Mythology - Edith Hamilton

From Goodreads

Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes
Edith Hamilton

I love mythology and history. Edith Hamilton does a great job of making the myths easily digestible without dumbing it down. Although she's a little too harsh on Ovid in my opinion.

Beowulf

From Goodreads

Beowulf
Translated by Seamus Heaney

Beowulf has a special place in my heart. This translation was a whole lot easier once I realized I was reading the original version. For the first few pages I was like, this isn't even in English!

Jokes aside, this is a great translation. Seamus Heaney does a great job of making a classic text accessible to modern readers. I have enjoyed Beowulf since the first time I read it, probably for school. It sparked my interest in history and myth. That is the reason it holds a special place in my heart. Compared to other epic works though, Beowulf is not my favorite. It lacks some of the panache of Homer, doesn't flow like Ovid or Virgil and isn't as interesting as some of the Viking Sagas. That said, it gets four stars because it is still phenomenal.

Some Clarification on From Sosua

On October 3, 2009, I wrote a little blurb in my moleskin called "From Sosua" that as I was editing it and typing it in here I found it a bit strange, maybe even creepy.

"I sit and admire the beauty of youth"

Not too bad, it sounds a bit stalkerish but nothing serious. I'm at the beach, doing some people watching. Sure, not too bad.

"There are four girls, not yet women, dancing among the waves...

...Excuse me a moment - cuba libre" 

Ok. We just slipped into something a bit weirder.

"Four girls blossoming into women dance in the waves. So I sit here and admire the beauty of youth".

All right. Full blown creeper alert.

In my defense, I was really working hard on developing a writing style and working on different voices in my head and at the moment I had just finished a couple of cuba libres while reading Ovid's Amores. I was trying to juxtapose the young teen girls against the old topless women from France behind me in a semi-humorous, quasi-poetic tone and after reflection some six years later I discovered to my horror that I sound a little bit sick in describing the situation. That being said the "beauty" I was admiring was the simplicity in which they were playing and not in some kind of perverted way. Maybe it didn't come off like that in 2009 or when you first read it, but you don't know me and could very well assumed that I had nefarious intentions in my people watching - which I didn't thank you very much. It's syntactically accusatory in reading it now, but it was an attempt on some of Ovid's sensibilities using what was probably not the best subject matter considering Ovid's penchant for scintillating work with his quill - if you know what I mean.



Notes on The Metamorphoses

(Originally Written March 1, 2010 in the Journal)

Notes on Ovid's Metamorphoses

I'm already in Book VI!

"She was as beautiful as an angry woman can be" Very funny, use this in Habitaciones after the double date from Hell.

Love made him eloquent

The sky was dark and heavy, its weight pressing down on the earth, man both noble and common alike. It trapped the heat in and southerly winds blew cruel and ill-fortuned winds on them. For two moons the heat oppressed the land of Upuk and withered crops to dust. The sturdy beasts melted away and sheep shore their own wool, their dying bleats echoed through the hills. The four rivers dried and the center pool threatened an emptiness until the worship of the sun creased. The might king cast out the priests of the sun and restored the land to its former gods. (A plague scene and banishment of the sun cult).

"For I am burning with love, and its flame scorches me more fiercely when I am spurned"

Not struggles, but sheer laziness came to be what delayed my finishing of the Metamorphoses.

I really enjoyed this book until book fifteen that became pure propaganda for Augustus. It is amazing that art can become kitschy so quickly. But, book XV aside, it was great. The last line again, like from The Amores shows Ovid's ego - which I love.

"If there be any truth in poets' prophecies I shall live to all eternity, immortalized by fame"

Notes on The Art of Love & The Cures For Love

(Originally Written October 4, 2009 in The Journal)

I enjoyed The Amores immensely more than The Art of Love

The Cures for Love

"Yet to recover health demands much suffering"

212-245, sound familiar?

"Every old love's eclipsed by a new"

"Yet to hate the girl you once loved is a crime, an end befitting none but a savage: indifference will suffice"

I enjoyed The Erotic Poems by Ovid, though after all of it the conceit of Ovid became a bit wearing. But, The Amores were far better than The Art of Love or the Cures for Love

Notes on The Erotic Poems

(Originally Written October 2, 2009 in the Journal)

Notes on The Erotic Poems by Ovid

"He's so human he tears you apart"

The Amores: Book I

I. "His shafts - worse luck for me - never miss their target. I'm on fire now, love owns the free hold of my heart" (Ovid, 86)

II. "Heart skewered/by shafts of desire, the raging" (Ovid, 87)

"Play stubborn, you get a far more thorough going-over than those who admit they're hooked [on love]" (Ovid, 88)

III. "Fair's fair now, Venus. This girl's got me hooked. All I'm asking from her is love or at least some future hope for my own. Eternal devotion, no even that's too much - Hell, just let me love her" (Ovid, 88)

"Unswerving fidelity's my strong suit" (Ovid, 88)

VIII.

"Ah, that got a blush! Pale face needs color, but nature's method is so unpredictable, safer to stick to art" (Ovid, 98).

The Amores: Book II

II. "All we need is your consent to some quiet love-making. It's hard to imagine a more harmless request" (Ovid, 114).

IV. Compare this poem to Baudelaire or even the Marquis de Sade for unrivaled hedonism.

It is hysterical though - "My sex-life runs the entire mythological gamut" (Ovid, 116).

VI. Write a short story based on this.

VII. "How I wish I'd some genuine infidelity on my conscience - the guilty find punishment easier to take" (Ovid, 120).

IXb. "Girls are such exquisite hell when desire's slaked, when I'm sick of the whole business, some kink in my wretched nature drives me back.

XVII. I really like this poem.

"I shan't be an accusation you're glad to get rid of; our love won't ever require disowning".

XIX. This is savagely humorous

The Amores: Book III

I. "My subconscious is hatching a masterpiece" (Ovid, 139)

II.

"To sit at your side and talk with you is what I'm after - I want you to know the havoc you've wrought in my heart."

Poem II is my concept of dating in lines 2-8

"Help this new venture, Venus: soften my prospective mistress till she loves me or anyway till she let's me love her!"

VII. Seven is an ode to impotency. Very funny!

XIa. This is how I feel about my ex