Medusa reveals something the Greeks already suspected. Beauty and terror are not opposites. They are twins. Both arrest the mind through the eye. A man who sees Medusa cannot move. A man who sees Helen often cannot act. The mechanism is identical. The Greeks understood this long before philosophers explained it. The eye commands theContinue reading “Helen”
Tag Archives: limen
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”
Delphi: Know Thyself
Delphi emerges as a Panhellenic sanctuary around 650 BCE but it started earlier, much earlier. Inscribed on the pronaos of the Temple of Apollo was the threshold admonition: γνῶθι σεαυτόν, gnōthi seauton, know thyself. It was never therapeutic advice. It does not mean discover your preferences or honor your feelings. It means: know what kindContinue reading “Delphi: Know Thyself”
Protective Arts 