This is the Phaedrus part of our version of the Symposium, which we put up here temporarily (we'll explain later):
(Phaedrus)
Panel 2:
PH, in upper corner (half-stylized?),
blending into the next panel
PH: Eros is a great and
wonderful god…
Panel 3:
Chaos as background, Gaia
rising, Eros hovering overhead
Pictures
PH (cut into the panel, speechifying (arms raised)): Eros is a great
and wonderful god, for he is one of the oldest gods. Hesiod says that Chaos
came first---followed by Gaia, and Eros…
CAPTION (bottom): Hesiod
goes on: “…who is the most beautiful among the immortal gods. He is the
dissolver of care, he who overpowers the mind and the thoughtful council of
gods and humans alike.”
Panel 4:
Dark background, PH stylized
(black and white), holding on to a canted erastes-eromenos scene that borders
into the next panel.
PH: Eros is also the source
of the greatest benefits. I know of no greater blessing for a young man than to
have a good lover, and for a lover, to have a beloved.
Panel 5:
Dining room; PH and ER
winking at each other (PA between the two)
PH: The principle that ought
to guide men who strive to live nobly---the principle of honor---is best
fostered by love, not by birth, money, or other means.
Panel 6:
Dark background, PH stylized
(black and white), holding on to a canted erastes-eromenos scene that borders
into the next panel.
PH in off: A lover who is doing
anything dishonorable---he will be most pained when found out by his beloved,
rather than his father or other people.
Panel 7:
PH, trying to squeeze his
speech bubble into a tight space, background somehow blending into next panel
PH: And the same holds for the beloved with
respect to his lover. And if there were some way of contriving that a state or
an army should be made up of lovers and their beloveds, they would be the very
best governors of their own city, emulating each other in honor…
PAGE 6
Panel 1:
Band of Thebes in battle
formation, (PH in upper left corner, speechifying?)
CAPTION (bottom): The Sacred
Band of Thebes, a battalion composed of 150 pairs of male lovers, was
organized in 378 BC. It’s disputed whether Plato got the idea from the Thebans,
or they from him. The Band acted as a single unit of shock troops to cripple
the enemy by engaging and killing their best men and leaders in battle.
PH: …and when at each other’s
side, although a mere handful, they would overcome the world…
Panel 2:
Left: Tomb of Iolaus with a
pair of Theban’s taking the oath in front of Iolaus’ altar
CAPTION: The band derived
it’s epitaph “sacred” from the oath sworn by each pair of lovers unto the tomb
of Iolaus, Heracles’ lover, pledging to follow the example of the über-heroes.
PH (in off):...a real man would hate to be seen by
his beloved throwing away his weapons…
Panel 3:
Opposing phalanxes, word
graphic “Stand at ease,” shields clinking, polling noises, Band phalanx
standing at ease.
CAPTION (right): During
their first engagement, at the opening of the Boeotian War in 378 BC, the Band
joined the main Theban forces in an unheard-of maneuver. As the Spartan forces
were advancing toward the Theban ranks---with the Band in avant-garde
position---Chabrias, the Theban leader, unexpectedly gave his most famous
command. The audacity of the maneuver and the discipline of the execution was
such that Agesilaus, the Spartan king, halted his advance, and eventually
withdrew.
PH (in off):…he would prefer
to be many times dead before that happened. And, to say nothing of abandoning
one’s beloved or not coming to his aid when he’s in danger…
Panel 4 and 5:
Left: battle sketch
PH (in off):…there’s no one so bad that, once in the
grip of Eros, he would not be directed toward virtue…
Right:
CAPTION: The battle opened with cavalry charges that
kicked up a lot of dust, and the Spartans were unable to observe the advance of
the Theban army until the last moment. The Theban leader Epaminondas had
ordered his troops to advance diagonally, the first recorded instance of the
military formation later known as the oblique order. By the time the Spartans
realized that something unusual was amiss, it was too late. The Spartans
hastily stretched their right wing in an attempt to outflank and engulf the
rapidly approaching Thebans (the standard tactic) but the Band ahead of the
Theban left wing interfered, keeping the Spartans in place until the rest of the
Theban heavy infantry smashed into the enemy’s right wing. The sheer number of
Thebans overwhelmed the Spartan right wing quickly. Most Spartan leaders were
killed on the spot, including the king. This was the first defeat of the
Spartan forces in open battle ever.
PAGE 7
Panel 1:
Battlefield confusion, Macedonian cavalry (Alexander)
in evidence.
CAPTION: Defeat finally came in the battle of
Chaeronea in 338 BC, when Philip II of Macedon and his son Alexander put an end
to the Theban hegemony. The Theban army fled, but the Sacred Band held their
ground and died a hero’s death.
PH (in off):…love will make men dare to die for their
beloved---love alone…
Panel 2:
Back in the dining room
PH: …and this applies to women as well; Alcestis, is a
monument to all of Hellas…
Panel 3:
Heracles reclaiming Alcestis from Hades
PH (in off):…for she was willing to die on behalf of
her husband.
CAPTION (bottom): King Admetus, Alcestis’ husband, enraged the Fates,
who wanted to see him dead. Apollo got them drunk and convinced to let somebody
else die instead of Admetus. Nobody else volunteered, so Alcestis came forward.
The gods were so impressed by her sacrifice that Heracles was sent to reclaim
her from the underworld.
Panel
4:
Back in the dining room; PH straddling both panels,
holding on to a mildly canted panel of Achilles dressing Patrocles’ wound
(alternatively: somebody’s being served wine from jug in foreground with said
picture).
PH: So the gods, too, admire the zeal and virtue of Love…
…the honored Achilles they rewarded for his true love
towards his lover Patroclus---his lover, not his beloved, by the way…
Panel 5:
Left: Brad Pitt and Garrett Hedlund from the movie
Troy (2004), color values of the vase painting) (or something better, this is
not a good picture)
CAPTION (bottom, PH continues) …The notion that
Patroclus was the beloved one is a foolish error, for Achilles was surely the
fairer of the of the two, and, as Homer informs us, he was still beardless, and
younger than Patroclus…
CAPTION (right) (COMMENT) Achilles---the archetypical
hero and perfect fighting machine---had himself and his lover Patroclus
enlisted on the Greek side of the Troyan war, having been told by his mother,
sea-goddess Thetis, of the stark choice between fame and ignominious long
life. (Patroclus left, Achilles
right, on their way to Troy in the 2004 rendering of the eponymous movie).
PAGE 8
Panel 1:
Love scene between Achilles and Patroclus
CAPTION (PH continues):…And greatly as the gods honor
the virtue of love….
Panel 2:
Love scene between Achilles and Patroclus evolves,
Patroclus rears Achilles
CAPTION (PH continues):…the return of love on the part
of the beloved is most admired and rewarded by the gods….
Panel 3:
Love scene between Achilles and Patroclus at climax
PH (in off):…but the lover is more divine because he
is inspired by the gods.
Panel 4:
Achilles in tent, resisting entreaties by his comrades
to rejoin the fight
Achilles: This is not my war
CAPTION (COMMENT): Planned as a short campaign to
snatch Helen (wife of Spartan king), from the arms of Paris (brother of Hector
and son of Priam, the king of Troy), the Troyan war dragged on for 10 years. Achilles,
miffed by Agamemnon the leader of the Greek forces, goes on strike…
Panel 5:
Troyan’s setting fire to the Greek ships stranded on
the shore
CAPTION (COMMENT): …at a bad moment, it appears, since
the Troyans have started a dangerous attack, setting fire to the Greek ships stranded
on the shore.}
Panel
6:
Patroclus, in Achilles’ armor leading the Greek forces
CAPTION (COMMENT): Patroclus dons Achilles’ armor, and,
posing as his hero-lover, thrusts the Troyans back
Panel
7:
Greeks pursuing Troyans through the gates of the city,
while Apollo (mirage in the sky) (?) watches on
CAPTION (COMMENT): Giddy with success, the Greeks
press on. Apollo, siding with the Troyans, sneaks up behind Patroclus and
wounds him, enabling Hector to finish off Achilles’ lover.
PAGE 9
Panel 1:
Achilles mourning over Patroclus’ dead body
CAPTION (COMMENT): Achilles swears revenge: Hector
must be destroyed; Achilles enters the battle and prevails, as usual
Panel 2:
Hector dragged through the dust
CAPTION (COMMENT): Hector is destroyed, but now it’s
the turn of the Fates…
Panel 3:
Achilles struck by arrow
CAPTION (COMMENT): …to verify Thetis’ prophesy: Achilles
is struck by Paris’, arrow and dies.
Panel 4:
Back in the dining room; PH continues
PH: The gods honored Achilles and sent him to the
Islands of the blessed.
Panel 5:
Dining room; PH
continues
PH: These are
my reasons for praising Eros as the eldest and mightiest of the gods; the
principle source virtue in life and of happiness after death.
Panel 6:
Dining room; people look at
Pausanias, who rises. The guests drink}
CAPTION (COMMENT): The next speaker is Pausanias, Agathon’s life-long
companion. One of the many ironies here: Plato’s Symposium is to codify “Greek
love” for posterity--- ann erastes (the older “lover”), seeking out his
(younger) eromenos (“beloved”)---but none of the pairings in the text
corresponds to the pattern.
1 comment:
That's beautiful. ^_^
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