OF CHAOS, EROS & EARTH: ‘A Crown Of Gold’ Is A Curious Work

William Etty, Pandora Crowned by the Seasons, 1824

…the Olympian carpenter, created a ‘crown of gold’ …On it was much curious work, wonderful to see; for of the many creatures which the land and sea rear up, he put most upon it, wonderful things, like living beings with voices: and great beauty shone out from it. –Hesiod, Theogony

DICKERSON: People basically on the left and right feel like the system is rigged and that the wealthy have the upper hand.

NOONAN:  … it's interesting that they're talking about this. And I think it has to do with the fact that people in America understand that the poor now are stuck in a way they haven't been in the past and have various reasons that they can't rise, and somebody's got to look at that, because it's kind of unAmerican that you can't rise, you know. So, it's an essential issue.

-CBS News, Face the Nation Transcripts February 1, 2015

“To Pandora, the earth, because she bestows all things necessary for life."
                             -note attributed to Hipponax on Aristophanes' The Birds

SUPPOSE THE GOD OF LOVE WHO DIED DRAWS US, SUPPOSE THE CHASM DRAWS US IN TO SHAPE THAT; SUPPOSE

people must rise
their rhythm of arisen
must rise; give up a crowning ghost

indeed, a cold old mist
already shades in their
movements the older ones

long gone
run on―Pandoran;
numen

is a hissing hostess
a deep nature
twinkling

& you are not what happens
but here, in your ghost
you are this golden guest


©2015 EarthRise stephaniepope mythopoetry.com


notes

1. For an interesting turning of the myth of Pandora see http://pandoras-box.hubpages.com/hub/The-Story-of-Pandoras-Box

2. For the “EarthRise” image— the Earth rising over the moon's horizon as seen firsthand by the 1968 Apollo 8 crew see http://www.space.com/24038-nasa-recreates-apollo-earthrise-video.html

3. For the Face The Nation transcripts see http://www.cbsnews.com/news/face-the-nation-transcripts-february-1-2015-graham-durbin-baker/

4. For the acoustic image, “ghost-host-guest” see David L. Miller, “Hells & Holy Ghosts: A Theopoetics Of Christian Belief” New Orleans: Spring Journal, p.109.