Ch. 39 Summary & Notes

[Dave Monroe]

Need a hand?  Here, take mine ...

--- jbor <jbor at bigpond.com> wrote:

> 397.6 "a certain 'Urania'" ... "her fiancé Fabian"?

   "Sure enough, no more than twenty steps into the
Assembly Room, and eight Measures into a lively Jig
with a certain 'Urania,' Dixon is aware of a perfum'd
flickering upon one Cheek, which proves to be the
Glove of her Fiancé, Fabian." (M&D, Ch. 39, p. 397)

Urania (Ourania)

(1) One of the Muses, a daughter of Zeus by Mnemosyné.
The ancient bard Linus is called her son by Apollo,
and Hymenaeus also is said to have been a son of
Urania. She was regarded, as her name indicates, as
the Muse of Astronomy, and was represented with a
celestial globe, to which she points with a small
staff.

(2) Daughter of Oceanus and Tethys, who also occurs as
a nymph in the train of Persephoné.

(3) A surname of Aphrodité, describing her as "the
heavenly," or spiritual, to distinguish her from
Aphrodité Pandemos. Plato represents her as a daughter
of Uranus, begotten without a mother. Wine was not
used in the libations offered to her. See Aphrodité. 

http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0062%3Aid%3Durania

http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0004%3Aid%3Dourania

"The moral conception of Aphrodité Urania as goddess
of the higher and purer love, especially wedded love
and fruitfulness, as opposed to mere sensual lust, was
but slowly developed in the course of ages.

[...]

"By uniting the generations in the bond of love, she
became a goddess of marriage and family life, and the
consequent kinship of the whole community. As such she
had formerly been worshipped at Athens under the name
of Pandemos (=all the people's), as being a goddess of
the whole country. By a regulation of Solon, the name
acquired a very different sense, branding her as
goddess of prostitution; and then it was that the new
and higher meaning was imported into the word Urania.

[...]

"Among plants, the myrtle, the rose, and the apple
were specially sacred to her as goddess of love; among
animals, the ram, he-goat, hare, dove, sparrow, and
other creatures of amorous nature (the ram and dove
being widely current symbols of great antiquity); as
sea-goddess, the swan, mussel, and dolphin; as Urania,
the tortoise."

http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3atext%3a1999%2e04%2e0062&query=id%3daphrodite#id,aphrodite

   "'Did they tell you I was a Quaker, Sir, and would
not fight?-- '" (M&D, Ch. 39, p. 397)


Plato, The Symposium ...

"[180d] what sort we ought to praise. Now this defect
I will endeavor to amend, and will first decide on a
Love who deserves our praise, and then will praise him
in terms worthy of his godhead. We are all aware that
there is no Aphrodite or Love-passion without a Love.
True, if that goddess were one, then Love would be
one: but since there are two of her, there must needs
be two Loves also. Does anyone doubt that she is
double? Surely there is the elder, of no mother born,
but daughter of Heaven, whence we name her Heavenly
[Urania]; while the younger was the child of Zeus and
Dione, and her we call Popular [pandemos]."

http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Aabo%3Atlg%2C0059%2C011&query=180d

"[187d] of rhythm and harmony to social life, whether
we construct what are called 'melodies' or render
correctly, by what is known as 'training,' tunes and
measures already constructed, we find here a certain
difficulty and require a good craftsman. Round comes
the same conclusion: well-ordered men, and the less
regular only so as to bring them to better order,
should be indulged in this Love, and this is the sort
we should preserve; this is the noble, the Heavenly
Love"

http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Aabo%3Atlg%2C0059%2C011&query=187d

Cf. ...

"If there were only one Love, then what you said would
be well enough; but since there are more Loves than
one, you should have begun by determining [180d] which
of them was to be the theme of our praises. I will
amend this defect; and first of all I will tell you
which Love is deserving of praise, and then try to
hymn the praiseworthy one in a manner worthy of him.
For we all know that Love is inseparable from
Aphrodite, and if there were only one Aphrodite there
would be only one Love; but as there are two goddesses
there must be two Loves. And am I not right in
asserting that there are two goddesses? The elder one,
having no mother, who is called the heavenly Aphrodite
-- she is the daughter of Uranus; the younger, who is
the daughter of Zeus and Dione -- her we call common;
[180e] and the Love who is her fellow-worker is
rightly named common, as the other love is called
heavenly."

"Then the old tale has to be repeated of fair and
heavenly love -- the love of Urania [187e] the fair
and heavenly muse, and of the duty of accepting the
temperate, and those who are as yet intemperate only
that they may become temperate, and of preserving
their love."

http://plato.evansville.edu/texts/jowett/symposium4.htm

http://plato.evansville.edu/bin/search.cgi?q=Urania&topic=|Plato's+Life+and+Thought


Ourania, Melpomene, Kalliope

http://www.beazley.ox.ac.uk/Vases/JAVA/OpenJTIPnew.asp

"Three young Ladies are peeping 'round the Door-Way
..." (M&D, Ch. 39, p. 396)

"'we've been hearing that Musick for a while, now.'"
(ibid.)


Simon Vouet, The Muses Urania and Calliope ...

http://www.nga.gov/cgi-bin/pimage?45877+0+0+gg32

http://www.nga.gov/collection/gallery/gg32/gg32-45877.0.html


"Urania with Radius"

http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/image?lookup=1999.04.0062.fig01358


Descend from Heaven, Urania, by that name  
If rightly thou art called, whose voice divine  
Following, above the Olympian hill I soar,  
Above the flight of Pegasean wing!  
The meaning, not the name, I call; for thou
Nor of the Muses nine, nor on the top  
Of old Olympus dwell’st; but, heavenly—born,  
Before the hills appeared or fountain flowed,  
Thou with Eternal Wisdom didst converse,  
Wisdom thy sister, and with her didst play 
In presence of the Almighty Father, pleased  
With thy celestial song. Up led by thee,  
Into the Heaven of Heavens I have presumed,  
An earthly guest, and drawn empyreal air,  
Thy tempering. With like safety guided down, 
Return me to my native element;
Lest, from this flying steed unreined (as once  
Bellerophon, though from a lower clime)  
Dismounted, on the Aleian field I fall,  
Erroneous there to wander and forlorn. 
Half yet remains unsung, but narrower bound  
Within the visible Diurnal Sphere.
Standing on Earth, not rapt above the pole,  
More safe I sing with mortal voice, unchanged  
To hoarse or mute, though fallen on evil days, 
On evil days though fallen, and evil tongues,  
In darkness, and with dangers compassed round,  
And solitude; yet not alone, while thou  
Visit’st my slumbers nightly, or when Morn  
Purples the East. Still govern thou my song, 
Urania, and fit audience find, though few.  
But drive far off the barbarous dissonance  
Of Bacchus and his revellers, the race  
Of that wild rout that tore the Thracian Bard  
In Rhodope, where woods and rocks had ears 
To rapture, till the savage clamour drowned  
Both harp and voice; nor could the Muse defend  
Her son. So fail not thou who thee implores;  
For thou art heavenly, she an empty dream 

John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book VII, 1-39

http://www.bartleby.com/4/407.html

"Milton's invocations of Urania in Paradise Lost 1, 7
and 9 are the subject of much scholarly debate. This
essay argues for some identification of Urania with
the Holy Spirit, as both refer to the same 'Spirit of
God', an elevating and illuminating power which
recalls certain facets of the 'Spiritus Sanctus' of
Vida's third Latin hymn and his Christiad. Both Milton
and Vida are drawn to a divine rather than a
Parnassian source, to Heaven rather than Helicon.
Parallels are indicated between the accounts of the
Spirit's descent in Paradise Lost 12 and Christiad 6."

http://www3.oup.co.uk/renstu/hdb/Volume_07/Issue_01/070086.sgm.abs.html


"Urania," that is, as both the Muse of Astronomy and
as--ironically, perhaps, here, "the fair Pretext [!]
herself" (p. 397) being "'merrily dispos'd'" (p. 396),
as opposed to those of "'No-Fuck'" (ibid.)--an object
of "the higher and purer love."  Fabian, on the other
hand ...

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