theater

Tableau unfolding before me
Heralding a new season
Each person anxious for the future
And what it may bring
The chatter quiets as all are
Enchanted by the scene, actors
Relaying tales of hope, otherwise unseen

by K, Copyright 2013

*Another poem inspired by my reading of Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes, by Edith Hamilton. I have been reading the section on Dionysus and found the idea of the festivals that were thrown in his honor to be so magical and fascinating. Here is a quote:

"It was in a theater; and the ceremony was the performance of a play. The greatest poetry in Greece, and among the greatest in the world, was written for Dionysus. The poets who wrote the plays, the actors and singers who took part in them, were all regarded as servants of the god."

I've always thought the idea of play performances during early times in history must have been something so amazing to behold. For some reason, I just always think how much fun it would have been to be in an audience and watch one of these ancient plays, written in Greece, or by even Shakespeare, unfold before me. This festival for Dionysus sounds like it would have been just magical! 

persephone

Pallid beauty
Engaged upon the Earth
Rousing the lands and
Sharing her inner mirth
Exempt from death until
Perpetual death grasps hold
Hades pulling her down beneath
Once Summer turns cold
Never again to be seen
Except on Spring's threshold

by K, Copyright 2013

*I've been thoroughly enjoying the mythology book I've been reading lately, especially taken with Demeter and Persephone. Maybe it is the mother in me?

Click to view some amazing art I've found on the web:
Hades abducting Persephone
Demeter
Persephone

Here are two quotes (and my thoughts) that I have loved, pertaining to Persephone and her mother, Demeter, from Mythology: Timeless tales of Gods and Heroes by Edith Hamilton:

"But all the while Persephone knew how brief that beauty was; fruits, flowers, leaves, all the fair growth of the earth, must end with the coming of the cold and pass like herself into the power of death. After the lord of the dark world below carried her away she was never again the gay young creature who had played in the flowery meadow without a thought of care or trouble. She did indeed rise from the dead every spring, but she brought with her the memory of where she had come from..."

I think that quote is true for all who have suffered in their life. Those who have struggled and truly suffered have been to a place where many haven't. They may once again find themselves in the "normal" world, but they bring with them those memories that cause them to see what others can't.

***

 

"The Olympians were "the happy gods", "the death-less gods", far removed from suffering mortals destined to die. But in their grief and hour of death, men could turn for compassion to the goddess who sorrowed and the goddess who died."

What a thought! A god or goddess who has experienced what immortals do, amidst all the other gods who are destined to never fully understand or comprehend the magnitude of such an experience.