I wrote:
Thanks MMMike and others. Your lists bring much to life.
Thanks MMMike and others. Your lists bring much to life.
For reviewing the past we must thank the BBC for putting Mary Beard’s documentaries online at YouTube
And it’s possible to get lost in Bill Thayer’s pages for days
I find it interesting to think about the fact that nobody then thought of it as ‘myth’, just like we fail to see the way we wrap things up in supernatural meaning. Not just religion but the whole array of political and social and economic hoohaa in our countries and the world, with mythical status and power. Because of national power your US myths have global weight, are giants, so forgive me if I mention. POTUS, PUTINIUS, JONGUNIUS, SCOTUS, SENATUS, MUELLEROTUS, MURDOCHOTUS, SACROSANCTI DIVERSI. A rage of gods in their temples, not sitting neatly like chess pieces but feuding and scheming. We should not think of the populace as all-fawning together, but some scoffing, some using their bunch against your bunch. Back then you didn’t just appeal to bits of legal or other legitimacy but to the real force of these powers over life. In traditional Melanesian life in Papua New Guinea there were and for many still are no boundaries between the natural and supernatural. A plant won’t grow unless the right words are said... just as now the life of a US plant is dependent on a futures market and a Farm Bill or the intervention of Monsanto. Understand why such hoards are drawn irresistibly to the Amalfi Coast.
Back in the Americas I’m shocked to discover that my somewhat mythical relative, [Samuel Argall]
...the kidnapper of Pocahontas, the first head of state in North America subject to a congressional recall motion, may have been a smoker...!
