Achilles was the man who would cause his father to outlive him. Everything else follows from that. Thetis knew first. Her son faced what the Greeks called a dilemma. A long life without a name, or a short life the singers would not let die. Both draw blood.[1] She had been bound to that. WrestledContinue reading “Achilles”
Tag Archives: Thetis
Troy
Troy is not the beginning of the heroic age. It is the point where the heroic age destroys itself. The Greeks understood this. Their myths do not describe a long golden era stretching indefinitely backward into legend. The heroic age is startlingly brief. From the first monster-slayers to the sack of Troy spans only aContinue reading “Troy”
Helen
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”
Protective Arts 