Tea at Trianon: The Sea Monsters of Ancient Greek Mythology

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

Monday, November 18, 2024

The Sea Monsters of Ancient Greek Mythology

From The Greek Reporter:

These two sea monsters are almost always referred to in Ancient Greek mythology as a pair. This is because they were said to be two monsters on either side of a narrow strait, making them far more dangerous to ships than they ever would have been individually. Scylla was a multi-headed, serpentine monster that reached out to grab sailors from their boats. Charybdis was essentially an enormous, living whirlpool that would devour entire ships whenever it got the chance.

The most famous Greek myth featuring these two sea monsters is the Odyssey. This is the story of Odysseus attempting to sail back to Greece after the Trojan War. In this story, the goddess Circe advises Odysseus to sail closer to Scylla than to Charybdis. She points out that it would make more sense to lose six men than the entire ship. (Read more.)