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Authors: José Carlos Somoza
Tags: Mystery
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me to think so) the eidesis of a writer - always present yet always invisible.
Maybe. But why am I so sure that the girl is the true hidden message in this chapter, and that her cry for help and her warning of danger are so important? I'll only find out if I carry on.
For now I'll follow the advice of Heracles Pontor, Decipherer of Enigmas: 'Relax . . . And may anxiety not rob you of sweet sleep.' (T .'sN.)
IV 20
The City was preparing for the Lenaea, the winter festival in honour of Dionysus.
The servants of the astynomi decorated the streets, scattering hundreds of flowers over the Panathenaic Way, but the violent toing and froing of men and beasts turned the iridescent mosaic to a pulp of crushed petals. Singing and dancing contests, announced on marble tablets on the monument to the Eponymous Heroes, were held in the open air, although the singers' voices were generally displeasing to the ear, and most of the dancers executed their leaps clumsily and furiously, disobeying the oboes. As the archons did not wish to vex the people, street entertainment, though frowned upon, was permitted. Young men from different denies staged rather poor theatrical acts in competition with one another, and people gathered in the squares to watch amateurs performing violent pantomimes based on ancient myths. The Theatre of Dionysus Eleuthereus opened its doors to both new and established authors, mainly of comedies (the great tragedies being reserved for the Festival of Dionysus) so full of brutal obscenities that, usually, only men attended. And everywhere, though particularly in the Agora and Inner Ceramicus, from morning till night, there was a mingling of noise, shouting, laughter, wine and people.
20 A good night's sleep does wonders. I woke up thinking I could see Helena's point. Now that I've reread Chapter Three again, it doesn't seem so obvious that the 'girl with the lily' is an eidetic image. Perhaps my imagination was playing tricks on me. I'm now starting Chapter Four. Montalo says about this particular papyrus: 'Battered, creased in places - could it have been trampled by a beast? It is a miracle that the text has come down to us in its entirety.' As the usual order of the Labours has been altered, I don't yet know which one I'm dealing with here. I'll have to go very carefully.
The City prided itself on its liberality, which set it apart from the barbarians and even from other Greek cities, so slaves were permitted their own, much more modest, festivals. They ate and drank better than during the rest of the year, held dances and, in the noblest houses, were sometimes allowed to go to the theatre, where they could watch themselves, as masked actors playing the parts of slaves clumsily deriding the populace.
But the activity of choice during the festival was religion. The processions in honour of Dionysus Bacchus combined mysticism and savagery: priestesses carried brutal wooden phalluses through the streets, dancing girls performed frenzied dances simulating the religious ecstasy of the maenads or bacchae - crazed women in which all Athenians believed but none had ever seen - and men in masks mimed the god's threefold transfiguration (into Serpent, Lion and Bull), sometimes using the most obscene gestures.
Rising above all the strident violence, the Acropolis remained silent and virgin. 21
21 The Acropolis (where the great temples to Athena, patroness of the City, stood) was mostly reserved for the Feast of the Panathenaea, although I suspect the patient reader already knows this. The words 'violence' and 'clumsiness' feature prominently. They must be the first eid etic images of this chapter. (T .'s N.)
It was a cold, sunny day. That morning a troupe of coarse Theban performers was granted permission to entertain people outside the Poikile Stoa. One, a rather old man, juggled with daggers, but his grip often failed and the knives fell to the ground, clashing violently; another
Maybe. But why am I so sure that the girl is the true hidden message in this chapter, and that her cry for help and her warning of danger are so important? I'll only find out if I carry on.
For now I'll follow the advice of Heracles Pontor, Decipherer of Enigmas: 'Relax . . . And may anxiety not rob you of sweet sleep.' (T .'sN.)
IV 20
The City was preparing for the Lenaea, the winter festival in honour of Dionysus.
The servants of the astynomi decorated the streets, scattering hundreds of flowers over the Panathenaic Way, but the violent toing and froing of men and beasts turned the iridescent mosaic to a pulp of crushed petals. Singing and dancing contests, announced on marble tablets on the monument to the Eponymous Heroes, were held in the open air, although the singers' voices were generally displeasing to the ear, and most of the dancers executed their leaps clumsily and furiously, disobeying the oboes. As the archons did not wish to vex the people, street entertainment, though frowned upon, was permitted. Young men from different denies staged rather poor theatrical acts in competition with one another, and people gathered in the squares to watch amateurs performing violent pantomimes based on ancient myths. The Theatre of Dionysus Eleuthereus opened its doors to both new and established authors, mainly of comedies (the great tragedies being reserved for the Festival of Dionysus) so full of brutal obscenities that, usually, only men attended. And everywhere, though particularly in the Agora and Inner Ceramicus, from morning till night, there was a mingling of noise, shouting, laughter, wine and people.
20 A good night's sleep does wonders. I woke up thinking I could see Helena's point. Now that I've reread Chapter Three again, it doesn't seem so obvious that the 'girl with the lily' is an eidetic image. Perhaps my imagination was playing tricks on me. I'm now starting Chapter Four. Montalo says about this particular papyrus: 'Battered, creased in places - could it have been trampled by a beast? It is a miracle that the text has come down to us in its entirety.' As the usual order of the Labours has been altered, I don't yet know which one I'm dealing with here. I'll have to go very carefully.
The City prided itself on its liberality, which set it apart from the barbarians and even from other Greek cities, so slaves were permitted their own, much more modest, festivals. They ate and drank better than during the rest of the year, held dances and, in the noblest houses, were sometimes allowed to go to the theatre, where they could watch themselves, as masked actors playing the parts of slaves clumsily deriding the populace.
But the activity of choice during the festival was religion. The processions in honour of Dionysus Bacchus combined mysticism and savagery: priestesses carried brutal wooden phalluses through the streets, dancing girls performed frenzied dances simulating the religious ecstasy of the maenads or bacchae - crazed women in which all Athenians believed but none had ever seen - and men in masks mimed the god's threefold transfiguration (into Serpent, Lion and Bull), sometimes using the most obscene gestures.
Rising above all the strident violence, the Acropolis remained silent and virgin. 21
21 The Acropolis (where the great temples to Athena, patroness of the City, stood) was mostly reserved for the Feast of the Panathenaea, although I suspect the patient reader already knows this. The words 'violence' and 'clumsiness' feature prominently. They must be the first eid etic images of this chapter. (T .'s N.)
It was a cold, sunny day. That morning a troupe of coarse Theban performers was granted permission to entertain people outside the Poikile Stoa. One, a rather old man, juggled with daggers, but his grip often failed and the knives fell to the ground, clashing violently; another
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