Skip to main content

Mythic Platypus II

Speak now and tell me who first broke the dance of the thoughts of Ai!

Drun first broke it.
Drun the unmaker.
Of all the works of Ai he was the first to break the dance.
And he took hold of Erga-Ai and claimed her, for he thought to be the son in law of Ai
and so to have the forge of Ai.

Speak now and tell me who was first of the Nine to defend Erga-Ai!

Addan came first.
Addan the scarred face.
Of all the works of Ai, he is most skilled in the ways of contending.
And Drun reached out his hand and struck Addan and marred his lovely face, and those
marks can still be seen to this day.

And Drun reached out with his hand again and struck the fields of night, but the fire of
the stars burned his hands even as he grasped them, and so the hands of Drun are marred.

Speak now and tell me what Ai did when Drun seized hold of the stars!

Ai, who made the fields of night and sowed them with the stars.
Ai, who took their fire and made for himself a forge.
And from that forge come all the thoughts of Ai.

Ai set down his hammer.
Ai set down his tongs.
Ai stood from his forge.

And when Ai stood, the fields of night trembled, and the stars quailed in fear, and
the Nine fell down on their faces and wailed.

Ai placed his hand upon the forge of Ai and swore an oath by himself, for there is not
but that it comes from Ai, and Ai cursed Drun.

Drun fled in fear at the wrath of Ai with the stars he had taken in his hand, though their fire burned him. And at the edge of the fields of night he made himself a forge and heated it with the fire of the stars he stole. But from that forge came no thoughts. So it
is that Drun is called the Unmaker, for he has no thoughts of his own, only what he takes
from the thoughts of Ai and breaks and twists in his forge at the edge of the fields of night.

Comments

Graf Spee said…
Mmmm, mythos...

Popular posts from this blog

The Platypus Reads Part XXVII

Thoughts after reading the "Iliad" to prepare a Greece unit for my students: -Hector is a jerk until he's dead. He even advocates the exposure of Achaean corpses and then has the cheek to turn around and ask Achilles to spare his. He rudely ignores Polydamas' prophecies and fights outside the gate to save his pride knowing full well what it will cost his family and city. After he's dead, he becomes a martyr for the cause. -Agamemnon has several moments of true leadership to balance out his pettiness. In this way, he's a haunting foil to Achilles: the two men are more alike than they want to acknowledge. -We see that Achilles is the better man at the funeral games of Patroclos. His lordliness, tact, and generosity there give us a window into Achilles before his fight with Agamemnon and the death of Patroclos consumed him. -Nestor is a boring, rambling, old man who's better days are far behind him, and yet every Achaean treats him with the upmo...

California's Gods: Strange Platypus(es)

We've noticed lately a strange Californian dialectical twist: there, freeways take the definite article.  In other parts of the country one speaks of I 91 or 45 North.  In California, there's The 5, The 405, The 10.  Each of these freeways has its own quirks, a personality of sorts.  They aren't just stretches of pavement but presences, creatures that necessitate the definite article by their very individuality and uniqueness.  They are the angry gods to be worked, placated, feared, for without them life in California as we know it would cease.  Perhaps that's fitting for a land whose cities are named for saints and angels.  Mary may preside over the new pueblo of our lady of the angels, but the freeways slither like gigantic serpents through the waste places, malevolent spirits not yet trampled under foot.

Seeing Beowulf Through Tolkien: The Platypus Reads Part CXCIX

After spending a few weeks wrestling with Tolkien's interpretation of Beowulf , I found myself sitting down and reading Seamus Heaney's translation of the text during a spare moment.  I came to the place where Beowulf presents Hrothgar with the hilt of the ancient sword that slew Grendel's mother.  Hrothgar looks down at the hilt with its ancient runes and carvings depicting the war between the giants and God and meditates on the fortunes of men.  In a flash of insight, I thought: this is the whole poem! Let me explain.  Tolkien believed that the genuine contribution of the Northern peoples to European culture was the theory of courage.  The Northern heroes, at their best, were men who fought for order against chaos -a battle they knew they were doomed to lose.  If they were true heroes, their souls would join the gods and aid them in the final battle against darkness and its monsters and again go down fighting, spitting in the face of the meaninglessness...