Apr

18

My erudite son let me look at this very interesting essay, just published today in Lapham's Quarterly.  An enlightening, alternative take on Virgil, to say the least. The final paragraph in this magnificent piece summed it up:

"…As the nations of the young West fought to define themselves, Virgil stood as proof that, evidence of Rome itself notwithstanding, "empire without end" was not only possible, but worth the struggle. We saw in him what we needed to see: a hope of immortal civilization. Then, when the world cracked around us, we again took from Virgil what we needed: comfort that progress and ideal empire was an illusion, and had always been so. Perhaps there are more revelations yet to come."

There are many, many market lessons in The Aeneid.


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2 Comments so far

  1. Ozymandias on April 18, 2012 8:20 pm

    I once had a statute that proclaimed my greatness. :) .

  2. , User-maat-re Setep-en-re. on April 19, 2012 2:15 pm

    I met a traveller from an antique land
    Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
    Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
    Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
    And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
    Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
    Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
    The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed:
    And on the pedestal these words appear:
    "My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
    Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
    Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
    Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
    The lone and level sands stretch far away.

    Ramesses II is the King of Kings according to Shelley

    His friend Horace Smith agreed with Shelley and wrote,

    IN Egypt's sandy silence, all alone,
    Stands a gigantic Leg, which far off throws
    The only shadow that the Desert knows:—
    "I am great OZYMANDIAS," saith the stone,
    "The King of Kings; this mighty City shows
    "The wonders of my hand."— The City's gone,—
    Nought but the Leg remaining to disclose
    The site of this forgotten Babylon.

    We wonder,—and some Hunter may express
    Wonder like ours, when thro' the wilderness
    Where London stood, holding the Wolf in chace,
    He meets some fragment huge, and stops to guess
    What powerful but unrecorded race
    Once dwelt in that annihilated place

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