we are not so different when they break you apart I will be here to collect each piece not to soothe your naked heart but to give closure to now-ashen limbs recollecting the time I sang for you and your tears fell like overripe grapes from their twisting, tangled vines I wrote these verses while … Continue reading More Binds than Separates
Tag: platonizing
The Phaedo, piety, and public health
While reading some passages about the relationship of the lover of wisdom to the body in Damascius’ commentary on the Phaedo this week, a mesh of associations captured me like a net, and I started thinking about something I first encountered as a teenager — the idea that, if we fall ill, or if something … Continue reading The Phaedo, piety, and public health
Getting Close to the Body with the Phaedo in Tow
At Phaedo 64a, Socrates — who will shortly be given hemlock by his executioner — begins one of many famous parts of this discussion by saying that “those who happen to have gotten in touch with philosophy in the right way devote themselves to nothing else but dying and being dead.” What follows is a … Continue reading Getting Close to the Body with the Phaedo in Tow
Sallust, On the Gods and the World, Chapter 2
That a God is immutable, without Generation, eternal, incorporeal, and has no Subsistence in Place.And such are the requisites for an auditor of the gods. But the necessary discourses proceed as follows: the essences of the gods are neither generated; for eternal natures are without generation; and those beings are eternal who possess a first … Continue reading Sallust, On the Gods and the World, Chapter 2
Looking at Sallust’s On the Gods and the World (Chapter 1)
This post begins with some personal background of why I want to look at Sallust. Its middle section is an exhortation to anyone who may be on the fence about worshipping a God to just try it out without pressure. The final section is a glance at Chapter 1 of Sallust’s On the Gods and … Continue reading Looking at Sallust’s On the Gods and the World (Chapter 1)
Dionysos, Altered States, and Adaptogens
The goddess of the harvest has graciously bestowed two gifts upon us, (a) the fruit which pleases Dionysus so much, but which won’t keep, and (b) the produce which nature has made fit to store.”Plato, Laws, trans. Saunders, 844d A year or two ago, I started seeing something on my social media feed about something … Continue reading Dionysos, Altered States, and Adaptogens
A Cool Theological Moment in the Homeric Hymn to Hermes
There is a moment in the Homeric Hymn to Hermes that I didn't notice before, but once I did, it filled me with excitement, so I want to share it as an example of something theological in the hopes that the inspired words of the poets excite your minds, too. [Hermes] chose a stout branch … Continue reading A Cool Theological Moment in the Homeric Hymn to Hermes
Plato, Republic, 617d-619b
How many times has each of us, upon the meadow, eagerly sought after what we erred was best? How many times have we been conquered and seen the luxuries of the uncaring rulers, thinking — yes, that is a better life, I will take that? How many times have we nourished unjust actionsand cultivated resentment … Continue reading Plato, Republic, 617d-619b
Reclaiming the Self Unadorned; or, Fleeing Pandora’s Division
Inspired by Porphyry’s letter to his wife Marcella, stories of Pythagorean women, Plato’s Gorgias and Alcibiades, Olympiodorus' comment on gender equality in his Gorgias commentary at 18.9, the myth of Pandora, things that happen in meditation that are not wholly communicable, and thoughts I have while doing dishes on why I haven’t worn makeup since … Continue reading Reclaiming the Self Unadorned; or, Fleeing Pandora’s Division
