Silence In The Land Of Logos

In ancient Greece, the spoken word connoted power, whether in the free speech accorded to citizens or in the voice of the poet, whose song was thought to know no earthly bounds. But how did silence fit into the mental framework of a society that valued speech so highly?

Arguing that the notion of silence is not a universal given but is rather situated in a complex network of associations and values, Montiglio (Sylvia Montiglio, author of Silence in the Land of Logos) seeks to establish general principles for understanding silence through analyses of cultural practices, including religion, literature, and law.

Unlike the silence of a Christian before an ineffable God, which signifies the uselessness of words, silence in Greek religion paradoxically expresses the power of logos--for example, during prayer and sacrifice, it serves as a shield against words that could offend the gods. Montiglio goes on to explore silence in the world of the epic hero, where words are equated with action and their absence signals paralysis or tension in power relationships. Her other examples include oratory, a practice in which citizens must balance their words with silence in very complex ways in order to show that they do not abuse their right to speak. Inquiries into lyric poetry, drama, medical writings, and historiography round out this unprecedented study, revealing silence as a force in

its own right.

The functions and meaning of silence in classical Greece is a problem especially serious for a student of silence because, the Spartans, and not the Athenians, were famous for their silent behavior. Moreover, in the case of Greek literature the "tyranny of the genres" limits the free expression of the individual...It is wrong to generalize the expereince of religious silence across time, space, and different ritual practices....draw a contrast between a notion of the ineffable, in keeping with the worshipper's presence before an ineffable God (as in Christianity), and that of a taboo or interdiction, which aptly defines the experience of religious silence in most Greek rituals.

The untiring voice of the hero to the equally untiring voice of the poet, who claims to be the enemy of silence as much as he claims to be the builder of memory and glory. Taking Pindar as the main focus of analysis...the opposition between silence and the voice as a poetic medium, and in particular, the ways in which silence, the ultimate threat for the poet's voice in an aural culture, is appropriated by this same voice as a tool for its own creative activity.

The very existence in Greece of a "code of silence" that involves the body and pervades cultural manifestations as diverse as religious rituals, Homeric epic, drama, and medical texts, points to a shared tendency to associate an absence of words with specific gestures and postures; an association, in turn which suggests that for the Greeks silence was a highly formalized behavior, much more so than it is for us.

Have blessed days ahead BLOGGERS! God Bless!

Yours,

Ophelia

sources:

Silence in the Land of Logos by Silvia Montiglo published by Princeton University Press.

IMAGES:

image 1 - a witness of time by mark.os on flickr

image 2 - by pantherinia_hd on flickr

image 3 - by Daniel Schwabe on flickr

image 4 - by spyros_tav_"smile...on flickr

image5 - by Darrell Godliman on flickr

Wuthering Heights Revisited

"The undisputable genius and greatest writer of the three Bronte sisters was Emily Bronte. She published only one novel, WUTHERING HEIGHTS, under the pseudonym of Ellis Bell. Wuthering Heights is the story of doomed love and revenge. Her novel was widely criticized by the Victorian critics for being so rustic and savage. As a young reader, I was enthralled by this novel even until now. Emily Bronte will always be on top of my list as a genius writer combined with her talent for mysticism and the spiritual." (Ophelia)

The moors that Emily Bronte described in Wuthering Heights

"It is not simply in contrast to its origins that Wuthering Heights strikes us as so unique, so unanticipated. This great novel, though not inordinately long, and, contrary to general assumption, not inordinately complicated, manages to be a number of things: a romance that brilliantly challenges the basic presumptions of the "romantic"; a "gothic" that evolves—with an absolutely inevitable grace—into its temperamental opposite; a parable of innocence and loss, and childhood's necessary defeat; and a work of consummate skill on its primary level, that is, the level of language.

Top Withens believed to be the setting of Wuthering Heights

Wuthering Heights is erected upon not only the accumulated tensions and part-formed characters of adolescent fantasy (adumbrated in the Gondal sagas) but upon the very theme of adolescent, or even childish, or infantile, fantasy. In the famous and unfailingly moving early scene in which Catherine Earnshaw tries to get into Lockwood's chamber (more specifically her old oak-paneled bed, in which, nearly a quarter of a century earlier, she and the child Heathcliff customarily slept together), it is significant that she identifies herself as Catherine Linton though she is in fact a child; and that she informs Lockwood that she had lost her way on the moor, for twenty years.

Top Withens from the South

As Catherine Linton, married, and even pregnant, she has never been anything other than a child: this is the pathos of her situation, and not the fact that she wrongly, or even rightly, chose to marry Edgar Linton over Heathcliff. Brontë's emotions are clearly caught up with these child's predilections, as the evidence of her poetry reveals, but the greatness of her genius as a novelist allows her a magnanimity, an imaginative elasticity, that challenges the very premises (which aspire to philosophical detachment) of the Romantic exaltation of the child and childhood's innocence.

Top Withens from the North

So famous are certain speeches in Wuthering Heights proclaiming Catherine's bond with Heathcliff ("Nelly, I am Heathcliff—he's always, always in my mind"), and Heathcliff's with Catherine (Oh, God! it is unutterable! I cannot live without my life! I cannot live without my soul!") that they scarcely require reference, at any length: the peculiarity in the lovers' feeling for each other being their intense and unshakable identification, which is an identification with the moors, and with Nature itself, that seems to preclude any human, let alone sexual" bond. They do not behave like adulterous lovers, but speak freely of their relationship before Catherine's husband, Edgar; and they embrace, desperately and fatally, in the presence of the ubiquitous and somewhat voyeuristic Mrs. Dean.

Approach to Top Withens

So intense an identification between lover and beloved has nothing to do with the dramatic relationship of opposites, who yearn to come together in order to be complete: it is the at-one-ness of the mystic with his God, the peaceful solitude of the unborn babe in the womb. That Heathcliff's prolonged love for the dead Catherine shades by degrees into actual madness is signaled by his breakdown at the novel's conclusion, when the "monomania" for his idol becomes a monomania for death. She, the beloved, implored to return to haunt him, has returned in a terrifying and malevolent way, and will not give him peace. ". . . For what is not connected with her to me? and what does not recall her? I cannot look down to this floor, but her features are shaped in the flags! In every cloud, in every tree-filling the air at night, and caught by glimpses in every object by day—I am surrounded with her image! The most ordinary faces of men and women—my own features—mock me with a resemblance." So Heathcliff tries to explain the frightening "change" that is upon him, when he sees that he and Catherine have been duplicated, in a sense, and supplanted, by the second Catherine and young Hareton. The old energies of the child's untrammeled life have passed over into the ghoulish energies of death, to which Heathcliff succumbs by degrees. "I have to remind myself to breathe—almost to remind my heart to beat!" Heathcliff, that most physical of beings, declares. "And it is like bending back a stiff spring; it is by compulsion that I do the slightest act not prompted by one thought, and by compulsion, that I notice anything alive, or dead, which is not associated with one universal idea.... I am swallowed up in the anticipation of its fulfillment."

Top Withens in 1920's

"Realism," the artfully fractured chronology begins to sort itself out, as if we are waking rapidly from a dream, and the present time of September 1802 is the authentic present, for both the diarist Lockwood and the inhabitants of Wuthering Heights. Mysteries are gradually dispelled; we have gained a more certain footing; as Lockwood makes his way to the Heights, he notes that "all that remained of day was a beamless, amber light along the west; but I could see every pebble on the path, and every blade of grass by that splendid moon." The shift from the gothic sensibility has been prepared from the very first, by Brontë's systematically detailed settings, which are rendered in careful prose by the narrators Lockwood and Mrs. Dean—the only characters we might reasonably expect to see the Heights, the Grange, and the moors. The romantic lovers consume themselves in feeling; they feel deeply enough but their feeling relates only to themselves, and excludes the rest of the world. But the narrators, and, through them, the reader, are privileged to see. (It is significant that the ghost-lovers of the older generation walk the moors on rainy nights, and that the lovers of the new generation walk by moonlight.)

It is this fidelity to the observed physical world, and Brontë's own inward applause, that makes the metamorphosis of the dark tale into its opposite so plausible, as well as so ceremonially appropriate. Though the grave is misjudged by certain persons as a place of fulfillment, the world is not after all phantasmal: it is by daylight that love survives. Long misread as a poetic and metaphysical work given a sort of sickly, fevered radiance by way of the "narrowness" of Emily Brontë's imagination, Wuthering Heights can be more accurately be seen as a work of mature and astonishing magnitude. The poetic and the "prosaic" are in exquisite harmony; the metaphysical is balanced by the physical. An anomaly, a sport, a freak in its own time, it can be seen by us, in ours, as brilliantly of that time—and contemporaneous with our own.

Wuthering Heights, as if for the first time in human history, that one generation will not be doomed to repeat the tragic errors of its parents. Suddenly, childhood is past; it retreats to a darkly romantic and altogether poignant legend, a "fiction" of surpassing beauty but belonging to a remote time.

Have blessed days ahead Bloggers!

Yours Truly,

Ophelia

Source: The Magnanimity of Wuthering Heights by Joyce Carol Oates

The Two Classic Ladies of Country Music Revisited

Hola, Bloggers! This time, Ophelia goes country and revisits the two classic lady icons of Country Music! I was raised as a country girl and I grew up hearing country music from the time that I was still in mama's womb...lol! Yes, mama was a great fan of country music so I am really a country girl at heart. At this point, let me start off with the Golden Lady of Nashville, Emmylou Harris. We have almost all of her record albums, believe it or not, but i want to share with you one particular song of Emmylou Harris that I really, really love...

If you were a bluebird you'd be a sad one

I'd give you a true word

But you've already had one

If you were a bluebird, you'd be crying

You'd be flying home

If you were a raindrop,

You'd shine like a rainbow

And if you were a train stop,

The conductor would sing low

If you were a raindrop, You'd be falling

You'd be calling home

If you were a hotel

Honey, you'd be a grand one

But, if you hit a slow spell,

Do you think you could stand one

If you were a hotel, Well I'd lean on your doorbel

l I'd call you my home

If I was a highway, I'd stretch alongside you

I'd help you pass by ways

That had dissatisfied you

If I was a highway,

Well I'd be stretchin'

I'd be fetchin' you home

~~Recorded and Sung by Emmylou Harris~~

Nanci Griffith is the other classic country music icon that mama loved very much and I love her too. (Whoever mama loved, I love too...lol...bless her soul!) I think mama had really passed on to me her love for country music and I don't mind it because I reallyyyyyyyyy, reallyyyyyy love countryyyy!!!...lol (Ophelia has gone crazy).
Over a span of more than 20 years, from the straits of Juan De fuca to the east of Portland, Maine, this Texas songwriter has been observing others and sketching her impressions of them -- in two novels (unpublished) and countless songs, such as ''Hometown Streets,'' ''Trouble in the Fields,'' ''Love at the Five and Dime'' and her signature tune, ''It's a Hard Life Wherever You Go.'' To know her -- to really get to be her pal -- is to realize that your exploits may someday wind up on a record for the whole world to hear.
Herein I want to share with you one of my favorite Naci Griffith songs...


Oh, I wish it would rain, it's gonna wash my face clean
I wanna find some dark cloud to hide in here
Oh, love and a memory sparkle like diamonds
When the diamonds fall they burn like tears
When the diamonds fall they burn like tears

Once I had a love from the Georgia Pines who only cared for me
I want to find that love of twenty-two here at thirty-three
I've got a heart on my right and one on my left, it neither suits my needs
No, the one I love is way out West and he never will need me

So I wish it would rain and gonna wash my face clean
I want to find some dark cloud to hide in here
Oh, love and a memory sparkle like diamonds
When the diamonds fall they burn like tears
When the diamonds fall they burn like tears.

Gonna pack up my two-step shoes
And head for the Gulf Coast plains
I wanna walk the streets of my own hometown
Where everybody knows my name
I want to ride a ways down in Galveston
When the hurricanes blow in
'Cause that Gulf Coast water tastes sweet as wine
When your heart's rolling home with the wind.

And I wish it would rain and gonna wash my face clean
I wanna find some dark cloud to hide in here
Oh, love and a memory sparkle like diamonds
When the diamonds fall they burn like tears
When the diamonds fall they burn like tears.

~~Recorded and sung by Nanci Griffith~~


"and we can be anywhere and never leave home
with your hand to hold ... we are two for the road
two of a kind heart ... two for the road"
"Dance a little closer to me,
dance a little closer now
Dance a little closer tonight
Dance a little closer to me,
'cause it's closing time
And love's on sale tonight at this five and dime"

~~Nanci Griffith, Love at this Five and Dime~~






Have a great weekend ahead bloggers! Always keep in mind that music is the language of the soul and God can give us a song in the night...a wonderful song of life, love and light.

Take care one and all and God bless!

Sincerely, Ophelia

The Classic Revisited: Emily Bronte

Emily Jane Bronte (1818-1848)




The undisputed genius of the Bronte family was Emily Bronte. An unyielding and enigmatic personality, she produced only one novel and a few poems, yet she is ranked among the giants of English Literature.
Top Withens: believed to be the setting of Bronte's Wuthering Heights


Emily Bronte's masterpiece, WUTHERING HEIGHTS, is the wild, passionate story of the intense, almost demonic, love between Catherine Earnshow and the gypsy foundling Heathcliff. The action of the story is chaotic, and unremittingly violent, its characters are less people than forces. Indeed, the novel would be extraordinarily difficult to read were it not for the power of Emily Bronte's vision and the beauty and energy of her prose. In addition, some of her powerful lyrics are counted with the best of English poetry. Emily Bronte ranks top among my favorite classical poets and writers. I am helplessly drawn to her powerful lyrical prose. She had as her sister Charlotte Bronte said the "secret power and fire that might inspire the brain and kindled the veins of a hero." One of my favorite poems of Emily Bronte is posted below...


Top Withens form another view

The Old Stoic

Riches I hold in light esteem,

And love I laugh to scorn,

And lust of fame was but a dream,

That vanished with the moon.

And if I pray the only prayer,

That moves my lips for me.

Is "Leave the heart that now I bear,

and give me Liberty!"

Yes, as my swift days near their goal;

'Tis all that I implore;

In life and death a chainless soul,

With courage to endure.

~~Emily Jane Bronte~~

"I've dreamt in my life dreams that have stayed with me ever after,

and changed my ideas:they've gone through and through me,

like wine through water and altered the color of my mind."

~~Emily Jane Bronte~~

Have a wonderful and blessed weekend Bloggers!

I am Ophelia Jane Julia saying leaving you with this thought...

"Without the ingredient of love, nothing is well done...if love is missing, even miracles can leave the human spirit damaged."

God bless one and all!

Sincerely,

Ophelia

Biblical Turkey

"I, John... was on the island called Patmos, because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like the sound of a trumpet, saying, “Write in a book what you see, and send it to the Seven Churches.” Rev. 1:9-11

The Seven Churches mentioned by St. John in the Book of Revelations ( The Apocalypse) are all found in Turkey and each was a founding community of Christianity.In the book of Revelation of the Bible are written messages to seven of the most prominent churches of the Roman Province of Asia, which are located in western Turkey. When we use the word “church” we mean a group

of Christians, not a building.

The seven cities mentioned in Revelation form what the Rev. John Stott calls “an irregular circle”, and “are listed in the order in which a messenger might visit them if commissioned to deliver the letters”. Sailing from the island of Patmos, to which John had been banished, he would arrive at Ephesus. He would then travel north to Smyrna and Pergamum, southeast to Thyatira, Sardis and Philadelphia, and finish his journey at Laodicea. He would need only to keep to what Professor William Ramsey calls “the great circular road that bound together the most populous, wealthy and influential part of the Province, the west-central region.”

Philadelphia

Philadelphia lies in a valley at the foot of a mountainous plateau in west central Turkey. The low dark hill in the center of the picture shows the area of the ancient city. The kings of Pergamum founded Philadelphia as an outpost of their realm in the second century B.C. The town was located along an important travel route that linked Pergamum in the north with Laodicea to the south. In New Testament times, Philadelphia was part of the Roman province of Asia. The town was devastated by an earthquake in A.D. 17, and for a time people lived in fear of aftershocks. Philadelphia was rebuilt with help from the emperor Tiberius.

The Agora of Smyrna (columns of the western stoa)

Smyrna

Smyrna was a port city in Asia Minor, in what today is Turkey. In ancient times Smyrna contended with Ephesus and Pergamum for the honor of being called the foremost city of Asia. Streets and buildings extended from the bay up the sides of the surrounding hills. Fountains flowed with the water from the city’s aqueducts. A theater on one of the highest slopes overlooked the lower city. Smyrna claimed to be the birthplace of the poet Homer and built a shrine in his honor. A library, gymnasiums, baths, and a stadium contributed to Smyrna's cultural life. The city attracted speakers like Apollonius of Tyanna in the first century and other renowned rhetors in the second century.

Ephesus

Ephesus was a major port city on the western coast of Asia Minor, in what today is Turkey. As a center for seaborne trade and the hub of the region’s road system, Ephesus was a thriving urban community. By the late first century A.D. it was the fourth largest city in the Roman Empire. The Romans made Ephesus an administrative center for the province of Asia. The governor and other officials from Rome entered the province through the harbor and conducted much of their business in the city. Renowned religious shrines, a spacious theater, stadium, and elegant public buildings gave Ephesus an integral place in the cultural life of the entire region. In the mid-first century A.D., Paul worked at Ephesus for several years (see Ephesus on the Journeys of Paul web site). Click "city tour" on the left to continue

Pergamum

Pergamum

Pergamum was a major city in western Asia Minor in New Testament times. It lies in a spacious valley, sixteen miles from the Aegean Sea in what is today the country of Turkey. In the centuries before Christ, Pergamum was the capital of an independent kingdom. Its impressive temples, library, and medical facilities made Pergamum a renowned cultural and political center. By the time Revelation was written, Pergamum had become part of the Roman Empire, but because of its location and importance, the Romans used it as an administrative center for the province of Asia.

Sardis

Sardis was one of the legendary cities of Asia Minor in what is today Turkey. In the seventh century B.C., Sardis was the capital of the kingdom of Lydia. Gold was found in the river near Sardis and the kings who lived there were renowned for their wealth. The Persians captured Sardis in the sixth century and made it the administrative center for the western part of their empire. The fabled "royal road" connected Sardis with the Persian cities to the east. In New Testament times, Sardis was part of the Roman province of Asia

Laodicea Ruins

Laodicea lies at a major crossroads in the valleys of Asia Minor, in what today is Turkey. The city was situated on a hill overlooking fertile valleys and majestic mountains. In Roman times, the city was an important center for administration and commerce. Court cases from the region were heard at Laodicea and funds were placed in the city's banks for safekeeping. Although damaged by earthquakes during the reign of Augustus (27 B.C.-A.D.14) and again in A.D. 60, the city kept rebuilding and prospering.

The Seven Churches mentioned by St. John in the Book of Revelations ( The Apocalypse) are all found in Turkey and each was a founding community of Christianity.In the book of Revelation of the Bible are written messages to seven of the most prominent churches of the Roman Province of Asia, which are located in western Turkey. When we use the word “church” we mean a group of Christians, not a building.

The seven cities mentioned in Revelation form what the Rev. John Stott calls “an irregular circle”, and “are listed in the order in which a messenger might visit them if commissioned to deliver the letters”. Sailing from the island of Patmos, to which John had been banished, he would arrive at Ephesus. He would then travel north to Smyrna and Pergamum, southeast to Thyatira, Sardis and Philadelphia, and finish his journey at Laodicea. He would need only to keep to what Professor William Ramsey calls “the great circular road that bound together the most populous, wealthy and influential part of the Province, the west-central region.”

Patmos

John, the writer of Revelation, received visions while on the island of Patmos, which lies 37 miles from the western coast of Asia Minor. The island is about 9 miles long and about 2 and a half miles wide, although it broadens to a width of 6 miles across its extreme northern end. The deeply indented coastline consists of ridges and hills that rise from the Aegean Sea. Residents of the island shared in the culture of the Greco-Roman world. Their institutions and religious beliefs corresponded to those of most Greek cities.

Well of St. Paul in Tarsus

Tarsus: The Birthplace of St. Paul

Paul’s birthplace of Tarsus is one of the oldest settlements in Cilicia. Excavators working on the mound rising in the north-west quarter in the city have uncovered evidence of settlements here in the Chalcolithic, Early Bronze, Hittite, Hellenistic and Roman periods. Among the famous people of Tarsus is the name of Sit Aleyhisselam, known as Adam’s son Seth; he is reputedly buried in a mausoleum on the eastern side of Ulu Mosque.A somewhat later, and likewise legendary, burial is that at Donuk Tas of Sardanapalus, the Assyrian king who is sometimes credited with founding Tarsus in about 820 BC. The Emperor Julian the Apostate was buried in Tarsus after his defeat in his battles with the Persians in 364. The Emperor also died here, and his heir, Hadrian, who was with him, assumed the power.Alexander the Great marched through southern Anatolia in 334 BC enroute to his lightning conquest of the East. He stopped long enough in Tarsus to catch what was almost his death of cold swimming in the Cydnus River, The city has changed hands many times. The most famous person associated with Tarsus in religious history
is Paul the Apostle. Paul was born a Jew of the tribe of Benjamin in Tarsus about AD 10 and spent his early years here. While still a youth he was sent to Jerusalem to study with Gamaliel, a leading Jewish theologian. In Jerusalem he persecuted members of the new Christian community and was present when Stephen was stoned. Continuing his intent to stop the new group from spreading, Paul went to Damascus. Shortly before he arrived, he was struck blind with the vision of Jesus who called him to witness to the Gospel. From then on his life was devoted to that mission. Paul was back living in Tarsus when Barnabas recruited him to work with the church in Antioch-on-the-Orontes. Paul made two subsequent missionary journeys through western Anatolia and into Greece. Tarsus originally was a seaport on a lagoon at the mouth of the Cydnus River and into the 10th century it was a hideout for Arab pirates. Since then the coast has gradually moved farther and farther out into the Mediterranean Sea.Other Roman remains have been found in Tarsus. For example, the foundations of the Tarsus American Lycee are on top of vaults that probably were part of a Roman or Hellenistic hippodrome.

TROAS

This city was founded by Antigonos and Lysimachos at the command of Alexander the Great. Because of its artificial harbor, Troas became a powerful and rich commercial town. This city was visited several times by St. Paul during his journeys.






The House of the Virgin Mary (Turkish: Meryemana or Meryem Ana Evi, "Mother Mary's House") is a Christian and Muslim shrine located on Mt. Koressos (Turkish: Bülbüldağı, "Mount Nightingale") in the vicinity of Ephesus, in modern-day Turkey (7 km from Selçuk).
It is believed by many Christians and Muslims that Mary, the mother of Jesus, was taken to this stone house by Saint John and lived there until her Assumption into Heaven according to Catholics or Dormition according to the Orthodox.[1]






A part of the site, St. John's Basilica, was built in the 6th century AD, under emperor Justinian I over the supposed site of the apostle's tomb. It is now surrounded by Selçuk.
















The Greek goddess Artemis and the great Anatolian goddess Kybele were identified together as Artemis of Ephesus. The many-breasted "Lady of Ephesus", identified with Artemis, was venerated in the Temple of Artemis, one of the Seven Wonders of the World and the largest building of the ancient world according to Pausanias (4.31.8). Pausanius mentions that the temple was built by Ephesus, son of the river god Caystrus. [7] before the arrival of the Ionians. Of this structure, scarcely a trace remains.

Ephesus (Hittite Apasa; Ancient Greek Ἔφεσος; Turkish Efes) was a city of ancient Anatolia. During the period known as Classical Greece it was located in Ionia, where the Cayster River (Küçük Menderes) flows into the Aegean Sea. It belonged to the Ionian League.
Ephesus hosted one of the seven churches of Asia, addressed in the Book of Revelation of The Bible),[1] and the Gospel of John might have been written here.[2] It is also the site of a large gladiator graveyard.
The city was famed for the Temple of Artemis (completed around 550 BC), and both were destroyed by the Goths in 263. The emperor Constantine I rebuilt much of the city and erected a new public bath. The town was again partially destroyed by an earthquake in 614. The importance of the city as a commercial centre declined as the harbour slowly filled with silt from the river.
Today's archaeological site lies 3 kilometers south of the Selçuk district of İzmir Province, Turkey. The ruins of Ephesus are a favorite international and local tourist attraction, partly owing to their easy accessibility from Adnan Menderes Airport and via the port of Kuşadası.

Sources for Words and Images

Wikipedia

Http://www.ephesusmeeting.com

Http://www.luthersem.edu/