| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Symposium by Xenophon: [15] Lit. "so that, if any of you has a wife, he may well take heart
and teach her whatever he would wish her to know in dealing with
her." Cf. "N. A." i. 17.
Antisthenes rejoined: If that is your conclusion, Socrates, why do you
not tutor your own wife, Xanthippe,[16] instead of letting her[17]
remain, of all the wives that are, indeed that ever will be, I
imagine, the most shrewish?
[16] See Cobet, "Pros. Xen." p. 56; "Mem." II. ii. 1; Aul. Gell. "N.
A." i. 17.
[17] Lit. "dealing with her," "finding in her"; {khro} corresponding
to {khresthai} in Socrates' remarks.
The Symposium |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Waste Land by T. S. Eliot: Cracks and reforms and bursts in the violet air
Falling towers
Jerusalem Athens Alexandria
Vienna London
Unreal
A woman drew her long black hair out tight
And fiddled whisper music on those strings
And bats with baby faces in the violet light
Whistled, and beat their wings 380
And crawled head downward down a blackened wall
And upside down in air were towers
The Waste Land |
