Stibnium - Splendor Noctis

You with your precious eyes —

The gods differ from mortals here not because they are above the law but because they possess the insight to avoid breaking it. This marks the difference between gods and mortals perhaps more deeply than death itself: the gods never find themselves in the position of Oedipus, suddenly and unimaginably guilty. They are able to avoid actions whose consequences they cannot control; mortals risk such consequences in their every action. And perhaps it is even a kindness that transgression and death go hand in hand, that those who cannot die need not sin: for one who has broken the law which even the gods fear, the best thing is to die quickly.

-incest, cannibalism, and the rise of the house of atreus, michael kinnucan

So the ubiquitous counsel of the chorus concerning the hero—look what fortune has done here, she used to be on top of the world, don’t count on happiness, don’t believe anyone happy until he is dead—says more than it seems to. In the last analysis, what can one say of mere mortals? A human is just too partial, too speckled and subject and already-half-gone, for anything to be really true or false of him. Is he happy, is she sad? Maybe, a bit, for a time, but really—who can say, who can even care? That’s how it is for humans, unless and until they are tragic. The tragic hero is complete. You can call him unhappy (miserable, utterly broken) even before he is dead. For an instant he is something like divine. And then he dies, because there’s nothing left to do. The center of every tragedy is the image of a human being who has already died but keeps talking, someone whose face is a mask. Antigone says this explicitly—she is already dead; Oedipus acts it out in gouging out his eyes.

-the gods show up, michael kinnucan

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Joyeux 14 juillet ! Look who I found…..

Mary Oliver, from “Hum Hum”, A Thousand Mornings

there is love in this story. even in its most brutal end. there is love in the story. how? where? here: here in me telling it to you, in spite of everything. because of everything.

Aradia is a figure in the italian practice of witchcraft called Stregheria. Aradia is the daughter of Diana, the goddess of the moon, her origins varying between one of a messiah figure for witches and one as a spirit condemned to wander the sky forever.

talleyrand: i HATE you

fouche: i share the same sentiment

napoleon, in the distance, thinking to himself: ** those two scoundrels sure do hate each other. i’m glad they are too petty to put down their differences to work against m-

*fouche and talleyrand notice napoleon and put down their differences to work against napoleon*

napoleon: are you FUCKING kidding me

i must not afternoon nap. afternoon nap is the mind-killer. afternoon nap is the little death that brings total obliteration. i will face my afternoon sleepy tired and permit it to pass over and through me. and when it has gone i will turn the inner eye to see its path. where the afternoon sleepy tired has gone there will be nothing. only i will remain

meditations on the odyssey

• Waistcoats.

Date: 1840's

Medium: Silk and velvet

The World of Interiors, June 1990. Photo - Jean-Bernard Naudin