Hesiod stands at the beginning of the anthology. 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, andContinue reading “The Use of Myth”
Tag Archives: Herodotus
Heracles
In most tellings, the Labors come later. Heroic, impossible tasks imposed to atone for the uncleansable act of killing his own children. Violence precedes expiation. Crime is answered by ordeal. Euripides reverses the order. The Labors come first, to prove that achievement is no protection. The monsters are dead. The roads are passable again. TheContinue reading “Heracles”
Mining the Moon Redux
In Mining the Moon, I connected the Trump administration’s lunar-mining policy [1] to The Expanse and to Frederick Jackson Turner’s frontier thesis – the promise of new worlds opened by the Ring Gates. Would the writers treat these planets as another American frontier, a crucible for expansion and exploitation? The first three episodes of SeasonContinue reading “Mining the Moon Redux”
Protective Arts 