To Die Twice
Find Him Worthy
O Earth, give back the men whose glory flowed So natural like water from the spring No costume for the sunken chested bowed An echo of the truly living thing Why do you hoard within your breast the bones Of better men that tried and failed to teach Or is this how you try to test our souls By dangling mysteries forever out of reach? As shadows in these maladapted times It may be best to know them by this art To see our heroes come to life again May spoil the image held within our heart The stories and songs we’re left with must suffice That these old bones are never to die twice
- Alexander
Another good post.
I think about this often, how my barbaric ancestors brought empires to their knees. What would they think of me? There are certainly things I like about this world; modern medicine, electricity, and the internet. Things they would have found magical. But they've made us too tame, too docile in many ways. I often wish there was a sort of middle-ground, where we could hold onto the savage wildness of our predecessors while still existing in a world that has such things as pharmacies.
Per books on Greek history, have you read “Gates Of Fire” by Steven Pressfield? The book recounts the Battle of Thermopylae through Xeones, a perioikos (free but non-citizen inhabitant of Sparta) born in Astakos, and one of only three Greek survivors of the battle. It is taught at West Point, the United States Naval Academy, and at the Marine Corps The Basic School. I heard it was really good.