Tuesday, October 1, 2013

TFBT: Random Notes from 9.CB22.1x

I speak as it is borne in upon me from the sky, Odyssey 1:202

“She it was who now lighted Telemakhos to his room, and she loved him  better than any of the other women in the house did, for she had nursed him when he was a baby. He opened the door of his bed room and sat down upon the bed; as he took off his khiton he gave it to the good old woman, who folded it tidily up  and hung it for him over a peg by his bed side,” Odyssey 1.434-41  I just thought it was a moving scene.

[Demodokos], setting his point of departure , started from the god.”  Odyssey 8.99 
Reference to two different therapon in two different books.  Is it plagarism, if you repeat yourself?

·        ”…the son of Capaneus (Sthenelus, charioteer of Diomedes)…gave them to Deïpylus his dear comrade, whom he honoured above all the companions of his youth, because he was like-minded with himself;” Iliad 5:318

·        ”…a herald attended him, a little older than he, and I will tell thee of him too, what manner of man he was. He was round-shouldered, dark of skin, and curly-haired, and his name was Eurybates; and Odysseus honored him above his other comrades, because he was like-minded with himself.” Odysseus 19:24

As for the other five ships, they were taken by winds and seas to Egypt, where Menelaos gathered much gold and substance among people of an alien speech. Meanwhile Aegisthus here at home plotted his evil deed. For seven years after he had killed Agamemnon he ruled in golden Mycenae, and the people were obedient under him, but in the eighth year Orestes came back from Athens to be his bane, and killed the murderer of his father. Then he celebrated the funeral   of his mother and of false unwarlike Aegisthus by a banquet to the people of Argos, and on that very day Menelaos of the great cry came home, with as much treasure as his ships could carry.  Odyssey 3:300-311  Talking about timing!

The tradition of Homeric poetry is a tradition of “civilised” people, “civilised” being they who are conscious about rationale or their reasoning powers when allowed to choose between options. They who listen to Homeric poetry actually choose to listen to the sufferings and sorrows of the Trojan war as if they’re listening to the Gods speaking, who are the ultimate civilised personas in the entire spectacle performed by the Homeric Poet. The Poet’s memnemai (total recall) is another pointer that the Gods are speaking and not humans; of course, the Poet’s having made contact(mental or otherwise) with the state of mind(sophoi defined as intellectually skilled, agathoi defined as morally qualified, and philoi defined as emotionally attuned)of Zeus, the Supreme among Gods, is something that heightens the power of the spectacle.  Thumri 9.22CB.1x

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