18. The Elgin Marbles, particularly the headless Persephone.
British Museum.
In Book XI of The Odyssey, Homer writes:
Here at the spot
Perimedes and Eurylochus held the victims fast,
and I, drawing my sharp sword from beside my hip,
dug a trench of about a forearm's depth and length
and around it poured libations out to all the dead,
first with milk and honey, and then with mellow wine,
then water third and last, and sprinkled glistening barley
over it all, and time and again I vowed to all the dead,
to the drifting, listless spirits of their ghosts,
that once I returned to Ithaca I would slaughter
a barren heifer in my halls, the best I had,
and load a pyre with treasures — and to Tiresias,
alone, apart, I would offer a sleek black ram,
the pride of all my herds. And once my vows
and prayers had invoked the nations of the dead
took the victims, over the trench I cut their throats
and the dark blood flowed in — and up out of Erebus they came,
flocking toward me now, the ghosts of the dead and gone ...
Brides and unwed youths and old men who had suffered much
and girls with their tender hearts freshly scarred by sorrow
and great armies of battle dead, stabbed by bronze spears,
men of war still wrapped in bloody armor — thousands
swarming around the trench from every side
— unearthly cries — blanching terror gripped me!
I ordered the men at once to flay the sheep
that lay before us, killed by my ruthless blade,
and burn them both, and then say prayers to the gods,
to the almighty god of death and dread Persephone.
Fagles translation. |