by beatriceotto | Jan 15, 2019 | metaphors, poetry mojo, triologisms
One of the many stretch metaphors used by Homer. When you see a comma followed by ‘as …’ it can be a signal to take a good intake of breath to carry you through to the end of the image. Here it is feisty bees and quick-bending wasps who convey the...
by beatriceotto | Dec 6, 2018 | a quote to note
Hyperbole, nothing like it when suitably blatant, creative and outrageous. You couldn’t possibly eat one of these, only engage them in a civilized conversation about world affairs, or in a game of chess.See, from the same book, a similarly improbable yet...
by beatriceotto | Nov 27, 2018 | triologisms
Three triologisms to describe the fine, fast, strong ships that brought the Greeks to Troy. I particularly like ‘sea-wandering’. May you be fast-running and strong-benched, wherever you wander. See also the bestellar reviews, complete with rich...
by beatriceotto | Nov 27, 2018 | triologisms
One goddess you should never cross, quick to rouse to wrath and terrible in her exactions. Divinely, drop-dead gorgeous, of course.There are several heart- prefixed triologisms in Homer, emphasizing the human pain, terror and sorrow of war and hostility; see, for...
by beatriceotto | Nov 20, 2018 | triologisms
Three triologisms describing the Greeks convey something expansive and vital, though the same could be said of the Trojans. However, I liked this amalgam of ‘great-hearted’, ‘flowing-haired’, and ‘glancing-eyed’, the last having...
by beatriceotto | Oct 18, 2018 | a quote to note
A few signals to keep an eye out for so you don’t miss the moment a god may show up: it could be aural, olfactory, visual or just a change in temperature. In this case it was the perfume of oceanic lavender that first hinted at the arrival of a goddess-mother,...
by beatriceotto | Oct 9, 2018 | triologisms
Helots were the serfs of ancient Sparta, from the town of Laconia and only a notch above slaves. They were sometimes induced to appear drunkenly before the youths of Sparta in order to put these respectable kids off getting trashed. An interesting approach, wonder if...
by beatriceotto | Oct 9, 2018 | triologisms
An abandoned fortress, occupied only by cormorants. No wonder, the human inhabitants probably fled an atmosphere described as the ‘architecture of hatred’. ‘The great storm beaten and cormorant-haunted castle at Coroni as “the architecture of...
by beatriceotto | Oct 4, 2018 | a quote to note
A wonderful comment by Zorba regarding the mental development of his boss. Not, perhaps, a line to try on your own boss, however true it may seem. See also his equally crushing comment on his boss’s behaviour towards the workers. “I hope you don’t mind...
