7 posts tagged “the greeks”
I saw this this painted baluster statue on a blog dedicated to Martha. It made me want to create or purchase large wooden sculptures of chess pieces. Any ideas of how to carve a large wooden statue? via Marthamoments
As i was looking for the other poems, i found this in the insomnia chapter of the book Poet's Choice.
Lute Song by Louise Gluck
This is my translation of the reunion of Odysseus and Penelope from the Odyssey, which was used to beautiful effect in the best book ever, The Time Traveler's Wife, which one might propose was very loosely based on the Odyssey. The passage is amazing because Homer starts talking about a storm tossed sailor and you think he's going to be talking about Odysseus, but he's actually talking about Penelope. Penelope was actually the one who was really suffering like a storm tossed sailor at home away from her husband, and so was Claire, away from Henry. Here is my translation: this is what sight reading Homer sounds like. Isn't it so great???
In this manner she spoke, and still more under longing, there broke forth a wailing. And so he wept, at last having his dear wife, sage and knowing.
How welcome the earth appears for ones swimming whose well-built ship Poseidon has dashed, driven on by wind and thick wave. Feeble they emerge from the iron-gray sea, landwards swimming, all about the skin crusted seawater, embraced by land as they climb ashore, fleeing hardships. This welcome was looking upon her husband, and from about his neck, not yet in any way would she loosen her milk-white arms.
And now for the lamenting ones, would have arisen rosy-fingered Eos, if not for the thoughtfulness of the goddess, gray-eyed Athena. Then night, at the farthest border rested a long while, as Eos hid from golden-throned Oceanos, and let sleep her pair of swift-footed horses, carrying light for men, radiant Lampon and brilliant Phaethon, those foals which Eos leads.
I will also throw in for good measure--
My translation of the sirens’ song:
And these men, taking up their seats struck-up the iron-gray sea with their oars. But when we were a great distance away, many cried out the alarm, and swiftly we sped on—but the swift-sailing ship did not escape their notice, those who were nearby rousing themselves, and striking up a clear-toned song.
Come here in your traveling, much-praised Odysseus, great glory of the Achaeans,
Stop your ship, where you hear our voices,
For no one can sail by on his black ship before listening to honeyed voices, from our mouths.
But, at least, delighting will he return, and with knowledge.
For we know all things that in wide Troy, the Argives and the Trojans, by the gods’ decree, suffered.
We know as much as grows on life-giving earth.
In this manner they sang, sending out voices, most beautiful. But that heart of mine willed me to listen, and I ordered my comrades to loosen me, signaling with my eyebrows: but falling forward, they rowed.
Found this book in the library, and i wrote down all my favorite ones in my journal. I guess this is how i always imagined ancient greek life was--mountains, sheperds, hyacinths, moon, woods, girls with flowers in their hair, sandals, silver light. Read all of these poems and you will see what i mean. When you see pots, and statues, hear the myths, and read the plays--i feel these poems make that all come alive because you see how the statues and the women on the pots and in the myths were really feeling. i translated a poem by her and i could tell it was very beautiful just from looking at the greek. she fell in love with a ferryman--how greek is that. but she was also clearly in love with athhis--one of the women from her circle, of whatever it was. Cleis No Word Tonight I've watched In the spring twilight 
Sleep, darling
I have a small
daughter called
Cleis, who is
like a golden
flower
I wouldn't
take all Croesus'
kingdom with love
thrown in, for her
---
Don't ask me what to wear
I have no embroidered
headband from Sardis to
give you, Cleis, such as
I wore
and my mother
always said that in her
day a purple ribbon
looped in the hair was thought
to be high style indeed
but we were dark:
a girl
whose hair is yellower than
torchlight should wear no
headdress but fresh flowers
-------I have had not one word from her
Frankly I wish I were dead.
When she left, she wept
a great deal; she said to
me, ``This parting must be
endured, Sappho. I go unwillingly.''
I said, ``Go, and be happy
but remember (you know
well) whom you leave shackled by love
``If you forget me, think
of our gifts to Aphrodite
and all the loveliness that we shared
``all the violet tiaras,
braided rosebuds, dill and
crocus twined around your young neck
``myrrh poured on your head
and on soft mats girls with
all that they most wished for beside them
``while no voices chanted
choruses without ours,
no woodlot bloomed in spring without song...''
-------Tonight I've watched
the moon and then
the Pleiades
go down
The night is now
half-gone; youth
goes; I am
in bed alone
------
It was you, Atthis, who said
"Sappho, if you will not get
up and let us look at you
I shall never love you again!
"Get up, unleash your suppleness,
lift off your Chian nightdress
and, like a lily leaning into
"a spring, bathe in the water.
Cleis is bringing your best
pruple frock and the yellow
"tunic down from the clothes chest;
you will have a cloak thrown over
you and flowers crowning your hair...
"Praxinoa, my child, will you please
roast nuts for our breakfast? One
of the gods is being good to us:
"today we are going at last
into Mitylene, our favorite
city, with Sappho, loveliest
"of its women; she will walk
among us like a mother with
all her daughters around her
"when she comes home from exile..."
But you forget everything
---------
In the spring twilight
the full moon is shining:
Girls take their places
as though around an altar.
Everyone claims these dogs are descendants of an ancient breed of dog called the Molossus. They are mentioned all over in greek and roman texts. Alexander the great kept them, and they allegedly fought lions in the colloseum.
I am reading this really amazing book called the Story of Art by E. H Gombrich. One cool thing he says is that gothic cathedrals are like greenhouses. The Norman or Romanesque churches were heavy and majestic but then architects started discovering new vaulting techniques which allowed them to make cathedrals extremely light and airy. "it became the ideal of architects to build churches almost in the manner in which we build greenhouses" "it was possible to build a church of an entirely new kind; a building of stone and glass such as the world had never seen before."
