didoofcarthage

[didoofcarthage]

Time passed, turning everything to ice. Under the ice, the future stirred. If you fell into it, you died.

It was a time of waiting, of suspended action.

I lived in the present, which was that part of the future you could see. The past floated above my head, like the sun and moon, visible but never reachable.

It was a time governed by contradictions, as in I felt nothing and I was afraid.

Winter emptied the trees, filled them again with snow. Because I couldn’t feel, snow fell, the lake froze over. Because I was afraid, I didn’t move; my breath was white, a description of silence.

Time passed, and some of it became this. And some of it simply evaporated; you could see it float above the white trees forming particles of ice.

All your life, you wait for the propitious time. Then the propitious time reveals itself as action taken.

I watched the past move, a line of clouds moving from left to right or right to left, depending on the wind. Some days

there was no wind. The clouds seemed to stay where they were, like a painting of the sea, more still than real.

Some days the lake was a sheet of glass. Under the glass, the future made demure, inviting sounds; you had to tense yourself so as not to listen.

Time passed; you got to see a piece of it. The years it took with it were years of winter; they would not be missed. Some days

there were no clouds, as though the sources of the past had vanished. The world

was bleached, like a negative; the light passed directly through it. Then the image faded.

Above the world there was only blue, blue everywhere.

Landscape by Louise Glück

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Bellchimes jangle, freakish wind whistles icy out of desert lands over the mountains. Janus, Lord of winter and beginnings, riven and shaken, with two faces, watcher at the gates of winds and cities, god of the wakeful: keep me from coldhanded envy and petty anger. Open my soul to the vast dark places. Say to me, say again, nothing is taken, only given.

January Night Prayer by Ursula K. Le Guin

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Here I am, Cassandra. And this is my city under ashes. And these are my prophet’s staff and ribbons. And this is my head full of doubts.

It’s true, I am triumphant. My prophetic words burn like fire in the sky. Only unacknowledged prophets are privy to such prospects. Only those who got off on the wrong foot, whose predictions turned to fact so quickly— it’s as if they’d never lived.

I remember it so clearly— how people, seeing me, would break off in midword. Laughter died. Lovers’ hands unclasped. Children ran to their mothers. I didn’t even know their short-lived names. And that song about a little green leaf— no one ever finished it near me.

I loved them. But I loved them haughtily. From heights beyond life. From the future. Where it’s always empty and nothing is easier than seeing death. I’m sorry that my voice was hard. Look down on yourselves from the stars, I cried, look down on yourselves from the stars. They heard me and lowered their eyes.

They lived within life. Pierced by that great wind. Condemned. Trapped from birth in departing bodies. But in them they bore a moist hope, a flame fuelled by its own flickering. They really knew what a moment means, oh any moment, any one at all before—

It turns out I was right. But nothing has come of it. And this is my robe, slightly singed. And this is my prophet’s junk. And this is my twisted face. A face that didn’t know it could be beautiful.

Soliloquy for Cassandra by Wisława Szymborska

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Source: Hanging with Hestia Polyolbus; Egypt, ca. 6th century C.E. Tapestry weave in polychrome wool. Dumbarton Oaks.

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The perimeter wall of the Vila Adriana, Tivoli.

I wish I could convey the sheer size of this place!

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Acropolis, Athens (by Arthur Yeti)

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Pompeii. New discoveries

A bird of prey stands out in the upper part of the lararium. The raptor, which can probably be identified as an eagle, holds a palm branch in its claws. In the lower part, the scene consists of two snakes facing each other which frame an altar with a fluted circular shaft on which offerings are placed. From the left, it is possible to distinguish the following features:  a pine cone, a raised element that supports an egg, and what appear to be a fig and a date. The background of the scene is filled with two bushes with lanceolate leaves and red and yellow berries on which three sparrows move about. Several interesting finds were discovered inside the niche: ritual objects, left as part of a last offering before the eruption that destroyed Pompeii in AD 79: an incense burner in achromatic clay with missing pieces dating from antiquity and a lamp, both displaying clear signs of burning. Laboratory analyses have made it possible to identify the remains of twigs of aromatic plants, while two parts of a dried fig were found behind the two objects. Two strips of coloured marble were discovered on the flat top of the altar together with a third element, presumably made of red marble, with the depiction of a face ascribable to the Dionysian world, probably a Silenus.

Text from the article by pompeiisites.org (October 2024) Photos provided by pompeiisites.org

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Chalcedony figurine of Herakles, Roman, 2nd century AD

from The Princeton University Museum of Art

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Gold comb with battle scene, uncovered from a tomb (Solokha Kurgan) in eastern Ukraine, Scythian, 4th century BC

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~ Serpentine Amulet in the form of a Wedjat-Eye.

Period: Third Intermediate or Late Period

Place of origin: : Egypt

Medium: Serpentine

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~ Oracle statue of Aphrodite Arsinoe II.

Period: Hadrian; Greco-Roman Period

Place of origin: Egypt

Medium: Dolomite

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~ Finial, lion head.

Place of origin: Thebes (modern Luxor), Egypt

Date: ca. 30 BC-A.D. 642

Period: Roman Period

Medium: Wood, stucco, paint

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Gold fish pendant, Middle Kingdom Egypt, 12-13th Dynasty 1878-1749 BC

from The Metropolitan Museum of Art

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The Canopus at Vila Adriana (Hadrian’s Villa), Tivoli.

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the trojan horse

in an illustrated copy of the "trojanerkrieg" by konrad von würzburg, germany, c. 1441

source: Nürnberg, GNM, Hs. 998, fol. 195r

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Bucephalus

Armenian version of the Alexander Romance, Sulu Manastir 1544

Manchester, John Rylands University Library, Armenian MS 3, fol. 42v

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fire signs: sagittarius, aries, leo

in an astrological treatise, bruges, c. 1485

source: Paris, BnF, Latin 7321A, fol. 179r, 174r, and 177r