Farmers Letters: Election 2012 - Liberty Dons the Necklace of Harmonia

Sunday, September 23, 2012

Election 2012 - Liberty Dons the Necklace of Harmonia

Legend believes that Harmonia had a necklace that most people and theologians associate with her name This magical necklace was highly coveted amongst women; for it was believed that who ever wore it would have eternal youth and beauty.

Harmonia was born of Aphrodite's adulterous affair with the god Ares. She was awarded to Kadmos, the hero founder of Thebes, in a wedding attended by all the gods. Hephaistos, however, was still furious over his wife's betrayal, and presented Harmonia with a cursed necklace, which doomed her descendants to endless tragedy.

"Mousai (Muses) and Kharites (Charites, Graces), daughters of Zeus, who came once to the wedding of Kadmos (Cadmus)[and Harmonia] and sang the lovely verse, ‘What is beautiful is loved, what is not beautiful is not loved.’ This is the verse that went through your immortal lips."

- Theognis, Fragment 1. 15 (trans. Gerber) (Greek elegiac C6th B.C.) :

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Andrei Tarkovsky

“We can express our feelings regarding the world around us either by poetic or by descriptive means... I prefer to express myself metaphorically. Let me stress: metaphorically, not symbolically. A symbol contains within itself a definite meaning, certain intellectual formula, while metaphor is an image. An image possessing the same distinguishing features as the world it represents. An image — as opposed to a symbol — is indefinite in meaning. One cannot speak of the infinite world by applying tools that are definite and finite. We can analyse the formula that constitutes a symbol, while metaphor is a being-within-itself, it’s a monomial. It falls apart at any attempt of touching it."