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René Girard - Il Capro Espiatorio

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«Historia Alexandri Magni »

An elegiac poem about Alexander the Great written by Quilichinus from Spoleto

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Plutarch- Lives of Alexander the Great and Caesar

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Love to see some Petrarca here!

Petrarca's Secretum is basically him saying "forgive me father for i have sinned of depression"

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What greater gift than the love of a cat.

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«Solamen miseris socios habuisse doloris.»

Translation: «It is a comfort to the wretched to have companions in misery.»

-Goethe (Faust)

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«Hos super advenit Volsca de gente Camilla»

«Afte them all arrived Camilla, of the Volsci people»

Vergil-Aeneid (VII)

Camilla is maybe one of the greatest character in the whole Vergil's masterpiece. She's an Italic warrior and queen of a little Italic tribe named "Volsci" and she can be assimilated with plenty of lost poems about the Troy war talking about the Amazons' queen Pentesileia, daughter of Mars himself. The way they both fight: with both bow and arrows and spears, and with one breast exposed, suggest the obvious inspiration Vergil took from the Greek tales to create his own character. She's the human daughter of the King Metabus and Queen Casmilla -who probably died after giving birth to her- but she's protected and sacred to the huntress goddess Diana (Artemis). She fights along with Turnus against Aeneas but she's bound to a tragic fate of death by the prophecy claiming the birth of Rome, but her death is a matter of tricks since she couldn't be killed in a honest fight due to her unique skill, making her the greatest warrior of the whole poem and the only one claiming a whole book to her.

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«Tu regere imperio populos, Romane, memento./ Hae tibi erunt artes, pacisque inponere morem,/ Parcere subiectis et debellare superbos.»

«Remember to rule on people, Roman. This will be your art, to impose a tradition of peace, have mercy of those who submit themselves and annihilate those who don't »

Vergil- Aeneid (VI)

In the sixth chapter of Vergil's Aeneid, Aeneas descends to the Underworld (Catabasis of the Underworld -Catabasis ad Inferos-)and talks to his deceased father Anchises, who predicts the future glory of Aeneas offspring. The protagonist manages to be introduced to the great souls who will reincarnate to lead Rome to its greatness and his Father sets the common known base of Mos Maiorum (the "ancient usage") to have mercy of those ones who bend to the Roman power and annihilate of those who don't. Ironically, Aeneas doesn't respect this law in the first place, when, at the end of the book he fights against his great nemesis Turnus, and he begs for mercy and to have his life spared. He kills him anyways leading to a great moral dilemma Vergil feels intrinsic in the Roman usage.

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«Far from his loved ones still, he suffers torments.»

- Odyssey, Homer

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«E noi saremo dèi finché durerà la notte»

-V.M. Manfredi- "Alexandros"

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«Ô Satan, prends pitié de ma longue misère!»

Translation: «Oh Satan, have mercy of my long suffering!" -Baudelaire, Le fleurs du Mal-CXX

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«For the words of a vow are sacred not only among men and the angels, but among the demons as well.» -Howard Schwartz

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«Odi et amo. Quare id faciam, fortasse requiris.

Nescio, sed fieri sentio et exceucior.»

-Catullus, Carmina (85)

Translation:

"I hate and I love. Maybe you ask me how can I do it. I don't know, yet that's what I feel happening to me and it's my my cross to bear»

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Au Lecteur

La sottise, l'erreur, le péché, la lésine,

Occupent nos esprits et travaillent nos corps,

Et nous alimentons nos aimables remords,

Comme les mendiants nourrissent leur vermine.

Nos péchés sont têtus, nos repentirs sont lâches;

Nous nous faisons payer grassement nos aveux,

Et nous rentrons gaiement dans le chemin bourbeux,

Croyant par de vils pleurs laver toutes nos taches.

Sur l'oreiller du mal c'est Satan Trismégiste

Qui berce longuement notre esprit enchanté,

Et le riche métal de notre volonté

Est tout vaporisé par ce savant chimiste.

C'est le Diable qui tient les fils qui nous remuent!

Aux objets répugnants nous trouvons des appas;

Chaque jour vers l'Enfer nous descendons d'un pas,

Sans horreur, à travers des ténèbres qui puent

Translation:

Title: to the reader

Foolishness, mistake, sin, greed/ capture the spirits and haunt the bodies/ and we feed the lovable regret/like beggars feed their insects.

Obstinate the sins, weak the repentances;/ they pay greatly our confessions/ and we head back happy on the trail of mud/ believing that cheap tears was away every guilt.

On the pillow of evil the three times great Satan/ cradles for a long time the enchanted spirit/ and the rich metal of our will/ is turned to dust by that wise chemist.

The Devil holds the strings that move us!/ We discover a fascination in the vile things;/ everyday we take a step down, in the stench of darkness/ to Hell, without feeling horror.

-Baudelaire, Le fleurs du Mal (Au lecteur, 1-16)