Cupid and Psyche 2



What is this about some other girl?

 In Which It's Enough to Give a Goddess a Complex

[29] Sic immensum procedit in dies opinio, sic insulas iam proxumas et terrae plusculum provinciasque plurimas fama porrecta pervagatur. iam multi mortalium longis itineribus atque altissimis maris meatibus ad saeculi specimen gloriosum confluebant. Paphon nemo, Cnidon nemo ac ne ipsa quidem Cythera ad conspectum deae Veneris navigabant; sacra praetereuntur, templa deformantur, pulvinaria proteruntur, caerimoniae negleguntur; incoronata simulacra et arae viduae frigido cinere foedatae. puellae supplicatur et in humanis vultibus deae tantae numina placantur, et in matutino progressu virginis victimis et epulis Veneris absentis nomen propitiatur, iamque per plateas commeantem populi frequenter floribus sertis et solutis adprecantur.

Thus this belief grew to enormous proportions day by day, and thus the story stretched out and spread out immediately to the nearby islands and then somewhat to the provinces on the mainland. Now many of the mortal men were flowing together on  long journeys and through deep-see voyages to the glorious Face of the Century.

No one was sailing to Paphos, no one to Cnidos, and not even to Cythera itself to see the goddess; her sacred rites were cast aside, her temples left to ruin, her couches crushed underfoot, and her ceremonies neglected. Her statues were ungarlanded and her altars shamefully bereft with frigid ashes of fires gone out.

Prayers were directed to the girl, and in her human face the powers of the whole goddess were appeased. At the appearance of the maiden each morning, with feasts and sacrifices, the name of the absent Venus was celebrated. And now the people beseeched the young girl with garlands and scattered flowers whenever she walked through the streets.

"Trapped" by Anthonie Nichols

Trapped...

Sitting quietly
Arms folded tight
For how can she yell?
Buried in snow.

--Anthonie Nichols

Cupid and Psyche 1

Apparently Longfellow had three daughters as well.

The story of Cupid and Psyche is a fairy tale. Apuleius's version is an entire chapter-length diversion in his novel Metamorphoses. An old woman is telling it to a young bride who has just been kidnapped. As a fairy tale, it is very different from the style of the rest of the novel. The plot is more simple, the characters are less nuanced, and the pacing is breathtaking. Great story, though. Because I enjoyed Apuleius so much, I'm going to translate some of it over the summer, to keep my Latin skills up.

In Which We Meet Our Heroine

"Desert Places" by Robert Frost

Snow falling and night falling fast, oh, fast
In a field I looked into going past
And the ground covered smooth in snow
But a few weeds and stubble showing last.


The woods around have it - it is theirs
All animals are smotehred in their lairs.
I am too absent-spirited to count;
The loneliness includes me unawares.


And lonely as it is, that loneliness
Will be more lonely ere it will be less -
A blanker whiteness of benighted snow
With no expression, nothing to express.


They cannot scare me with the empty spaces
Between stars  - on stars where no human race is.
I have it in me so mucn nearer home
To scare myself with my own desert places.
--Robert Frost

Bibliographies for Authors of the Second Sophistic

One of life's greatest tragedies is opportunity cost.

One of the benefits of my recent class was a weekly presentation on a different author whose works we were NOT reading in class. It gave context to the author we were studying and it was great to learn what I don't know. Good thing there's a long life - there's a lot to cover. The presentations were interesting, and I suspect the most lasting contribution may be the bibliographies. If I'm ever bored and don't know what to study, I'll start here.


Below the cut are bibliographies for the following authors:

• Achilles Tatius
• Athenaeus
• Favorinus
• Fronto
• Lucian
• Macrobius
• Maximus of Tyre
• Philostratus
• Pliny the Elder
• Pliny the Younger
• Quinutus of Smyrna
• Seneca the Elder

Friday's Quotes

1. If you can't stand the coldness of my sort of life, and the strain of it, go back to the gutter. Work till you are more a brute than a being; and cuddle and squabble and drink till you fall asleep. Oh, it's a fine life, the life of the gutter. You can feel it through the thickest strain; you can taste it and smell it without any training or any work. Not like Science and Literature and Classical Music and Philosophy and Art.
--George Bernard Shaw in Pygmalion

2. People who think they know everyhing are very annoying to those of us who do. --Anon.

3. The reason the all-American boy preers beauty to brains is the all-American boy can see better than he can think. --Farrah Fawcett Majors

4. Consistency is the measure of our desire. --?

5. Talent is not as rare as the need to express it or the stength to handle the rejection. --Barbara Hershey

"I saw a man pursuing the horizon" by Stephen Crane

I saw a man pursuing the horizon;
Round and round they sped.
I was disturbed at this;
I accosted the man.
"It is futile," I said,
"You can never--"

"You lie," he cried,
And ran on.

--Stephen Crane

Metamorphoses: The Character of Our Hero

Lucius is the young, wealthy and curious protagonist of Apuleius’s Metamorphoses. Over the course of the book, Lucius undergoes a physical and emotional journey and emerges a humbler version of his essential self: a kind, compliant, and curious young man.
   In Book One, also known as the Prologue to the main story, we meet Lucius, who meets two fellow travelers while on the road to Thessaly. We don’t learn of his name until  Book Two, and the information we learn then contradicts the information the narrator presents of himself in Book One. For the purposes of this essay, I will adopt Apuleius’s method and present all the information and the readers decide for themselves which of the contradictory stories is true.

Desiderata by Max Ehrlman

A brief history of Desiderata

Go placidly amid the noise and haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence. As far as possible without surrender be on good terms with all persons. Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even the dull and ignorant; they too have their story. Avoid loud and aggressive persons, they are vexations to the spirit. If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain and bitter; for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.

Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans. Keep interested in your career, however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time. Exercise caution in your business affairs; for the world is full of trickery. But let this not blind you to what virtue there is; many persons strive for high ideals; and everywhere life is full of heroism.

Be yourself. Especially, do not feign affection. Neither be cynical about love; for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment it is as perennial as the grass.

Take kindly the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth.

Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune. But do not distress yourself with imaginings. Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.

Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself.

You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here. And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should. Therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be, and whatever your labors and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul. With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be cheerful. Strive to be happy.

Exegesis of 3.3-5

In which Katie breaks down the interesting aspects of Metamorphoses 3.3b-5

And in which Katie decides to start introducing posts in the manner with which Charles Dickens introduced chapters in Oliver Twist.

Contemporary quotes

In which we take a break from teenage Katie to visit some quotes I've discovered I love within the past few years.


1.  "You and I dream, when we dream nightmares, of being somehow less than worthy of that grace, that strength, that love. We dream of cages, where nothing is permitted. These dreams are lies. Jump." --Jacob Clifton


2. "Hope is faith holding out its hand in the dark." --George Iles


3. "When you run with the Doctor, it feels like it will never end. But you can't run for ever. Everybody knows that everybody dies and nobody knows it like the Doctor. But all the skies of all the worlds might turn dark if he ever, for one moment, accepts it." --Stephan Moffat


4.  "It is less mortifying to believe one's self unpopular than insignificant, and vanity prefers to assume that indifference is a latent form of unfriendliness." --Edith Wharton


5. "I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with senses, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use." --Galileo




2. I'd heard that faith is an action word, and that I should act on faith, but what does that mean? If you're not actually standing in a place where a leap is required, what does it mean to have faith, beyond obedience. I think it means having hope, and refusing to give power to nihilism. Hope is the action part of faith. I also love the part about hold out one's hand. Faith is trusting that the Lord will not leave one hanging.


3. More Doctor Who. Moffat gets why the Doctor is fantastic. (He only missed why Rose is. No one's perfect.)


4. Edith Wharton must have been a kick in the pants to know. I'm sorry I'll never get the chance to make her acquaintance. My dream dinner party includes her, Jane Austen, Oliver Wilde, and Alexander Pope.


5. This one I found about 15 years ago, so it is a break from the contemporary quotes. I LOVE it. Whatever personal belief system I form, it needs to include everything I know to be true, including the Lord's respect of us.

"I felt a cleaving" by Emily Dickinson

I felt a cleaving in my mind
As if my brain had split
I tried to match it seam by seam
But could not make them fit
The thought behind I strove to join
Unto the thought before
The sequence ravelled out of reach
Like balls upon a floor.

--Emily Dickinson

Metamorphoses 11.23 - Lucius has a religious experience

It is very difficult to Google for "vision of heaven".

Thoughts about this passage:

• This is the only time we get a description of the initiation into the cult of Isis. What is more interesting is what he doesn't mention.
• Lucius loves this - the guy who was so interested in magic has thrown himself into religious mysteries wholeheartedly.
• He addresses the reader! In the prologue to the book the narrator did, but Lucius is a character in the story the narrator is telling, and then he breaks the fourth wall! This is a very chic, post-modern book. I can't believe it was written in 130ish AD.

Five more quotes

1. Oh that I could go, yet stay. Have tomorrow, keep today. Cherish, hold my yesterday. My yesterday, now treasured dear, was once tomorrow, seen with fear. --Kimber Ricks.

2. You cannot run from weakness. You must sometime either fight it out or perish, and if that be so...why not now, and where you stand? --Robert Louis Stevenson

3. It is sadder to find the past again and find it inadequate to the present than it is to have it elude you and remain a harmonious conception of memory. --F. Scott Fitzgerald

4. This life is a test, it is only a test. If it were not a test, we would have been given instruction on where to go and what to do. -- via Jenny

5. The advantage of a classical education is it enables you to despise the wealth it prevents you from achieving. --Russel Green

"On My Own" by Herbert Kretzmer, adapted from work by Alain Boubil

From Les Miserables:

And now I'm all alone again nowhere to turn, no one to go to
without a home without a friend without a face to say hello to
And now the night is near
Now I can make believe he's here

Sometimes I walk alone at night
When everybody else is sleeping
I think of him and then I'm happy
With the company I'm keeping
The city goes to bed
And I can live inside my head

On my own
Pretending he's beside me
All alone
I walk with him till morning
Without him
I feel his arms around me
And when I lose my way I close my eyes
And he has found me

In the rain the pavement shines like silver
All the lights are misty in the river
In the darkness, the trees are full of starlight
And all I see is him and me forever and forever

And I know it's only in my mind
That I'm talking to myself and not to him
And although I know that he is blind
Still I say, there's a way for us

I love him
But when the night is over
He is gone
The river's just a river
Without him
The world around me changes
The trees are bare and everywhere
The streets are full of strangers

I love him
But every day I'm learning
All my life
I've only been pretending
Without me
His world would go on turning
A world that's full of happiness
That I have never known

I love him
I love him
I love him
But only on my own

A note about Apuleius and my class

One more passage of the Metamorphoses and my translation adventures with Apuleius will be over for the nonce. I do have two projects left: the paper and the take home final. I was supposed to write the paper over the weekend, but instead I spent those two days sleeping, blowing my nose, and laughing at Arrested Development. I made some notes, but that's it. So the paper is this week's project. This summer will be another topic, but I haven't decided what. Probably Catullus's poetry, in which I learn how to do meter in Latin. It's completely different than in English, and making my brain learn how will be the summer's challenge. I'll be taking my first Latin poetry class this fall and I need to know meter before it starts.

It'll be great. Catullus is the source of some of the greatest love poetry ever written.

"The Arrow" by Henry Wadsworth Longellow

I shot an arrow into the air,
It fell to earth, I know not where;
For, so swifly it flew, the sight
Could not follow it in its flight.

I breathed a song into the air
It fell to earth I know now where;
For who has sight so keep and strong
That it can follow the flight of a song?

Long long afterward, in an oak,
I found the arrow, still unbroke;
And the song, from beginning to end,
I found again in the heart of a friend.

--Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

"The Clown" by Ruggerio Leoncavallo

From Pagliacci:

I know that you hate me and laugh in derision,
For what is the Clown? He plays but a part.
Yet he has his dream, and his hope and his vision,
The Clown has a heart.
And, ah, when you pass me, uncaring, unseeing,
You know not my sorrow, so cruel and sweet.
I give you my spirit, my life, and my being.
I die at your feet.

Metamorphoses 11.22 - Holy books

Apparently all the presently available holy scrolls are of Eastern religions. That does make sense - the cult of Isis herself was an Eastern religion.

Thoughts about this passage:

• Running out of time. These are twice as long as normal - it's taking me an hour apiece. 
• My dictionary doesn't know what a teleta is. Which means I don't. UPDATE: It means an initiation. It's a Greek word, which I should have known. This is an Eastern religion.
• I skipped the paragraph describing the books. I really don't like ekphrases.

Metamorphoses 11.21 - "Slow down, cowboy"

It doesn't matter the religion, the new guy needs a trainer.

Thoughts on this passage:

• inferi means "those beneath". So to mortals, the inferi are the dead. To the gods, the inferi are us.
• traditionem, from which we get "tradition", means surrender. Huh. That looks like something worth looking up in the OED.
• The priest actually sounds like he knows what he's talking about, and I like his patience and his shared sympathy for the challenges of discipleship.
• Oh my stars, this was ONE CHAPTER. And it took me an hour and a half. This week's assignment is going to get down to the wire, I think.

Metamorphoses 11.14-15

Procession in Honor of Isis, painted in the late 1800s.

Thoughts on this passage:

• More of Isis vs. Fate - this time, it seems that Isis defeated Fate on behalf of Lucius. Very interesting, that. Maybe worth exploring.
• As Isis saved Lucius, it seems that she claims him as her own slave. That word in particular is used a couple of times. Lucius must become a priest (sacerdos) of Isis to repay her for his freedom.
• It's the last line I find interesting - the idea that in service to God we find freedom is not an unfamiliar one. Since this was written during the Second Sophistic, right around the time that the Christians and their funny, cultish, new religion was getting attention, I'd be very interested to see where and when this idea permeated. I haven't read it in any previous Latin literature, although that's no guarantee it wasn't there, of course. Maybe I just haven't seen it.
• Even in the midst of these miracles. Apuleius can't help making Lucius a little bit of a ridiculous figure. Him standing there with no clothes is a scene that has appeared in a dozen cartoons, deservedly so. It's hilarious.

MacBeth Quotes II

1. Your face is as a book, where men may read strange matters.

2. The love that follows us sometime is our trouble.

3. But screw your courage to the sticking place and we'll not fail.

4. False face must hide what the false heart doth know.

5. Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood clean from hand?

Meditation 17 by John Donne

No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend's or of thine own were: any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bells tolls; it tolls for thee.

From Meditation 17