Way

A line from Edith Hamilton's The Greek Way, which I have read several times but not for the last thirty years or so, has crossed my mind today. She says that when the Athenians sought advice from the Delphic Oracle as to how to deal with the approaching Persian army that had already conquered much of Greece, the Oracle said, somewhat unhelpfully, that they should "...fly to the ends of the earth and make their minds familiar with horrors."

I could leave this entry at that, but it's much too dismal. I'll add that, unsatisfied with the first answer (and who the hell wouldn't be), the Athenians sought a second reading, and the Oracle offered that Athena would give a wooden wall to them. After some disagreement over interpretation, it was decided among the wise of the city that the Oracle had referred to the Athenian fleet, and the population took refuge on board the ships. The ultimate outcome of the crisis was, of course, that the Greeks defeated the massive Persian force at Thermopylae, and the safety and freedom of the Greek city states was secured, and the course of history— our history, ultimately— was set on a very different path than it likely would otherwise have followed.

But this, too, seems inadequate to my mood. I think perhaps I will post something I've posted a couple of times before on occasions inductive of great distress. Richard Wilbur has always made me feel better, even at the worst of times.


( Post-Election Verse )