Re: Campaspe
art
Robert Detobel wrote to SFF:
<<The matching of arms and letters was also a topic in England.
In John Lyly’s play * Campaspe * Alexander the Great's general
Hephestion says: “that whilst arms cease, arts may flourish, and
joining letters with lances.” (I.i). The dichotomy of “arms and
letters” was often expressed as “sword and pen” or “spear (or lance)
and pen”. Every time “pen” is mentioned along with “sword/spear/lance”
we may be sure that the issue of “letters and arms” is addressed.
About 1530 the Spanish soldier-poet Garcilaso de la Vega
writes: “Now holding the sword, now the pen.”
In his dedication of “Palladis Tamia” Francis Meres writes:
“Julius Caesar used to carrie three things about with him,
when hee followed the warres; his PENNE to write the whole course
of the Romanes successe in their warres; his BOOKES to finde
himselfe occupied, and his LAUNCE to repulse his enemyes.”
Of the same Caesar, often hailed as the example of joining arms
and letters, Stefano Guazzo writes: “à guisa d'un altro Cesare
non meno famoso per li libreri che per la spada” (“like another
Caesar no less famous for books than for the sword”).
Harvey seems to have preferred the pair “sword-pen”.
George Gascoigne uses both: “ poet with a spear...,
a Soldier armed, with pencil in his ear, with pen to fight,
and sword to ride a letter” (Gascoigne, Works II).
Lyly, in his play * Campaspe again,
has the same general say to Alexander:
“Will you handle the spindle with Hercules,
when you should shake the speare with Achilles?
Is the warlike sound of drumme and trumpe turned
to the soft noyse of lire and lute?” (II.ii.34-36).
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Jonson told Drummond his arms were "three spindles or rhombi."
http://weblog.kilimwomen.com/archives/000233.htm
Rhomb, n. [L. rhombus, Gr. ??? rhomb, a spinning top, magic WHEEL,
fr. ??? to turn or whirl round, perhaps akin to E. wrench]
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*OS* : verge, spindle, axis, axle, AX (Polish, Slovak)
*OS* : ox (Dutch)
*OS* : a mask (Latin)
*OS* : stench, smell (Norwegian, Swedish)
*OS* : us (Danish)
*OS* : you (Spanish)
*OS* : bone (French, Italian, Romanian)
*OS* : if (Welsh)
*OS* : above, *over* (Gaelic, Irish, Scottish)
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Achilles
<<Some post-Homeric sources claim that in order to keep Achilles safe
from the war, Thetis hides the young man at the court of Lycomedes,
king of Skyros. There, Achilles is disguised as a girl and lives among
Lycomedes' daughters, perhaps under the name "Pyrrha" (the red-haired
girl). According to this story, Odysseus learns from the prophet
Calchas that the Achaeans would be unable to capture Troy without
Achilles' aid. Odysseus goes to Skyros in the guise of a peddler
selling women's clothes and jewelry and places a shield and spear
among his goods. When Achilles instantly takes up the spear, Odysseus
sees through his disguise and convinces him to join the Greek
campaign.
The kings of the Epirus claimed to be descended from Achilles through
his son, Neoptolemus. Alexander the Great, son of the Epiran princess
Olympias, could therefore also claim this descent, and in many ways
strove to be like his great ancestor; he is said to have visited his
tomb while passing Troy.>>
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John Lyly: Campaspe (1583)
http://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=6785
By Leah Scragg (University of Manchester)
<<The first play by John Lyly, the eldest of the “university wits”,
Campaspe has some claim to be regarded as launching that phenomenal
outburst of creativity that constitutes the drama of the English
Renaissance. The play was written for a company of boy actors
performing at the first Blackfriars theatre and, like Lyly's later
plays for the same venue, was ultimately designed for performance at
court. The plot turns upon the love of Alexander the Great for a low-
born Theban captive (Campaspe) and closes upon his decision to conquer
his affections and permit her to marry the man of her choice.>>
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Campaspe
<<Campaspe, (or Pancaste) the mistress of Alexander the Great and a
prominent citizen of Larissa. She was painted by Apelles, who had the
reputation in Antiquity for being the greatest of painters. The
episode occasioned an apocryphal exchange that was reported in Pliny's
Natural History: seeing the beauty of the nude portrait, Alexander
saw that the artist appreciated Campaspe (and loved her) more than he.
And so Alexander kept the portrait but presented Campaspe to Apelles.
"So Alexander gave him Campaspe as a present, the most generous gift
of any patron and one which would remain a model for patronage and
painters on through the Renaissance" Robin Lane Fox remarked.
http://tinyurl.com/yz7wnjo
http://tinyurl.com/ygz9g5r
http://www.johnwilliamgodward.org/Study-Of-Campaspe.jpg
Apelles also used Campaspe as a model for his most celebrated painting
of Aphrodite 'rising out of the sea', the iconic Venus Anadyomene,
"wringing her hair, and the falling drops of water formed a
transparent silver veil around her form".
No Campaspe appears in what we have of the five major sources for the
life of Alexander. Alexander's modern biographer Robin Lane Fox traces
her legend back to the Roman authors Pliny (Natural History), Lucian
of Samosata and Aelian's Varia Historia. They would have it that
Campaspe was a prominent citizen of Larissa in Thessaly; Aelian
surmised that she initiated the young Alexander in love.
Campaspe became a generic poetical synonym for a man's mistress;
The English University wit and poet John Lyly (1553–1606),
who produced his comedy Campaspe in 1584, also wrote:
."Cupid and my Campaspe play'd
. At cards for kisses—Cupid paid:
. He stakes his quiVER, bow and arrows,
. His mother's doves, and team of sparrows;
. Loses them too; then down he throws
. The coral of his lip, the rose
. Growing on's cheek (but none knows how);
. With these, the crystal of his brow,
. And then the dimple of his chin:
. All these did my Campaspe win.
. At last he set her both his eyes,
. She won, and Cupid blind did rise.
. O Love! has she done this to thee?
. What shall (alas!) become of me?"
...............................
Campaspe
Acme Paps
Space Map
Ape Scamp
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Campaspe_River
<<The Campaspe River is a river in Victoria, Australia, and was named,
by Major Mitchell for Campaspe, a mistress of Alexander the Great. The
river was known as yalooka by the local aboriginal people. The
Campaspe River begins in the Wombat State Forest. After European
settlement, native vegetation was removed from part of the area, which
was replanted with willow trees and hedgerows of hawthorn bushes, some
of the latter remaining today.>>
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Art Neuendorffer