Tea at Trianon: Mermaids: A History

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Saturday, May 28, 2022

Mermaids: A History

"Oannes" may be connected with the Biblical story of Jonah. From Boredom Therapy:

Although the origin of the modern mermaid is up for debate, most agree that it was the region of Mesopotamia that first gave birth to the concept of a half-man, half-fish creature. In Sumerian art dating back thousands of years, the water god Enki is depicted as a human with the scales of an undersea creature. Later, to the Babylonians, Enki became Ea, his appearance evolving into something much more similar to the modern merfolk. From the waist up, this deity looked just like a human man — but he bore a fish’s tail instead of legs. Despite this impractical set-up, though, he was credited with bringing artistic and scientific enlightenment to the masses. From Mesopotamia, the mermaid seems to have spread from culture to culture, appearing in countless different guises around the world. But these creatures were not simply fantastical in nature — they soon developed a dark side as well. And before long, the sea folk became something to be both respected and feared. (Read more.)