From the beginning of An Esphesian Tale I found myself wondering just how vain of a people the ancient Greeks were, around the time this was written. What value was placed on beauty back then? Was it the same as it is now? How could Habrocomes and Anthia be as beautiful as the Gods. Either the author was exaggerating for the benefit of his story, or there must have been a lot of ugly people, which would add substance to any beauty. I mean, the ordinary ugly people bowing down to the beautiful people, wondering out loud if they are Gods? Where would this happen? Maybe the author has deeply repressed insecurities about his own aesthetic output. Maybe deep inside the chambers of his soul he wants to be Habrocomes, or maybe he even wants to be Anthia.
The next question I found myself asking had to do with the lustful natures of said Greeks. Nearly every man Anthia encounters tries to rape her. And miraculously, no one acccomplishes the task. Come on now. We're supposed to believe that these barbaric men that have her alone, churning in the waves of their own passsion, all of a sudden discover their civilized sides and take the higher road. Not believable to me. Once again, was ancient Greece like this? How horrible would it have been to be a very beautiful girl? How horrible would it have been to be Habrocomes, and have all kinds of gay men hitting on you? What a weird place.
No comments:
Post a Comment