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Οι γάμοι του Κάδμου και της Αρμονίας
Στους γάμους του Κάδμου και της Αρμονίας ήταν η τελευταία φορά όπου, με την ευκαιρία εκείνης της γιορτής, οι θεοί του Ολύμπου κάθισαν στο ίδιο τραπέζι με τους θνητούς. Όσα συνέβησαν πριν, στη διάρκεια πολλών αιώνων, και μετά, στη διάρκεια λίγων γενεών, διαμορφώνουν το τεράστιο και πολύφυλλο δέντρο της ελληνικής μυθολογίας, με εκείνες τις εκπληκτικές ιστορίες «που δεν συνέβησαν ποτέ, αλλά ανέκαθεν υπήρχαν». Κι επειδή ο καλύτερος τρόπος για να αναλογιστεί κανείς τους μύθους είναι να τους διηγηθεί, ο Ρομπέρτο Καλάσο, σ' αυτό το βιβλίο του που έχει μεταφραστεί σε όλο τον κόσμο, αφηγείται τις αρχαιοελληνικές ιστορίες από την αρχή, με τον δικό του τρόπο. Και βάζει τα ερωτήματά του: Γιατί οι θεοί του Ολύμπου πήραν ανθρώπινη μορφή και γιατί τη συγκεκριμένη μορφή; Γιατί οι ιστορίες τους είναι τόσο σκανδαλώδεις και τόσο σαγηνευτικές; Γιατί η εποχή των ηρώων ήταν τόσο σύντομη, ταραχώδης και ανεπανάληπτη; Και γιατί μας μαγεύουν ακόμη;
416 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1988
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About the author
Roberto Calasso
66 books677 followersRoberto Calasso (1941 – 2021) was an Italian writer and publisher.
Calasso was born in Florence in 1941, into a family of the Tuscan upper class, well connected with some of the great Italian intellectuals of their time.
Calasso worked for the publishing firm of Adelphi Edizioni since its founding by Roberto Bazlen in 1962 and became its Chairman in 1999. In 2015, he bought out the company to prevent it from being acquired by a larger publishing firm. His books have been translated into more than 20 languages.
He was the author of an unnamed ongoing work reflecting on the culture of modernity, which began with The Ruin of Kasch in 1983, a book admired by Italo Calvino. Dedicated to the French statesman Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord or, Talleyrand, it was followed in 1988 by The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony, in which the tale of Cadmus and his wife Harmonia becomes a pretext for re-telling the great tales of Greek mythology and reflecting on the reception of Greek culture for a contemporary readership. Another world civilization is surveyed in Ka (1996, where the subject of the re-telling is Hindu mythology). K restricts the focus to a single author, Franz Kafka; this trend continues with Il rosa Tiepolo (Tiepolo Pink), inspired by an adjective used by Marcel Proust to describe a shade of pink used by Venetian artist Giambattista Tiepolo in his paintings. With La folie Baudelaire, Calasso once more broadens his scope from fresco to a whole civilisation, that of Paris in the latter half of the 19th century, reconsidering the lives and works of the post-romantic generation of writers and artists from Baudelaire to Valéry. In one of his more recent works, Ardore (2010), the author returns to India for an exhaustive analysis of the theory and practice of Vedic sacrifice and its significance for post-modern epistemology.
Along with his status as a major analyst specifically of the works of Kafka, Calasso was, more broadly, active in many essays in retrieving and re-invigorating the notion of a Central European literary culture. He also served as the president of the International Alexander Lernet-Holenia Society, which promotes the publication, translation and study of this multi-genre Austrian writer and his focus on the identity crisis of his characters at odds with postimperial Austria and Central Europe.
Calasso was born in Florence in 1941, into a family of the Tuscan upper class, well connected with some of the great Italian intellectuals of their time.
Calasso worked for the publishing firm of Adelphi Edizioni since its founding by Roberto Bazlen in 1962 and became its Chairman in 1999. In 2015, he bought out the company to prevent it from being acquired by a larger publishing firm. His books have been translated into more than 20 languages.
He was the author of an unnamed ongoing work reflecting on the culture of modernity, which began with The Ruin of Kasch in 1983, a book admired by Italo Calvino. Dedicated to the French statesman Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord or, Talleyrand, it was followed in 1988 by The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony, in which the tale of Cadmus and his wife Harmonia becomes a pretext for re-telling the great tales of Greek mythology and reflecting on the reception of Greek culture for a contemporary readership. Another world civilization is surveyed in Ka (1996, where the subject of the re-telling is Hindu mythology). K restricts the focus to a single author, Franz Kafka; this trend continues with Il rosa Tiepolo (Tiepolo Pink), inspired by an adjective used by Marcel Proust to describe a shade of pink used by Venetian artist Giambattista Tiepolo in his paintings. With La folie Baudelaire, Calasso once more broadens his scope from fresco to a whole civilisation, that of Paris in the latter half of the 19th century, reconsidering the lives and works of the post-romantic generation of writers and artists from Baudelaire to Valéry. In one of his more recent works, Ardore (2010), the author returns to India for an exhaustive analysis of the theory and practice of Vedic sacrifice and its significance for post-modern epistemology.
Along with his status as a major analyst specifically of the works of Kafka, Calasso was, more broadly, active in many essays in retrieving and re-invigorating the notion of a Central European literary culture. He also served as the president of the International Alexander Lernet-Holenia Society, which promotes the publication, translation and study of this multi-genre Austrian writer and his focus on the identity crisis of his characters at odds with postimperial Austria and Central Europe.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 366 reviews
April 1, 2010
The most profound books that I have ever read have left me speechless, even stammering. Such is the case with Roberto Calasso's The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony, which I have put down no more than fifteen minutes ago. Here is a book about why myths exist, and why Ancient Greece continues to have such a hold on the Western mind.
One of my strange little reading habits is, for each year, to choose a theme that will guide much of my reading for the year. For 2010, I am delving into Ancient Greece, reading works of archeology, history, philosophy, and anything else pertaining to the world which Homer invented and which the Romans captured, embalmed, and imitated for the next thousand or so years.
The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony, which I started as an afterthought, suddenly appears as the centerpiece of my reading so far. Calasso sees this strange world, bathed in Olympian light, in which the gods and men had frequent intercourse (on every level), as something unique, even privileged:
Most of the book is a retelling of the Greek myths through the canny, penetrating eyes of the author, who demonstrates its power while himself awing us, the readers. This is a great book which I hope to read again. I only wish the publishers had seen fit to provide a detailed index—because this book is a keeper!
One of my strange little reading habits is, for each year, to choose a theme that will guide much of my reading for the year. For 2010, I am delving into Ancient Greece, reading works of archeology, history, philosophy, and anything else pertaining to the world which Homer invented and which the Romans captured, embalmed, and imitated for the next thousand or so years.
The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony, which I started as an afterthought, suddenly appears as the centerpiece of my reading so far. Calasso sees this strange world, bathed in Olympian light, in which the gods and men had frequent intercourse (on every level), as something unique, even privileged:
It was precisely because the Greeks had reduced the difference between gods and men to a minimum that they measured the distance still separating them with such cruel precision: an infinite, unbridgeable distance. And never has that distance been so sharply defined as by the Greeks themselves. No mist hovered about the approaches to death. It was an abyss with razor edges, never crossed. Hence the Greeks were well aware of the powerlessness of their sacrifices. Every ceremony in which a living being was killed was a way of recalling the mortality of all the participants. And the smoke they dedicated to the gods was certainly no use to the divinities as food. The only things the gods ever ate were nectar and ambrosia. No, that smell of blood and smoke was a message from earth, a pointless gift, reminding the Olympians of the consciously precarious existence of all those distant inhabitants of earth, who in every other way were equal to the gods. And what the gods loved about men was precisely this difference, this precariousness, which they themselves could relish only through men. It was a flavor they could never get from ambrosia or nectar. That was why they would sometimes abandon themselves to inhaling the smoke of sacrifice, breath of that other life which enjoyed the precious privilege of stirring the air of Olympus.
Most of the book is a retelling of the Greek myths through the canny, penetrating eyes of the author, who demonstrates its power while himself awing us, the readers. This is a great book which I hope to read again. I only wish the publishers had seen fit to provide a detailed index—because this book is a keeper!
June 24, 2017
Zeus is never ridiculous. Because his dignity is of no concern to him.
"Non bene convemunt nee in una sede morantur / Maiestas et amor," says Ovid
Any sane reader would find this book ridiculous at least in parts, but that doesn’t concern Calasso, for his subject is Zeus and Zeus is never ridiculous.
The mythographer lives in a permanent state of chronological vertigo, which he pretends to want to resolve. But while on the one table he puts generations and dynasties in order, like some old butler who knows the family history better than his masters, you can be sure that on another table the muddle is getting worse and the threads ever more entangled. No mythographer has ever managed to put his material together in a consistent sequence, yet all set out to impose order. In this, they have been faithful to the myth.
The mythical gesture is a wave which, as it breaks, assumes a shape, the way dice form a number when we toss them. But, as the wave withdraws, the unvanquished complications swell in the undertow, and likewise the muddle and the disorder from which the next mythical gesture will be formed. So myth allows of no system.
The whole book by this modern Ovid is a testament to this. It is fun, but it is labyrinthine and the amount of erudition assumed by the author of the reader is thoroughly intimidating. Through its pages we see a glorious world dawning and then falling away, and our mythographer working furiously to extract meaning from it all, in his exertions confusing both us and himself, and reveling in the confusion.
But if we persist, by the end of it we would have witnessed Cadmus the Phoenician sow the beginning of stories across Greece. And the stories, carefully harvested by Calasso, teach us the same thing that his life taught him: Inviting the gods into our lives ruins our relationship with them but sets history in motion. A life in which the gods are not invited isn't worth living. It will be quieter, but there won't be any stories.
"Non bene convemunt nee in una sede morantur / Maiestas et amor," says Ovid
Any sane reader would find this book ridiculous at least in parts, but that doesn’t concern Calasso, for his subject is Zeus and Zeus is never ridiculous.
The mythographer lives in a permanent state of chronological vertigo, which he pretends to want to resolve. But while on the one table he puts generations and dynasties in order, like some old butler who knows the family history better than his masters, you can be sure that on another table the muddle is getting worse and the threads ever more entangled. No mythographer has ever managed to put his material together in a consistent sequence, yet all set out to impose order. In this, they have been faithful to the myth.
The mythical gesture is a wave which, as it breaks, assumes a shape, the way dice form a number when we toss them. But, as the wave withdraws, the unvanquished complications swell in the undertow, and likewise the muddle and the disorder from which the next mythical gesture will be formed. So myth allows of no system.
The whole book by this modern Ovid is a testament to this. It is fun, but it is labyrinthine and the amount of erudition assumed by the author of the reader is thoroughly intimidating. Through its pages we see a glorious world dawning and then falling away, and our mythographer working furiously to extract meaning from it all, in his exertions confusing both us and himself, and reveling in the confusion.
But if we persist, by the end of it we would have witnessed Cadmus the Phoenician sow the beginning of stories across Greece. And the stories, carefully harvested by Calasso, teach us the same thing that his life taught him: Inviting the gods into our lives ruins our relationship with them but sets history in motion. A life in which the gods are not invited isn't worth living. It will be quieter, but there won't be any stories.
July 8, 2024
I've read this book cover to cover 3 times since I bought it in 1993. It's the best book I've ever read on Greek mythology.
Actually, it's more of an extended (and unfailingly brilliant) meditation on Greek mythology, rather than a summary or "explanation." Calasso is some kind of genius: he's not only read everything, he's thought about it, flipped it backwards and forwards and tilted it sideways in his mind, then filtered whatever he's talking about through a sophisticated prism. The result is pure delight for his readers.
Here's a sample, plucked almost at random:
"In the long history of divinities, the inhabitants of Olympus were the first who wished to be perfect rather than powerful. Like an obsidian blade, the aesthetic for the first time cut away all ties, connections, devotions. What remained was a group of figures, isolated in the air, complete, initiated, perfect..." (p. 90)
Several other excellent books by Calasso have been translated from Italian. If you haven't read him before, I'd also recommend either Literature & the Gods or his recent book on Kafka, K.
Actually, it's more of an extended (and unfailingly brilliant) meditation on Greek mythology, rather than a summary or "explanation." Calasso is some kind of genius: he's not only read everything, he's thought about it, flipped it backwards and forwards and tilted it sideways in his mind, then filtered whatever he's talking about through a sophisticated prism. The result is pure delight for his readers.
Here's a sample, plucked almost at random:
"In the long history of divinities, the inhabitants of Olympus were the first who wished to be perfect rather than powerful. Like an obsidian blade, the aesthetic for the first time cut away all ties, connections, devotions. What remained was a group of figures, isolated in the air, complete, initiated, perfect..." (p. 90)
Several other excellent books by Calasso have been translated from Italian. If you haven't read him before, I'd also recommend either Literature & the Gods or his recent book on Kafka, K.
July 31, 2021
” Ma com'era cominciato tutto?
Se si vuole storia, è storia della discordia.
E la discordia nasce dal ratto di una fanciulla, o dal sacrificio di una fanciulla.
E l'uno trapassa continuamente nell'altro. “
Si comincia da un ratto, un rapimento:
Europa rapita da un toro emerso dal mare.
Un destino tutto al femminile che la disegna passiva ed arrendevole di fronte al prossimo stupro perché questo è il volere divino.
Calasso ci ri-racconta il mito con riflessioni semantiche che collegano e inanellano le storie tramandate.
Un’opera non di facile lettura per chi non ha già navigato un po’ in profondità nelle acque mitologiche.
Il rischio di affogare è continuo e non solo per la miriade infinita di nomi e luoghi ma anche per la struttura stessa del libro che sarebbe stato più accogliente ed agevole se organizzata in capitoli titolati (ad esempio) o se ci fosse stata una prefazione a fare da guida.
Almeno così è stato per me.
Interessanti le considerazioni sui rapporti tra il divino e l’umano ma vanno estrapolate dal flusso che narra il mito come un fiume in piena.
” Tornando alle età anteriori: c'è un tempo in cui gli dèi siedono accanto ai mortali, in un banchetto come quello per le nozze di Cadmo e Armonia a Tebe. Dèi e uomini si riconoscono subito, talvolta hanno vissuto insieme certe avventure, come appunto Zeus e Cadmo, e in quel caso è stato l'uomo a dare un aiuto prezioso al dio. Non si disputano le parti del cosmo, che sono già assegnate, si riuniscono soltanto per una festa comune, e tornano infine ai loro affari.”
Molto bella l’idea circolare:
si comincia con il ratto di Europa e si conclude raccontando come Cadmo, suo fratello, cercandola, disperato, troverà, invece, Armonia e fonderà Tebe.
“Appena lo si afferra, il mito si espande in un ventaglio dai molti spicchi.
Qui la variante è l'origine.
Ogni atto avvenne in questo modo, oppure in quest'altro, oppure in quest'altro.
E in ciascuna di tali storie divergenti si riflettono le altre, tutte ci sfiorano come lembi della stessa stoffa. Se, per un capriccio della tradizione, di un fatto mitico ci rimane una versione sola, è un corpo senz'ombra e dobbiamo esercitarci a disegnare mentalmente la sua ombra invisibile. “
Se si vuole storia, è storia della discordia.
E la discordia nasce dal ratto di una fanciulla, o dal sacrificio di una fanciulla.
E l'uno trapassa continuamente nell'altro. “
Si comincia da un ratto, un rapimento:
Europa rapita da un toro emerso dal mare.
Un destino tutto al femminile che la disegna passiva ed arrendevole di fronte al prossimo stupro perché questo è il volere divino.
Calasso ci ri-racconta il mito con riflessioni semantiche che collegano e inanellano le storie tramandate.
Un’opera non di facile lettura per chi non ha già navigato un po’ in profondità nelle acque mitologiche.
Il rischio di affogare è continuo e non solo per la miriade infinita di nomi e luoghi ma anche per la struttura stessa del libro che sarebbe stato più accogliente ed agevole se organizzata in capitoli titolati (ad esempio) o se ci fosse stata una prefazione a fare da guida.
Almeno così è stato per me.
Interessanti le considerazioni sui rapporti tra il divino e l’umano ma vanno estrapolate dal flusso che narra il mito come un fiume in piena.
” Tornando alle età anteriori: c'è un tempo in cui gli dèi siedono accanto ai mortali, in un banchetto come quello per le nozze di Cadmo e Armonia a Tebe. Dèi e uomini si riconoscono subito, talvolta hanno vissuto insieme certe avventure, come appunto Zeus e Cadmo, e in quel caso è stato l'uomo a dare un aiuto prezioso al dio. Non si disputano le parti del cosmo, che sono già assegnate, si riuniscono soltanto per una festa comune, e tornano infine ai loro affari.”
Molto bella l’idea circolare:
si comincia con il ratto di Europa e si conclude raccontando come Cadmo, suo fratello, cercandola, disperato, troverà, invece, Armonia e fonderà Tebe.
“Appena lo si afferra, il mito si espande in un ventaglio dai molti spicchi.
Qui la variante è l'origine.
Ogni atto avvenne in questo modo, oppure in quest'altro, oppure in quest'altro.
E in ciascuna di tali storie divergenti si riflettono le altre, tutte ci sfiorano come lembi della stessa stoffa. Se, per un capriccio della tradizione, di un fatto mitico ci rimane una versione sola, è un corpo senz'ombra e dobbiamo esercitarci a disegnare mentalmente la sua ombra invisibile. “
February 14, 2023
4.5
I only had one random ass thought that made me make sense of this meandering, chaotic, brilliant book: language was given to us when the gods finally withdrew from the world; when the full presence withdrew, literature ushered in. We could make music from Zeus' sinews, which Cadmus could only pretend to do; still caught up as he was in the gods' earth-shattering immediate forms. The speaking silence was etched into a model to wean us off of the golden womb of a god's immediacy. Truly, only matricide could've been the origin of thought. I think Calasso was trying to pierce through the veil of this speaking silence and plunge himself, alongwith us, into the clashing swells of primal forces at war. To see, to understand, to extract the kernel, to get a taste, just a little bit of blood: which of our sinews are connected to the radical inhumanity of our primordial past still? How does it still breathe in us? Who the fuck are we?
Truly as complex and borderline unreadable as everyone warned me he was going to be. Loved every bit of this book, even the boring ones. This is the first Calasso I read and it goes without saying that I will now be reading every single book he ever wrote.
Also, I just discovered that he was Fleur Jaeggy's husband, WHAATT!!??
I only had one random ass thought that made me make sense of this meandering, chaotic, brilliant book: language was given to us when the gods finally withdrew from the world; when the full presence withdrew, literature ushered in. We could make music from Zeus' sinews, which Cadmus could only pretend to do; still caught up as he was in the gods' earth-shattering immediate forms. The speaking silence was etched into a model to wean us off of the golden womb of a god's immediacy. Truly, only matricide could've been the origin of thought. I think Calasso was trying to pierce through the veil of this speaking silence and plunge himself, alongwith us, into the clashing swells of primal forces at war. To see, to understand, to extract the kernel, to get a taste, just a little bit of blood: which of our sinews are connected to the radical inhumanity of our primordial past still? How does it still breathe in us? Who the fuck are we?
Truly as complex and borderline unreadable as everyone warned me he was going to be. Loved every bit of this book, even the boring ones. This is the first Calasso I read and it goes without saying that I will now be reading every single book he ever wrote.
Also, I just discovered that he was Fleur Jaeggy's husband, WHAATT!!??
February 13, 2018
Indispensável para quem se interessa por mitologia grega e tem interesse em saber as origens e os percursos dos deuses do Olimpo, narra de forma meticulosa e comparativa as múltiplas versões trazidas até nós ao longo dos séculos.
Conflituosos nas relações entre uns e outros, os deuses gostavam de usar os mortais de maneira caprichosa e alteravam-lhes o curso de vida de forma leviana e definitiva.
Súbitas paixões, raptos, violações e enganos, amores proibidos, vinganças e castigos, onde a morte podia não ser a pior das penas.
Destes devaneios divinos nasceriam aqueles que viriam a ser os grandes protagonistas das epopeias; semideuses destinados a brilhar nas disputas, mas também a morrer no final.
Fonte de inspiração para poetas e pensadores, a mitologia foi fundamental para os alicerces da cultura grega. Num manifesto trabalho de pesquisa, o autor incluiu inúmeras referências e análises a obras e filósofos, que continuamos a ler e ter como padrão nas correntes de pensamento atuais.
Obra complementar para os leitores da Ilíada e da Odisseia, é uma valiosa fonte de informação e ajuda para a o seu entendimento.
December 15, 2018
Scholarly, wide-ranging, profound and philosophical, I'd say that at least two-thirds of this swept right past me without leaving much trace. This would be my Desert Island book, because much like the task of painting the Forth Rail Bridge, as soon as the end is reached the beginning is showing signs of rust. (I think there's a Sisyphus in there somewhere.) Anyway, it would be possible to read this over and over and still not get all of it.
Here's a couple of bits that found a cranny to set up house in:
In Greece, myth escapes from ritual like a genie from a bottle. Ritual is tied to gesture, and gestures are limited: what else can you do once you've burned your offerings, poured your libations, bowed, greased yourself, competed in races, eaten, copulated? But if the stories start to become independent, to develop names and relationships, then one day you realize they have taken on a life of their own. The Greeks were unique among the peoples of the Mediterranean in not passing their stories on via a priestly authority. They were rambling stories, which is partly why they got so easily mixed up. And the Greeks became so used to hearing the same stories told with different plots that it got to be a perfectly normal thing for them. Nor was there any final authority to turn to for a correct version.
And although I think I understood most of that, it still throws up as many questions again: how is it the same story when it has a different plot? How did Calasso leap from ritual to gesture to stories becoming independent?
This:
The monster is the most precious of enemies: therefore it is the enemy one goes and looks for. Other enemies might simply attack us: the Giants for example, or the Titans, representatives of an order in the process of being replaced, or looking for revenge for having already been replaced. The monster is quite different. The monster waits near the well-spring. The monster is the spring. He doesn't need the hero. It is the hero who needs him for his very existence, because his power will be protected by and indeed must be snatched from the monster. When the hero confronts the monster he has as yet neither power nor knowledge. The monster is his secret father, who will invest him with a power and knowledge that can belong to one man only, and that only the monster can give him.
Here's a couple of bits that found a cranny to set up house in:
In Greece, myth escapes from ritual like a genie from a bottle. Ritual is tied to gesture, and gestures are limited: what else can you do once you've burned your offerings, poured your libations, bowed, greased yourself, competed in races, eaten, copulated? But if the stories start to become independent, to develop names and relationships, then one day you realize they have taken on a life of their own. The Greeks were unique among the peoples of the Mediterranean in not passing their stories on via a priestly authority. They were rambling stories, which is partly why they got so easily mixed up. And the Greeks became so used to hearing the same stories told with different plots that it got to be a perfectly normal thing for them. Nor was there any final authority to turn to for a correct version.
And although I think I understood most of that, it still throws up as many questions again: how is it the same story when it has a different plot? How did Calasso leap from ritual to gesture to stories becoming independent?
This:
The monster is the most precious of enemies: therefore it is the enemy one goes and looks for. Other enemies might simply attack us: the Giants for example, or the Titans, representatives of an order in the process of being replaced, or looking for revenge for having already been replaced. The monster is quite different. The monster waits near the well-spring. The monster is the spring. He doesn't need the hero. It is the hero who needs him for his very existence, because his power will be protected by and indeed must be snatched from the monster. When the hero confronts the monster he has as yet neither power nor knowledge. The monster is his secret father, who will invest him with a power and knowledge that can belong to one man only, and that only the monster can give him.
July 12, 2015
No, Socrates himself cleared up the point shortly before his death: we enter the mythical when we enter the realm of risk, and myth is the enchantment we generate in ourselves at such moments.
Endorsements on the back matter can be daunting. How do we explain our struggles or indifference with work which is lauded so many which we admire? Half way through this, I was south of neutral and growing impatient. Abandonment was an option. The work then slid out from under its treatment of Athenian mythography and constructed a comparison with the practices and beliefs of Persia, Sparta and Egypt. I did and do find that fascinating. The divine practices of rape and reproduction are sufficient cause for us to be recalled as a species back to the plant. I do not as rule become excited by myth or tale. Such informs my struggles. This is a ridiculously erudite book. I am sure it won't be my last Calasso as I have a stack to tackle in the future.
Endorsements on the back matter can be daunting. How do we explain our struggles or indifference with work which is lauded so many which we admire? Half way through this, I was south of neutral and growing impatient. Abandonment was an option. The work then slid out from under its treatment of Athenian mythography and constructed a comparison with the practices and beliefs of Persia, Sparta and Egypt. I did and do find that fascinating. The divine practices of rape and reproduction are sufficient cause for us to be recalled as a species back to the plant. I do not as rule become excited by myth or tale. Such informs my struggles. This is a ridiculously erudite book. I am sure it won't be my last Calasso as I have a stack to tackle in the future.
April 29, 2020
What can one write about a book which defies all definition? For Roberto Calasso's The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony is such a book. It could be called a treatise on Greek mythology; a creative retelling of the Greek myths; and I think it has also been pigeonholed as a novel. It is all of these, and it is none of these. Whatever you call these approximately four hundred densely-packed pages of amazing prose, you can be sure of one thing: it is sometimes translucent and uplifting, sometimes opaque and frustrating: but always, always, it is irresistibly enchanting - like the Greek myths themselves.
Calasso has taken on the Herculean task of trying to capture the essence of the whole of the Greek civilisation, including its culture, its language, its philosophy and its history, in a rambling tour across time and space. In this, he has thrown his road maps to the winds. Calasso jumps from myth to myth with a suddenness resembling jump cuts in an avant-garde movie, while he talks about mythology, linguistics, local customs, and philosophy often in the same breath. It is as though Joseph Campbell is talking to you, using the techniques of William Faulkner.
To be truthful - this is not a book for the newbie. Unless you are up-to-date on your mythology, you are going to be confused (a person like me who is relatively well-read in the Greek myths, was lost many a time). However, if you are a myth junkie, this book will pull you in and hold you spellbound, though even then, it won't be smooth sailing all the way.
The unique thing about the Greek Pantheon is that the Gods are all very near to mankind. They are just superior beings, that is all. There is absolutely no morality - the stories are full of rape, incest, sodomy, ritual mutilation, dismemberment and even necrophilia. Zeus, the supreme god, himself is the chief abductor and rapist. Throughout the book, the author stresses these themes as they are repeated across the tales, time and again; breaking and melding, splitting and reforming, as one story becomes many and many become one.
Why is Cadmus important? Because, according to legend, it was he who brought the alphabet to Greece. And Harmony's name itself symbolises what she stands for. Therefore even when Cadmus moves out of his country with his wife, a defeated man, he can be gratified about a life well spent.
Calasso has taken on the Herculean task of trying to capture the essence of the whole of the Greek civilisation, including its culture, its language, its philosophy and its history, in a rambling tour across time and space. In this, he has thrown his road maps to the winds. Calasso jumps from myth to myth with a suddenness resembling jump cuts in an avant-garde movie, while he talks about mythology, linguistics, local customs, and philosophy often in the same breath. It is as though Joseph Campbell is talking to you, using the techniques of William Faulkner.
To be truthful - this is not a book for the newbie. Unless you are up-to-date on your mythology, you are going to be confused (a person like me who is relatively well-read in the Greek myths, was lost many a time). However, if you are a myth junkie, this book will pull you in and hold you spellbound, though even then, it won't be smooth sailing all the way.
The unique thing about the Greek Pantheon is that the Gods are all very near to mankind. They are just superior beings, that is all. There is absolutely no morality - the stories are full of rape, incest, sodomy, ritual mutilation, dismemberment and even necrophilia. Zeus, the supreme god, himself is the chief abductor and rapist. Throughout the book, the author stresses these themes as they are repeated across the tales, time and again; breaking and melding, splitting and reforming, as one story becomes many and many become one.
No sooner have you grabbed hold of it than myth opens out into a fan of thousand segments. Here the variant is the origin. Everything that happens this way, or that way, or this other way. And in each of these diverging stories all the others are reflected, all brush by us like folds of the same cloth. If, out of some perversity of tradition, only one version of some mythical event has come down to us, it is like a body without a shadow, and we must do our best to trace out that invisible shadow in our minds.All the favourite gods are here - the intellectual Apollo and the passionate Dionysus; Athena, the eternal virgin and Aphrodite, lust personified; Artemis, Demeter, Persephone, Hades... all ruled over by Zeus and Hera. So also are the heroes, who by slaying monsters, assimilate them; Heracles, Theseus, Perseus, Achilles and the wily Odysseus. They play out their eternal drama in the heavens, as well as on the earth in the form of rituals. Because in Greece, the gods are always nearby.
But when something undefined and powerful shakes mind and fiber and trembles the cage of our bones, when the person who only a moment before was dull and agnostic is suddenly rocked by laughter and homicidal frenzy, or by the pangs of love, or by the hallucination of form, or finds his face streaming with tears, then the Greek realizes that he is not alone. Somebody else stands beside him, and that somebody is a god. He no longer has the calm clarity of perception he had in his mediocre state of existence. Instead, that clarity has migrated into his divine companion. A sharp profile against the sky, the god is resplendent, while the person who evoked him is left confused and overwhelmed.The book begins with Europa being carried off by Zeus in the form of bull; in the last chapter, we find her brother Cadmus in search of her. Instead, he ends up saving Zeus from the monster Typhon - a leftover from the earth religions, before the gods of Mount Olympus took over - by the use of music to distract the monster. As a reward, Zeus promises him Harmony, the love child of Aphrodite and Ares, as wife. However, he is unable to recover Europa, and thus unable to return home as that was the condition he left his country. So Cadmus founds his own city on Thebes.
Why is Cadmus important? Because, according to legend, it was he who brought the alphabet to Greece. And Harmony's name itself symbolises what she stands for. Therefore even when Cadmus moves out of his country with his wife, a defeated man, he can be gratified about a life well spent.
Cadmus had brought Greece "gifts of the mind": vowels and consonants yoked together in tiny signs, "etched model of a silence that speaks" - the alphabet. With the alphabet, the Greeks would teach themselves to experience the gods in the silence of the mind, and no longer in the full and normal presence, as Cadmus himself had the day of his marriage. He thought of his routed kingdom: of daughters and grandchildren torn to pieces, tearing others to pieces, ulcerated in boiling water, run through with spits, drowned in the sea. And Thebes was a heap of rubble. But no one could erase those small letters, those fly's feet that Cadmus the Phoenician had scattered across Greece, where the winds had brought him in his quest for Europa carried off by a bull that rose from the sea.
May 25, 2019
It has rarely happened to me, even with those books I've read and have rated very high here at goodreads. But here it did: I feel resistance giving my copy of this book away. Very unusual for me considering my habit of disposing of books I'm done with, even those I liked a lot, impelled by the logic that good things need to be shared with others and the experience of them has to be spread to as wide an audience as possible.
I had wondered why. I surmised that it must be because of this deeply felt urge to re-read it. Sip some more from this cup of intoxicating prose. Relive the enchantment of the gods. Stare at the world again in a different light, thrown topsy-turvy in a beguiling kaleidoscope reflected from the past when myths were not yet myths, and men mingled with the divine.
In the long run, I have to admit that I cannot really explain why I rave over this book. So I will just borrow one explanation it gives whenever a human being laughs and cries at the same time, confused, overwhelmed and bewildered: a god was looking over my shoulder while I was reading this--
"If, driven by an old compulsion, we were to define what the gods were to the Greeks, we might say, using the principle of Occam's razor, everything that takes us away from the ordinary sensations of life. 'With a god, you are always crying and laughing,' we read in Sophocles' 'Ajax.' Life as mere vegetative protraction, glazed eyes looking out on the world, the certainty of being oneself, without knowing what one is: such a life has no need of a god. It is the realm of the spontaneous atheism of the 'homme naturel.'
"But when something undefined and powerful shakes mind and fiber and trembles the cage of our bones, when the person who only moment before was dull and agnostic is suddenly rocked by laughter and homicidal frenzy, or by the pangs of love, or by the hallucination of form, or finds his face streaming with tears, then the Greek realizes that he is not alone. Somebody else stands beside him, and that somebody is a god. He no longer has the calm clarity of perception he had in his mediocre state of existence. Instead, that clarity has migrated into his divine companion. A sharp profile against the sky, the god is resplendent, while the person who evoked him is left confused and overwhelmed."
A tip for those who would read this for the first time: you might, as I did, begin this with a feeling of listlessness that may drag you towards inattention and the temptation to drop this. Persevere! I say around page 50 your god will come and start messing up with the long dormant pleasure points of your brain.
I had wondered why. I surmised that it must be because of this deeply felt urge to re-read it. Sip some more from this cup of intoxicating prose. Relive the enchantment of the gods. Stare at the world again in a different light, thrown topsy-turvy in a beguiling kaleidoscope reflected from the past when myths were not yet myths, and men mingled with the divine.
In the long run, I have to admit that I cannot really explain why I rave over this book. So I will just borrow one explanation it gives whenever a human being laughs and cries at the same time, confused, overwhelmed and bewildered: a god was looking over my shoulder while I was reading this--
"If, driven by an old compulsion, we were to define what the gods were to the Greeks, we might say, using the principle of Occam's razor, everything that takes us away from the ordinary sensations of life. 'With a god, you are always crying and laughing,' we read in Sophocles' 'Ajax.' Life as mere vegetative protraction, glazed eyes looking out on the world, the certainty of being oneself, without knowing what one is: such a life has no need of a god. It is the realm of the spontaneous atheism of the 'homme naturel.'
"But when something undefined and powerful shakes mind and fiber and trembles the cage of our bones, when the person who only moment before was dull and agnostic is suddenly rocked by laughter and homicidal frenzy, or by the pangs of love, or by the hallucination of form, or finds his face streaming with tears, then the Greek realizes that he is not alone. Somebody else stands beside him, and that somebody is a god. He no longer has the calm clarity of perception he had in his mediocre state of existence. Instead, that clarity has migrated into his divine companion. A sharp profile against the sky, the god is resplendent, while the person who evoked him is left confused and overwhelmed."
A tip for those who would read this for the first time: you might, as I did, begin this with a feeling of listlessness that may drag you towards inattention and the temptation to drop this. Persevere! I say around page 50 your god will come and start messing up with the long dormant pleasure points of your brain.
November 5, 2014
Rather than present a distanced and readily understandable survey of Greek mythology, Calasso instead goes into and behind the myths to create a verbal environment that to my mind comes as close as possible to reenacting in the mind of the reader the intellectual feel of living in a living mythology, from both the perspective of the gods and the perspective of mortals, and from both the experience of living life itself and living through reading.
The book is an overlapping series of thematic patterns and images and ideas - an organization more like poetry than prose - that has a cumulative effect, like waves building upon each other in resonance, that eventually carries the reader on its swells and currents. This somewhat "passive" approach seems necessary on a first read, as the presentation is bewildering (as would be a direct encounter with a god), but the prose is so nuanced and lovely it is a pleasure to keep on reading/rowing/riding through bewilderment.
And to justify my rating before completing the book, I cite the following passage encountered like a bit, a gift, of flotsam while reading/rowing/riding this morning:
Myth, like language, gives all of itself in each of its fragments. When a myth brings into play repetition and variants, the skeleton of the system emerges for a while, the latent order, covered in seaweed.
The book is an overlapping series of thematic patterns and images and ideas - an organization more like poetry than prose - that has a cumulative effect, like waves building upon each other in resonance, that eventually carries the reader on its swells and currents. This somewhat "passive" approach seems necessary on a first read, as the presentation is bewildering (as would be a direct encounter with a god), but the prose is so nuanced and lovely it is a pleasure to keep on reading/rowing/riding through bewilderment.
And to justify my rating before completing the book, I cite the following passage encountered like a bit, a gift, of flotsam while reading/rowing/riding this morning:
Myth, like language, gives all of itself in each of its fragments. When a myth brings into play repetition and variants, the skeleton of the system emerges for a while, the latent order, covered in seaweed.
August 25, 2023
Uzun zamandır hiçbir kitapla ilgili bu seviyede yanılmamıştım sanırım. Zira Roma İmparatorluğu’nun tarihinde kaybolmadan önce bir mitoloji molası verme hayallerim mitlerin labirentlerinde kaybolmakla ve bundan büyük bir keyif almakla sonuçlandı.
Bu kitabın arka kapağını okuduğunuzda bir retelling ya da ufak hikayelerin birleşiminden oluşturulmuş temel bir mitoloji anlatısıyla karşılaşacağınızı düşünüyorsunuz ancak önünüzde çok güçlü bir çalışmanın kapıları açılıyor. Kitabın adı her ne kadar Kadmos ile Harmonia’nın Düğünü olsa da aslında bu konu kitabın en sonunda ve çok kısa bir şekilde geçiyor. Lakin bu düğünden köken alan pek çok hikayenin ana bağlantısını da elinde tutması açısından çok önemli. Tabii bu pek çok hikayeyi bir arada sunması yanıltmasın, kesinlikle mitoloji ile tanışma kitaplarından birisi değil. (Zira ben de böyle olduğunu düşünüp ufak bir mola kitabı olarak başlamıştım.) En azından İlyada, Odysseia ile birlikte Euripides ve Aeschylus’un tradegyalarının bir kısmını okumuş olmanız gerekiyor. Eğer bunları okuduysanız, bunkitabın i muazzam bir tamamlayıcı özelliği var. Zira bir mitin çok farklı versiyonlarını bir arada okuyup aralarındaki farkları ve modern insanla dönemin değişimini ve farklı yorumları okuyorsunuz. Bu durumun her noktada iyi sonuç vermediğini de belirtmeliyim elbette. Kitabı okurken bazı anlatılarda çok fazla kayboldum ya da koptum. Bir hikayenin çok farklı versiyonlarına ve çok fazla isme maruz kalıyorsunuz. Bu durumda bağlantıların hepsini yakalamak kolay olmuyor. Bir de alıştığımız mitoloji anlatısının tam tersi olarak tam da mükemmellikten uzak, Olimpos tanrılarının insanlara sadece aralarında gezerken tercih ettikleri suretten çok daha yakın olduğunu gösterme tercihinde. Özetle, Yunan mitolojisine özel bir ilginiz varsa ve bir solukta okunacak bir kaynak aramıyorsanız; okumanızı bol bol başka kaynaklara yönlenerek, hatta sözlükte bkzlar arasında kaybolarak bölmeye hazırsanız tavsiye ederim. Bu arada kitap bir indekse sahip ama sözlük içermiyor. Tabii mitlerin çok farklı versiyonlarına yer verildiği için tam olarak yeterli olmuyor ama yine de Pierre Grimal’ın Mitoloji Sözlüğü bazı noktalarda güzel bir destek sağlayabilir.
Bu kitabın arka kapağını okuduğunuzda bir retelling ya da ufak hikayelerin birleşiminden oluşturulmuş temel bir mitoloji anlatısıyla karşılaşacağınızı düşünüyorsunuz ancak önünüzde çok güçlü bir çalışmanın kapıları açılıyor. Kitabın adı her ne kadar Kadmos ile Harmonia’nın Düğünü olsa da aslında bu konu kitabın en sonunda ve çok kısa bir şekilde geçiyor. Lakin bu düğünden köken alan pek çok hikayenin ana bağlantısını da elinde tutması açısından çok önemli. Tabii bu pek çok hikayeyi bir arada sunması yanıltmasın, kesinlikle mitoloji ile tanışma kitaplarından birisi değil. (Zira ben de böyle olduğunu düşünüp ufak bir mola kitabı olarak başlamıştım.) En azından İlyada, Odysseia ile birlikte Euripides ve Aeschylus’un tradegyalarının bir kısmını okumuş olmanız gerekiyor. Eğer bunları okuduysanız, bunkitabın i muazzam bir tamamlayıcı özelliği var. Zira bir mitin çok farklı versiyonlarını bir arada okuyup aralarındaki farkları ve modern insanla dönemin değişimini ve farklı yorumları okuyorsunuz. Bu durumun her noktada iyi sonuç vermediğini de belirtmeliyim elbette. Kitabı okurken bazı anlatılarda çok fazla kayboldum ya da koptum. Bir hikayenin çok farklı versiyonlarına ve çok fazla isme maruz kalıyorsunuz. Bu durumda bağlantıların hepsini yakalamak kolay olmuyor. Bir de alıştığımız mitoloji anlatısının tam tersi olarak tam da mükemmellikten uzak, Olimpos tanrılarının insanlara sadece aralarında gezerken tercih ettikleri suretten çok daha yakın olduğunu gösterme tercihinde. Özetle, Yunan mitolojisine özel bir ilginiz varsa ve bir solukta okunacak bir kaynak aramıyorsanız; okumanızı bol bol başka kaynaklara yönlenerek, hatta sözlükte bkzlar arasında kaybolarak bölmeye hazırsanız tavsiye ederim. Bu arada kitap bir indekse sahip ama sözlük içermiyor. Tabii mitlerin çok farklı versiyonlarına yer verildiği için tam olarak yeterli olmuyor ama yine de Pierre Grimal’ın Mitoloji Sözlüğü bazı noktalarda güzel bir destek sağlayabilir.
on-hold
October 26, 2017These things never happened, but are always
three reviews
By reviewers in alphabetical-order
Random review: review by Jean-Paul Werner Walshaw-Sauter
Next review: review by Jonfaith
Previous review: review by Riku Saraj
I recently considered removing this book from my library, to make room for others. Tonight I perused the three reviews above by GR friends of mine. Each reviewer lends a view of the book from a distinct perspective. All rate the book highly. All obviously got something from the book.
But individually and collectively, they have convinced me that the book is simply beyond me. I have neither the erudition, the dogged persistence, nor the interest to attempt it. (Any one of these would probably be sufficient to encourage me.)
So I will contribute my copy to Better World Books and hope it someday resides in a reader’s hands who will read it and treasure it.
the book
The book has no index, a grave failure for a book as dense as this is, and as interwoven. Neither do the chapters have titles or any other sort of heading, beyond a Roman numeral.
I determined that I should give some indication of what the book is like. Thus, I’ve randomly selected five of the chapters, and for each give below the first few lines which Calasso writes.
III
X
XII
VIII
IV
“Why are these not in order?”, you may ask. But they are in order, the order that the random selection gave them. And that may be as good an order as any to even read them in.
After all, Calasso couldn’t be bothered – or perhaps wasn’t able? - to give the chapters names, some words expressing their theme, or indicating their place in his overall narrative, a reason why they had been written at all.
Might it be that this extended essay on Greek mythology is so dense with interwoven stories, constantly intersecting threads of observations, that it becomes like the myths themselves – perhaps having a starting and ending place (the latter less likely than the former?) – but in between an unresolvable skein of pathways, tunnels, underground borings, flights of fancy, looping back and forth, interconnected in such a way that there is no preferred way to make the journey, or even tell if you’ve reached a place at which to end it?
a final observation
I've seen several suggestions the book should be approached as fiction – or perhaps as very creative non-fiction. This might even be the key to enjoying the journey it takes a reader on, and avoiding disappointment. Do not confuse this book with The Golden Bough, nor with The Masks of God.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Previous review: Between the World and Me a black writer’s letter to his son
Random review: East of Eden
Next review: The Match golf, that is
Previous library review: As God Commands
Next library review: Days of Abandonment
three reviews
By reviewers in alphabetical-order
Random review: review by Jean-Paul Werner Walshaw-Sauter
Next review: review by Jonfaith
Previous review: review by Riku Saraj
I recently considered removing this book from my library, to make room for others. Tonight I perused the three reviews above by GR friends of mine. Each reviewer lends a view of the book from a distinct perspective. All rate the book highly. All obviously got something from the book.
But individually and collectively, they have convinced me that the book is simply beyond me. I have neither the erudition, the dogged persistence, nor the interest to attempt it. (Any one of these would probably be sufficient to encourage me.)
So I will contribute my copy to Better World Books and hope it someday resides in a reader’s hands who will read it and treasure it.
the book
The book has no index, a grave failure for a book as dense as this is, and as interwoven. Neither do the chapters have titles or any other sort of heading, beyond a Roman numeral.
I determined that I should give some indication of what the book is like. Thus, I’ve randomly selected five of the chapters, and for each give below the first few lines which Calasso writes.
III
Delos was a hump of deserted rock, drifting about the sea like a stalk of asphodel. It was here that Apollo was born, in a place not even wretched slave girls would come to hide their shame. Before Leda, the only creatures to give birth on that godforsaken rock had been the seals.
X
From time to time the heroes would get together for some common adventure: a hunting party, a conquest, a war. The prey might be a fabulous animal, or an image, s state: the Calydonian Boar, the Golden Fleece, the Trojan Palladium. They are a magnificent sight, the heroes, lining up in disciplined ranks on the benches of the Argo, muscles glistening like flames.
XII
Zeus is never ridiculous, because his dignity is of no concern to him. ”Non bene convenient nec in una sede morantur / Maiestas et amor”, say Ovid, master of matters erotic. To seduce a woman with a bundle of lightning bolts in one’s hand would be injudicious, and not even very exciting. But a white bull, an eagle, a swan, a false satyr, a stallion, a stream of gold, a blaze of fire: these are divine.
VIII
Zeus was sitting on a stool. He stared into the distance. A breeze twitched his beard, which was streaked with gray. Something was going on inside his head, bringing on a drunken weariness. When Zeus had swallowed his wife Metis, on the advice of Ge and Uranus, who told him she would one day give birth to a god even stronger than himself and capable of usurping his power, Metis was already pregnant with Athena.
IV
Of the Olympians, the first thing we can say is that they were newgods. They had names and shapes. But Herodotus assures is that “before yesterday” no one knew “where any of these gods had come from, nor whether they had existed eternally, nor what they looked like.” When Herodotus says “yesterday”, he means Hesiod and Homer, whom he calculated as having lived four centuries before himself.
“Why are these not in order?”, you may ask. But they are in order, the order that the random selection gave them. And that may be as good an order as any to even read them in.
After all, Calasso couldn’t be bothered – or perhaps wasn’t able? - to give the chapters names, some words expressing their theme, or indicating their place in his overall narrative, a reason why they had been written at all.
Might it be that this extended essay on Greek mythology is so dense with interwoven stories, constantly intersecting threads of observations, that it becomes like the myths themselves – perhaps having a starting and ending place (the latter less likely than the former?) – but in between an unresolvable skein of pathways, tunnels, underground borings, flights of fancy, looping back and forth, interconnected in such a way that there is no preferred way to make the journey, or even tell if you’ve reached a place at which to end it?
a final observation
I've seen several suggestions the book should be approached as fiction – or perhaps as very creative non-fiction. This might even be the key to enjoying the journey it takes a reader on, and avoiding disappointment. Do not confuse this book with The Golden Bough, nor with The Masks of God.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Previous review: Between the World and Me a black writer’s letter to his son
Random review: East of Eden
Next review: The Match golf, that is
Previous library review: As God Commands
Next library review: Days of Abandonment
December 27, 2021
Uma introdução magistral à Mitologia Grega.
Foi uma leitura bastante agradável, mas muito longa.
Lia um capítulo, reflectia, a maior parte das vezes relia e acabava anotando informações úteis para o futuro, e depois, finalmente, seguia em frente.
Exigiu inúmeras consultas ao dicionário, a sites especializados em mitologia, e também à Wikipédia.
Esta obra não é apenas uma simples recontagem dos mitos gregos, embora eles sejam a peça fulcral de todo o livro. Calasso coloca os mitos e a sua evolução em perspectiva, encontra padrões e diferenças, explora a relação inquieta do mundo grego com os seus deuses, e tenta assim explicar a sua relação com o mundo.
Para quem gosta de Mitologia Grega é uma leitura obrigatória.
Foi uma leitura bastante agradável, mas muito longa.
Lia um capítulo, reflectia, a maior parte das vezes relia e acabava anotando informações úteis para o futuro, e depois, finalmente, seguia em frente.
Exigiu inúmeras consultas ao dicionário, a sites especializados em mitologia, e também à Wikipédia.
Esta obra não é apenas uma simples recontagem dos mitos gregos, embora eles sejam a peça fulcral de todo o livro. Calasso coloca os mitos e a sua evolução em perspectiva, encontra padrões e diferenças, explora a relação inquieta do mundo grego com os seus deuses, e tenta assim explicar a sua relação com o mundo.
Para quem gosta de Mitologia Grega é uma leitura obrigatória.
February 4, 2017
Mi amiga Jaz me invitó a una lectura de poesía en el Varela Varelita. Fui, leí mis poemas, unos 5 tal vez, y cité a Osvaldo Lamborghini, una pequeña viñeta juguetona del Marqués de Sebregondi.
Posteriormente fui a la mesa donde me esperaban mis amigos.
Me puse a hablar de los griegos que son lo único que me importa hace unos meses. Entonces mi amigo Nahuel sacó de su mochila este libro: Deni, esto tenés que leer. Y me lo entregó. Esa noche bebimos mucho whisky. Una gran noche.
Al día siguiente quise agarrar este libro pero tenía mucha resaca y entendí que no era el día para arrancar con una lectura de ese orden donde el relato comenzaba y después volvía a recomenzar. Admito que primero ese gesto del autor me mareó.
Al siguiente entonces, y fresco, sí, comencé.
Impresionante. Hubo un momento en que simplemente lo cerré porque me hacía daño tanto Bien.
Las Bodas de Cadmo y Harmonía es un relato inigualable. No sé qué es. El autor solo quizá sepa decirlo. A mí no me interesa taxonomizar, en términos de literatura me gusta más bien leer. El relato, la narración, comienza con el elegante rapto de Zeus en forma de toro blanco de la doncella Europa, pero una vez que Calasso, con una destreza lírica envidiable en dos páginas nos muestra este ingenuo momento del mundo se pregunta: Pero, ¿cómo había comenzado todo? Y otra vez recomienza, agregando nuevos detalles. Este procedimiento se reitera unas cuantas veces, es lo que sirve de excusa a Calasso para comenzar un libro imposible. Ahí comienzan las urdimbres de Calasso en una trama que jamás es definitiva, donde siempre puede entrometerse para reflexionar y salta de tema en tema como hacen los hombres cuando tienen muchas cosas para decir a la vez. Mientras Calasso cuenta, y cuenta cosas maravillosas, inmiscuye un metadiscurso donde lo que dice va tomando nueva forma, nuevo volumen. Calasso es casi indiscreto, le interesa contar pero lo que más le interesa es decir algo sobre lo que dice, le interesa pensar cada detalle de su relato. Esta es la clave central de Las Bodas de Cadmo y Harmonía, un libro donde se piensa la modernidad a partir de la antiguedad y donde el autor termina por dar cuenta de que no hay tal contradicción y que ambas están en un constante diálogo sublime. Por eso Calasso puede escribir, o para eso escribe. El resto es una serie infinita de relatos en torno a la mitología, unas lecturas tan finas de Homero que dan ganas de darle un abrazo, la constante y adecuada, jamás ajena al texto, inclusive enredada en él de citas de fuentes, de afamados mitógrafos, de fragmentos, de poemas recopilados vaya uno a saber dónde, de escolios.
Hablar de la materia de este libro no me parece que sea pertinente para una review, se puede dar un curso sobre todas las temáticas que son abordadas en esta sencilla obra de arte de 350 páginas. Me parece que meterse de lleno en este libro es tarea del lector, un lector fascinado y cuanto más conocedor del mundo de la mitología y la era de los Héroes, mejor.
Posteriormente fui a la mesa donde me esperaban mis amigos.
Me puse a hablar de los griegos que son lo único que me importa hace unos meses. Entonces mi amigo Nahuel sacó de su mochila este libro: Deni, esto tenés que leer. Y me lo entregó. Esa noche bebimos mucho whisky. Una gran noche.
Al día siguiente quise agarrar este libro pero tenía mucha resaca y entendí que no era el día para arrancar con una lectura de ese orden donde el relato comenzaba y después volvía a recomenzar. Admito que primero ese gesto del autor me mareó.
Al siguiente entonces, y fresco, sí, comencé.
Impresionante. Hubo un momento en que simplemente lo cerré porque me hacía daño tanto Bien.
Las Bodas de Cadmo y Harmonía es un relato inigualable. No sé qué es. El autor solo quizá sepa decirlo. A mí no me interesa taxonomizar, en términos de literatura me gusta más bien leer. El relato, la narración, comienza con el elegante rapto de Zeus en forma de toro blanco de la doncella Europa, pero una vez que Calasso, con una destreza lírica envidiable en dos páginas nos muestra este ingenuo momento del mundo se pregunta: Pero, ¿cómo había comenzado todo? Y otra vez recomienza, agregando nuevos detalles. Este procedimiento se reitera unas cuantas veces, es lo que sirve de excusa a Calasso para comenzar un libro imposible. Ahí comienzan las urdimbres de Calasso en una trama que jamás es definitiva, donde siempre puede entrometerse para reflexionar y salta de tema en tema como hacen los hombres cuando tienen muchas cosas para decir a la vez. Mientras Calasso cuenta, y cuenta cosas maravillosas, inmiscuye un metadiscurso donde lo que dice va tomando nueva forma, nuevo volumen. Calasso es casi indiscreto, le interesa contar pero lo que más le interesa es decir algo sobre lo que dice, le interesa pensar cada detalle de su relato. Esta es la clave central de Las Bodas de Cadmo y Harmonía, un libro donde se piensa la modernidad a partir de la antiguedad y donde el autor termina por dar cuenta de que no hay tal contradicción y que ambas están en un constante diálogo sublime. Por eso Calasso puede escribir, o para eso escribe. El resto es una serie infinita de relatos en torno a la mitología, unas lecturas tan finas de Homero que dan ganas de darle un abrazo, la constante y adecuada, jamás ajena al texto, inclusive enredada en él de citas de fuentes, de afamados mitógrafos, de fragmentos, de poemas recopilados vaya uno a saber dónde, de escolios.
Hablar de la materia de este libro no me parece que sea pertinente para una review, se puede dar un curso sobre todas las temáticas que son abordadas en esta sencilla obra de arte de 350 páginas. Me parece que meterse de lleno en este libro es tarea del lector, un lector fascinado y cuanto más conocedor del mundo de la mitología y la era de los Héroes, mejor.
February 27, 2015
Appena terminata la lettura di Le nozze di Cadmo e Armonia, posso definirlo il migliore libro sulla mitologia greca che abbia mai letto. Con grande grazia, Calasso è riuscito ad unire un romanzo che raccontasse i miti greci e un saggio sul loro significato.
Infatti, la bellezza di questo romanzo (o saggio?) sulla mitologia greca sta nell'aver inglobato nel mito il suo significato, così come presumibilmente veniva percepito in origine. Ma non solo: Calasso ci mostra il filo conduttore che dal mito arriva fino ad oggi. Forse abbiamo dimenticato chi fossero Teseo, Achille o Edipo, ma ciò che questi miti volevano trasmettere è ancora con noi, nella nostra forma mentis, nella nostra letteratura, nella nostra psicologia. Questa è la forza di Le nozze di Cadmo e Armonia: far riflettere il lettore di oggi con miti tutt'altro che morti e sepolti.
Da appassionata di mitologia greca, non ho trovato difficile seguire la narrazione dei miti, anche se mi rendo conto che per un neofita potrebbe essere difficoltoso destreggiarsi tra nomi, genealogie e intrecci (il romanzo, tra l'altro, non presenta nessun glossario). In ogni caso, si tratta di un libro impegnativo, vuoi per lo stile alto in cui è scritto, vuoi per la complessità della materia trattata.
Infatti, la bellezza di questo romanzo (o saggio?) sulla mitologia greca sta nell'aver inglobato nel mito il suo significato, così come presumibilmente veniva percepito in origine. Ma non solo: Calasso ci mostra il filo conduttore che dal mito arriva fino ad oggi. Forse abbiamo dimenticato chi fossero Teseo, Achille o Edipo, ma ciò che questi miti volevano trasmettere è ancora con noi, nella nostra forma mentis, nella nostra letteratura, nella nostra psicologia. Questa è la forza di Le nozze di Cadmo e Armonia: far riflettere il lettore di oggi con miti tutt'altro che morti e sepolti.
Da appassionata di mitologia greca, non ho trovato difficile seguire la narrazione dei miti, anche se mi rendo conto che per un neofita potrebbe essere difficoltoso destreggiarsi tra nomi, genealogie e intrecci (il romanzo, tra l'altro, non presenta nessun glossario). In ogni caso, si tratta di un libro impegnativo, vuoi per lo stile alto in cui è scritto, vuoi per la complessità della materia trattata.
January 16, 2025
Uno de los mejores libros de mitología griega (en lengua castellana, al menos), para aquellos que deseen llegar un poco más allá de las narraciones mitológicas al uso y de las consabidas interpretaciones estoicas (como alegorías de fenómenos naturales) o neoplatónicas (como alegorías morales).
Calasso repite la monumentalidad alcanzada con "El ardor" (éste, sobre la India védica, me pareció más espectacular todavía), comprendiendo de un modo denso, oracular y velado, que la mitología tenia un valor estético y ético, onírico incluso. Deseante, sacrificial, sublimatorio... Cualquier intento de traducirlo a una formula lógica racional implica evitar su núcleo, su espíritu humano y artístico.
Quién quiera entender, que entienda, vendría a decir Calasso. Lo que él hace es lo único posible, obligatorio para un escritor: relatar, contar, trenzar y cortar. Darnos pistas.
No apto para quienes no controlen un mínimo la mitología grecoromana. Recomendable, además, leer previamente a Fernando Wulff ("El peligro infinito")
Calasso repite la monumentalidad alcanzada con "El ardor" (éste, sobre la India védica, me pareció más espectacular todavía), comprendiendo de un modo denso, oracular y velado, que la mitología tenia un valor estético y ético, onírico incluso. Deseante, sacrificial, sublimatorio... Cualquier intento de traducirlo a una formula lógica racional implica evitar su núcleo, su espíritu humano y artístico.
Quién quiera entender, que entienda, vendría a decir Calasso. Lo que él hace es lo único posible, obligatorio para un escritor: relatar, contar, trenzar y cortar. Darnos pistas.
No apto para quienes no controlen un mínimo la mitología grecoromana. Recomendable, además, leer previamente a Fernando Wulff ("El peligro infinito")
December 22, 2021
Las bodas de Cadmo y Harmonía es un extenso compendio de mitos griegos, los que formaron nuestra cultura occidental.
Calasso nos entrega una obra mitad narrativa, mitad ensayo donde todo el corpus de mitos, dioses, semidioses y héroes son analizados en profundidad. Muchos pasajes examinan las distintas versiones de historiadores como Heródoto y de autores trágicos como Eurípides y Esquilo.
No faltan tampoco los eventos de la Ilíada y la Odisea ni los análisis de los filósofos griegos. Obra completa sin dudas, erudita de más para mi escaso conocimiento. Da por supuesto demasiados eventos que tuve que googlear.
El libro cierra con el mito del título, donde los dioses asistieron a las bodas referidas y fue la última noticia que tuvimos de los seres divinos. Allí, comenzó la historia. Nunca más cenaremos con los dioses.
Como escribió un antiguo, «estas cosas jamás ocurrieron, pero existen siempre».
Calasso nos entrega una obra mitad narrativa, mitad ensayo donde todo el corpus de mitos, dioses, semidioses y héroes son analizados en profundidad. Muchos pasajes examinan las distintas versiones de historiadores como Heródoto y de autores trágicos como Eurípides y Esquilo.
No faltan tampoco los eventos de la Ilíada y la Odisea ni los análisis de los filósofos griegos. Obra completa sin dudas, erudita de más para mi escaso conocimiento. Da por supuesto demasiados eventos que tuve que googlear.
El libro cierra con el mito del título, donde los dioses asistieron a las bodas referidas y fue la última noticia que tuvimos de los seres divinos. Allí, comenzó la historia. Nunca más cenaremos con los dioses.
Como escribió un antiguo, «estas cosas jamás ocurrieron, pero existen siempre».
Read
August 15, 2022Nije tako dobro kao propast grada Kaša. Jeste privlačno, jeste na mahove uzbudljivo i inspirativno, ali Kalaso ipak nije Niče, nije Jan Kot, pa čak nije ni Robert Grejvs, pa da odabranim stranama grčke mitologije nametne neku svoju jedinstvenu viziju. Preporuka bez ograničenja za one koji se tek upoznaju s antičkom književnošću, ostali će možda biti malo razočarani.
Want to read
April 8, 2015I started this book when it was new, I got it for Christmas in 1988 (actually I received two of them), I started it but I couldn't finish it quickly (it's rather heavy, but not in a bad way... very 'pregnant' of different meanings, allusions, connections... or at least I thought so at the time). A few months afterward the author visited my high school, he was supposed to speak about this same book. Unfortunately, not many of us students were present at the event making him evidently very disappointed with the whole thing, therefore he reacted treating very poorly the people that *did* come to listen to him (a kind of behaviour I never understood). He acted and spoke with an air of superiority one does not easily forget.
I got my book signed and never opened it again.
I got my book signed and never opened it again.
November 23, 2020
Veo, ili nešto što steže, obavija, opasuje, vrpca, traka, povoj, to je poslednji predmet koji srećemo u Grčkoj. S one strane vela nema ničeg drugog. Veo je ono drugo. On je objava da se postojeće, samo po sebi, ne bi održalo, da večno iziskuje da bude barem skriveno i otkriveno, da se pojavljuje i nestaje. Ono što se ispunjava, inicijacija ili venčanje ili žrtvovanje, zahteva veo, upravo zato što je ispunjava samo ono što je savršeno, koje važi za sve, a sve uključuje veo, taj višak koji daje stvarima miris. (275 str.)
May 20, 2014
This was originally published on The Scrying Orb.
Let us try to decipher this strange, dense book. Roberto Calasso takes on Greek mythology.
But what is Greek mythology? Capricious gods. Adulterous heroes. Many headed monsters. Irony. Hubris.
Calasso explains the difference between narrative and myth: A myth has several different versions, different retellings, but the thrust is often the same — there’s always a labyrinth and a monster and a hero and princess but how they got there, who they were, just how the plot played itself out must change. This is the essence of the myth. A narrative is a singular, crafted story. When a mythical tale is pared down to a single interpretation, specific plot-characters-theme, when its variants are lost, it is no longer a myth.
But what is Greek mythology? A panoply of sexual assault and women hanging from trees.
But what is Greek mythology? Duality. Phantoms. Twins.
“There are two strands to the story of the Pelopids: the tale of a king’s descendants, a succession of atrocities, each worse than the one before; and the tale of a series of talismans, each taking over from another in silence, each deciding the fate of men.”
Meanwhile, the Helen who launched the Trojan War, may have only been a phantom twin, swapped out when she was initially journeying to Troy (a point Calasso delights in returning to the whole book long). Athena finds her childhood playmate looked exactly like her and this is why Zeus tricked Athena into killing her. There should only be one Athena.
The heroes of ancient Greece all have godly-antecedents. Theseus, the Minotaur(bull) slayer, becomes a bull in the end, his stories all mirroring earlier feats of Dionysus, often depicted as a bull. The tale of Ariadne can be drawn back to multiple different goddesses. The warrior women of the time fall back to Artemis or Athena. Echoes.
But they all fall short. Achilles’ life is so brief because of how close he is to the gods.
But what is this book? Occasionally a straight retelling of many Greek myths, both popular and obscure and seemingly with an emphasis on rape and abduction. Laced with thematic analysis, historical conjecture, and anecdote, Calasso rewrites the ancient tales of gods and heroes, often multiple times with different results. He sounds kind of smug about it.
But what is this book? Fascinating symbolism extraction mixed with metaphysical nonsense. An unintended duality, The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony vacillates between wholly engaging and hopelessly monotonous. One chapter, we are following Calasso down an engrossing tangent, as he introduces a king from Ancient Greece whose entire history and character has been lost to time, save for one repeated trait: hospitality. A very hospitable king. That’s all we know. Hospitable. Calasso then extrapolates this to mean that actually, this king was the king of the dead, the most hospitable king of all, as he welcomes all. Calasso fills in all this backstory and conjecture to make this somehow make sense.
Follow this into another chapter about the birth of ‘necessity’ and the goddesses who commanded such and how they can never be cowed and lord over gods and men alike except that one time when one of them got tricked and impregnated by Zeus as a goose (it rhymes!) and what this means is that man’s relationship with necessity displays its overarching conflict with beauty and Zzzzz.
But what is this book? Eh, it’s okay I guess.
“What conclusions can we draw? To invite the gods ruins our relationship with them but sets history in motion. A life in which the gods are not invited isn’t worth living. It will be quieter, but there won’t be any stories.”
Let us try to decipher this strange, dense book. Roberto Calasso takes on Greek mythology.
But what is Greek mythology? Capricious gods. Adulterous heroes. Many headed monsters. Irony. Hubris.
Calasso explains the difference between narrative and myth: A myth has several different versions, different retellings, but the thrust is often the same — there’s always a labyrinth and a monster and a hero and princess but how they got there, who they were, just how the plot played itself out must change. This is the essence of the myth. A narrative is a singular, crafted story. When a mythical tale is pared down to a single interpretation, specific plot-characters-theme, when its variants are lost, it is no longer a myth.
But what is Greek mythology? A panoply of sexual assault and women hanging from trees.
But what is Greek mythology? Duality. Phantoms. Twins.
“There are two strands to the story of the Pelopids: the tale of a king’s descendants, a succession of atrocities, each worse than the one before; and the tale of a series of talismans, each taking over from another in silence, each deciding the fate of men.”
Meanwhile, the Helen who launched the Trojan War, may have only been a phantom twin, swapped out when she was initially journeying to Troy (a point Calasso delights in returning to the whole book long). Athena finds her childhood playmate looked exactly like her and this is why Zeus tricked Athena into killing her. There should only be one Athena.
The heroes of ancient Greece all have godly-antecedents. Theseus, the Minotaur(bull) slayer, becomes a bull in the end, his stories all mirroring earlier feats of Dionysus, often depicted as a bull. The tale of Ariadne can be drawn back to multiple different goddesses. The warrior women of the time fall back to Artemis or Athena. Echoes.
But they all fall short. Achilles’ life is so brief because of how close he is to the gods.
But what is this book? Occasionally a straight retelling of many Greek myths, both popular and obscure and seemingly with an emphasis on rape and abduction. Laced with thematic analysis, historical conjecture, and anecdote, Calasso rewrites the ancient tales of gods and heroes, often multiple times with different results. He sounds kind of smug about it.
But what is this book? Fascinating symbolism extraction mixed with metaphysical nonsense. An unintended duality, The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony vacillates between wholly engaging and hopelessly monotonous. One chapter, we are following Calasso down an engrossing tangent, as he introduces a king from Ancient Greece whose entire history and character has been lost to time, save for one repeated trait: hospitality. A very hospitable king. That’s all we know. Hospitable. Calasso then extrapolates this to mean that actually, this king was the king of the dead, the most hospitable king of all, as he welcomes all. Calasso fills in all this backstory and conjecture to make this somehow make sense.
Follow this into another chapter about the birth of ‘necessity’ and the goddesses who commanded such and how they can never be cowed and lord over gods and men alike except that one time when one of them got tricked and impregnated by Zeus as a goose (it rhymes!) and what this means is that man’s relationship with necessity displays its overarching conflict with beauty and Zzzzz.
But what is this book? Eh, it’s okay I guess.
“What conclusions can we draw? To invite the gods ruins our relationship with them but sets history in motion. A life in which the gods are not invited isn’t worth living. It will be quieter, but there won’t be any stories.”
December 19, 2021
Este es un libro para hacerse más sabio. Sí, la prosa es exquisita. Sí, la variedad de las historias es inagotable. Sí, la riqueza de las fuentes es abrumadora. Da igual. Lo inaudito, lo inefable de este libro es que el Sr. Calasso no solo cuenta mitos, sino que lo hace utilizando el pensamiento mítico. La forma en que funciona un mito es radicalmente distinta al pensamiento científico: un historiador, un biólogo, un físico aspiran a contar hechos de forma inmutable, irrefutable, no falsable. Aspiran a que nadie pueda contar los hechos de forma distinta a como lo han hecho ellos. El pensamiento mítico funciona justo al revés: el creador de mitos aspira a que se cuenten de forma distinta cada vez, con nuevos matices, con nuevos giros, con nuevos hallazgos, hasta llegar a englobar una cosa y su contraria. El pensamiento mítico da coherencia a lo incoherente. Es la concordia discordantium. Son el áncora y el delfín de Aldo Manuzio. Festina lente.
El Sr. Calasso bucea en la tradición clásica y despliega leyenda tras leyenda, recuenta las mismas historias una y otra vez, las entrelaza usando unos mismos personajes (dioses, daímones, héroes y hombres), que nunca son realmente los mismos. Zeus nunca es el mismo Zeus en cada uno de sus estupros. Ulises es distinto en cada uno de sus viajes. Todo es una excusa para hablar del ser humano, de sus pasiones, de sus temores, de lo ridículo y lo sublime. Todo es un pretexto para ofrecer una explicación, increíble pero plausible, de la realidad.
Nada de esto es distinto a lo que hace la Literatura. Pero hacerlo usando la materia prima de la mitología griega es una salvajada, una hazaña al alcance de muy pocos: el sabio Sr. Calasso en este libro, el poderoso mago Alan Moore en su Promethea. Tal vez los embaucadores Jung o Jodorowsky.
El Sr. Calasso bucea en la tradición clásica y despliega leyenda tras leyenda, recuenta las mismas historias una y otra vez, las entrelaza usando unos mismos personajes (dioses, daímones, héroes y hombres), que nunca son realmente los mismos. Zeus nunca es el mismo Zeus en cada uno de sus estupros. Ulises es distinto en cada uno de sus viajes. Todo es una excusa para hablar del ser humano, de sus pasiones, de sus temores, de lo ridículo y lo sublime. Todo es un pretexto para ofrecer una explicación, increíble pero plausible, de la realidad.
Nada de esto es distinto a lo que hace la Literatura. Pero hacerlo usando la materia prima de la mitología griega es una salvajada, una hazaña al alcance de muy pocos: el sabio Sr. Calasso en este libro, el poderoso mago Alan Moore en su Promethea. Tal vez los embaucadores Jung o Jodorowsky.
October 6, 2008
I seem to be out of step with the Goodreads consensus on this one. I received this book as a gift from a friend who claimed it was one of the best things she'd ever read. There's no doubting Calasso's scholarship, but unless you have a PhD in Greek mythology (or just a boundless fascination in it) then I imagine you'll struggle with this as I did.
December 5, 2017
"entra-se no mito quando se entra no risco, e o mito é o encanto que nesse momento consigamos fazer agir em nós. Mais do que uma crença, é um laço mágico que nos cinge. É um sortilégio que a alma concede a si própria."
É isso...
É isso...
August 2, 2021
This is a truly remarkable book which puts classical mythology in an entirely new context. It is one of those rare, insightful books that comes along once every fifty years or so. It is a retelling (translated from the Italian) of Greek myth by an exceptionally talented writer in a style that is poetic, provocative, and profound. The author seeks on every page to delve into the deepest meanings of myths: how they came to be, what they tell us about human nature, and what they reveal about the Greeks in particular.
Calasso has done his homework. In a page by page reference key he lists the ancient sources he quotes in his text, including Homer, Hesiod, Pindar, Vergil, Ovid, Plutarch, Callimachus, Horace, Herodotus, Hyginus, Eratosthenes, Nonnus, Diodorus Siculus, Apollonius Rhodius, Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Lycophron, Theocritus, Athenaeus, Strabo, Pausanius and even obscure writers such as Simia, Tzetzes, Pseudo-Lucian, Nicola Damasceno, and Chaeremon.
He understands and expounds effortlessly upon the social, moral and religious dimensions of myth and touches on these with scholarly depth and precision. He is interested in the connections between myth and religious ritual. He dispenses entirely with dull recitations of what his sophisticated readers likely already know and instead offers fresh, insightful interpretations in a style that is colorful, lively, and literary.
This is neither a mythology schoolbook (a la Edith Hamilton), nor a pedantic treatise. It is something altogether different, and that is what makes it so attractive. Also highly recommended in the same vein is: The Universe, the Gods, and Men: Ancient Greek Myths
Calasso has done his homework. In a page by page reference key he lists the ancient sources he quotes in his text, including Homer, Hesiod, Pindar, Vergil, Ovid, Plutarch, Callimachus, Horace, Herodotus, Hyginus, Eratosthenes, Nonnus, Diodorus Siculus, Apollonius Rhodius, Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Lycophron, Theocritus, Athenaeus, Strabo, Pausanius and even obscure writers such as Simia, Tzetzes, Pseudo-Lucian, Nicola Damasceno, and Chaeremon.
He understands and expounds effortlessly upon the social, moral and religious dimensions of myth and touches on these with scholarly depth and precision. He is interested in the connections between myth and religious ritual. He dispenses entirely with dull recitations of what his sophisticated readers likely already know and instead offers fresh, insightful interpretations in a style that is colorful, lively, and literary.
This is neither a mythology schoolbook (a la Edith Hamilton), nor a pedantic treatise. It is something altogether different, and that is what makes it so attractive. Also highly recommended in the same vein is: The Universe, the Gods, and Men: Ancient Greek Myths
August 31, 2017
Ay me dio tristeza terminar este libro, me gustó mucho ir leyéndolo de a poquito, no es para leer en cualquier momento, de corrido o así nomás.
Voy a contar de qué se trata porque no es muy claro. Obviamente gran parte de lo lindo del libro está en esa ambigüedad, pero esto es una review de goodreads. Calasso es un erudito mal. Relata los mitos y a la vez los analiza y reflexiona sobre temas que trata cada uno, sobre figuras que se repiten, sobre la relación entre antigüedad y modernidad. La forma en que enlaza los mitos, cómo va dosificando la información con saltos de párrafo locos, agregando personajes, detalles, lecturas, citas, yendo y viniendo, retomando lo que había dicho pero cada vez con otro enfoque y cómo va armando algo super denso pero que a la vez da mucho placer leer es hermoso y me dio muchísima envidia. Lo recomiendo para tiempos oscuros.
Voy a contar de qué se trata porque no es muy claro. Obviamente gran parte de lo lindo del libro está en esa ambigüedad, pero esto es una review de goodreads. Calasso es un erudito mal. Relata los mitos y a la vez los analiza y reflexiona sobre temas que trata cada uno, sobre figuras que se repiten, sobre la relación entre antigüedad y modernidad. La forma en que enlaza los mitos, cómo va dosificando la información con saltos de párrafo locos, agregando personajes, detalles, lecturas, citas, yendo y viniendo, retomando lo que había dicho pero cada vez con otro enfoque y cómo va armando algo super denso pero que a la vez da mucho placer leer es hermoso y me dio muchísima envidia. Lo recomiendo para tiempos oscuros.
May 23, 2024
El ciclo del mito. Pero durante; la develación de la consistencia del mito. Si el mito es substancia, no es gracias al rito, pues el rito se trata sólo de llevar a lo matérico aquello que es intangible, es decir, el nacimiento del gesto. Pero el mito, como plantea Calasso en esta obra, es aquello que está antes del gesto, "el forro invisible que lo acompaña". Esa es su substancia. El velo. La venda. Como vendas ondeantes acompañan a dioses y héroes y que en esta construcción literaria de Calasso, también ondeante, llevan a otro lugar a las alegorías de la Teogonía griega. Sin ser una Teogonía más, esta obra inclasificable es un rapto del ensayo a la ficción (así como el rapto es inmanente a los dioses, sobre todo a Zeus), es la reconstrucción del relato mítico griego y órfico, sin alterar sus elementos, pero encarnando la prosa en una especie de Teseo que enrolla el hilo de Ariadna mientras avanza por el laberinto del Minotauro para matar al monstruo, finalmente. Y aunque el hilo de esta narración no es el de Ariadna, sino más bien el rastro invisible de Europa raptada por un toro, aún es una narración dentro de un laberinto. El toro era Zeus. Llega entonces la pregunta (¿Cómo había comenzado todo?) que arranca, así como en la Odisea, la Orestiada o la empresa de Jasón y los argonautas en busca del vellocino de oro, la travesía del lenguaje (y esto se verá al final) en busca del origen de todo que, como máxima cualidad del mito, sabemos que no es un origen, sino un final que a la vez es un nuevo origen: el de la palabra escrita. Cadmo, hermano de Europa, parte en su búsqueda por insistencia de su padre. Nunca la encuentra, pero salva a Zeus de su destrucción y del robo de su haz de relámpagos por parte de Tifeo, con lo que Zeus perdía todo su poder y significaba la entrada del caos, la muerte del mito, el desgarro de los velos. Todos los mecanismos de la funcionalidad del mito (el monstruo, el héroe, la metamorfosis, el estupro) serían destruidos de no ser por Cadmo, el fenicio, que con "sus dones provistos de mente", "vocales y consonantes unidas en signos minúsculos" (el alfabeto), abrirían al mito su hogar definitivo: la literatura.
"Los mitos griegos eran historias transmitidas con variantes. El escritor, fuera Píndaro u Ovidio, las recomponía de manera diferente, en cada ocasión, omitiendo o añadiendo. Pero las nuevas variantes debían ser raras y poco visibles. Así cada escritor incrementaba y afinaba el cuerpo de las historias. Así siguió respirando el mito en la literatura".
Y esta es, retóricamente, la causa del ocultamiento necesario en la supervivencia del mito. "Ocultar con la luz". En esta duplicidad/multiplicidad de versiones, los dioses se ocultan y las vendas que los recubren reconectan al "todo con el todo", que es lo único que da sentido a la vida, según Calasso. Así, la función del mito es ligar lo visible y lo invisible, cielo y tierra, materia e idea. Allí también, en la posibilidad de varias versiones de un mismo dios, está la copia no como una falsificación sino como una pequeña alteración del orden que genera un nuevo significado. Y dentro de ello, el simulacro como fuente misma del origen de los dioses: "En el origen del simulacro está la imagen mental. Este ser caprichoso e impalpable replica al mundo y al mismo tiempo lo sujeta a la furia combinatoria, azotando sus formas en una proliferación inexhausta". Aquí Helena es el poder del simulacro; las muchas Helenas y todas sus versiones son un simulacro: "Cuando un mito deja actuar la repetición y la variante, aflora por un instante el esqueleto del sistema, el orden latente, cubierto de algas". Helena como simulacro (y causa de una guerra) deja en evidencia ese esqueleto.
Para Homero, según señala Calasso, Helena no era un simulacro, sino El simulacro, es decir, Homero buscaba la unicidad, rechazaba las copias "por fines literarios". Homero habría silenciado el escándalo máximo de la guerra de Troya: el derramamiento de sangre por un fantasma, por el cuerpo de una mujer que no existía.
Esa intención de lo único, de lo irrepetible, que buscaba Homero, es aquello que escapa al dominio del lenguaje según Calasso, que lo distingue dentro del mito como un "reino" con el que conviven y a la vez se sobrepasan entre sí, el reino de la metamorfosis, que existe cuando el lenguaje no se ha separado de la cosa, ni la mente de la materia; el reino de la sustitución, que es el del signo y la palabra; y el reino de Zeus, que son las historias griegas. Historias que en este libro inician y terminan en la misma historia, pero no en el mismo lugar: el desenlace de la búsqueda de Europa por Cadmo desembocará en el regalo que le hace Zeus, su boda con Armonía (hija de Afrodita y Ares), cosa que solo terminará en tragedia, pero traerá un hilo de escape al mito: la escritura.
Una obra abundante, expansiva y densa a la vez, llena de asociaciones y conexiones como vendas que envuelven una inmaterialidad hoy posible sólo en su encarnación dentro de la ficción literaria, así como el juego de velos que se desvelan y no, tras los cuales puede estar una estatua de madera vistiendo un velo de novia pronta a casarse con Zeus...
"Los mitos griegos eran historias transmitidas con variantes. El escritor, fuera Píndaro u Ovidio, las recomponía de manera diferente, en cada ocasión, omitiendo o añadiendo. Pero las nuevas variantes debían ser raras y poco visibles. Así cada escritor incrementaba y afinaba el cuerpo de las historias. Así siguió respirando el mito en la literatura".
Y esta es, retóricamente, la causa del ocultamiento necesario en la supervivencia del mito. "Ocultar con la luz". En esta duplicidad/multiplicidad de versiones, los dioses se ocultan y las vendas que los recubren reconectan al "todo con el todo", que es lo único que da sentido a la vida, según Calasso. Así, la función del mito es ligar lo visible y lo invisible, cielo y tierra, materia e idea. Allí también, en la posibilidad de varias versiones de un mismo dios, está la copia no como una falsificación sino como una pequeña alteración del orden que genera un nuevo significado. Y dentro de ello, el simulacro como fuente misma del origen de los dioses: "En el origen del simulacro está la imagen mental. Este ser caprichoso e impalpable replica al mundo y al mismo tiempo lo sujeta a la furia combinatoria, azotando sus formas en una proliferación inexhausta". Aquí Helena es el poder del simulacro; las muchas Helenas y todas sus versiones son un simulacro: "Cuando un mito deja actuar la repetición y la variante, aflora por un instante el esqueleto del sistema, el orden latente, cubierto de algas". Helena como simulacro (y causa de una guerra) deja en evidencia ese esqueleto.
Para Homero, según señala Calasso, Helena no era un simulacro, sino El simulacro, es decir, Homero buscaba la unicidad, rechazaba las copias "por fines literarios". Homero habría silenciado el escándalo máximo de la guerra de Troya: el derramamiento de sangre por un fantasma, por el cuerpo de una mujer que no existía.
Esa intención de lo único, de lo irrepetible, que buscaba Homero, es aquello que escapa al dominio del lenguaje según Calasso, que lo distingue dentro del mito como un "reino" con el que conviven y a la vez se sobrepasan entre sí, el reino de la metamorfosis, que existe cuando el lenguaje no se ha separado de la cosa, ni la mente de la materia; el reino de la sustitución, que es el del signo y la palabra; y el reino de Zeus, que son las historias griegas. Historias que en este libro inician y terminan en la misma historia, pero no en el mismo lugar: el desenlace de la búsqueda de Europa por Cadmo desembocará en el regalo que le hace Zeus, su boda con Armonía (hija de Afrodita y Ares), cosa que solo terminará en tragedia, pero traerá un hilo de escape al mito: la escritura.
Una obra abundante, expansiva y densa a la vez, llena de asociaciones y conexiones como vendas que envuelven una inmaterialidad hoy posible sólo en su encarnación dentro de la ficción literaria, así como el juego de velos que se desvelan y no, tras los cuales puede estar una estatua de madera vistiendo un velo de novia pronta a casarse con Zeus...
September 16, 2017
Opera immensa, difficile apprezzarla pienamente con una sola lettura... Il mito, tutto il mito greco, raccolto in un unico libro, raccontato, interpretato, rivisitato, con la circolarità e le mille versioni che sono proprie, appunto, del mito. Un libro sicuramente difficile, ma ricco, denso, a tratti illuminante, in certi punti estremamente oscuro, è una lettura che mi ha arricchito moltissimo e credo riprenderò sicuramente.
Tra un mito e l'altro, emerge la famosa cultura greca, la matrice classica da cui discende, a quanto pare, tutta la cultura occidentale. La razionalità, l'eleganza, la logica, sono solo alcune delle qualità che siamo soliti attribuire ai nostri illustri antenati ellenici. Nulla di più sbagliato!
"I Greci non avevano alcuna inclinazione alla temperanza. Sapevano che l'eccesso è il dio, e che il dio travolge la vita (...) La sobrietà occidentale, che due millenni dopo sarebbe diventata il buon senso di chiunque, fu all'inizio un miraggio intravisto nella tempesta delle forze."
Ho l'impressione che gran parte di quel che noi moderni siamo soliti considerare "classico", ha in realtà a che fare con il neoclassico, una cristallizzazione estetizzante delle forme e degli archetipi della cultura classica, avvenuta tra il '600 e l'800, di cui ancora oggi subiamo l'influenza. Quel che si scopre leggendo i miti greci è che i classici erano, nei gusti, nell'immaginario, nei costumi, nella sessualità, estremamente diversi da noi, quasi degli alieni. Come sia possibile che nonostante tutto oggi noi occidentali ci consideriamo eredi della cultura classica diventa, secondo me, dopo questa lettura, ancora più inverosimile, eppure, come dice Calasso, "I miti sono composti di azioni che includono in sé il proprio opposto", e forse, proprio per questa circolarità che concilia gli opposti, ancora adesso noi possiamo specchiarci in queste incredibili storie fantasy di quasi tremila anni fa.
Tra un mito e l'altro, emerge la famosa cultura greca, la matrice classica da cui discende, a quanto pare, tutta la cultura occidentale. La razionalità, l'eleganza, la logica, sono solo alcune delle qualità che siamo soliti attribuire ai nostri illustri antenati ellenici. Nulla di più sbagliato!
"I Greci non avevano alcuna inclinazione alla temperanza. Sapevano che l'eccesso è il dio, e che il dio travolge la vita (...) La sobrietà occidentale, che due millenni dopo sarebbe diventata il buon senso di chiunque, fu all'inizio un miraggio intravisto nella tempesta delle forze."
Ho l'impressione che gran parte di quel che noi moderni siamo soliti considerare "classico", ha in realtà a che fare con il neoclassico, una cristallizzazione estetizzante delle forme e degli archetipi della cultura classica, avvenuta tra il '600 e l'800, di cui ancora oggi subiamo l'influenza. Quel che si scopre leggendo i miti greci è che i classici erano, nei gusti, nell'immaginario, nei costumi, nella sessualità, estremamente diversi da noi, quasi degli alieni. Come sia possibile che nonostante tutto oggi noi occidentali ci consideriamo eredi della cultura classica diventa, secondo me, dopo questa lettura, ancora più inverosimile, eppure, come dice Calasso, "I miti sono composti di azioni che includono in sé il proprio opposto", e forse, proprio per questa circolarità che concilia gli opposti, ancora adesso noi possiamo specchiarci in queste incredibili storie fantasy di quasi tremila anni fa.
December 4, 2023
Por momentos es como leer una enciclopedia, interesante pero aburrido, y por momentos es altamente poético. Sin lugar a dudas, desafiante.
Es innumerable la cantidad de veces que fui a buscar a internet los nombres de lugares, ninfas, dioses locales, y animales fabulosos. Qué puedo decir que resuma un libro que tiene 400 páginas y en el que agregué 780 notas? Por ejemplo, que al fin de cada capítulo, el autor hace un cierre magistral, que en algún caso pensé que sólo ese cierre valía leer el libro entero.
Me gustó particularmente una entrada de lo que escribió sobre este libro Jacinto Antón para el diario El país, de España: “El procedimiento del mitógrafo es éste: se ilumina una zona, dejando otra en la oscuridad. Y se vislumbra una cadena en la que todo está interrelacionado".
Sin dudas, Calasso ha sido un mitógrafo y un maestro.
Es innumerable la cantidad de veces que fui a buscar a internet los nombres de lugares, ninfas, dioses locales, y animales fabulosos. Qué puedo decir que resuma un libro que tiene 400 páginas y en el que agregué 780 notas? Por ejemplo, que al fin de cada capítulo, el autor hace un cierre magistral, que en algún caso pensé que sólo ese cierre valía leer el libro entero.
Me gustó particularmente una entrada de lo que escribió sobre este libro Jacinto Antón para el diario El país, de España: “El procedimiento del mitógrafo es éste: se ilumina una zona, dejando otra en la oscuridad. Y se vislumbra una cadena en la que todo está interrelacionado".
Sin dudas, Calasso ha sido un mitógrafo y un maestro.
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