Saint Ophelia
lyra
This far, I haven't traced her...
but, I found a "shoemaker" saint,
so, as a Marlowe
fan,
I am adding him here!
(quote)
Feasts and Saints of the Orthodox Church
Previous Day
DECEMBER 19
Next Day
Back to "Feasts & Saints" Main Page
.............................................................................
Martyr Boniface at Tarsus in Cilicia and the Righteous Aglae
(Aglaida) of Rome (+ 290)
Venerable Ilya of Murom, Wonderworker of the Kievan Caves, near
caves (+ c. 1188)
Martyrs Elias, Probos and Ares in Cilicia (+ 308)
Saint Boniface the Merciful, Bishop of Florence (6th C)
Saint Gregory, Bishop of Omiritia (+ c. 552)
................................................................................
Saint Elias Muromets of the Caves,
nicknamed "Shoemaker" or "Cobbler,"
was from the city of Murom. Popular legend identifies him with the
famous warrior hero Elias Muromets, who was the subject of Russian
ballads and of Gliere's Symphony No. 3.
St. Elias died with the fingers of his right hand formed to make
the Sign of the Cross in the position accepted even today in the
Orthodox Church: the first three fingers together, and the two
outermost fingers folded onto the palm
[in contrast to the Sign of the Cross used by the "Old
Ritualists"]. During the struggle with the Old Ritualist Schism
(seventeenth-nineteenth centuries). This information about the saint
served as a powerful proof in favor of the present positioning of the
fingers.
http://www.oca.org/pages/orth_chri/Feasts-and-Saints/December/Dec-19.html
..............................................................................
Peter Zenner wrote in message news:c9bfra$k7h$1...@newsg2.svr.pol.co.uk...
> John Bede
> I don't believe that 'Hamlet' was written until after the death of Leicester
> (Claudius) in 1588. Anne Cecil also died in 1588. She was dubbed
> Ophelia because she was married to Oxford on St Ophelia's Day
> (December 19th).
>
> Maybe this is another reason why Oxfordians believe
> in what they do but don't forget that anybody who knew the Oxfords and
> the Cecils could have known that (Which excludes Shakspere!) I believe
> that Art was the first to inform hlasers about the Ophelia connection. (I
> could be wrong but I thought that I had better put it in. We don't want him
> getting uppity again!)
>
lyra
seems to be
the Roman Goddess festival
Opalia...
........................................................
(and I still recall
the photos of
the Norse-inspired
*Up-helly-aa*
of New Year...)
(and there's a festival of
Helios the Sun,
the Helia)
.......................................................
lyra
or, the
Opalia...
(with some other nice stuff
from the page...)
..........................................................................
(quote)
Roman Deities
cross reference of Greek and Roman Deities
cross reference of Greek and Roman Goddesses
Goddess Index
Apollo—"Shining"; god of the Sun.
He used the bow and lyre with skill.
His arrows brought illness or death. He was bisexual, pointing to the
possibility that originally he may have been a goddess. He drove
a four-horse chariot (quadriga) through the sky. He first came to Rome
in the fifth century BCE following an outbreak of plague.
He represented lawful punishment of crime, not revenge; justified revenge.
God of prophecy, music, healing, medicine, oracles, reason, inspiration,
the arts, magick.
Ops—A harvest helper, her festival was the Opalia on December 19.
She was invoked by sitting down and touching the Earth with one hand.
Goddess of the harvest, wealth, success.
Venus—Moon goddess; patroness of vegetation and flowers.
She was strong, proud, and loving. She was called virginal,
meaning that she remained independent; her priestesses were not physical
virgins.
Her sacred birds were the heron and dove. She had a place in the Floralia
(April 28-May 3) and in the Vinalia Rustica on August 9. Another festival
was June 24. Goddess of love, beauty, and the joy of physical love,
fertility,
continued creation, renewal, herbal magick.
Minerva—Virgin warrior goddess. Maiden Goddess; goddess of women's rights
and freedom. She was especially worshipped by guilds of artisans, artists,
and professional men, flute players, schools, doctors. She was honored
with Mars during five days at the spring equinox. She wore a helmet
and breastplate and carried a spear. Sacred bird was the owl.
Patroness of craftsmen, especially smiths, weavers, and spinners.
Protection, writing, music, the sciences, sculptors, potters,
architects, wisdom, arts and skills, renewal, prudence, wise counsel,
peace, embroidery, horses and oxen, snakes, pillars, trees, medicine,
war, schools.
Vertumnus—God of the returning seasons and Earth fertility.
"Changer"; shape-shifter.
He was venerated with the god of the Tiber, because he altered
the course of the river. Fruit trees, fertility, changes.
Vesta—"The shining one"; "one of Light." Her priestesses were
the Vestal Virgins
who kept the sacred fire of Rome always burning. Six Vestals
of good family background served her for thirty years, coming
into her service when they were
between seven and ten years old.
Her priestesses offered no blood sacrifices.
Hearth and fire goddess; goddess of domestic and ceremonial fires.
Her festival was Vestalia on June 7.
Art Neuendorffer
..........................................................................
> http://www.geocities.com/Paris/Arc/3860/romandeities.html
> Apollo-"Shining"; god of the Sun.
> He used the bow and lyre with skill.
> His arrows brought illness or death. He was bisexual, pointing to the
> possibility that originally he may have been a goddess. He drove
> a four-horse chariot (quadriga) through the sky. He first came to
> Rome in the fifth century BCE following an outbreak of plague.
> He represented lawful punishment of crime, not revenge;
> justified revenge. God of prophecy, music, healing,
> medicine, oracles, reason, inspiration, the arts, magick.
----------------------------------------------------------
Cambridge History of English and American Literature
<<A number of pamphlets ridiculed romantic ballads:
The Heroical adventures of the Knight of the Sea (1600) was followed
by Beaumont and Fletcher's comedy The Knight of the Burning Pestle
in 1611 and by Moriomachia in 1613.
The Knight of the Sun enters the lists against the Knight of the Moon,
but is worsted, and the earth is plunged in darkness.
Amid the disorder which ensues, "fogging solliciters,"
"extorting brokers," "peaking pandars," tapsters
and others appear in their true characters.>>
-------------------------------------------------------------
<< Master Nicholas, the barber of that village,
said that no one could compare with the Knight of the Sun.>>
From The Adventures of Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes.
-------------------------------------------------------------
CHAPTER XXI
Don Quixote: "it is requisite to roam the world, as it were on probation,
seeking adventures, in order that, by achieving some, name and fame may
be acquired, such that when he betakes himself to the court of some great
monarch the knight may be already known by his deeds, and that the boys,
the instant they see him enter the gate of the city, may all follow him and
surround him, crying, 'This is the Knight of the Sun'-or the Serpent,
or any other title under which he may have achieved great deeds.
-------------------------------------------------------------
THE KNIGHT OF THE SUN, ALPHEBO, TO DON QUIXOTE.
MY sword could not at all compare with thine,
Spanish Alphebo! full of courtesy;
Nor thine arm's valour can be match'd by mine,
Though I was fear'd where days both spring and die.
Empires I scorn'd, and the vast monarchy
Of th' Orient ruddy (offer'd me in vain),
I left, that I the sovereign face might see
Of my Aurora, fair Claridiane,
Whom, as by miracle, I surely lov'd:
So banish'd by disgrace, even very hell
Quak'd at mine arm, that did his fury tame.
But thou, illustrious Goth, Quixote! hast prov'd
Thy valour, for Dulcinea's sake, so well
As both on earth have gain'd eternal fame.
------------------------------------------------------------
"lyra" <mountai...@RockAthens.com> wrote
> ...Saint Ophelia...
>
> or, the
>
> Opalia...
> ..........................................................................
> http://www.geocities.com/Paris/Arc/3860/romandeities.html
> Apollo-"Shining"; god of the Sun.
> He used the bow and lyre with skill.
> His arrows brought illness or death. He was bisexual, pointing to the
> possibility that originally he may have been a goddess. He drove
> a four-horse chariot (quadriga) through the sky. He first came to Rome
> in the fifth century BCE following an outbreak of plague.
> He represented lawful punishment of crime, not revenge; justified
revenge.
> God of prophecy, music, healing, medicine, oracles, reason,
inspiration,
> the arts, magick.
>
> Ops-A harvest helper, her festival was the Opalia on December 19.
>
> She was invoked by sitting down and touching the Earth
> with one hand. Goddess of the harvest, wealth, success.
> Venus-Moon goddess; patroness of vegetation and flowers.
> She was strong, proud, and loving. She was called virginal,
> meaning that she remained independent;
> Her sacred birds were the heron and dove. She had a place in the
Floralia
> (April 28-May 3) and in the Vinalia Rustica on August 9. Another
festival
> was June 24. Goddess of love, beauty, and the joy of physical love,
> fertility, continued creation, renewal, herbal magick.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
KATHERINE HAMLETT died on December 18, 1579
(during Venus-Moon/Mercury/Sun conj.)
<<Englishwoman whose death may be reflected in that
of Ophelia in _HAMLET_. A resident of Tippinton, a village
near Stratford, Mistress Hamlett was DROWNED in the AVON RIVER
while fetching water, and a coroner's jury hesitated over the
possibility of suicide before declaring, two months later, that she
had died a natural death. It has been speculated that the coincidental
similarity between a family name he once knew and the name of his
protagonist might have recalled Katherine Hamlett's death to the
playwright -- who was 15 when it occurred -- as he described Ophelia's
death by drowning, declared 'doubtful' by the Priest, although the
coroner 'finds it Christian burial.'>> - _SHAKESPEARE A TO Z_
--------------------------------------------------------------------
<<OPS (Opis) The Roman goddess of the earth as a source of fertility,
and a goddess of abundance and wealth in general (her name means
"plenty"). As goddess of harvest she is closely associated with the god
Consus. She is the sister and wife of Saturn. One of her temples was
located near Saturn's temple, and a festival took place there on
August 10. Another festival was the Opalia, which was observed
on DECEMBER 19. On the Forum Romanum she shared a
sanctuary with the goddess Ceres as the protectors of the harvest.
Saturnalia / OPALIA : DECEMBER 19
The major temple was of OPS Capitolina, on the Capitoline Hill,
where Caesar had located the Treasury.>>
--------------------------------------------------------------------
OPS : FACE
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Edward de Vere marries only daughter of *TREASUREr* Lord Burghley:
Anne Cecil [age *15*] on OPALIA [i.e., OPHELIA]: DECEMBER 19, 1571
(during Venus/URANUS/Sun conj.)
---------------------------------------------------------------------
[Hamlet (Quarto 2) 2.2]
Enter the Players (/MAISTER MASONS).
Ham. O Ieptha Iudge of Israell, what a TREASURE had'st thou?
Pol. What a TREASURE had he my Lord?
Ham. Why one faire daughter and no more,
the which he loued passing well.
Pol. Still on my daughter.
Ham. Am I not i'th right old Ieptha?
Pol. If you call me Ieptha my Lord, I haue a daughter that I loue
Ham. Nay that followes not. (passing well.
Pol. What followes then my Lord?
Ham. Why as by lot God wot, and then you knowe it came to
passe, as most like it was; the first rowe of the pious chanson
will showe you more, for looke where my abridgment comes.
Enter the Players.
Ham. You are welcome maisters, welcome all, I am glad to see thee
well, welcome good friends, oh old friend, why thy FACE is VA-
LANCT since I saw thee last, com'st thou to beard me in Denmark?
what my young Lady and mistris, by lady your Ladishippe is
nerer to heauen, then when I saw you last by the altitude of a
chopine, pray God your voyce like a peece of vncurrant gold,
BEE NOT CRACKT WITHIN THE RING: MAISTERS you are all welcome. . .
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Emily Bronte died away from doctors
with only immediate family and Keeper her
(3 headed?) bulldog attending the funeral. December 19, 1848
Robinson Crusoe rescued December 19, 1686
---------------------------------------------------------------------
"I'm on a pilgrimage to see a moose." - Clark W. Griswold
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Herman Melville Letter to RUFUS WILMOT GRISWOLD, December 19 1851
http://www.melville.org/hmquotes.htm
<<I never had the honor of knowing, or even seeing, Mr Cooper
personally; so that, through my past ignorance of his person,
the man, though dead, is still as living to me as ever.
And this is very much; for his works are among the earliest I remember,
as in my boyhood producing a vivid, and awakening power upon my mind.
It has always much pained me, that for any reason, in his latter
years, his fame at home should have apparently received a slight,
temporary clouding, from some very paltry accidents, incident, more or
less, to the general career of letters. But whatever possible things
in Mr Cooper may have seemed, to have, in some degree, provoked the
occasional treatment he received, it is certain, that he possessed no
slightest weaknesses, but those, which are only noticeable as the almost
infallible indices of pervading greatness. He was a great, robust-souled
man, all whose merits are not even yet fully appreciated. But a
grateful posterity will take the best of care of Fennimore Cooper.>>
------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Q" (i.e., Desmond Llewelyn [age 85]) dies on DECEMBER 19, 1999
"G" (i.e., Greg Reynolds) born on DECEMBER 19, 1951
-----------------------------------------------------------------
> http://www.geocities.com/Paris/Arc/3860/romandeities.html
> Minerva-Virgin warrior goddess. Maiden Goddess; goddess of women's
rights
> and freedom. She was especially worshipped by guilds of artisans,
artists,
> and professional men, flute players, schools, doctors. She was honored
> with Mars during five days at the spring equinox. She wore a helmet
> and breastplate and carried a spear. Sacred bird was the owl.
> Patroness of craftsmen, especially smiths, weavers, and spinners.
> Protection, writing, music, the sciences, sculptors, potters,
> architects, wisdom, arts and skills, renewal, prudence, wise counsel,
> peace, embroidery, horses and oxen, snakes, pillars, trees, medicine,
> war, schools.
>
> Vertumnus-God of the returning seasons and Earth fertility.
> "Changer"; shape-shifter.
> He was venerated with the god of the Tiber, because he altered
> the course of the river. Fruit trees, fertility, changes.
>
> Vesta-"The shining one"; "one of Light."
> Her priestesses were the Vestal Virgins
> who kept the sacred fire of Rome always burning. Six Vestals
> of good family background served her for thirty years,
> coming into her service when they were
> between seven and ten years old.
> Her priestesses offered no blood sacrifices.
> Hearth and fire goddess; goddess of domestic and ceremonial fires.
> Her festival was Vestalia on June 7.
---------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.everreader.com/knighsun.htm
<<Alan Young's Tudor & Jacobean Tournaments...recounts Oxford's
participation in one of his last tournaments (prior to his imprisonment
in the Tower), at Whitehall, on 22 January 1581. The circumstance of
this contest was the Earl of Arundel's "friendly" challenge to knightly
gallants as one Callophisus, a Lover of Beauty, to which challenge
responded, among others, Lord Windsor, Sir Philip Sidney, Sir William
Drury, and Lord Oxford. Young tells us that all of the respondents
to Arundel's challenge at Whitehall styled themselves, rather
unpretentiously (save one!), by such unimaginative nomenclature
as the Red Knight, the White Knight, and the Blue Knight-- but,
"the Earl of Oxford appeared in the Whitehall tiltyard
as the Knight of the Tree of the SUNNE . . .
and it appears that he concealed himself in his pavilion
[a 'statlie Tent of Orenge tawny Taffata, curiously
imbroydered with Siluer, & pendents on the Pinacles']
before any of the other participants arrived."
"From forth this Tent came the noble Earle of Oxenford in rich gilt
Armour, and sate down vnder a great high Bay-tree, the whole stocke,
branches and leaues whereof, were all gilded ouer, that nothing but
Gold could be discerned. [ . . . ] After a solemne sound of most
sweet Musique, he mounted on his Courser, verie richly caparasoned,
whe[n] his page ascending the staires where her Highnesse stood
in the window, deliuered to her by speech [his] Oration ....
Oxford told Her Majesty & the august assembly before the Queen that
he, a wandering knight, had met "an aged 'Pilgrime or Hermit' who
showed him 'a Tree so beautiful, that his eyes were daseled."'
As the speech unfolds, it becomes clear that this "Tree of the SUNNE"
represents Elizabeth. It is unique like the Phoenix, and it eclipses all
other trees. In an allusion to Elizabeth's virginity, we are told that
"Vestas bird sitteth in the midst, whereat Cupid is euer drawing, but
dares not shoot, being amazed at that princely and perfect Maiestie."
In the shade of the tree, the knight has found "such content, as
nothing coulde bee more comfortable," and has "made a sollemne vowe,
to incorporate hys harte into that Tree, and ingraft hys thoughts vppon
those vertues. Swearing, that as there is but one SUNNE to shine ouer
it, one roote to glue life vnto it, one toppe to maintaine Maiestie: so
there should be but one Knight , eyther to lyue or die for the defence
thereof. Where-vppon, tree swore himselfe onely to be the Knight of
the Tree of the SUNNE , whose life should end before his loyaltie.">>
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Reflecting SUNNE beams off of a PILLAR
--------------------------------------------------------------------
r...@pcr8.pcr.com wrote:
<<In John Quincy Adams's *A Life of William Shakespeare*, there is
an extract of a letter from Sir Henry WOTTON to Sir Edmund Bacon
where he described the March 1613 impresa of the Earls of Pembroke
and Montgomery; "The two best, to my fancy, were those of
the two Earls brothers: the first a small, exceeding white pearl,
and the words 'SOLO candore valeo';
the other a SUN casting a glance on the side of a pillar
and the BEAMS reflecting, with this motto, 'Splendente refulget';
in which there seemed an agreement, the elder brother to allude to
his own nature, and the other to his fortune." WOTTON's letter did not
mention Rutland's impresa but does contain a complaint that some impresa
were "...SO DARK THAT THEIR MEANING IS NOT YET UNDERSTOOD...",>>
------------------------------------------------------------
Art Neuendorffer
Chess One
"lyra" <mountai...@RockAthens.com> wrote in message
news:4ec4c9f5.04053...@posting.google.com...
> ...Is there a Saint Ophelia?
>
> This far, I haven't traced her...
There is an Opheltes from Greek mythology [Seven against Thebes] She was
daughter to King Lycurgus. Opheltes is thought to be a form of the familiar
infant god of Cretan mythology.
Biblically there is a reference to Ophir, as place name, the source of King
Solomon's treasure.
In the British language the word Op~ means to rise [Somerset].
Phil
Art Neuendorffer
> >
> > This far, I haven't traced her...
> There is an Opheltes from Greek mythology [Seven against Thebes]
> to be a form of the familiar infant god of Cretan mythology
Hypsipyle: <<A daughter of Thoas, king of Lemnos. When the women of Lemnos rose up and killed all the men because they had abandoned their true wives for captive women, Hypsipyle secretly spared her father and set him afloat on the sea in a chest. Hypsipyle was the subject of a play by Euripides, lost from the manuscript tradition but fortunately now represented by extended passages on papyrus recovered from the village dumps of Greco-Roman Egypt.>>
Table of the Annotations in Edward de Vere's Geneva Bible
1 Kings| 9 |23 | U(R) |
------------------------------------------------------------
> In the British language the word Op~ means to rise [Somerset].
My SHAKSPEARE RISE! I will not lodge thee by
[C]haucer, or SPENSer, or bid Beaumont lie
[A] little further, to make thee a room :
[T]hou art a monument without a tomb, - Ben Jonson (Folio)
___ / N / - *S* UING___ SONNE[T]S MRWHALLH
___ / A / p [P]*I* -NES___ [S] EAND[T]HA\T\ ETERN
___ / I / _Ti [E] p*R* OM [I] SEDB_Y OUR\E\ VER
__ / L / IVi [N] gp *O.E* __ [T] WISH_E THTH\E\ W
_- / E / llWi [S]-hing _______ [A] DVEN T URERI\N\
_- / S / ET* TIN GFORT -___ HTTs
Chess One
"Art Neuendorffer" <aneuendor...@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:PaqdnVwNFfx...@comcast.com...
> [OP Original Poster] "lyra" <mountai...@RockAthens.com> wrote
> > ...Is there a Saint Ophelia?
> >
> > This far, I haven't traced her...
"Chess One" <inn...@verizon.net> wrote
> There is an Opheltes from Greek mythology [Seven against Thebes]
> She was daughter to King Lycurgus. OPHELTES is thought
> to be a form of the familiar infant god of Cretan mythology
-----------------------------------------------------------
OPHELTES: <<A SON of Lycurgus, king of Nemea. He was left alone by his
nurse Hypsipyle, former queen of Lemnos, while she went to get water for the
Seven against Thebes. While she was gone, OPHELTES was bitten by a serpent
and died. The Nemean Games were celebrated in his honor.>>
-----------------------------------------------------------
The New Century Classical Handbook
Yes Art you are correct. The 'she' in my sentence was instead a reference to
the care-giver who you reference below, one Hypsipyle, former queen of
Lemnos.
Reading a bit further I notice that the child was renamed by the seer
Amphiaraus [one of the 7 sages] to Archemorus (Beginner of Death or Doom).
I had not seen this note before, nor associated Archemorus with Ophelia's
fate.
Art Neuendorffer
> > [OP Original Poster] "lyra" <mountai...@RockAthens.com> wrote
>
> > > ...Is there a Saint Ophelia?
> > >
> > > This far, I haven't traced her...
>
> "Chess One" <inn...@verizon.net> wrote
>
> > There is an Opheltes from Greek mythology [Seven against Thebes]
> > She was daughter to King Lycurgus. OPHELTES is thought
> > to be a form of the familiar infant god of Cretan mythology
"Art Neuendorffer" <aneuendor...@comcast.net> wrote
> -----------------------------------------------------------
> OPHELTES: <<A SON of Lycurgus, king of Nemea. He was left alone by his
> nurse Hypsipyle, former queen of Lemnos, while she went to get water for
the
> Seven against Thebes. While she was gone, OPHELTES was bitten by a serpent
> and died. The Nemean Games were celebrated in his honor.>>
> -----------------------------------------------------------
> The New Century Classical Handbook
"Chess One" <inn...@verizon.net> wrote
> Yes Art you are correct. The 'she' in my sentence was instead a reference
to
> the care-giver who you reference below, one Hypsipyle, former queen of
> Lemnos.
>
> Reading a bit further I notice that the child was renamed by the seer
> Amphiaraus [one of the 7 sages] to Archemorus (Beginner of Death or Doom).
>
> I had not seen this note before,
> nor associated Archemorus with Ophelia's fate.
-----------------------------------------------
Walk on the Wild Celery Side
-----------------------------------------------
http://ist-socrates.berkeley.edu/~clscs275/nemeamyth2myth.htm
<<The myth of the first Nemean Games is the story of the death of the baby
Opheltes, son of Lykourgos and Eurydike. When their son was born, Lykourgos
consulted the oracle at Delphi in order to find out how he might insure the
health and happiness of his child. The priestess replied that the child must
not touch the ground until he had learned to walk. Upon his return to Nemea,
Lykourgos assigned a slave woman, Hypsipyle, the task of caring for his
child. On that fateful day, the Seven Heroes (Seven against Thebes) passed
through Nemea on their way to attack Thebes. When they asked Hypsipyle for
something to drink, she placed the baby on a bed of wild celery, where he
was killed by a serpent, thus fulfilling the prophecy. The Seven Heroes
renamed the baby Archemoros ("Beginner-of-doom"), and held the first Nemean
Games in his honor as a funerary festival. Vestiges of these origins could
be seen at the site, namely the shrine of Opheltes and the Sacred Grove of
cypress trees, as well as in the customs of the games: the judges wore black
tunics, and the crown awarded to the victor was made of wild celery.>>
-----------------------------------------------
"Art Neuendorffer" <aneuendor...@comcast.net> wrote
> -----------------------------------------------------------
> Hypsipyle: <<A daughter of Thoas, king of Lemnos. When the women of
Lemnos
> rose up and killed all the men because they had abandoned their true wives
> for captive women, Hypsipyle secretly spared her father and set him afloat
> on the sea in a chest. Hypsipyle was the subject of a play by Euripides,
> lost from the manuscript tradition but fortunately now represented by
> extended passages on papyrus recovered from
> the village dumps of Greco-Roman Egypt.>>
> -----------------------------------------------------------
http://ist-socrates.berkeley.edu/~clscs275/nemeamyth2hyps.htm
In Euripides' Hypsipyle, the heroine is rescued from the wrath of Lykourgos
by her two sons. After the death of Opheltes, Lykourgos was so furious with
Hypsipyle that he contrived a horrible punishment for her: he announced that
the winner of the stadion race at the games would not only receive the
celery crown, but also the right to slay Hypsipyle on the altar of Zeus. The
men who won the race were two mysterious stangers, who turned out to be
Euneos and Thoas, her sons. After a miraculous recognition scene, the
brothers saved Hypsipyle and took her back to Lemnos.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
From: The Juggernaut (ogio...@aol.computer)
Subject: Lost ancient play makes modern debut
Newsgroups: soc.culture.greek
Date: 2002-08-27 15:19:24 PST
As plays go, it took a long time for Hypsipyle to make the modern stage
- some 2,000 years.
The work by Euripides, one of ancient Greece's most famous playwrights,
was lost until fragments of the text resurfaced
in a pile of Egyptian garbage last century.
This summer, spectators were finally be able to see a reconstruction of a
play
whose reputation filtered through the centuries. It has been showing in this
ancient theatre, 175 km southwest of Athens, and in three other cities
around Greece.
Euripides wrote more than 90 plays, including Medea, Electra and Trojan
Women.
But less than two dozen survive in full. One of Euripides' last works before
his death in 406 BC, Hypsipyle falls into the category of an ironic drama.
First performed around 408 BC, Hypsipyle tells the myth of an exiled queen
who is sold into slavery after secretly sparing her father, who was to be
killed along with all the other men on the Greek island of Lemnos.
The island's women murdered their men because they abandoned them
following a curse by the goddess Aphrodite.
As the play opens, Hypsipyle , now a nursemaid on mainland Greece, tells her
tale to the baby she cradles in her arms - the son of the king to whom she
was
sold. During the play, she inadvertently causes the infant's death and has
to
deal with the consequences.
That opening narrative is not only a classic Euripidean device, but it is
also
one of the few complete pieces of Hypsipyle that have been discovered.
"It was not saved in its entirety but in many fragments, a variety that runs
the whole length of the work," according to reconstructor
and translator Tassos Roussos.
Pieces of Hypsipyle were discovered in 1906 among 100,000 pieces of papyrus
found at an ancient garbage dump excavated at Oxyrhynchus, 159 km southwest
of Cairo, according to professor Peter Parsons,
director of Oxford University's Oxyrhynchus Papyri project.
Parsons said the dig recovered mostly Greek texts from an area that was
inhabited in part by Greek settlers for about 1,000 years. About 95 per cent
of Greek literature was permanently lost during the Middle Ages, he said.
"With finds of papyri like these, we actually get back before that time
and pick up works which we knew existed," Parsons added.
He called Hypsipyle one of the most "sensational" works
because of its size, both textual and physical.
"Most often in these rubbish dumps you find a long torn page ... in a bad
state, eaten by worms and so on, but it is a unique manuscript," Parsons
said.
The text of Hypsipyle was copied around the middle of the second
century AD onto the back of an "account of receipt and expenditure"
dating to the first century AD, Parsons said.
While the original text is currently housed at Oxford's Bodleian Library,
the
fragments were published in 1908 and became a source of different scholarly
views, said Roussos, who has translated nearly all of Euripides' work.
Parsons said of the original 1,600-odd lines, 400 complete lines
and "a lot of fragments" were discovered.
Roussos said that left him with "the risk of trying to fill the gaps."
Although
the plot of Hypsipyle is known from mythology, that is not enough.
He based his reconstruction on ancient sources, decades-old studies,
scholars' opinions and his own experience.
"The reconstruction follows, or tried to follow, the spirit of Euripides,"
he said. "Of course, it is not exactly how Euripides wrote it.
I made a suggestion, an interesting one, I think."
His play has already been translated into English by Athan Anagnostopoulos,
and was first presented at Boston's Stuart Street Playhouse in December
during a dramatic reading with costumes.
The Hellenic Festival, an annual series of summer-long theatrical
and musical performances, agreed to stage the play.
"The initiative of the festival was to select an unknown work,
to enrich the repertoire of ancient drama," said Pericles Koukos,
president of the festival's board of directors.
Director Spyros Evangelatos said the play "is not something common,"
and described the premiere as "a strange world first of
a strange work that is presented strangely."
In his direction of the play, Evangelatos said he wanted reminders
of the work's original fragmented nature. He said the ruins
of a palace on the set serve as such a cue.
Leda Tassopoulou, the production's Hypsipyle , has a challenge
of her own: being the first to act a part.
"The responsibility is massive," said Tassopoulou,
who has performed in seven other plays by Euripides.
"Being the first one to create a role gives tremendous freedom
to move as one wants and to put a personal stamp on the part.
But it is a huge responsibility."
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Art Chemoros Neuendorffer
lyra
> Chess One wrote
>
> > Biblically there is a reference to OPHIR, as place name,
> > the source of King Solomon's treasure.
> OPHIR <<(1.) One of the sons of Joktan (Gen. 10:29). (2.) Some region
> famous for its gold (1 Kings 9:28; 10:11; 22:48; Job 22:24; 28:16; Isa.
> 13:12). In the LXX. this word is rendered "SOPHIR," and "Sofir" is the
> Coptic name for India, which is the rendering of the Arabic version, as
> also of the Vulgate. Josephus has identified it with the Golden
> Chersonese, i.e., the Malay peninsula. It is now generally identified
> with Abhira, at the mouth of the Indus. Much may be said, however, in
> favour of the opinion that it was somewhere in Arabia.>>
...........................................................................
> And Hiram sent with the navy his servants, that were
> mariners, and had knowledge of the sea, with the servants of Solomon.
> And they came to OPHIR and set from thence four hundred and twenty
> talents of gold, and brought it to King Solomon.
Thanks, Art and Phil, for some interesting stuff.
It's reminded me again of that nice poem
I used to quote...
"Quinquereme of Nineveh, from distant Ophir,
Rowing home to haven in sunny Palestine..."
and of a book by John Buchan, don't remember which one,
which mentions Ophir, too.
..........................................................................
> > lyra wrote
>
> > > ...Is there a Saint Ophelia?
> > >
> > > This far, I haven't traced her...
>
> Chess One wrote
>
> > There is an Opheltes from Greek mythology [Seven against Thebes]
> > She was daughter to King Lycurgus. OPHELTES is thought
> > to be a form of the familiar infant god of Cretan mythology
> -----------------------------------------------------------
> OPHELTES: <<A SON of Lycurgus, king of Nemea. He was left alone by his
> nurse Hypsipyle, former queen of Lemnos, while she went to get water for
> the Seven against Thebes. While she was gone, OPHELTES was bitten by a
> serpent and died. The Nemean Games were celebrated in his honor.>>
> -----------------------------------------------------------
> The New Century Classical Handbook
> -----------------------------------------------------------
> Hypsipyle: <<A daughter of Thoas, king of Lemnos. When the women of
> Lemnos rose up and killed all the men because they had abandoned their
> true wives for captive women, Hypsipyle secretly spared her father and
> set him afloat on the sea in a chest. Hypsipyle was the subject of a
> play by Euripides, lost from the manuscript tradition but fortunately
> now represented by extended passages on papyrus recovered from the
> village dumps of Greco-Roman Egypt.
.............................................................................
lyra
> From: The Juggernaut
> Subject: Lost ancient play makes modern debut
> Newsgroups: soc.culture.greek
> Date: 2002-08-27 15:19:24 PST
(excerpts)
>
> As plays go, it took a long time for Hypsipyle to make the modern stage
> - some 2,000 years.
>
> The work by Euripides, one of ancient Greece's most famous playwrights,
> was lost until fragments of the text resurfaced
> in a pile of Egyptian garbage last century.
>
> This summer, spectators were finally be able to see a reconstruction of a
> play
> whose reputation filtered through the centuries. It has been showing in this
> ancient theatre, 175 km southwest of Athens, and in three other cities
> around Greece.
>
> Euripides wrote more than 90 plays, including Medea, Electra and Trojan
> Women.
> But less than two dozen survive in full. One of Euripides' last works before
> his death in 406 BC, Hypsipyle falls into the category of an ironic drama.
>
> Parsons said of the original 1,600-odd lines, 400 complete lines
> and "a lot of fragments" were discovered.
..........................................................................
> Director Spyros Evangelatos said the play "is not something common,"
> and described the premiere as
>
> "a strange world first of
> a strange work that is presented strangely."
If only Lord Strange's men could have
played it!
Thanks for finding us this posting, very interesting stuff.
.......................................................................
lyra
> Art Neuendorffer wrote in message news:<PaqdnVwNFfx...@comcast.com>...
>
> > Chess One wrote
> >
> > > Biblically there is a reference to OPHIR, as place name,
> > > the source of King Solomon's treasure.
>
>
> Thanks, Art and Phil, for some interesting stuff.
>
>
> It's reminded me again of that nice poem
> I used to quote...
>
> "Quinquereme of Nineveh, from distant Ophir,
> Rowing home to haven in sunny Palestine..."
>
> and of a book by John Buchan, don't remember which one,
> which mentions Ophir, too.
It seems to be
The Island of Sheep...
(quote Google search)
gutenberg.net.au/ebooks03/0301551.txt - 101k -
A Project Gutenberg of Australia eBook Title: The Island of Sheep ...
<http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks03/0301551.txt>
>
> ..........................................................................
lyra
> Art Neuendorffer wrote in message news:<67GdnTL9N9U...@comcast.com>...
>
> > From: The Juggernaut
> > Subject: Lost ancient play makes modern debut
> > Newsgroups: soc.culture.greek
> > Date: 2002-08-27 15:19:24 PST
>
> (excerpts)
> >
> > As plays go, it took a long time for Hypsipyle to make the modern stage
> > - some 2,000 years.
> >
> > The work by Euripides, one of ancient Greece's most famous playwrights,
> > was lost until fragments of the text resurfaced
> > in a pile of Egyptian garbage last century.
> >
> > This summer, spectators were finally be able to see a reconstruction of a
> > play
> > whose reputation filtered through the centuries. It has been showing in this
> > ancient theatre, 175 km southwest of Athens, and in three other cities
> > around Greece.
The Grafton "Shakespeare" (anagram)
P.S. ...O Greek theatre/theater
has fan!
...............................................................................
> > Euripides wrote more than 90 plays, including Medea, Electra and Trojan
> > Women.
> > But less than two dozen survive in full. One of Euripides' last works before
> > his death in 406 BC, Hypsipyle falls into the category of an ironic drama.
> >
> > Parsons said of the original 1,600-odd lines, 400 complete lines
> > and "a lot of fragments" were discovered.
>
> ..........................................................................
>
> > Director Spyros Evangelatos said the play "is not something common,"
> > and described the premiere as
> >
> > "a strange world first of
> > a strange work that is presented strangely."
>
>
> If only Lord Strange's men could have
> played it!
>
>
> Thanks for finding us this posting, very interesting stuff.
>
> .......................................................................
>
>