Affair of the Hermae

[Rosalinda]

The History of the Peloponnesian War by the Greek Historian Thucydides,
contains an account of the mysterious destruction of stone monuments
in Athens at just the time that the fateful decision was being taken to
launch what would prove to be a disasterous military expedition against Sicily.

In the midst of these preparations all the stone Hermae in the city of Athens, that is to say the customary square figures, so common in the doorways of private houses and temples, had in one night most of them their faces mutilated. No one knew who had done it, but large public rewards were offered to find the authors; and it was further voted that any one who knew of any other act of impiety having been committed should come and give information without fear of consequences, whether he were citizen, alien, or slave. The matter was taken up the more seriously, as it was thought to be ominous for the expedition, and part of a conspiracy to bring about a revolution and to upset the democracy.

Information was given accordingly by some resident aliens and body servants, not about the Hermae but about some previous mutilations of other images perpetrated by young men in a drunken frolic, and of mock celebrations of the mysteries, averred to take place in private houses. Alcibiades being implicated in this charge, it was taken hold of by those who could least endure him, because he stood in the way of their obtaining the undisturbed direction of the people, and who thought that if he were once removed the first place would be theirs. These accordingly magnified the matter and loudly proclaimed that the affair of the mysteries and the mutilation of the Hermae were part and parcel of a scheme to overthrow the democracy, and that nothing of all this had been done without Alcibiades; the proofs alleged being the general and undemocratic licence of his life and habits

The Athenian expedition against Syracuse in Sicily met with disaster
and led to the eventual defeat of Athens. The key moment
when the decision was taken, featured the destruction
of sacred monuments in Athens
and the wide-spread suspicion
that this act was a plot of the local oligarchs.

[Rosalinda]

The mysterious overnight destruction of the sacred monuments in Athens,
as a feature of the launching of an expedition leading to a military debacle in a remote war theater
- a war that Athens had no reason to fight and a war that destroyed Athens -
Could these historical occurances in some remote way be related
to the destruction of the twin towers in New York
and the launching of ill-fated military expeditions to Eurasia?

[Robert]

[Rosalinda]

According to Thucydides' account, the Athenians ill-fated military expedition
to Sicily that resulted in anihilation of their substantial expeditionary forces,
was the result of careless overreaching and not knowing what is good enough

The mysterious overnight destruction of the sacred monuments in Athens
that accompanied the decision by the Athenian democracy to attack Sicily
seems somehow eerily to resemble the attacks on the World Trade Towers

[Hocus Locus]

Excellently deduced.

Though I agree the Greeks have much more to teach us in this regard... I offer a modern (yet somehow ancient) contemplative counterpoint, ingrained in my own psyche (good or evil, it is there).


'Stand, Men of the West! Stand and wait! This is the hour of doom.'

And even as he spoke the earth rocked beneath their feet. Then rising swiftly up, far above the Towers of the Black Gate, high above the mountains, a vast soaring darkness sprang into the sky, flickering with fire. The earth groaned and quaked.

The Towers of the Teeth swayed, tottered, and fell down; the mighty rampart crumbled; the Black Gate was hurled in ruin; and from far away, now dim, now growing, now mounting to the clouds, there came a drumming rumble, a roar, a long echoing roll of ruinous noise.

The Teeth of Mordor, two towers strong and tall. In days long past they were built by the Men of Gondor in their pride and power, after the overthrow of Sauron and his flight, lest he should seek to return to his old realm. But the strength of Gondor failed, and men slept, and for long years the towers stood empty. Then Sauron returned. Now the watch-towers, which had fallen into decay, were repaired, and filled with arms, and garrisoned with ceaseless vigilance. Stony-faced they were, with dark window-holes staring north and east and west, and each window was full of sleepless eyes.

~J.R.R. Tolkien: Rings III, II

__
Music for contemplation of evil: Dimitri Shostakovich: Symphony No. 11, The Year 1905, Op. 103 (c.1957)

[Hocus Locus]

"...and that nothing of all this had been done without Alcibiades; the proofs alleged being the general and undemocratic licence of his life and habits..."

"But the strength of Gondor failed, and men slept, and for long years the towers stood empty."

"...everything should be dealt with intelligently and with openness... and to try, while using all these things, to 'shake up' these rigid societies. To awaken them. Tell them, "Wake up, wake up! There is a world around you. Something is happening on the world. You're still sleeping. Wake up! This is the message of Al-Jazeera."
~Samir Khader, Senior Producer, Al-Jazeera

A thread runs through these -- what is done while there is sleep -- a sleep of mesmirism of the kind people are lulled into even as they are awake. This is not by any means a sleep of insensitivity, it is one of complacent indifference with an implicit warning of sadness and regret, should one awaken too late, a warning to ones who should have known better.

In English I do not think there is any single word that emcompassess the breadth of this emotive idea: the closest one I can think of, in any language... 'sueño', which seems to something along these lines. In songs of love, and more...


El Sueño de la Razon Produce Monstruos
The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters
Francisco Jose de Goya y Lucientes: Los Caprichos, c.1803

__
An American song of sueño todo: Stevie Wonder: Songs in the Key of Life, Pastime Paradise

[Hocus Locus]

[Continuity]

[Rosalinda]

Soñar es crear el mundo; deshacerlo y crearlo en una lancha de vision desmedida...

Pero, soñar no es nada mas crear mundos, soñar es poder olvidarlos en un momento.

[Rosalinda]

Yearning for "the Gold Standard" i.e that precious metals be the basis
for the issuance of currency, is frequently heard in the internet forums.

For an examination of this particular psychops it is necessary to go back
to the 1930s when the United States was teetering on the edge of going
fascist with the Smedley Butler coup, only the tip of the iceberg of this....
Then, you have to go back at least and look at the populist movements
in the 19th Century United States calling for a Silver Standard economy.

What is the authority of the "Gold Standard" proposal? U:S:A: history
read it: mining and international financial interests made this psychops

very broad brush sketch in these lines - those are the investigative leads.
we can open a topic if someone is interested in a respectful socratic dialog

As such, the Gold Standard ops is interesting and perhaps useful to the 911 investigation.

p.s. the internet postingboard is such a sensitive medium; of course I am not - NOT - disparaging any other poster; i have high regard for those who have posted in this thread. i am not interested in your person or what you believe or whether you really believe it; i am not interested in you at all! and i invite you to not be interested in me. Lets follow the evidence where it leads. If an idea strikes one as wrong-headed; then the posting of some better ideas would be in order. Under no circumstances are ad hominems useful, even if they are not attacks.

[Rosalinda]

A suggestion was made that the
momentous collapse of the Athenian empire must have been caused by
the issuance of what is commonly referred to on the internet as "fiat money"

Here is a most interesting account by the Greek historian Thucydides who was an
Athenian general and contemporary to the 27-year Peloponnesian War he recounts.

While the Peloponnesians were still mustering at the Isthmus, or on the march before they invaded Attica, Pericles, son of Xanthippus, one of the ten generals of the Athenians, finding that the invasion was to take place, conceived the idea that Archidamus, who happened to be his friend, might possibly pass by his estate without ravaging it. This he might do, either from a personal wish to oblige him, or acting under instructions from Lacedaemon for the purpose of creating a prejudice against him, as had been before attempted in the demand for the expulsion of the accursed family. He accordingly took the precaution of announcing to the Athenians in the assembly that, although Archidamus was his friend, yet this friendship should not extend to the detriment of the state, and that in case the enemy should make his houses and lands an exception to the rest and not pillage them, he at once gave them up to be public property, so that they should not bring him into suspicion. He also gave the citizens some advice on their present affairs in the same strain as before. They were to prepare for the war, and to carry in their property from the country. They were not to go out to battle, but to come into the city and guard it, and get ready their fleet, in which their real strength lay. They were also to keep a tight rein on their allies- the strength of Athens being derived from the money brought in by their payments, and success in war depending principally upon conduct and capital. had no reason to despond. *Apart from other sources of income, an average revenue of six hundred talents of silver was drawn from the tribute of the allies; and there were still six thousand talents of coined silver in the Acropolis, out of nine thousand seven hundred that had once been there, from which the money had been taken for the porch of the Acropolis, the other public buildings, and for Potidaea. This did not include the uncoined gold and silver in public and private offerings, the sacred vessels for the processions and games, the Median spoils, and similar resources to the amount of five hundred talents. To this he added the treasures of the other temples. These were by no means inconsiderable, and might fairly be used. Nay, if they were ever absolutely driven to it, they might take even the gold ornaments of Athene herself; for the statue contained forty talents of pure gold and it was all removable. This might be used for self-preservation, and must every penny of it be restored. Such was their financial position- surely a satisfactory one.* Then they had an army of thirteen thousand heavy infantry, besides sixteen thousand more in the garrisons and on home duty at Athens. This was at first the number of men on guard in the event of an invasion: it was composed of the oldest and youngest levies and the resident aliens who had heavy armour. The Phaleric wall ran for four miles, before it joined that round the city; and of this last nearly five had a guard, although part of it was left without one, viz., that between the Long Wall and the Phaleric. Then there were the Long Walls to Piraeus, a distance of some four miles and a half, the outer of which was manned. Lastly, the circumference of Piraeus with Munychia was nearly seven miles and a half; only half of this, however, was guarded. Pericles also showed them that they had twelve hundred horse including mounted archers, with sixteen hundred archers unmounted, and three hundred galleys fit for service. Such were the resources of Athens in the different departments when the Peloponnesian invasion was impending and hostilities were being commenced. Pericles also urged his usual arguments for expecting a favourable issue to the war.

************************************************************

[Hocus Locus]

If I am correct to say we are gathered here as ones who have witnessed destruction of the Hermae, we are not the young men in drunken frolic so accused, and finally, are not entirely supportive of the old men in drunken frolic who have assured us they will be continuing their campaign of delivering 'democracy air-drops'...

On one episode of the TV comedy 'WKRP in Cincinati" the station stages a promotion for Thanksgiving holiday, a plan which they carry out with complete success -- but (to their astonishment and dismay) -- all does not turn out well at all. The plan was to drop live turkeys from a hovering helicopter ... but no one realized that turkeys cannot fly. Despite this, to be fair -- the idea seemed to be a good one.

All who staged the event, one might say, were just doing their very best.

Especially the turkeys: they were trying hardest of all.

All that glitters is not oil. Or even gold...

[Rosalinda]

In the midst of these preparations (for the disastrous military expedition against Syracuse) all the stone Hermae in the city of Athens, that is to say the customary square figures, so common in the doorways of private houses and temples, had in one night most of them their faces mutilated. No one knew who had done it, but large public rewards were offered to find the authors; and it was further voted that any one who knew of any other act of impiety having been committed should come and give information without fear of consequences, whether he were citizen, alien, or slave. The matter was taken up the more seriously, as it was thought to be ominous for the expedition, and part of a conspiracy to bring about a revolution and to upset the democracy.

[Rosalinda]

The destruction of the sacred stone monuments one night in the Athens
of Pericles caused a huge scandal that went on for years
and some leading citizens ended up being executed in connection with this affair
which involved a leading general of the athenians,
champion of chariot racing events,
a super-rich playboy by name of Alciabides
who eventually leads the athenian navy and army to a great defeat
in the bay outside Syracuse in Sicily.

The Hermae were destroyed and nobody knew by who or for what reason,
although (according to Thucydides) it was widely suspected to be connected in some way
to some threat against the Athenian democracy on the part of some local oligarchs

(this is according to Thucydides' account
- he was a contemporary and an athenian general himself
and nobody to my knowledge has ever accused Thucydides of kidding around).

The scandal immediately got mixed into revelations
which Thucdides says were unrelated to de destruction of the hermae
but had a certain point of similarity, i.e. it seems some hermae
had previously been defaced by decadent athenian aristocrats
indulging in profane ceremonies in one of their let it hang out wine parties
So this sex scandal - i guess it would be today - was mixed up
with the defacing and destruction of the Hermae which greatly distrubed
the people of Athens at that time, just when the great army and navy
they had assempled were getting ready to sail off to subdue Sicily
- a vain and useless operation if there ever was one,
becasue Sicily was far away and Sicily was not giving them any trouble.
Alciabides and his crowd promoted the project for vainglorious purposes
the athenian democracy was thus duped into a fatal course of action.

OK folks. The enduring mystery of the destruction of sacred monuments

in Athens (to this day we do NOT know who destroyed them, or why.) and

we have a play boy aristrocrat who invades a distant place at the apex

of imperial power, and then there is the profanation of the sacred rites of

Demeter sex scandal. To know what is going to happen, read Thucidides.

Or If you desire a crystal ball to see the future, you may read it in Herodotus.

[Rosalinda]

The Athenians were doing extremely well after the previous generation had

beat Xerxes' huge invasion army by winning the critical Salamis sea battle;

the Athenian democracy went imperial and extended its democratic style

to its colonial satrapies on the Greek penininsula and in coastal West Asia.

But Athens with its wealth and cultural predominance went down the tubes.

Everything one needs to know about 911 can be read in Thucidides' history.

How did democracy lend itself to the taking of key disasterous decisions?

especially notable in this regard the decision to invase Syracuse of Sicily.

HOW was the Athenian body politic engaged in this dangerous process?

Think of today's cosmoplitans whose intellectual life and political opinions

are similar to that of living dead. Who are commenting on their dreams!

The sleepers, the eternal sleepers commenting on their dreams: Democracy.

You get a mass of the population to listen to the latest interpretation

from the Babbling Bitch at the tomb of Python, the snake-god, and then

you have a Delphic priest, the priest of Delphi at the other end of the room

interpreting the bullshit coming out of this mouth of this idiot, sitting by

a tripod and pulling balls out of the thing and reciting meaningless poetry.

And that is what is done to this population! That was done to ancient Greece:

The interpretation of unreality. When the interpretation of unreality

determines ones action, one is alienated from real life and real issues.

Dont wonder, human beings, what is really going on in a time to get real.