"Power newly won is always harsh"

Your kindness to the human race has earned you this.
A god who would not bow to the gods' anger--you,
Transgressing right, gave privileges to mortal men.
For that you shall keep watch upon this bitter rock,
Standing upright, unsleeping, never bowed in rest.
And many groans and cries of pain shall come from you,
All useless; for the heart of Zeus is hard to appease.
Power newly won is always harsh.

Those words are spoken by the metal working god Hephaestus at the beginning of Aeschylus' Prometheus Bound, the first and only surviving work of a tragic trilogy.

The Titan who gave humans the gift of fire and many others was brought to a remote spot in the land of the Scythians by Strength and Violence, the unquestioning agents of the new Olympian order. The lame Hephaestus regrets his task of fastening the bonds but is afraid to violate the orders of the new ruler of the cosmos.

In Greek mythology, the early days of the universe were scenes of violent struggle. Zeus has come to power in a bloody revolution against the old order and, like many in such situations, he is all too ready to use violence to crush any challenges to his rule.

Prometheus, whose name means foresight, saw it coming:

...I know exactly every thing
That is to be; no torment will come unforeseen.
My appointed fate I must endure as best I can,
Knowing the power of Necessity is irresistible.
...For bestowing gifts upon mankind
I am harnessed in this torturing clamp. For I am he
Who hunted out the source of fire, and stole it, packed
In pith of a dry fennel-stalk. And fire has proved
For men a teacher in every art, their grand resource....

Fire was not his only benefit:

...What I did
For mortals in their misery, hear now. At first
Mindless, I gave them mind and reason. --What I say
Is not in censure of mankind, but showing you
How all my gifts to them were guided by goodwill.--
In those days they had eyes, but sight was meaningless;
Heard sounds, but could not listen; all their length of life
They passed like shapes in dreams, confused and purposeless.

He taught humans to use tools and build houses and ships, measure the seasons, do arithmetic, domesticate animals, use medicinal herbs, interpret prophecies and dreams, use minerals and more. Zeus, on the other hand, was scornful of humans and may have wished to see them wiped out and replaced by a new model.

In his agony, Prometheus is visited by the Titan Oceanus and his daughters, who form a sympathetic chorus. He has a hostile interview with Hermes, messenger of Zeus. And he meets with Io, the unfortunate woman courted by Zeus who was turned into a cow by the jealous Hera and tormented by a gadfly.

Prometheus reluctantly relates to Io the course of her future wanderings and suffering, but, like him, she is destined to eventually be released from punishment. And one of her descendants, the future Heracles, is destined to free him from bondage.

It may sound like this is a story with a simple good guy (Prometheus) and a bad guy (Zeus), but the tragic spirit is too deep for that . Aeschylus is going after something else. About which more tomorrow.

ON THE BRIGHT (GREEN) SIDE, here's a nice item from CNN about how the Veteran's Conservation Corps is helping returning vets from Iraq and Afghanistan with green jobs and a healing environment.

THE FUNCTIONS OF POVERTY. In case you missed yesterday's link to a great Washington Post story on how expensive it is to be poor, here it is again. That article reminded me of this classic essay in sociology by Herbert Gans titled The Uses of Poverty: the Poor Pay All.

DIRTY POOL. Here's a look at how employers have intensified their fight against union organizing in recent years.

IT'S WHAT WE DON'T KNOW that really bugs us.

EXTREME MAMMAL UPDATE here.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

Where will it end?

Athena, courtesy of wikipedia.

We're almost done with a long series on the Odyssey of Homer. You'll also find links and comments about current events. When I started writing about what this timeless classic had to say to us today, I never thought it would last this long. What can I say? Homer is the man (or maybe, as some have speculated, the woman).

For many readers, the least satisfying part of the book is the ending. Odysseus, Telemachus and some faithful servants finally wreak terrible vengeance on the 108 suitors and the unfaithful maids and servants. In a contest, Odysseus strings a bow as only he can do and a massacre ensues.

(The goat herder Melanthius comes to a particularly nasty end. El Cabrero's one complaint about the bard is that he was a little rough on a fellow goat herder. I'm not sure you can really blame the guy for being such a jerk: this is an occupational hazard of hanging out with goats. But I digress...)

The people of Ithaca are not happy about this slaughter. Nor are they particularly pleased with a commander who loses every single one of his 600 men after the war was over.

A fresh conflict is about to ensue between Odysseus, son Telemachus, father Laertes, and servants and a mob of Ithacans when the gods intervened. Athena cries out

"in a piercing voice that stopped all fighters cold,
"Hold back, you men of Ithaca, back from brutal war!
Break off--shed no more blood--make peace at once!"

With that,

...Terror blanched their faces,
they went limp with fear, weapons slipped from their hands
and strewed the ground at the goddess' ringing voice...

At her command, they made a pact of peace.

It is kind of hard to believe (even in an epic with all kinds of gods and monsters and wonders). But it does raise this point: how does the spiral of violence come to an end, with one provocation being answered by yet another with no end in sight and with all sides feeling justified in doing what they do?

Homer seems to suggest that we do need some kind of divine intervention for that to happen. If it's on the menu, I'll take it. Another reading is to say that our only hope is in what the goddess Athena embodies: wisdom, craft and strategy.

Or maybe they're the same thing.

THE END OF AFFLUENZA? Maybe.

PAYBACK. Here's an interesting item on our innate sense sense of justice, the desire to punish cheaters, and capacity for forgiveness.

THE RECESSION AND YOUR HEALTH. Economic downturns can have some interesting effects.

GET THE PICTURE on climate change? If not, click here.

WARM BLOODED. Half of all mammal species are in decline and one fourth are headed for extinction, according to this report. Here's more on the topic.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

AW, HELL: MORE FUN WITH DANTE

The theme at Goat Rope this week and last is Dante's Divine Comedy. El Cabrero's hope is to encourage you, Gentle Reader, to give it a try. It's well worth it. You will also find links and comments about current events. If this is your first visit, please click on earlier posts.

Yesterday's post mentioned some points of interest in his Inferno. Here are a few more:

*First, here's what the "Welcome to Hell" sign says in Canto III:

THROUGH me the way is to the city dolent;
Through me the way is to eternal dole;
Through me the way among the people lost.

Justice incited my sublime Creator;
Created me divine Omnipotence,
The highest Wisdom and the primal Love.

Before me there were no created things,
Only eterne, and I eternal last.
All hope abandon, ye who enter in !

(That was from Longfellow's translation.)


*Second, some of the damned aren't even cool enough to make it into hell. They included humans and angels who remained neutral in a time of grave crisis and are driven like dust in the proverbial wind and tormented by gadflies and wasps. Of these, Virgil tells Dante,

This miserable measure the wretched souls maintain of those who lived without infamy and without praise. Mingled are they with that caitiff choir of the angels, who were not rebels, nor were faithful to God, but were for themselves. The heavens chased them out in order to be not less beautiful, nor doth the depth of Hell receive them, because the damned would have some glory from them....mercy and justice disdain them. Let us not speak of them, but do thou look and pass on.

*Third, an interesting feature of the Inferno has to do with what the damned know and don't know. In general, they have some knowledge of the past and future--it is in Inferno that Dante the pilgrim learns that he is destined to be exiled--but they have no knowledge of the present. They frequently ask Dante about current events. But when the Last Judgment comes, there will be no future and they will know only their present misery. That'll be a downer.

*Fourth, the worst part of hell, which is reserved for those who betray, isn't hot: it's very cold. At the very bottom is Satan, who has three mouths in a grotesque parody of the Trinity. In each mouth, he chomps on a different traitor: Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Jesus; and Cassius and Brutus, who betrayed Caesar.

*Finally, when you go so far down, the only way out is up. Dante knew the world was round and thus Satan is placed where he landed when cast out of Heaven. Dante and Virgil crawl down past the devil and wind up on the far side of the world, at an island in the south seas where Purgatory is. Purgatory is where souls that will be saved undergo the spiritual equivalent of a root canal to get in shape for Heaven.

About which more tomorrow.

THE COST OF THE IRAQ WAR is the subject of this sobering discussion of the UK Guardian with economist Joseph Stiglitz.

BUSH AND THE ECONOMY. In the spirit of fair play, President Bush doesn't deserve all the blame for the tanking of the economy--but he should get his fair share. Here's Dean Baker on the subject.

SOCIAL SECURITY PRIVATIZATION REDUX. Candidate John McCain supports President Bush's failed effort to privatize Social Security, according to the Wall Street Journal.

PROPOSED CORPORATE TAX CUTS under consideration in the legislature could cost over $500 million over the next several years. This is money that would otherwise go to education at all levels, social services, etc.

MORE ON MISANTHROPY. Marshall's decision to accept big bucks from BB&T to teach the ideology of Ayn Rand has generated some ink in and out of WV. This is from AP, this is from the student paper The Parthenon, and this is from Inside Higher Education.

END OF AN ERA. Here's an item from Slate on the demise of William F. Buckley and (maybe) his brand of conservatism.

NOT A DINOSAUR BUT INTERESTING ANYWAY. Scientists have found the remains of an ancient one-ounce primate in Mississippi. Dating from around 56 million years ago, it's the earliest primate found in Europe or America.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: why don't they make songs like "Tweeter and the Monkey Man" anymore?

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED