Matthew’s Random Ramblings

In December 2005, when I was living on the island of Cyprus, I took a trip to Athens for the weekend.  This was before I had acquired a taste for icons.  I saw them in some old churches and in museums and found little appeal in them, save one Pieta — a Western motif with Western influences in style!

One evening in Athens, having seen the glories of pagan Greece, I peered through a shop window and saw a small statue of a woman, bronze in colour and executed in the Classical style.  This was when I realised that my taste in art was thoroughly pagan.  I preferred the Classical sculpture I had seen at the National Archaeological Museum to the icons painted on domes of churches.

However, icons vs. Greek sculptures is not the only area of my paganism.

My favourite poet is Publius Virgilius Maro, author of The Aeneid which is the national epic of the Roman Empire, which had such thoroughgoing paganism until AD 312 that it occasionally killed Christians.  Second place comes to Homer.  There is very little that is more pagan than Homer and Virgil are.  They are all about gods and heroes, about wars and honour and pride.  Yet they are my favourite poets.

Ought I not to prefer Dante or TS Eliot?

That love of Homer and Virgil is probably excusable, but what of the fact that I thrilled with excitement a week ago when I purchased the Metropolitan Opera’s 14-CD recording of Der Ring Des Nibelungen.  I don’t know that even Les Troyens, the Virgil-based opera which is playing right now, is as pagan as these operas are, crafted from the raw stuff of Germanic mythology cast with characterisations and themes of Greek mythology and wrought together by an anti-Semite German nationalist.

I should be listening to Samson and Delilah or something biblical, shouldn’t I?

I also have an interest in Vikings — history, material culture, mythology, sense of fashion.  And the pyramids.  And the Nibelungenlied.  And Celtic mythology.

Now, not only do I prefer pagan art, pagan poetry, and pagan opera, not only have I studied the ancient pagans’ history, mythology, literature, art, culture, but I read science fiction!  Science fiction is nothing more than modernist mythology for the secular humanist pagan.  Thus, although I am fond of Lewis’ Cosmic Trilogy, the SF that calls my name is that of Asimov and Bradbury.

Plus I have long hair.  Pagan.

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So, let’s say you survived my list of 10 and wish to try some more Classics.  The influences upon Classical culture are broad and diverse, but the Greeks are the foundation upon which it is all built.  Therefore, moving on from those ten, here are some pieces of Greek literature worth reading.

Poetry:

Perhaps, like me, you fell madly in love with Homer.  Other epic:

Hesiod, Theogony and Works and Days.  I have West’s translation for Oxford World’s Classics.  Theogony covers the birth of the gods and the formation of the universe and gives numerous genealogical bits.  Works and Days is ostensibly advice to H’s bro about farming and stuff, also including some nice tidbits of mythology.

Apollonius of Rhodes, Argonautica.  This tells the tale of Jason and the Argonauts as they quest for the Golden Fleece.  I recommend Rieu’s translation for Penguin, The Voyage of Argo.

Having read Aeschylus’ Oresteia, you may be itching for more Greek tragedy.  I recommend these:

Sophocles’ most famous are the Theban plays, Oedipus the King, Antigone, Oedipus at Colonus.  These do not constitute a trilogy but merely focus on the same royal family for their stories.  They even differ in details sometimes.  Unsurprisingly, I have the Penguin Classics translation by Robert Fagles.  If you really dig Sophocles, try out Ajax.  It’s good.

Euripides seems to be the most popular of the tragedians amongst moderns.  I recommend The Bacchae, and Morwood’s Oxford translation is reliable.  Medea is also worth a read, being one of his most famous.

If tragedy isn’t your style, try out comedy:

Aristophanes is the only surviving poet of Old Comedy, a contemporary of Euripides.  You can get all of his plays in one volume from Bantam or scattered in editions by Oxford and Penguin.  Read Lysistrata, and Frogs to start.

If you want to try out shorter poems, Richmond Lattimore has a nice little book called Greek Lyrics with a number of lyric poems by a variety of different authors.  It has some of my favourite bits from Archilochus, Sappho, Anacreon, et al.

Prose:

Herodotus, The Histories.  H is the so-called “Father of History,” though some call him the “Father of Lies.”  Nonetheless, he’s a good storyteller, and in this work he recounts the events of the Persian War, including Thermopylae, for all those 300 fans out there.

Thucydides, The Peloponnesian War.  This guy can be a bit dry, but his account of the war between Sparta and Athens is important both for the history of Greece as well as the history of Greek prose literature and the history of writing history.

Xenophon, Anabasis.  This is the story of a bunch of Greek mercenaries hired by the younger brother of the Persian King to overthrow him.  It recounts their various adventures in Asia Minor on the way there and then on the way back to Greece.  Kind of a Hobbit-thing, “There and back again.”  Very entertaining and high on my list of enjoyable, readable Greek prose writers.

Aesop, Fables.  Penguin has a complete edition.  This is worth reading and will give you a different view of the Greek world than the others listed.  Fables are an important genre in the ancient world and are still read and used today.

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This week, our poem is by JRR Tolkien.  It is the beginning of The New Lay of the Volsungs, which you can find in his latest release, The Legend of Sigurd & Gudrun.

UPPHAF
(Beginning)

1. Of old was an age
when was emptiness,
there was sand nor sea
nor surging waves;
unwrought was Earth,
unroofed was Heaven–
an abyss yawning,
and no blade of grass.

2.  The Great Gods then
began their toil,
the wondrous world
they well builded.
From the South the Sun
from seas rising
gleamed down on grass
green at morning.

3.  They hall and hallow
high uptowering,
gleaming-gabled,
golden-posted,
rock-hewn ramparts
reared in splendour,
forge and fortress
framed immortal.

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So, if you’re looking for exciting things to while away the time besides the 10 books listed in my last post, here are some things to try out:

1.  I’ve recently updated my photostream on Flickr.

2.  Some stuff has been going down at my other blog, the pocket scroll, about St. Columba, the Eucharist, and St. Basil the Great re the Holy Spirit.  Check it out!

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I think that it would do anyone living in a country of the North/West a lot of good to become acquainted with the Classical world to some degree — acquainted with its literature, mythology, history, art, philosophy, and, if possible, languages.  Not to a super-intense degree.  But a certain familiarity, I think, would do a lot of people some good.

Here’s a list of 10 books you can use to help start your journey into Classics:

The Iliad by Homer (Greek).  I recommend Robert Fagles‘ translation or EV Rieu’s, both by Penguin.  To learn why you should read this poem, click here.

The Odyssey by Homer (Greek).  Ditto for translations.  This recounts the wanderings of Odysseus following the sack of Troy and his eventual homecoming; it is the basis for much of the adventure and journey literature that follows.

The Aeneid by Virgil (Latin).  I recommend WF Jackson Knight’s translation for Penguin; I haven’t read Fagles’ yet.  This is the national Roman epic following the adventures of Aeneas the Trojan after he escapes his city’s ruin and his arrival in Italy where he founds a city that is the forebear of Rome.  Notable for Dante-lovers for its descent to Hell in book VI.

The Oresteia by Aeschylus (Greek).  I recommend (guess!) Fagles again (Penguin Classics), as well as Richmond Lattimore’s translation from The Complete Greek Tragedies published by the University of Chicago Press.  Aeschylus follows the movement from revenge/vendetta justice to the justice established by civilisation and the polis.

The Last Days of Socrates by Plato (Latin).  This is a publication by Penguin Classics including Euthyphro, Apology, Crito, and Phaedo, translated by Hugh Tredennick and Harold Tarrant.  The selection manages to cover a wide period of Platonic thought and has some mind-bending passages that flex the logic muscles in the brain as you grapple with the issues at stake.

The Metamorphoses by Ovid (Latin).  I have the Penguin Classics translation by Mary M. Innes.  My brother Michael reviewed the copy I gave him here.  This epic poem is a mythological history of the world up to Ovid’s day (the Augustan age around the turn of BC-AD), wending its way along through various metamorphoses.  It is a brilliant source for Graeco-Roman myth.

A Loeb Classical Library Reader (Greek & Latin).  To make up for how few books fit into a list of only 10, I recommend this anthology of both Greek and Roman authors, including poetry, philosophy, biography, theology.  There are doubtless larger anthologies, I just don’t know what they are.  Anthologies are actually not a bad place to start wading into a new body of literature.

A History of the Roman People by Ward, Heichelheim, and Yeo.  This was my Roman history textbook and a great place to go to read the history of this great city from foundation to fall and legacy, from regal period to late antiquity.

Greek Society by Frank J Frost.  This was my textbook for Introduction to Greek Civilization.  It is much slimmer than A History of the Roman People, but I have no inclination to recommend my less-than-easy-to-read Greek history textbook to whet someone’s appetite.  It covers ancient Greece from Mycenae (1200 BCish) to the later Roman period (after AD 200).

Classical Mythology by Morford and Lenardon.  This readable introduction to the subject provides ample references to the original sources for the myths, something which I value highly.

My only regret from this list is that only 2 Romans made it in.  This is partly because ancient historians are not always for the faint of heart but also because Homer is two books long and so foundational, Plato is so foundational, and you need at least one tragedian to begin.  I promise multiple lists to come with more stuff on them.

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I had a hard time thinking of a poem for this week. Then, as I was walking along today, I was thinking of the Patristic texts I’ve been reading, in what order, how I came across each. Apart from the creed, this is probably the first Patristic text I encountered. It is from the Liturgy of St. James, c. 5th century, best appreciated whilst sung to its solemn, haunting, beautiful tune:

Let all mortal flesh keep silence, and with fear and trembling stand;
Ponder nothing earthly-minded, for with blessing in his hand,
Christ our God to us approacheth, our full homage to demand.

King of kings, yet born of Mary, as of old on earth he stood,
Lord of lords, in human vesture, in the Body and the Bood,
He will give to all the faithful his own Self for heavenly Food.

Rank on rank the host of heaven spreads its vanguard on the way,
As the Light of light descendeth from the realms of endless day,
That the powers of hell may vanish as the darkness clears away.

At his feet the six-winged Seraph; Cherubim with sleepless eye,
Veil the faces to the Presence, as with ceaseless voice they cry,
Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Lord most high.

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I know it’s Friday.  I wrote this last week in preparation for this Wednesday just past.  When Wednesday came, however, I forgot about it completely . . .

The CCEL is one of my favourite websites. No doubt about it. I stumbled upon it back in my last year of high school. I was preparing a presentation for OAC/AP (Grade 13 for a 1st-year university credit) History on John Wesley, and in my searching on the Internet, amidst the many websites I found about Wesley (including such fascinating places as The Hall of Church History) I found the CCEL, a land of many wonderful things.

At the CCEL I have read Richard Hooker’s Learned Discourse on Justification, various things by John Wesley, the apocryphal Acts of Thomas, several sermons of St. John Chrysostom as well as other things from the Church Fathers, George MacDonald on Kingship, St. Thomas Aquinas’ Catena Aurea (selections from the Church Fathers) on Mark Chapter 4, a German Easter hymn, a Russian Orthodox hymn as well as hymns from Isaac Watts I can’t quite locate at the moment, and all sorts of wonderful things!

As I note over at Classic Christianity, the classics of the faith are a way for us to rediscover a more vibrant trust in Christ. So much of Christianity has been watered down or rendered impotent or idiotic or relativised to the culture or over-relevantised to he culture or who knows what else. And, yes, there is real, living faith in the world today. Good people with sound orthodoxy and deep spirituality are publishing books. Nonetheless, reading the old books is good for us. The Christian Classics Ethereal Library helps get us in touch with these writers from the past who can help challenge the current assumptions and idiocies of our age.

Their mission statement reads:

The Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) seeks to build up the church by making classic Christian literature widely available and promoting its use for edification and study by interested Christians, seekers and scholars. The CCEL accomplishes this by selecting, collecting, distributing, and promoting valuable literature through the World Wide Web and other media.

If you’re interested in more about this vast library of Christian stuff, their about page can answer your questions, no doubt.

Read this website! Use it as a tool for your own spiritual progress!

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Here’s “A Song for Saint Cecilia’s Day, 1687,” by John Dryden:

From Harmony, from heavenly Harmony
This universal frame began:
When nature underneath a heap
Of jarring atoms lay
And could not heave her head,
The tuneful voice was heard from high,
Arise, ye more than dead!
Then cold, and hot, and moist, and dry
In order to their stations leap,
And Music’s power obey.
From Harmony, from heavenly harmony
This universal frame began:
From harmony to harmony
Through all the compass of the notes it ran,
The diapason closing full in Man.

What passion cannot Music raise and quell?
When Jubal struck the chorded shell
His listening brethren stood around,
And, wondering, on their faces fell
To worship that celestial sound.
Less than a god they thought there could not dwell
Within the hollow of that shell
That spoke so sweetly and so well.
What passion cannot Music raise and quell?

The trumpet’s loud clangour
Excites us to arms,
With shrill notes of anger
And mortal alarms.
The double double double beat
Of the thundering drum
Cries ‘Hark! the foes come;
Charge, charge, ’tis too late to retreat!’

The soft complaining flute
In dying notes discovers
The woes of hopeless lovers,
Whose dirge is whisper’d by the warbling lute.

Sharp violins proclaim
Their jealous pangs and desperation,
Fury, frantic indignation,
Depths of pains, and height of passion
For the fair disdainful dame.

But oh! what art can teach,
What human voice can reach
The sacred organ’s praise?
Notes inspiring holy love,
Notes that wing their heavenly ways
To mend the choirs above.

Orpheus could lead the savage race,
And trees unrooted left their place
Sequacious of the lyre:
But bright Cecilia raised the wonder higher:
When to her Organ vocal breath was given
An angel heard, and straight appear’d—
Mistaking Earth for Heaven.

Grand Chorus:

As from the power of sacred lays
The spheres began to move,
And sung the great Creator’s praise
To all the blest above;
So when the last and dreadful hour
This crumbling pageant shall devour,
The trumpet shall be heard on high,
The dead shall live, the living die,
And music shall untune the sky.

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That’s right folks, Michael taught me how to upload photos onto my blog!  Not only that, but the photos from the Highland Games are up at my Flickr photostream (flickr.com/photos/mjjhoskin); they are pretty much the first thing you see when you get there right now.  They’re also in a Set called “Highland Games” — if you scroll down the list of sets on the right side, it’s the one beneath “Kendra and Jeremy’s Wedding”.

Perhaps you’re also interested in what I’ve been up to in Toronto.  Well, click on Tags and then the tag “Toronto,” and you’ll see lots of photos from around Toronto.  Or if you’re interested in photos I’ve taken of churches, there’s a tag for those too.  Really, just wander around through my photos.  Have fun.  Make comments.  You know, that sort of thing.

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I was thinking about books the other day because we had just come back from a trip to visit Jenn’s Grandpa McClung. Almost every trip we make, we end up with more books. This was once more the case. And I thought, “Where do books come from as they make their way into our apartment?”  (All books below are linked to LibraryThing if linked anywhere.)

Well, there are those that are simply given to us by generous people, this weekend, Grandpa’s wife gave me Death in Holy Orders by P.D. James, Die Heilige Schrift by God (trans. Martin Luther), and Biblia Sacra Latina also by God (trans. Jerome et al). In these terms, I believe that the Nimigans are the most abundant book bestowers. If you go to my Library Thing catalogue and check out the tag “From Nimigans,” you’ll find 33 titles; there is at least one more title, but I haven’t got around to adding it to the catalogue yet. The vast majority of these are Latin or Greek books, Caesar, Lucian, Terence, Virgil, with a sizable New Testament dictionary and accompanying grammar, Edith Hamilton’s The Echo of Greece, and Documents of the Christian Church by Bettenson in the mix.

Or there are those times when a kind person buys you a book in a bookshoppe. This past weekend it was Black Angels of Athos by M. Choukas. It’s about Greek monks on Mount Athos, the hub of Greek monasticism and spirituality. This is relatively rare, but I know I’ve managed to score some books via my father this way — although the last time I wanted to, I felt guilty, so he bought the book for himself (he was interested in it as well), but I got first reading.

The only other way I can think of that involves not buying the book oneself is a right and proper present. For example, at my birthday, I got the Everyman book Anglo-Saxon Poetry, Titus Groan by Mervin Peake, and A Soldier of the Great War by Mark Helprin. And also a fun oddity, The Western Book of the Dead a little booklet put out by IVP in the 70’s.

These days, books also wend their way via the Internet. This is not strictly true, mind you. They come from warehouses and booksellers, but the purchasing occurs online. Most recently, I found a book at Chapters.ca (of all places) that was $36 elsewhere but only $7 at Chapters. I immediately snatched up this pricing oddity until the drunk man at the head office who inputs the books into the computers found out. It was The Conferences of John Cassian, the translation with commentary and notes by Boniface Ramsey. It is an 886-page hardcover. (They haven’t figured it out yet, so if you’re interested in early monasticism/Christian spirituality and its roots, snatch them up!!)

And, of course, the traditional book store. I, myself, prefer to frequent used bookshoppes. Most recently, I grabbed Moreta: Dragonlady of Pern by Anne McCaffrey and How to Recognize Gothic Art.

The only problem with having so many books coming in is that we were at capacity a year ago. We need to ship some out, so we’re going through and eliminating ones we’ll never read again and reading some we figure will only be read just the once.

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