by phillipw | Apr 10, 2020 | AN, PO
Heroes, Victims, and Poseidon The metre of ancient Greek poetry succeeds in “achieving a length and complexity that are unusual in the heroic verse of other literature.” ~ Michael Grant, The Rise of the Greeks, 325, as quoted in Michael Schmidt, The First Poets, 16....
by phillipw | Apr 8, 2020 | AN, BE, PO
Upon the Face of Agamemnon “and also he [King Priam of Troy] admires Agamemnon for his beauty” ~ Athenaeus, Deipnosophistae, XIII, 906 Forget that Helen for a moment. Think Of gorgeous men. The King of Troy could not Resist men’s beauty. Helen caused a stink That...
by phillipw | Apr 8, 2020 | AN, EL
Hoot Elegies “Initially the elegy was not restricted to laments. On the contrary, there was the erotic elegy (brilliantly taken up by the Latin poet Ovid)” ~ Michael Schmidt, The First Poets, 11 In long gone centuries elegies were hot With sex. The...
by phillipw | Apr 8, 2020 | AN
Scholarly Blindness “Since before 450 BC there was no prose literature, [sic] our only windows on the ancient world are the poems.” ~ Michael Schmidt, The First Poets, 8 It only goes to show that scholars love To focus narrowly. He looked so hard At...
by phillipw | Apr 7, 2020 | AN
I Have Looked upon the Face of Jolliness The ancient Greeks in poetry were lewd As limericks, playful, silly as a stand Up joker on a comic’s platform, rude And crude, yep, far more rude than Russell Brand. Emitted from these ancient rhythmic throats Were poems...
by phillipw | Apr 4, 2020 | AN, CH, OL, PA
776 B.C. to 393 A.D. The sprint, the one event, the only race Was solemn, sacred, holy. Gods leaned down And over clouds to watch a handsome face Push forward to deserve the victor’s crown. No one, except those gods perhaps, could know Just how...
