MDMD ferry

[lorentzen-nicklaus]

Terrance schrieb:

> Pythoness of the point. The  Point of Departure. 
>
>
>
>
> Charon:  The ferryman who conveyed the dead to Hades over the river
> Styx.  Satellite of Pluto.
>
> http://www.u.arizona.edu/~terp/charonbook.html
>
> The world-wide cultural significance of the concept of an afterlife
> boatman, traced in the introduction, is noteworthy. In Greek literature
> alone, the
> encounter with Charon is an aspect of many mythic descents, including
> those of Theseus,
> Herakles, Dionysos, Alcestis, Orpheus, Persephone, and Psyche. The
> limits and
> potentialities of humanity are perhaps nowhere more sharply defined than
> at the moment
> of crossing, a myth central to our poetic imagination. When poets
> throughout the centuries have dealt with eschatological concerns, with
> fate, death, and
> an afterlife existence, they have availed themselves countless times of
> no less a
> figure than Charon, the ferryman of Hades. 
>
> O, no, my dream was lengthen'd after life;
> O, then began the tempest to my soul,
> Who pass'd, methought, the melancholy flood,
> With that grim ferryman which poets write of,
> Unto the kingdom of perpetual night.
>
> 		--Richard III, Act I, Scene 4
>
>
>
> "A grim ferryman guards these floods and rivers, Charon, of
> frightful slovenliness; on whose chin a load of gray hair
> neglected lies; his eyes are flame: his vestments hang from his
> shoulders by a knot, with filth overgrown. Himself thrusts on the
> barge with a pole, and tends the sails, and wafts over the bodies
> in his iron- colored boat, now in years: but the god is of fresh
> and green old age. Hither the whole tribe in swarms come pouring
> to the banks, matrons and men, the souls of magnanimous heroes
> who had gone through life, boys and unmarried maids, and young
> men who had been stretched on the funeral pile before the eyes of
> their parents; as numerous as withered leaves fall in the woods
> with the first cold of autumn, or as numerous as birds flock to
> the land from deep ocean, when the chilling year drives them
> beyond sea, and sends them to sunny climes. They stood praying to
> cross the flood the first, and were stretching forth their hands
> with fond desire to gain the further bank: but the sullen boatman
> admits sometimes these, sometimes those; while others to a great
> distance removed, he debars from the banks."
>
>  -- Virgil, Aeneid, VI., Davidson's translation
>
>
>
> -- "That may not be, said then the ferryman,
> Least we unweeting hap to be fordonne;
> For those same islands seeming now and than,
> Are not firme land, nor any certein wonne,
> But stragling plots which to and fro do ronne
> In the wide waters; therefore are they hight
> The Wandering Islands; therefore do them shonne;
> For they have oft drawne many a wandring wight
> Into most deadly daunger and distressed plight;
> For whosoever once hath fastened
> His foot thereon may never it secure
> But wandreth evermore uncertain and unsure."
>
> "Darke, dolefull, dreary, like a greedy grave,
> That still for carrion carcasses doth crave;
> On top whereof ay dwelt the ghastly owl,
> Shrieking his baleful note, which ever drave
> Far from that haunt all other cheerful fowl,
> And all about it wandring ghosts did wayle and howl."
>
> 		--Melville, The Encantadas
>
> The grim ferryman, a black-whiskered giant, half drunk withal, now
> thrust the Canadians bv main force out of his door, launched a boat,
> and bade me sit down in the stern-sheets. Where we crossed, the river
> was white with foam, yet did not offer much resistance to a straight
> passage, which brought us close to the outer edge of the American falls.
> The rainbow vanished as we neared its misty base, and when I leaped
> ashore,the sun had left all Niagara in shadow."
>
> 	--Hawthorne, Fragments from the Journal of a Solitary Man
>
> DIONYSUS: 
>
>         Why, that's the lake, by Zeus, 
>         Whereof he spake, and yon's the ferry-boat. 
>
>
> XANTHIAX:  
>         Poseidon, yes, and that old fellow's Charon. 
>
>
> DIONYSUS:
>
>         Charon! O welcome, Charon! welcome, Charon! 
>
>
> CHARON: 
>
>         Who's for the Rest from every pain and ill? 
>         Who's for the Lethe's plain? the Donkey-shearings? 
>         Who's for Cerberia? Taenarum? or the Ravens? 
> 		
> 		--Aristophanes, Frogs



  just yesterday i came across a passage about the place of hades/hell in the 
  aristotelian and, then, christian universe. in "sphären 2: globen" (ffm 1999: 
  suhrkamp, here chapter 4: der ontologische kugelbeweis, pp. 420f.), peter 
  sloterdijk writes:

                             [sorry folks, but these days i lack lust and       
                              patience for preparing my notorious               
                              idiot-translations ...]

 "wer also in dem grandiosen weltentwurf des aristoteles nach der schwachen 
stelle sucht, muss sich nur die mühe machen, nach der durch ihre mittelstellung 
vorgeblich privilegierten erde aussschau zu halten: dieser von tod und irrtum 
tingierte planet ist das miasma des kosmos, der dunkle fleck auf der hellen 
weste des himmels. allein die unterirdischen teile der erde können den 
menschenort, die erdoberfläche, an lichtlosigkeit und gottferne noch übertreffen 
- weswegen die hades- und höllenregionen im schalenkosmologischen weltbild 
tatsächlich als unter der erdoberfläche liegend angenommen werden, im letzten 
bodensatz und abtritt des alls. dies bringt der traurige kosmopolitismus des 
stoikers aristipp auf den begriff, wenn er erklärt, die reise zum hades sei von 
überall auf der welt gleich weit. die innerste mitte der körperwelt ist das herz 
der dunkelheit - und die menschen sind seine gefährdeten nachbarn. nichts 
anderes hat auch dante noch in seinen schreckensvisionen von der hölle ins bild 
und auf den begriff gebracht. der christliche kosmos ist infernozentrisch 
verfasst - so wie die primitive lebenswelt der seßhaften völker unweigerlich 
latrinozentrisch zentriert sein musste. doch wie alle abendländischen 
onto-kosmologien eine bifokale struktur aufweisen - ein hohes zentrum in gott, 
ein infames zentrum im irdisch-unterirdischen, so haben auch die raumordnungen 
seßhafter zivilisationen im agrarzeitalter dem bifokalismus tribut gezollt mit 
der dichotomie von glanzzentrum (tempel und palast) und miasmatischem zentrum 
(latrine, schindanger, kerker)."

                                  yours in her name: kai frederik