Tea at Trianon: Thessalonike and the Mermaid Legend

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

Wednesday, June 7, 2023

Thessalonike and the Mermaid Legend

From The Greek Reporter:

Alexander the Great’s sister, Thessalonike of Macedon, was a remarkable figure. Outliving her half-brother, she would go on to become the queen of Macedon through marriage to one of Alexander’s generals, Cassander. During his conquests, Alexander the Great named a myriad of cities after himself, and although his sister certainly did not enjoy the widespread fame of her conquering sibling, the second biggest city in Greece is named after her.

Perhaps the most intriguing detail about Thessalonike is the myth that spread in Greece after her death. A popular folk tale asserts that the Macedonian queen became an immortal mermaid who questions voyaging sailors. Give the right answer, and a peaceful voyage ensued, but to get it wrong assured destruction. (Read more.)