Among Ovid’s love poems, there is one that stands out among the rest due to the stark reality of the subject. I believe it must have arisen from Ovid’s own love life. It is a personal, passionate and powerful poem against domestic violence. Excerpts: Put my hands in manacles (they are deserving of chains), if any friend of mine is present, until all my frenzy has departed. For frenzy has […]
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“The Art of Love” by Ovid
Twelve love tips from Roman gods and heroes 1. First and foremost, be confident that all women may be won. As the numberless ants come and go in lengthened train, when they are carrying their wonted food in the mouth that bears the grains; so rush the best-dressed women to the thronged spectacles. They come to see, and be seen. Romulus and his men swept the Sabine damsels off their […]
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“The Wars of the Jews” by Flavius Josephus
The Religious Sects Among the Jews The first are the Pharisees; the second, the Sadducees; and the third sect, which pretends to a severer discipline, are called Essenes. The Pharisees are those who are esteemed most skillful in the exact explication of their laws. These ascribe all to fate, and to God, and yet allow, that to act what is right, or the contrary, is principally in the power of […]
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“La Vita Nuova” by Dante Alighieri
The Death of Beatrice I was a-thinking how life fails with us Suddenly after such a little while; When Love sobb’d in my heart, which is his home. Whereby my spirit wax’d so dolorous That in myself I said, with sick recoil: ‘Yea, to my lady too this Death must come.’ And therewithal such a bewilderment Possess’d me, that I shut mine eyes for peace; And in my brain did […]
Read more“Monarchia” by Dante Alighieri
Papal Authority vs. Imperial Authority In Monarchia, Dante addresses three questions concerning monarchy: 1. Whether universal monarchy is necessary to the well-being of the world 2. Whether the Roman people took on Empire by right 3. Whether imperial authority comes from God directly or from Papal authority 1. The Priest and King Argument Argument for Papal Authority: From 1 Kings, they take the creation and deposition of Saul, and say […]
Read more“Four Quartets: II. Fear and Humility” by T. S. Eliot
East Coker A periphrastic study in a worn-out poetical fashion, Leaving one still with the intolerable wrestle With words and meanings. The poetry does not matter. It was not (to start again) what one had expected. What was to be the value of the long looked forward to, Long hoped for calm, the autumnal serenity And the wisdom of age? Had they deceived us Or deceived themselves, the quiet-voiced elders, […]
Read more“Four Quartets” by T. S. Eliot
I chose to read Four Quartets because of this fascinating blurb at Wikipedia,”Four Quartets are four interlinked meditations with the common theme being man’s relationship with time, the universe, and the divine… Eliot blends his Anglo-Catholicism with mystical, philosophical and poetic works from both Eastern and Western religious and cultural traditions, with references to the Bhagavad-Gita and the Pre-Socratics as well as St. John of the Cross and Julian of […]
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