Sunday, July 26, 2020

Appendices

1. The Minotaur's Land
2. La Parisienne
3. Women of Stone and Clay and Bronze
4. Elemental Helen -- She-Gods and She-Devils
5. Royal Purple -- The Colour of Congealed Blood

Epilogue -- Myth, History and Historia


Appendix Five: Royal Purple -- The Colour of Congealed Blood

Matala, Crete: westward facing; bay on south shore of Crete; nice way stop between Troy and Sparta for Helen on her way home after the Trojan War

Kommos: archaeological site; a sizeable Bronze Age port; excavations only began in 1976;

Perhaps it was the port servicing the palatial complex of Phaistos which lies 6 km inland.

A center for the production of purple.

Murex: a snail; harvest, dismemberment, and then boiling -- sometimes in urine.
12,000 snails to colour the hem of a single garment. 

Pliny described the dye from murex as being the colour of congealed blood.

Late Bronze Age: Hittites, Egyptians, and Mycenaeans -- all three societies -- purple was the colour of royalty.

Linear B tablets may provide one of our first records of the concept of Royal Purple, on a table which describes what seem to be textiles as porphyreos, 'of the color purple', and wanakteros, 'royal, kingly'.

Helen spent the war weaving, ten years, as did Penelope, ten years fighting off suitors when Odysseus was on his way home.

Troy was famous for textile production and tons of murex shells have been in Troy.


Part Ten: The FaceThat Launced A Thousand Ships

Part Ten: the face that launched a thousand ships --perfect iambic pentameter.

37. Helen in Athens
38. Helen Lost and Helen Found
39. Helen, Homer and the Chances of Survival
40. Veyn Fables (Vain Fables)
41. Helen of Troy and the Bad Samaritan
42. 'Perpulchra' -- More Than Beautiful
43. Dancing with the Devil
44. Helen's Nemesis

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The Chapters


37. Helen in Athens

  • of the three great playwrights (ASE), it was Euripides whose plays of Helen played to the largest crowds in Athens. Notable: The Trojan Women, first produced in 415 BC, (Hecuba vs her daughter-in-law, Helen) and Helen, 412 BC. 
  • last page: "thyrsus" -- (in ancient Greece and Rome) a staff or spear tipped with an ornament like a pine cone, carried by Bacchus and his followers.








38. Helen Lost and Helen Found


39. Helen, Homer and the Chances of Survival


40. Veyn Fables


41. Helen of Troy and the Bad Samaritan


42. 'Perpulchra' -- More Than Beautiful


43. Dancing with the Devil


44. Helen's Nemesis

Part Nine: Immortal Helen

32: Home to Sparta
33. The Death of a Queen
34. The Age of Heroes Ends
35. 'Fragrant Treasures'
36. The Daughter of the Ocean

Part Eight: Troy Besieged

28. Helen -- Destroyer of Cities
29. Death's Dark Cloud
30. A Beautiful Death -- Kalos Thanatos
31. The Fall of Troy

Part Seven: Troy Beckons

23. East Is East and West Is West
24. The Fair Troad
25. The Topless Towers of Ilium
26. The Golden Houses of the East
27. A Fleet Sets Sail

Part Six: Eros And Eris

20. Helen the Whore
21. The Pain of Aphrodite
22. The Sea's Foaming Lanes

Part Five: A Lover's Game

16. The Golden Apple
17. Bearing Gifts
18. Alexander Helenam Rapuit
19. The Female of the Species Is More Deadly Than The Male

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16: The Golden Apple

It is interesting that the "apple" plays a "central" role in this tale just as the "apple" played a "central" role in the Garden of Eden.


17. Bearing Gifts

18. Alexander Helenam Rapuit

This is where taking two years of Latin really helps out.
Alexander: nominative, Paris was also known as Alexander by some writers
Helanam: the accusative of feminine" Helen
rapuit: verb; "to rape"
in Latin, one could put those three words in any order and it would still make sense

19. The Female of the Species Is More Deadly Than The Male