Name the connection to the classics and get on the Ancient Rome Refocused Honor Roll.

I was surprized on the response on the last one.  This one ‘might’ be just a little harder.  The two guys who won the last one need to sit this one out.  I will admit the connection is tenuous at best, and there is a much better example that can be used.    I should say…an ‘easier’ one.  If you think you have it please leave a reply.  If you can make a case to a myth that I did not think of…I will give you points just the same. 

"The rain in spain...falls mainly on the plain..." Eliza says. "Again!" Doctor Henry Higgens shouts.

Small correction*  I said ‘Venus’ in the caption below.  More likely ’Cupid.’  Same personification but a Roman name.  

A painting by Jean-Leon Gerome (1890). Pygmalion is actually the sculptor and the statue that comes to life is Galatea. Venus (love personification) brings her to life.

Name the classical connection and get on the honor roll.

There’s a connection here to the classics.  Is it familiar?  Be the first to send a reply message in and get on the Ancient Rome Refocused Honor Roll. 

Anybody?

Update…The winners.

Steven Lee who brought the answer in on the Ancient Rome Refocused blog at 10:20 a.m.

Jesse Walker who followed up on the FACEBOOK page at 11:57. 

 The Charles Addams Cartoon from 1974 is a spoof from the Laocoon and his sons being strangled by serpents.  As you recall Laocoon was suggesting to burn the Trojan Horse and Poseidon sent a serpent to get rid of him.   

http://youtu.be/WxHcoBtjiXM

So…what if you wanted to start your own empire?  Emperor James, Darko, Jordon and William, look to the Romans to get what you need.

Niccolo Machiavelli looked to the Romans.  He even wrote his own HOW TO book, titled ‘The Prince’.  In Machiavelli’s world the gods are not involved in the determining the outcome of politics.  In Machiavelli’s world men are the same no matter what the time or age, and each person in Greek, Roman, and Medieval, renaissance or today’s modern man has the same passions that lead to the same decisions, acts and results.  The book, ‘The Prince’ exploits the lessons of history in politics to teach a prince how to rule.  You might even say an aspiring emperor.  If you want to start your own empire, here’s your book, but it is nothing new – completed in 1517, the prince was based on his musings of the ancient world.  Machiavelli’s world was undergoing political agony, 30 years of French incursions subjugated Italy, and kings and popes fought for possessions.  Frankly, I don’t think it was much different than the world of the Caesars.  I wonder if it was much different than today.  It is a book that gives you, the aspiring emperor, advice in what a prince should or should not do.  Such as:

IT IS FAR BETTER TO BE FEARED THAN LOVED.

Interestingly enough you can find a similar quote from Caligula who said:

“Let them hate me as long as they fear me.”

Machiavelli’s book, The Prince, has been criticized for its amorality, but this is a 15^th century guidebook for princes on how to survive the present day world of the 15^th century.   These are observations he took from the classical past to present to the emperor of his age, Lorenzo di Medici, a prince…that he must sometimes…caress, hurt, forgive, punish, benefit, suppress and upon a policy chosen – wait for it – ACT.

Machiavelli said, “The common people are impressed by appearances.”  So to start an empire you must make a connection with Rome consciously or subconsciously.  Take a look how Napoleon was depicted to the French people.  Paintings of the little colonel in satin robes – and the key word here is purple.

You can’t look at any of Paul Louis David’s paintings and NOT say he saw himself as an emperor painted in the roman ilk.

Napoleon is quoted as saying: “I wished to found a European system, a Europe and code of laws, a European Judiciary, there would be but one people in Europe.” 

Let’s look at Napoleon’s coat of arms.  The eagle is centered on the crest.  The eagle is associated with military victory, and the day after his coronation napoleon set the eagle at the top of every flagpole of every flag of his army.  In 1804 imagine the English parliament, imagine Wellington upon hearing the news of what now led the legions, and I will make you a bet that they instantly knew Napoleon’s intentions – if they did not know already.  Symbols speak power, and Rome was on the march.

Let’s look closer at Napoleons coat of arms.  Look at the top of the crest to the right and left of the crown, Charlemagne holds a scepter, and you can see a hand – the fingers formed in the sign of benediction – both symbols borrowed from the Holy Roman Empire.  This was another symbol to set the psyche of Napoleon’s new Europe that he is the continuation of what came before, and thus giving himself – Napoleon – legitimacy. 

Anyway look at Napoleon’s coronation – check out the paintings of the period…Especially get a look at Jacques Louis David’s painting at the Louvre in Paris.  GOOGLE IT.   It reeks of Roman influence.   

Check out the coronation medal that was struck with the profile of Napoleon, very Caesar like, with the opposite side of Napoleon being raised up on a shield – supported by a Roman senator and a representative of the military  — very Roman  as well.

I will accept the argument that maybe the time of emulating the Romans have passed.  After all, great men in their efforts to be seen as egalitarian are not painted or photographed in Roman Toga anymore.  The psyche of public upon seeing Bill Gates dressed in a toga, or Bill Clinton, would think more TOGA PARTY then the tenets and principals of the ‘early’ Republic.  The idea of Roman influence has passed…could be true…but I doubt it.  A toga, a mere garment, is one thing, but power is another.  We are in the age of corporations, of companies that take in more funds greater than some governments.  The office of emperor has now been replaced by the term CEO.  I will take a bet that in some future time, that a company may operate in some instances like a republic – like Microsoft with a benevolent First Citizen named Bill Gates; in some instances may operate like an empire – like Apple with an dictatorial emperor like Steve Jobs; in some instances like a corrupt imperial governor intending to fleece the provinces like Morgan Stanley or Goldman Sax and their making money on money schemes that flattened our economy into its present state.    And who can forget the worst spendthrift who can only be compared to Caligula in all his glory – the company called ENRON.  

Like the villas that crowd the southern coast of Italy, a new elite of Neros are building their own versions of golden palaces such as Gatsby homes lining the Hampton coast and the symbols of excess such as forty five million dollar checking accounts, and the fifth avenue New York Duplex.  It is not that there are successful, it is not that they made all the right choices, it is that they think they deserve everything and it’s theirs BY RIGHT.   

I am less cynical then you think.  I believe that the Roman influence, the tenets of republic and philosophy have not simply converted into an economic corporate power structure. 

I believe the rise of European democracies spells the spirit of the early Roman Republic lives on, I believe that western influence and western ideals have touched the democracy movements of China.  What’s more, if the worst happens, and society fell, and another dark age descended upon the earth…that somewhere on the plans of Kansas or Colorado or whatever territory or state that was able to lift the fog of darkness and light the fire of renaissance, a group of founding fathers will begin again with copies of the following…

Definitely; 

The Bible,

Possibly;

The Constitution,

Possibly;

The Republic by Plato

And definitely;

The writings of Cicero.

ROME WILL LIVE ON. 

–From the book Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger

This quote says so much about me…it’s scary.  This is what I want to do.  I want to see the basement of the Chicago Art Museum.  I want to be invited into the backrooms of the Oriental Museum at the University of Chicago.  I want to find a dusty artifact wrapped in linen. 

One time I ordered a pencil box from India.  Oh, what a modern age we live in…I ordered it off of ebay (big deal…right?).   BUT it arrived like it had traveled far (well it had…I say “it had traveled far” with a touch of poetry.  It was how it was packaged that gave it mystery).  It was wrapped in rough linen (wool?), the address drawn on with a marker, tied with tape and rope, and it  had tons of postage…no box, and no bubble wrap.  You could smell the distance it had traveled, and somehow…somehow it looked like it began its travels in 1848 on the back of a donkey.    It took an hour to unwrap, and somehow it made the pencil box (with hidden compartment) more beautiful.    Don’t get me wrong…I am not making fun of it…I am in debt to the seller who I am sure runs quite a modern shop. 

He made the experience…magical.   

Ithaca

By Constantine P. Cavafy

When you set out for Ithaka
ask that your way be long,
full of adventure, full of instruction.
The Laistrygonians and the Cyclops,
angry Poseidon – do not fear them:
such as these you will never find
as long as your thought is lofty, as long as a rare
emotion touch your spirit and your body.
The Laistrygonians and the Cyclops,
angry Poseidon – you will not meet them
unless you carry them in your soul,
unless your soul raise them up before you.

Ask that your way be long.
At many a Summer dawn to enter
with what gratitude, what joy -
ports seen for the first time;
to stop at Phoenician trading centres,
and to buy good merchandise,
mother of pearl and coral, amber and ebony,
and sensuous perfumes of every kind,
sensuous perfumes as lavishly as you can;
to visit many Egyptian cities,
to gather stores of knowledge from the learned.

Have Ithaka always in your mind.
Your arrival there is what you are destined for.
But don’t in the least hurry the journey.
Better it last for years,
so that when you reach the island you are old,
rich with all you have gained on the way,
not expecting Ithaka to give you wealth.
Ithaka gave you a splendid journey.
Without her you would not have set out.
She hasn’t anything else to give you.

And if you find her poor, Ithaka hasn’t deceived you.
So wise you have become, of such experience,
that already you’ll have understood what these Ithakas mean.

Meet the Apple Ipad – an easy way to take notes during the day.

The IPAD is a convenient and portable device to take notes.  However, so was the Roman Wax Tablet with its convenient stylus. AT THE TIME THIS WAS HIGH TECHNOLOGY.  Things are connected.  Ideas, philosophies, and handy devices span the centuries.  I’m not saying this is an heavy thought, but notice the similarities in each of these technologies.  They are similar because they share being used by the human specie.  How do you think the average patrician gentleman was looked upon when he whipped out his wax stylus for his ‘slave’ to take good and proper notes of the meeting, or record the number amphoraes that came off the ship?    I am sure an envious eye turned towards this device.  In fact, how many meetings have I attended, where there is always one man or women who whips out their IPAD, and looks about the room to see who has noticed?   By the way, something to think about…one day, one day mind you, the IPAD will be considered old hat. 

“Oh, what a nice piece of technology you have there.”

“Oh, just a little something I picked up down at the market.  It was on sale by a merchant named Stevious Jobicus.”

A copy of a Antonio Conova bust

My wife and I were in Restoration Hardwire.  Everything was half off because this particular store was clearing out its inventory and was moving to a ‘better’ location.  This did not mean much for half off at Restoration Hardwire means a $2000 item is now a $1000 item…whoopie [sarcasm]!  Anyway most of the stuff already had a SOLD sign on it.   I happened to notice that on top of this large piece of furniture was a bust of a man wearing a laurel and the shoulder straps of a lorica segmentata.   Nancy saw where I was staring and said, “I bet you can tell me who that is.”

OK, a challenge.   Before we left the store I was going to figure it out.  It was NOT Caesar.  I would know that face anywhere.  It was NOT Pompey.   Pompey’s bust usually has the feel of looking at a photo of good old Uncle Fred.  It was not the youthful visage of Augustus.  To my understanding Augustus was depicted as youthful even into old age.  For some reason I stopped concentrating on the face.  The Laurel around his head seemed slightly stylized, and the straps on his shoulders seemed more ‘cloth-like’ than made from metal.  I went back to the face and imagined it with black hair.

“Nancy,” I called out.

“Yes?”

“It’s Napoleon.”

After all, the guy wanted to rule the world didn’t he?  Why wouldn’t he be depicted as a Caesar?