.
Elm Hill centennial
lapping the Duero!
yellow moss will stain white crust
the trunk decayed and dusty.
not be, which the singers alamos
that guard the road and the shore, inhabited by brown
nightingales. Army ants

row he is climbing, and deep inside
hatched gray spider webs.
Before you down, elm del Duero,
the woodcutter with his ax, and you become a carpenter
mane hood spear
car or wagon yoke;
before, red in the home, tomorrow
ardas of some miserable hut
the edge of a road;
before uprooting you a whirlwind
and broken the breath of the white mountains,
before the river to the sea will push,
by valleys and gorges,
elm, I note in Portfolio
the grace of your branch Verdeca. My heart hopes

also towards light and to life,
another miracle of spring.

Soria, 1912

Obviously, there are differences between Machado's poem and its sources. Machadian In the text, the tree is almost dry, but not as a result of pruning, but the effect of lightning and abandonment (note, however, Machado also alludes to the ax in verse 16 as probable reminiscence of Horace and Fray Luis). And that tree, half dead already and before perishing of all sprouts by the spring effect. That spring for Don Antonio symbolizes the recovery that he longs for his young wife.

Indeed, a very real spring, not figuratively, is what is sprouting, hovering and trimming, by nature. As a humble celebration of this early spring, as thanks to my readers and as I did once (just a year ago) , firing this post a haiku "spring" in Latin, with English translation:

Nec nec aestum
hiemem: aeternum see
tecum ago. Neither

summer or winter you is how to live

eternal spring.