Sing, Muse, as you sang out for Homer once; sing out the love of brothers bound by blood not of their birth, their mother’s wails and grunts, but of the miles they marched as one in mud, of that they shed or that unleashed in flood. Sing not of life beginning but of death, and sing, O Muse, ‘til you run out of breath. So Virgil heard you; so we hear you still and give you yet more matter for your song. Sing out, O Muse, and sing it with a will, as if the soldier’s glory were as long as yours, or made the stench of rot less wrong, or gladdened mothers weeping out their eyes. Let us console ourselves: Sing us these lies. Sing out the old refrains of long-dead men who were not safe, although they lived as kings. We slaughter Iphigenia again, and Clytemnestra’s waiting in the wings until Orestes comes.
Now I have to ask if you know the musical Hadestown! Hermes narrates it with a meta-attention to the fact that he's singing the song and telling the story, and much is made of the fact that Orpheus is the son of a Muse. And the very last line is "We're going to sing it again." (With the implication that it might not be a tragedy when we sing it again, though it has been every time so far)
I highly recommend it! It's one of my three favorite musicals. The music is sort of a folk-gospel-rock-jazz idiom (depending on which character is singing).
Oh, he fits right in. I started rereading the Aeneid while still finishing up some Greek tragedies, and I think maybe it was a bit much to be reading all at once.
I love this one, Kate. It's got such a Lit Trad vibe; but with a real freshness that makes it feel not like a retread but a reimagining, striking a new spark.
An extraordinary piece. Pretty sure it's the best of yours I've read: I'm bookmarking it because I'd love to record a reading of it sometime, the music begs to be heard/the epic begs to be told.
Good stuff as always. Reading you I often wonder what kind of Christianity informs your notion of history as endless war, then redemption. Is it the humanist kind, that integrates the Greek and Roman classics into the Christian tradition? Like, Dante putting various Greek gods in hell, and Plato in Limbo, etc. But in that tradition, there is a beat between endless war and redemption, the birth of Christ, the growth of the Catholic church, etc. Even as an atheist, I can see and appreciate the change: predatory male sexuality controlled by marriage, a civil society that provides an alternative authority to kings, universalism, some alternative to Athenian credo "the strong do as they like, and the weak suffer what they must." Anyway, your historical sense seems less humanist and more Old Testament, even similar to Protestant fundamentalism. I'm not trying to pigeonhole you, just wondering. You're a Christian and a classicist, so I'm guessing you've thought about this. Would you put Christian civilization in the same bucket as the Greeks and Romans, who--I think fairly--you associate with brutality.
I'm Catholic. I kind of see it all happening at once: the endless wars and the redemption are somehow contemporaneous. I suspect this has to do with individual free will. Christ has indeed redeemed the world, but individuals still do terrible things in that world, and they still need to be redeemed. So it's all happening at the same time.
Loved this Kate! reminded me of Milton's!!
Sing, Heavenly Muse, that on the secret top
Of Oreb or of Sinai, didst inspire
That sheperd, who first taught the chosen Seed,
In the beginning how the Heavens and Earth
rose out of chaos . . .
And chiefly Thou, O Spirit, that dost prefer
Above all temples th' upright heart and pure,
Instruct me . . . What in me is dark
Illumine, what is low, raise and support . . .
Now I have to ask if you know the musical Hadestown! Hermes narrates it with a meta-attention to the fact that he's singing the song and telling the story, and much is made of the fact that Orpheus is the son of a Muse. And the very last line is "We're going to sing it again." (With the implication that it might not be a tragedy when we sing it again, though it has been every time so far)
I actually had the same thought!
I've heard of it, but never listened to it.
I highly recommend it! It's one of my three favorite musicals. The music is sort of a folk-gospel-rock-jazz idiom (depending on which character is singing).
Sweet! I'll look it up!
Excellent. Passionate and restrained. Little bit of Teiresias going on here, the suffering prophet.
Oh, he fits right in. I started rereading the Aeneid while still finishing up some Greek tragedies, and I think maybe it was a bit much to be reading all at once.
I love this one, Kate. It's got such a Lit Trad vibe; but with a real freshness that makes it feel not like a retread but a reimagining, striking a new spark.
Oh, thank you! I was worried it was all retread. But yes, it's heavily LitTrad-influenced.
An extraordinary piece. Pretty sure it's the best of yours I've read: I'm bookmarking it because I'd love to record a reading of it sometime, the music begs to be heard/the epic begs to be told.
Oh, my gosh, thank you so much!
Keep a green bough in your heart and God will send a singing bird. - Chinese Proverb
Good stuff as always. Reading you I often wonder what kind of Christianity informs your notion of history as endless war, then redemption. Is it the humanist kind, that integrates the Greek and Roman classics into the Christian tradition? Like, Dante putting various Greek gods in hell, and Plato in Limbo, etc. But in that tradition, there is a beat between endless war and redemption, the birth of Christ, the growth of the Catholic church, etc. Even as an atheist, I can see and appreciate the change: predatory male sexuality controlled by marriage, a civil society that provides an alternative authority to kings, universalism, some alternative to Athenian credo "the strong do as they like, and the weak suffer what they must." Anyway, your historical sense seems less humanist and more Old Testament, even similar to Protestant fundamentalism. I'm not trying to pigeonhole you, just wondering. You're a Christian and a classicist, so I'm guessing you've thought about this. Would you put Christian civilization in the same bucket as the Greeks and Romans, who--I think fairly--you associate with brutality.
I'm Catholic. I kind of see it all happening at once: the endless wars and the redemption are somehow contemporaneous. I suspect this has to do with individual free will. Christ has indeed redeemed the world, but individuals still do terrible things in that world, and they still need to be redeemed. So it's all happening at the same time.
Got you! Your response reminds me of your last poem, when the child was the father of the man, as it were, and the times were parallel.