Gautam wrote:I cant follow that map
Its got a girl <shudder gasp> in it !!
How can you be sure that's a girl?
I see your map as going to Prague. Have you decided about meeting this fella for another drink? I say no, now. Find somebody who will treat you well and not make you get stressed. But then, I'm female and get to change my mind.
Happy Early Birthday, btw, Gautam. You'll be celebrating in Prague, right? When I got home there was an invitation to my high school graduation reunion on October 4th. You weren't even born yet
I was shocked to discover.
Haven't decided if I'm going to go.
You should go Piffka! I highly recommend reunions. It's always interesting to see how folks turned out.
Love pythes gloribbly, as the Shanka's fooly, and Spurioso doth not glibe it any othery way.
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm . . .
the sea seems to be getting a bit brillig here . . .
Love is nonsense most of the time, and completely incomprehensible, no? Apologies to the estate of Lewis Carroll of course...
To the ancients, love was considered a form of mental illness usually suffered by the young and other species of ignoramuses . . .
are you callin' me a species?
You lookin' to pick a fight?
'Cause if you are, you need to find some other sucker . . .
Which ancients? I thought the Roman/Greek gods & such were quite active in the love as well as the lust department. And who's to say how much separation there is between those two four-letter L-words? What about, e.g. Eros? And uhmmm, Venus? There's Beltane sex orgies for Pagans and Kama sutras for early Vedics.
Setanta, I totally respect your scholarship and such, but... huh? Please explain.
A common attitude among ancient Greek and Roman writers who had attained their maturity was that love was a display of mild mental illness. As for the contents of Greek mythology, our only source is a Thracian herder (by his own description) who vehemently hated the Greeks. Not what one would consider an unbiased source. Take note of the word lust, it is the only word which can be said without qualification to describe the sexual antics of the Greek pantheon.
cavfancier wrote:I thought Dylan Thomas wrote The Map of Love...
Not sure who wrote "The Map of Love." I'm still trying to figure out who wrote The Book of Love. "Oh I wonder, wonder who, who-oo-ooh WHO...Who wrote the Book Of Love?"
Had to Google it. It was the Monotones, 1958.
You have a birthday coming up, Gautam? When is it? Mine is tomorrow.
Ooh I love birthdays! Happy Birthdays, Eva and Gautam! Mine's in December.
I could use a map of my love these days. I have gotten a bit lost and confused and misdirected...
Setanta wrote:A common attitude among ancient Greek and Roman writers who had attained their maturity was that love was a display of mild mental illness. As for the contents of Greek mythology, our only source is a Thracian herder (by his own description) who vehemently hated the Greeks. Not what one would consider an unbiased source. Take note of the word lust, it is the only word which can be said without qualification to describe the sexual antics of the Greek pantheon.
Well the mental illness idea is pretty funny.
I don't know about the Thracian herder, having got my very limited education from Edith Hamilton and the various artists who have portrayed them over the years.
The shepherd was Miss Hamilton's source as well, which i believe she acknowledges in The Greek Way, although i've not read that in more than 40 years, and can't assert that with certainty. I should also note that, obliquely, Ovid's Metamorpheses is a source for some of the folk tales which refer to the Greek pantheon.
Hmmm. What about the Romans? Didn't they base their gods on Greek gods? I suppose I've thought Greek mythology was historically accurate in a mythical sort of way.
It is difficult to say with the Romans. That city was founded (very likely, no certainty here) by young men from Alba Longa, a city in Latinium, which may or many not have been originally founded by Greek colonists. A more likely scenario is that Alba Longa was founded by people from a Greek colony in southern Italy.
The only complete extant source for early Roman history is Ad Urbe Condite, From the Foundation of the City, by Titus Livius, known to the English as Livy. He does not go into any detail about the religious practices of the Romans. It is known inferentially that their titular deity was Jupiter Capitolinus. Either he was called Capitolinus because the temple was on the Capitoline hill, or the hill got its name from the temple--which is most likely, although, once again, nothing certain is known. The other principle deity was Juno. Both Jupiture (or Jove) and Juno have their corresponding deities in the supreme gods of the Greek pantheon, Zeus and Hera. The Roman religion was civic--all public offices had religious duties as well as civil and military duties. The practice of divination from avian entrails was the most common form of ritual practice among the early Romans. From a date before the establishment of the Republic (c. 500 BCE), these practices obtained, once again, based on inferential evidence. After the overthrow of the Tarquinian monarchy and the establishment of the Republic, the civic religion was formalized, and censors were appointed to assure that all religious practice followed prescribed tradition. The power of the Censors waxed, as they also took it upon themselves to certify the right of the vote for members of the original three tribes. The tribe was the basic political unit of the city. Livy refers often to the linen rolls, scrolls upon which the Censors recorded the certification of the vote and the outcome of elections. Those records did not survive antiquity. In desperation at the growing power of Rome, the Tuscans (usually confusingly referred to as the Etruscans) formed an alliance with Keltic tribes, known to the Romans as Gauls, and the city was attacked, captured and sacked in about 390 BCE. A small body of Romans held out in Juno's temple on the Capitoline, and disease quickly spread among the undisciplined Gauls who occupied the city--and their occupation seems to have lasted about a month, perhaps two. Although many of the records were lost, Livy's work implies that the Censors were able to preserve their records. Livy wrote 147 "books" in that history (each one roughly corresponds to a large scroll, and makes for a long chapter in a paperbound book). His first five books recount this legendary period of Roman history.
Lesson over, there will be a quizz.
