As the Greeks told it, the Agamemnon Cycle began in a small Lydian kingdom called Sipylus. Today Mt. Sipylus overlooks the road between Manisa and Izmir in Turkey’s Manisa province. An enormous crumbling relief sculpture watches over Manisa from bare granite. The statue is historically identified with the goddess the Lydians called Kuvava and the […]

They say that there is also a shrine of the heroine Iphigenia; for she too according to them died in Megara. Now I have heard another account of Iphigenia that is given by Arcadians and I know that Hesiod, in his poem A Catalogue of Women, says that Iphigenia did not die, but by the […]

JUST SAW YOUR FOURTH JAZZ CRITICS POLL. IT’S OBVIOUS THAT THERE IS A NEW MINORITY GROUP, “WHITE JAZZ MUSICIANS.” THE ONLY THING I GAINED FROM STUDYING THE OPINIONS OF YOUR LITERARY GENIUSES OF JAZZ IS COMPLETE AND TOTAL DISGUST. Telegram from Stan Kenton to Down Beat magazine, 1956. An article from my new jazz blog, […]

And so he went privily into the court, and saw this adventure, whereof it raised his heart, and he would assay it as other knights did, but for he was poor and poorly arrayed he put him not far in press. But in his heart he was fully assured to do as well, if his […]

So they cut down the trees, and burned their stumps that the grass might grow sweet for their kine and sheep and horses; and they diked the river where need was all through the plain, and far up into the wild-wood to bridle the winter floods: and they made them boats to ferry them over, […]

[O]n Good Friday I awoke to find the sun shining brightly for the first time in this house: the little garden was radiant with green, the birds sang, and at last I could sit on the roof and enjoy the long-yearned-for peace with its message of promise. Full of this sentiment, I suddenly remembered that […]

   ‘Shall Rome or Heathen rule in Arthur’s realm?Flash brand and lance, fall battleaxe upon helm,Fall battleaxe, and flash brand!  Let the King reign.    ‘Strike for the King and live! his knights have heardThat God hath told the King a secret word.Fall battleaxe, and flash brand!  Let the King reign.    ‘Blow trumpet! he […]

In a village of La Mancha, the name of which I have no desire to call to mind, there lived not long since one of those gentlemen that keep a lance in the lance-rack, an old buckler, a lean hack, and a greyhound for coursing. An olla of rather more beef than mutton, a salad […]

Chrétien’s grail was a serving dish upon rich meats and delicacies magically appeared.  For later writers it was the chalice Christ used at the last Supper.  The magical blood-dripping lance inspired by the Spear of Lugh becomes the Spear which pierced our Lord on the cross.  These relics were brought to Britain by Joseph of […]

The term “Cultural Marxism” is often bandied about as the Right’s version of “Fascism” — a slur that means little save “I don’t like it.” This episode compares and contrasts three of the largest influences on our current culture war — Antonio Gramsci, Karl Popper and the Frankfurt School.