My lovely chotisi
I am missing you so much, I
would have squished you and loved you and cuddled you and combed your hair and
told you dad jokes and and and! Not to mention make you faint!. Good to hear
that you arent being bored and have much to do J
So, I thought of sharing few things
which you might like
1. https://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/who-is-the-draco-in-draconian-measures/
quite an interesting background. I keep on telling people that my little girl will
become Mary Beard, version 2.0, but so much better looking and better in
communications J Its so amazing what
the Athenians managed to get up to in so many forms of human civilisation. Its
very obvious why Greek civilisation is considered to be the foundation of
modern civilisation and how much it spread via colonisation, gutenberg’s press
and and and. But we shouldn’t forget the work done by other civilisations but
their contributions didn’t stick.
2. Second was this: I was discussing with a mate about discussing sieges in
classical times where similar situations would happen. There would be an enemy
at the gate and the city or town would be locked down. Fear and terror would
stalk the streets. But people would still go out to fight. Thucydides was
discussed. But I pointed her to somethings that come out well despite when
sieges happen. We see the emergence of heroes. Like the doctors and nurses and
ambulance drivers and the checkout assistants and the policemen who have to go
out to work despite the dangers. I pointed her to what Homer wrote about
Hector. Thanks to Brad Pitt and Homer, people admire and like Achilles but he
was a demi-god. The man was a confirmed baersark and a nutter but he was good
looking so he was given a hospital pass (pun intended). But Hector? ah! now
there's a brave man. Who knew that Troy will fall. Who soothed his fearful wife
Andromache after she begged him to stay back, saying, "“Hector, thus it is
you are father to me, and my honored mother, you are my brother, and you it is
who are my young husband. Please take pity upon me then, stay here on the
rampart, that you may not leave your child an orphan, your wife a widow … “ He
replied...Then tall Hector of the shining helm answered her: “All these things
are in my mind also, lady; yet I would feel deep shame before the Trojans, and
the Trojan women with trailing garments, if like a coward I were to shrink
aside from the fighting … for I know this thing well in my heart, and my mind
knows it: there will come a day when sacred Ilion will perish, and Priam, and
the people of Priam of the strong ash spear. But it is not so much the pain to
come of the Trojans that troubles me, not even of Priam the king nor Hecabe …
as troubles me the thought of you, when some bronze-armoured Achaian leads you
off, taking away your day of liberty, in tears; and in Argos you must work at
the loom of another, and carry water from the spring Messeis or Hypereia, all
unwilling, but strong will be the necessity upon you; and some day seeing you
shedding tears a man will say of you: ‘This is the wife of Hector, who was ever
the bravest fighter of the Trojans, breakers of horses, in the days when they
fought about Ilion.’ “So will one speak of you; and for you it will be yet a
fresh grief, to be widowed of such a man who could fight off the day of your
slavery. But may I be dead and the piled earth hide me under before I hear you
crying and know by this that they drag you captive.” So speaking glorious
Hector held out his arms to his baby, who shrank back to his fair-girdled
nurse’s bosom screaming, and frightened at the aspect of his own father, terrified
as he saw the bronze and the crest with its horse-hair, nodding dreadfully, as
he thought, from the peak of the helmet. Then his beloved father laughed out,
and his honoured mother, and at once glorious Hector lifted from his head the
helmet and laid it in all its shining upon the ground. Then taking up his dear
son he tossed him about in his arms, and kissed him, and lifted his voice in
prayer to Zeus and the other immortals: “Zeus, and you other immortals, grant
that this boy, who is my son, may be as I am, pre-eminent among the Trojans,
great in strength as I am, and rule strongly over Ilion; and some day let them
say of him: ‘He is better by far than his father,’ as he comes in from the
fighting; and let him kill his enemy and bring home the blooded spoils, and
delight the heart of his mother.’ Pretty fascinating, isnt it?
3. Then I have mentioned Sappho to you
earlier. Here’s an interesting link: https://greece.greekreporter.com/2020/03/21/bust-of-greek-poet-sappho-discovered-in-turkish-museum/?fbclid=IwAR2WzNlYWhFU64K9HUqtCwi8iQTmGLQDEOGKxDioHSaisyQscsq7AMAZde4
4. Well, i will reserve judgement till the paper comes out, but
Sappho is seriously good. This is my favourite poem of her's.
He seems to me equal in good fortune to the
whatever man, who sits on the opposite side to you
and listens nearby to your
sweet replies
and desire-inducing laugh: indeed that
gets my heart pounding in my breast.
For just gazing at you for a second, it is impossible
for me even to talk;
my tongue is broken, all at once a soft
flame has stolen beneath my flesh,
my eyes see nothing at all,
my ears ring,
sweat pours down me, a tremor
shakes me, I am more greenish than
grass, and I believe I am at
the very point of death.
whatever man, who sits on the opposite side to you
and listens nearby to your
sweet replies
and desire-inducing laugh: indeed that
gets my heart pounding in my breast.
For just gazing at you for a second, it is impossible
for me even to talk;
my tongue is broken, all at once a soft
flame has stolen beneath my flesh,
my eyes see nothing at all,
my ears ring,
sweat pours down me, a tremor
shakes me, I am more greenish than
grass, and I believe I am at
the very point of death.
Hope you have a fantastic day, choti
Love you
Baba
