@readingancientclassics on Instagram is dedicated to discussions of ancient texts, reviews of myth retellings, and group read-alongs of classical literature. I’d love for you to join me there
Peter Hall’s 1981 production of the Oresteia at the National Theatre was televised by Channel 4 in 1983. You can watch it on YouTube. Here is a link to part one.
I love how Ancient Greek philosophers were basically all sporty buff wrestling guys. Modern philosophers are unathletic dweebs for the most part… I want to see them wrestle… Bring back big buff bicep philosophy!!!
“The truth has to be melted out of our stubborn lives by suffering. Nothing speaks the truth, nothing tells us how things really are, nothing forces us to know what we do not want to know except pain. And this is how the gods declare their love.”
The goddess, Judgement, favours someone learning from adversity. But I shall hear of what will be, after it comes into being: Before then, I leave it, otherwise, it is the same as a premature grieving. Aeschylus: Agamemnon, 250-254
..the culture of ἀρετή is, in essence, the education of discovering and knowing, intellectually and personally, that noble balance between our natural human tendency to commit ὕβρις - to go beyond the respectful, noble, limits of behaviour - and the necessity of learning the hard way, from πάθει μάθος, from direct personal experience. Δίκα is this balance; a balance manifest in us - or which can be manifest in us - through thoughtful reasoning, that is, by a well-balanced, fair, noble, personal judgement.
I was going to start this with a convoluted lead in about Cassandra, the murdered, doomed prophet who was abducted from Troy by Agamemnon, using her acceptance of her fate, to be murdered along with that egotistical bastard, by his wife, Clytemnestra, as a metaphor for sacrifice within D/s. The problem was that’s a terrible metaphor.
Sacrifice is rooted in offering, and when you present yourself to me, that’s an offering, right there. An offer to hurt you, draw blood to the surface. An offer to use. Each one a little sacrifice, a part of yourself to lose, for a time, to surrender to me.
But we’re not going to be pleasing any ancient gods. It’s not about the White Bull of Poseidon, or Zeus’ perverted swan that we’re aiming for. Each one is for me, and me alone. Every blow I lay on your flesh, the gasps and cries that spill from your lips, is supplication that I will take and enjoy, leaving you both indebted and absolved. Torn between the two, you’re going to approach catharsis.
And that’s another little bit of classical Greek, between me and you.
“There is no reason why Kassandra should speak Greek. She is a Trojan princess who has never been away from home before. In fact, she will turn out to command all registers of this alien tongue – analytical, metaphoric, historical, prophetic, punning, riddling, plain as glass. But Apollo has cursed Kassandra. Her mind is foreign in a much deeper way. Although she sees everything past, present, and future, and sees it truly, no one ever believes what she says. Kassandra is a self-consuming truth. Aiskhylos sets her in the middle of his play as a difference you cannot grasp, a glass that does not give back the image placed before it.”
yes, but the strength of god is still superior: often it lifts up someone who is helpless and in trouble, lifts them out of even the worst anguish, when clouds hang over their eyes, and sets them upright
Aeschylus,Seven Against Thebes 226-9, trans. N.F.T.
Went to Half Price Book Store- found a gorgeous hardcopy of the Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. I read it last year and it was fabulous. I recommend. Still looking for the upcoming Aeschylus, Confucius, and Sophocles. Publishers need to make more good translations that are pretty classics too.
For anyone who wants to read with me the beginning of the Mother of All Book lists is as follows (looks crappy when you realize that I’m still on 3- but I have read a lot of these already, just not in context):
1800 BC Anonymous. The Epic of Gilgamesh
1000 BC Vyasa. The Mahabharata
900 BC Sage Ved Vyasa. The Bhagavad Gita (Part of the Mahabharata) *date unknown
855 BC Homer. The Odyssey.
850 BC Homer. The Iliad
512 BC Sun Tzu. The Art of War (Recorded in the Records of the Grand Historian)
500 BC Lao Tsu. Tao te Ching
500 BC Mencius. The Book of Mencius
480 BC Aeschylus. Prometheus Bound.
479 BC Confucius. The Sayings
478 BC Confucius. The Analects
472 BC Aeschylus. The Persians
467 BC Aeschylus. Seven Against Thebes
463 BC Aeschylus. Suppliant Maidens
458 BC Aeschylus. Agamemnon, Libation Bearers, Eumenides(The Oresteia Trilogy)
450 BC Sophocles. Ajax
450 BC Sophocles. Trichinae
441 BC Sophocles. Antigone
438 BC Euripides. Alcestis
431 BC Thucydides. The History of the Peloponnesian War.
To start off, astrology can be speculative - even if you have any of these placements, especially the ones in the 2nd part, it is not always likely that these things can happen to you.
Athene (881) in the 5th House or conjunct Mars can show someone who practices martial arts.
Tantalus (2102) conjunct Venus, Mars or in the 5th or 7th House can show attraction to people who are unavailable, people who are hard to get.
Cupido(763) in the 5th or 7th House can show someone that falls in love very fast, someone who is very romantic and likely very lucky or fulfilled in their love life. However it can also show selfish behavior, inability to consider the partner’s feelings.
Erato(62) in the 3rd House or conjunct Venus, Mercury or Moon can show a talent for romantic writing and poetry, song lyrics.
Angel(11911) in the 9th or 12th House can show great enlightenment, someone very connected to their higher self, their guardian angel, it is also connected to divine guidance and higher protection.
Telephus(5264)/Sybil(4679) conjunct MoonorTelephus/Sybil in the 12th House can show extremely strong intuition. Telephus or Sybil in the 3rd House or conjunct Mercury,Uranus might show propehtic power, clairvoyance.
Child (4580) conjunct Ascendant can show someone who is very youthful whether it’s by appearance or behaviour. Sun conjunct Child - youthful spirit, Mercury conjunct Child - child-like curiosity.
Child in the 4th House might show a Peter Pan syndrome, refusal to grow up and let go out their childhood.
Lust(4386) in the 1st House can make someone very desirable, very sexually attractive, but it can also show that their attractionn to others can be primal or superficial.
Aeschylus(2876) in the 8th can show death with unusual circumstances, death that is surrounded by mystery, people who have gone missing.
TW for the next part:
Persephone(399) in the 6th House can show food complex, eating disorders; body image issues can be seen w/ Persephone in the 1st House or conjunct the Ascendant.
Persephone conjunct Moon or Venus can show attachment to loved ones, separation anxiety.
Persephone conjunct or square Moon can show a complex relationship with the mother, while Persephone conjunct or square Sun can show a complex relationship with the father. Parental trauma, etc. Persephone in 4th can show general trauma connected to family. Perspehone in 5th or 8th House can show trauma connected to sex.
Grieve(4451) in the 4th House can show loss of parent, loss of family member. Grieve in 3rd can show loss of sibling or relative. Grieve in the 5th House can show loss of children and in the 7th House it can show loss of partner. Grieve conjunct Moon can show loss of mother/maternal figure, Grieve conjunct the Sun can show loss of father of paternal figure.
Ophelia(171) in the 8th House can show death by drowning.
Note: You can find these asteroids on astro.com in the extended chart selection - Additional objects and Asteroid name/number list. I have included the numbers above.
if i were writing a feminist myth retelling centered around a female character mostly overlooked and denied interiority in the ancient texts that mention her, i would simply not throw helen under the bus to do so
rip to margaret atwood and madeline miller but i’m different
don’t turn your bitterness onto Helen, as if she were the murderer, as if she and she alone robbed so many Greek men of their lives and dug you a bottomless despair.
and nor indeed would Argive Helen, born of Zeus, have shared herself (her love and her bed) with a stranger, if she’d known that the warlike sons of the Achaeans would feel themselves destined to bring her back home.
Penelope in the Odyssey, 23.218-21, agreeing with this
