Medusa

The power of sight. Aristotle captures is succinctly: All men by nature desire to know. An indication of this is the delight we take in our senses; for even apart from their usefulness they are loved for themselves, and above all others the sense of sight. Metaphysics 980a:21 Sight is superior because it reveals theContinue reading “Medusa”

The Golden Fleece

I am not certain if I read too broadly or not concisely enough. In thinking about the Argonauts, I recall the Golden Fleece, a ram’s skin of radiant gold, and immediately think of the golden calf that Moses cast down, and then to scapegoats, Jesus as the lamb. The narratives form a skein that demandsContinue reading “The Golden Fleece”

The Use of Myth

Hesiod stands at the beginning. He is the first to write down stories that had been circulating for centuries. His account is not a moral arc in the way the Hebrew tradition would later tell its story. Hesiod is part farmer’s almanac and part chronicler. This is how the seasons work, and this is whoContinue reading “The Use of Myth”