Cold grey combing seas come to bury me

[sovay]

My poem "Telegony" is now online at Cabinet des Fées. Most of the Epic Cycle reads to me like crackfic and the story of Telegonos is no exception. The spear-thrust of a stingray's spine is hardly Odysseus' promised θάνατος ἐξ ἁλὸς ἀβληχρὸς μάλα τοῖος, so gentle a death from the sea. But as a kind of alternate haunting history, it sticks with me. And I am reminded it's May and I haven't yet been to the sea.

In other news, I still have bronchitis, although somewhat less drastically than last week. The aggravating bit is that I haven't been able to speak above a whisper since Saturday: I lost my voice from coughing and it hasn't come back yet. I've been doing a brisk trade in typing and scribbling notes. I spent an hour at the Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology and another at the Sackler Museum. I re-read Rikki Ducornet's The Fountains of Neptune (1989) and The Stain (1984). I never did get around to renting Boston Legal, but last night I watched the theatrical version of Terrence Malick's The New World (2005) and now I want very much to see the director's cut. I can't decide if my favorite newly found fact is the origin of the Royal Navy standard "Heart of Oak"—it was written by William Boyce and David Garrick in 1759 for a pantomime called Harlequin's Invasion, in which the French Harlequinade mounts an assault on English theatre and is repelled by Shakespeare—or that Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin lost his nose to syphilis, which sounds like revenge of the classical marbles to me. Someone in the nineteenth century had better have written a snarky poem about it, is all I'm saying.

Comments

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin lost his nose to syphilis, which sounds like revenge of the classical marbles to me.

Now that's classic revenge. LOL, I slay myself

[sovay]

Now that's classic revenge.

I disdain to comment.

[handful-ofdust.livejournal.com]

Now, that's a truly crazy myth. And it's true, it does sort of read like fanfic--"And then they all got married to each other's spouses! And had kids! And it was tragic, but the kids were cute, and had superpowers!"

[sovay]

And it's true, it does sort of read like fanfic--"And then they all got married to each other's spouses! And had kids! And it was tragic, but the kids were cute, and had superpowers!"

The double marriage is indeed the crackficiest bit of the whole story; I don't even know how that was supposed to work. Now I'm imagining Eugammon of Cyrene spending way too much time on fandom-wank.

(The tradition in which Nausikaa marries Telemachos, however, makes perfect sense.)

[cucumberseed.livejournal.com]

Someone in the nineteenth century had better have written a snarky poem about it, is all I'm saying.

As the kids say, fr srs.

And Telegonos... Yeah, that's classical crack.

Boo bronchitis.

[sovay]

As the kids say, fr srs.

Byron seems to have protested the removal of the marbles in poetry, but not—so far as I can tell—including any mention of syphilis. I find myself curiously disappointed in Byron.

And Telegonos... Yeah, that's classical crack.

That's the Epic Cyle for you. Although Penthesileia is awesome.

[ap-aelfwine.livejournal.com]

Congratulations on the poem online.

Sorry you've still got the bronchitis, although I'm glad it's lessened. I hope you've a voice again soon, and that you get to the sea soon as well.

(Running off to supper and then a session--hope this swiftpost still makes some variety of sense.)

[sovay]

Congratulations on the poem online.

Thank you!

[ibid.livejournal.com]

And it's a jolly good poem if I may say

[ap-aelfwine.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

You're welcome!