Lughnasa Waning Harvest Moon More time today on Ovid. Working on Book III:570-574. This chunk, starting at 509 and running through 579, introduces the story of Pentheus, a cautionary tale about religious zealots. Pentheus criticizes the seer Tiresias as an alarmist and disses the God Bacchus and his Bacchante as driven by potent drink, irrational, […]
Read the rest of this entry »A Latinate Day
Lughnasa Waning Honey Extraction Moon A Latinate day. The am found me back in Pentheus, a story in the third book of Ovid’s Metamorphoses. I remember the story from the English version, at least in part. Pentheus gets torn apart by his mother and her fellow Bacchantes while they are in the grip of a […]
Read the rest of this entry »9 Pins
Lughnasa Waxing Honey Extraction Moon Woke up this first day of Lughnasa to Knickerbockers playing 9 pins and throwing strike after strike after strike. A nap on a thundery summer day has a luxurious feel, velvet, cushy. Gertie spent the nap at the foot of our bed. Both she and Rigel have mild ceraunophobia, shrinking […]
Read the rest of this entry »Ripped Apart
Beltane Waxing Garlic Moon Pentheus gets ripped apart by his mother and her fellow Bacchantes. The Guthrie’s production of The Bacchantes by Euripides several years ago gave the story a telling I’ve never forgotten. It gave me a jolt. I’ve moved on from Diana and Actaeon in Ovid to Pentheus. His story begins about 250 […]
Read the rest of this entry »Anco Impari (I’m Still Learning. Goya)
Beltane Waning Last Frost Moon We continue sliding toward summer, a cool, moist descent, not at all like the sudden, blazing ascension we often see, usually full on in place by now, with sun screen and hats and pitchers of lemonade set out on patios. At some point it will warm up, at least I […]
Read the rest of this entry »