We have idolized
Ancient Greeks
who, few are aware
were the first to veil women,
electing to remove
them from sight
We put their democracy
on marble pedestals,
columns rising
the District of Columbia,
chiseled statues in the same
proportions, the same
golden mean, the same
ratio to overturn a veto
this is another step removed –
representatives of
representations of
a cross-section of a district.
Aristophanes imagined
women in charge
as a form of humor,
Plato imagined
removing the family
as a unit altogether.
We have copped their forms
with the Parthenon
in Nashville,
taken the Memphis name
straight out of antiquity,
out from Ancient Egypt.
As a fine morning mist
settles in over
The national capitol,
the very foundations
of our system leak
history all over the street.
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We often make the assumption while we read the Ancients that their cultures were somehow more homogeneous than ours in both time & space, even though what remains of their literature presents ample evidence of the contrary. Much blame -- & not a little praise -- is based on that misconception.
"Hellenic democracy," "Hellenic art" & "Hellenic religion" all have construct definitions: they refer to trends which modern historians & anthropologists understand to be as mutable as their contemporary homologues.
The very fact that the words of the Sybil so famously quoted in "The Wasteland" come down to us through a Latin work just goes to show that the Ancient spirit is simultaneously polymorph & polymath -- & sufficiently insightful to inspire us centuries after the demise of its flawed human originators. If you can, I eagerly entreat you to show me any works that this generation has produced which might come close to having the same aesthetic & moral merits.
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