In their commentaries to the Laozi, Wang Bi and Xiang’er take radically different approaches to the text. Between the two of them, they are liable to upset anyone who wants to get at the original meaning of the text, since they contradict each other at every turn. Westerners are keen to favor the more philosophical [...]
or, Why It’s Not Called the Feminogion
The Mabinogi — that is, the first four branches of the Mabinogion — is surprisingly sympathetic towards women. Female characters play a central role: they make decisions that are important to the plot, voice their interests, and get justice in the end. Most of the women are positively portrayed, [...]
In the Mencius, Heaven is the behind-the-scenes force that defines ethics and provides the impetus for people to behave according to its moral precepts. According to Mencius, people are naturally good. All we have to do is find it within ourselves and express it outwardly, and everything will soon fall into place. Ethics is harmony [...]
In the time before fiction, there was only history. There was one world, and it served to contain both fact and fantasy, in short anything one wished to put there. While some historians, like Bede or Gildas, may have endeavored to describe real events, Geoffrey of Monmouth used history to re-imagine Welsh folklore. In the [...]
In our modern, Western culture, we conceive of two distinct categories of animal: wild animals, who live in nature and must be hunted if they are to become food; and domestic animals, who are considered property and usually destined for human plates. We recognize domestic animals as cultural products, created through artificial selection to better serve our needs. They represent our domination of nature, even the very evolutionary forces behind it. On the other hand, wild animals are often thought of as noble beasts, worthy of our protection or at least consideration, while domestic animals are stupid, unfeeling, and uncouth. Yet all this presupposes a divide between nature and culture, a line crossed only by humans — specifically modern, Western humans. There is a wide spectrum of human-animal relationships, ranging from the most intimate acts of pig-suckling to the most distant remove of eating star-shaped chicken nuggets. And in the end even intimacy doesn’t guarantee interspecies understanding.
The Symbolism of Wine in Ancient Christian Texts
Ah, the myriad tastes of wine. At once the drink of Bacchae and of Christians. Somehow the symbol of the blood of Jesus is also the source of so much debauchery. In ancient Christian texts, wine takes on roles both holy and unholy, fleshly and divine. This seeming [...]
Man’s Place in the Metamorphoses
Ovid’s Metamorphoses is a series of loosely connected tales, each describing the transformation of a human into an animal or element of nature. Two chapters stand out from the rest: The Ages of Man (and the related sections surrounding it) and The Doctrines of Pythagoras. Instead of detailing a single metamorphosis, [...]
Lucretius and Livy Reconstruct Roman Religion
Rome was an empire spread thin, its citizens drawn from many cultures and locations. The city was constructed from scratch by a random conglomeration of Latin peoples who added citizens over the years to grow in population and power. The problem, then, was the meaning of being Roman. Seemingly the [...]
A Dialogue on the Philosopher King
Socrates was feeling quite happy with himself. He had just finished constructing his perfect city — at least in the minds of his followers. “Perhaps,” he was saying to himself as he walked down the road, “a student of mine will one day construct a kallipolis. He would be a [...]
In Sophocles’ Antigone (1), the argument between Antigone and Creon acts as metaphor for the tension between the oikos and the polis in Ancient Greece. Each character represents a force for the consolidation of society under a single system. However, Sophocles uses his tragedy to warn his viewers against choosing either extremist viewpoint. Antigone comes [...]
