Imbolc Waning Bridgit Moon
The bubble of calm before the winds begin to blow and the snow to fall. Predictions have increased the amount from 8-10 to 12-18. I’ve never outgrown my joy at a snowfall, so I’m looking forward to this one.
My plan for the snow is this: Ovid and some reading. I’m translating the story of Diana and Actaeon right now since Titian painted a large canvas on this theme, a painting now in the MIA for three months.
The reading right now is Empire, a s0-so novel of imperial Rome. I’m sure the idea seemed like a winner when the guy started. Take one non-imperial family and follow them through the years of changing emperors. If the through in were stronger, it might have been strong, but it’s more like a pastiche. He throws in well known stories of this emperor or that, trying to palm them off on the reader as if they were imaginative leaps, but I know too much of the history. The saving grace to the book is that it is a decent survey of the changing fortunes of Rome under emperors from Augustus to Hadrian. So far. I’m almost done and look forward to a new novel written with more narrative flair.
Can you tell I’m sort of caught up in Rome right now? That’s the way it goes for me. Ancient China. Ancient Egypt. Ancient Celts. Ancient Greece. Ancient Rome.
