Musings before I return to my regularly scheduled life...
Well, I for one am glad to see that The Stoa is back and working again. It was hacked earlier today, and as I made it my homepage some time ago, I was a little saddened by that. Actually, I need to add it to my links on this blog!
Anyway, my friend showed me this article, which horrifies me because of the name of the brothel. I mean, why? Are these the same idiots who wrote The Empire?
On a completely different note, I was really annoyed that this poem isn't posted anywhere on the (google-searchable) internet in FULL. It has nothing to do with Classics, except that it may prove that John Quincy Adams had the emperor complex that we see so often in ancient history in wanting to deify (well, poetically deify, anyway) his father. And, as I've said before, the 18th and 19th centuries were so steeped in Classical education that they can't help but be at least a little Classically related!
Anyway, here's the poem, written about a year after his father's death on his birthday:
Day of my father’s birth, I hail thee yet.
What though his body moulders in the grave,
Yet shall not Death th’ immortal soul enslave;
The sun is not extinct—his orb has set.
And where on earth’s wide ball shall man be met,
While time shall run, but from thy spirit brave
Shall learn to grasp the boon his Maker gave,
And spurn the terror of a tyrant’s threat?
Who but shall learn that freedom is the prize
Man still is bound to rescue or maintain;
That nature’s God commands the slave to rise,
And on the oppressor’s head to break his chain.
Roll, years of promise, rapidly roll round,
Till not a slave shall on this earth be found.
- John Quincy Adams, 1827
I really like this poem, and it's a shame it only ever gets half-quoted to prove JQA's anti-slavery sentiments (or to support current politicians in ways that baffle my brain).
Anyway, my friend showed me this article, which horrifies me because of the name of the brothel. I mean, why? Are these the same idiots who wrote The Empire?
On a completely different note, I was really annoyed that this poem isn't posted anywhere on the (google-searchable) internet in FULL. It has nothing to do with Classics, except that it may prove that John Quincy Adams had the emperor complex that we see so often in ancient history in wanting to deify (well, poetically deify, anyway) his father. And, as I've said before, the 18th and 19th centuries were so steeped in Classical education that they can't help but be at least a little Classically related!
Anyway, here's the poem, written about a year after his father's death on his birthday:
Day of my father’s birth, I hail thee yet.
What though his body moulders in the grave,
Yet shall not Death th’ immortal soul enslave;
The sun is not extinct—his orb has set.
And where on earth’s wide ball shall man be met,
While time shall run, but from thy spirit brave
Shall learn to grasp the boon his Maker gave,
And spurn the terror of a tyrant’s threat?
Who but shall learn that freedom is the prize
Man still is bound to rescue or maintain;
That nature’s God commands the slave to rise,
And on the oppressor’s head to break his chain.
Roll, years of promise, rapidly roll round,
Till not a slave shall on this earth be found.
- John Quincy Adams, 1827
I really like this poem, and it's a shame it only ever gets half-quoted to prove JQA's anti-slavery sentiments (or to support current politicians in ways that baffle my brain).
posted by Glaukôpis at 5:32 PM
4 Comments:
I'd say that 'Artemis' is an excellent name for a brothel. What's more appealing than attaining, or trying to attain that which is clean and pure? To call it 'Artemis' instead of, say, 'Aphrodite', there is an added air of 'the chase', which is bound to be sexy. Were not many a hunter driven mad in pursuit of Artemis? I'd think that such madness would lend itself nicely to an exuberant brothel environment.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't one of the main appeals of a brothel the fact that you get to skip the whole 'chase' bit?
Maybe I'm missing something about the brothel-going mentality, but... I just didn't think people went to brothels for the sake of "the chase" or to obtain "that which is clean and pure."
For once in my life, I do not mean that as a snarky statement. I truly just do not get this.
At any rate, I can see Artemis up in Olympus plotting her vengeance.
And isn't it more like Artemis turning hunters into animals for accidentally glancing upon her in her nudity? Come to think of it, I'd be a bit wary of going into a brothel whose name might offend the goddess. ;-)
Considering the chase elicits sexual excitement, which I can only imagine makes good business (or energy) for a brothel -- though I'm not expecting or suggesting that the clientele go through this mental exercise before entering, of course.
Post a Comment
<< Home