Dregs of Yore

“you will see an inspired prophetess, who deep in a rocky cave sings the Fates and entrusts to leaves signs and symbols. Whatever verses the maid has traced on leaves she arranged in order and stores away in the cave. These remain unmoved in their places and do not quit their rank; but when at the turn of a hinge a light breeze has stirred them, and the open door has scattered the tender foliage, never thereafter does she care to catch them, as they flutter in the rocky cave, nor to recover their places and unite the verses; in inquirers depart no wiser than they came, and loathe the Sibyl’s seat. Here let no loss of time by delay be of such importance in your eyes – though comrades chide, though the voyage urgently calls your sails to the deep and you have the chance to swell their folds with favouring gales – that you do not visit the prophetess and with prayers plead that she herself chant the oracles, and graciously open her lips in speech. The nations of Italy, the wars to come, h...

The Cave is a symbol of the unknown, the chaos, the platform for the explorer to showcase his heroic deeds. It is concomitant with the idea of confrontation. Recall Nietzsche's words: “Beware that, when fighting monsters, you yourself do not become a monster... for when you gaze long into the abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.” It is not a surprise that the archetypal image of a cave is analogous to the opening jaws of a predator. It is also analogous to the archetypal idea of the underworld, a dark and dismal place, the very residence of chaos and evil. It is the agent of transformation for the hero. It is only by the confrontation of the chaos and delving into the depths of the darkness that the hero is able to transgress his own fears and inadequacies and emerge victorious. Perhaps the evolutionary basis of this archetype might be that prehistoric man often lived in caves. Although it was a safe haven for man and protected him from the forces of nature, it was also fraught wi...

‘Where you're standing, dig, dig out: Down below's the Well: Let them that walk in darkness shout: "Down below—there's Hell!"’               - Friedrich Nietzsche, The Joyful Wisdom (The Gay Science) Our mere existence is a miracle. We are a collection of the most enduring traits in our ancestors, evolved through natural selection over millions of years, who had unimaginably formidable odds stacked against them in terms of cataclysmic natural events, harsh climate conditions, hostile predators and pathogens, hostile competition over scarce resources, social and political upheavals, economic downturns, wars, famines, tyrants, epidemics, poverty, and yet in the face of those odds, we are here! What could be a more motivating truth than that?  And what could be more tragic than our collective dismissal of the idea, failure to take the responsibility of our actions and inactions, treatment of ourselves as a meaningless blip in the history of...

“How much trouble have the poets and orators of every nation given themselves!—not excepting some of the prose writers of today, in whose ear dwells an inexorable conscientiousness—"for the sake of a folly," as utilitarian bunglers say, and thereby deem themselves wise—"from submission to arbitrary laws," as the anarchists say, and thereby fancy themselves "free," even free-spirited. The singular fact remains, however, that everything of the nature of freedom, elegance, boldness, dance, and masterly certainty, which exists or has existed, whether it be in thought itself, or in administration , or in speaking and persuading , in art just as in conduct , has only developed by means of the tyranny of such arbitrary law, and in all seriousness, it is not at all improbable that precisely this is "nature" and "natural"—and not laisser-aller!”                         ...

“Then they sent her to Epimetheus, who took her gladly, although Prometheus had warned him never to accept anything from Zeus. He took her, and afterward when that dangerous thing, a woman, was his, he understood how good his brother’s advice had been. For Pandora, like all women, was possessed of a lively curiosity. She had to know what was in the box. One day, she opened the lid - and out flew plagues innumerable, sorrow and mischief for mankind. In terror, Pandora clapped the lid down, but too late. One good thing, however, was there - Hope. It was the only good the casket had held among many evils, and it remains to this day mankind’s sole comfort in misfortune.”                              - Edith Hamilton, Mythology, Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes. How uncanny is the resemblance that this Greek myth bears to Genesis! Eve was cursed with a curious nature and tempted Adam to pluck the apple, de...