the King of Desire

Do I write poetry to grant even the most infinitesimal droplet of sweat of my flailing form; 
the status of a King; 
a King who crafts his own kingdom of desire with the insatiable intensity of his existence? 







"Ποταμοῖς τοῖς αὐτοῖς ἐμβαίνομέν τε καὶ οὐκ ἐμβαίνομεν, εἶμέν τε καὶ οὐκ εἶμεν."

"We both step and do not step in the same rivers. We are and are not."
Heraclitus the Riddler

Evolutionary cooking by Mrs C.Darwin

evolutionary cooking
A cookbook based on notes by Charles Darwin's wife is to be published. Mrs Charles Darwin's Recipe Book features more than 40 dishes from her personal cookery notebook, which is housed in Cambridge University Library. Turnip cresselly, broiled mushrooms, cheese straws and baked apple pudding all feature in the Victorian notes.







"Ποταμοῖς τοῖς αὐτοῖς ἐμβαίνομέν τε καὶ οὐκ ἐμβαίνομεν, εἶμέν τε καὶ οὐκ εἶμεν."

"We both step and do not step in the same rivers. We are and are not."
Heraclitus the Riddler

Janus Deus bini est...

"Janus deus bini est"
In Roman mythology, Janus (or Ianus) was the god of gates, doors, doorways, beginnings and endings. 
His most prominent remnants in modern culture are his namesakes: 
the month of January, which begins the new year, and the janitor, who is a caretaker of doors and halls. 

Janus was supposed to have come from Thessaly in Greece and he shared a kingdom with Camese in Latium. They had many children, including Tiberinus.
When Romulus and his men kidnapped the Sabine women, Janus caused a volcanic hot spring to erupt, resulting in the would-be attackers being buried alive. 
In honor of this, the doors to his temples were kept open during war so that Janus himself may easily watch this happen. 
The doors and gates were closed in ceremony when peace was concluded.






"Ποταμοῖς τοῖς αὐτοῖς ἐμβαίνομέν τε καὶ οὐκ ἐμβαίνομεν, εἶμέν τε καὶ οὐκ εἶμεν."

"We both step and do not step in the same rivers. We are and are not."
Heraclitus the Riddler

Winter... Hiver

Blow, blow, thou winter wind.
Thou art not so unkind
As man’s ingratitude;
Thy tooth is not so keen,
Because thou art not seen,
Although thy breath be rude.
Heigh-ho! sing, heigh-ho! unto the green holly:
Most friendship is feigning, most loving mere folly:
Then, heigh-ho, the holly!
This life is most jolly.
Freeze, freeze, thou bitter sky,
That dost not bite so nigh
As benefits forgot:
Though thou the waters warp,
Thy sting is not so sharp
As friend remember’d not.

by William Shakespeare (1600)




"Ποταμοῖς τοῖς αὐτοῖς ἐμβαίνομέν τε καὶ οὐκ ἐμβαίνομεν, εἶμέν τε καὶ οὐκ εἶμεν."

"We both step and do not step in the same rivers. We are and are not."
Heraclitus the Riddler

Love is all around

One Hundred Love Sonnets: XVII
by Pablo Neruda 

I don't love you as if you were a rose of salt, topaz,
or arrow of carnations that propagate fire:
I love you as one loves certain obscure things,
secretly, between the shadow and the soul. 

I love you as the plant that doesn't bloom but carries
the light of those flowers, hidden, within itself,
and thanks to your love the tight aroma that arose
from the earth lives dimly in my body. 

I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where,
I love you directly without problems or pride: 

I love you like this because I don't know any other way to love,
except in this form in which I am not nor are you,
 
so close that your hand upon my chest is mine,
so close that your eyes close with my dreams.






"Ποταμοῖς τοῖς αὐτοῖς ἐμβαίνομέν τε καὶ οὐκ ἐμβαίνομεν, εἶμέν τε καὶ οὐκ εἶμεν."

"We both step and do not step in the same rivers. We are and are not."
Heraclitus the Riddler

Sophists and Democracy

The sophists' rhetorical techniques were extremely useful for any young nobleman looking for public office. In addition to the individual benefits that Sophistic-style teaching conferred, the societal roles that the Sophists filled had important ramifications for the Athenian political system at large.
The historical context in which the Sophists operated provides evidence for their considerable influence, as Athens became more and more democratic during the period in which the Sophists were most active.
The Sophists certainly were not directly responsible for Athenian democracy, but their cultural and psychological contributions played an important role in its growth. They contributed to the new democracy in part by subjectifying truth, which allowed and perhaps required a tolerance of the beliefs of others.
This liberal attitude would naturally have precipitated into the Athenian assembly as Sophists acquired increasingly high-powered clients.
Contiguous rhetorical training gave the citizens of Athens

"the ability to create accounts of communal possibilities through
persuasive speech".

This was extremely important for the democracy, as it gave disparate and sometimes superficially unattractive views a chance to be heard in the Athenian assembly.
In addition, Sophists had great impact on the early development of law, as the sophists were the first lawyers in the world. Their status as lawyers was a result of their extremely developed argumentation skills.

Links:

• http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14145c.htm
• http://www.iep.utm.edu/s/sophists.htm
• Plato's Dialogue: Sophist
• Demos: Classical Athenian Democracy.
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sophist_(dialogue)
• Sophist, Translated by Benjamin Jowett
• Plato's Sophist and the Being of Non-Being
• Plato's Sophist Bibliography
• Anaximenes,
• Aristotle,
• Aristophanes,
• Euripides,
• Herodotus,
• Pindar,
• Plato,
• Plutarch,
• Pythagoras,
• Sophocles,
• Thales,
• Thucydides

"Ποταμοῖς τοῖς αὐτοῖς ἐμβαίνομέν τε καὶ οὐκ ἐμβαίνομεν, εἶμέν τε καὶ οὐκ εἶμεν."

"We both step and do not step in the same rivers. We are and are not."
Heraclitus the Riddler

we who are left

"We Who are Left"

We who are left on this stony ground
will burn bitter incense for the dead,
and when Charon the wrestler, new prey found,
has packed up his caravan and fled,
we'll dance in their memory round and round.


We who are left will begin each day
with a fresh-cut slice of the sun's rich bread -
golden honeycomb on a golden tray -
and now untouched by the sickle of dread
we'll steer our life forward on its way.


We who are left will scatter one dawn
seeds of grass on the desert's face,
and before night cuts us down like corn
we'll make earth into a holy place,
a cradle for children still unborn.,

Niko Gatsos
Translated by E.Keely & P.Sherrard

"Ποταμοῖς τοῖς αὐτοῖς ἐμβαίνομέν τε καὶ οὐκ ἐμβαίνομεν, εἶμέν τε καὶ οὐκ εἶμεν."

"We both step and do not step in the same rivers. We are and are not."
Heraclitus the Riddler

Heraclitus the "riddler"

Heraclitus, along with Parmenides, is probably the most significant philosopher of ancient Greece until Socrates and Plato; in fact, Heraclitus's philosophy is perhaps even more fundamental in the formation of the European mind than any other thinker in European history, including Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle.
Why?
Heraclitus, like Parmenides, postulated a model of nature and the universe which created the foundation for all other speculation on physics and metaphysics. The ideas that the universe is in constant change and that there is an underlying order or reason to this change—the Logos—form the essential foundation of the European world view.
Everytime you walk into a science, economics, or political science course, to some extent everything you do in that class originates with Heraclitus's speculations on change and the Logos.
Despite all this, and despite the fact that the ancient Greeks considered Heraclitus one of their principal philosophers, precious little remains of his writings.
All we have are a few fragments, quoted willy-nilly in other Greek writers, that give us only a small taste of his arguments.
These passages are tremendously difficult to read, not merely because they are quoted out of context, but because Heraclitus deliberately cultivated an obscure writing style—so obscure, in fact, that the Greeks nicknamed him the "Riddler."


"Ποταμοῖς τοῖς αὐτοῖς ἐμβαίνομέν τε καὶ οὐκ ἐμβαίνομεν, εἶμέν τε καὶ οὐκ εἶμεν."
"We both step and do not step in the same rivers. We are and are not."