Wednesday 23 November 2016

Classical-Biblical Syntheses

Geoffrey of Monmouth is a fictional historian and also a contributor to the literary tradition about Troy because Geoffrey's History does for the British what Virgil's Aeneid did for the Romans - tells them that they are descended from the Trojans!

Biblical-Classical synthesis began when Christ displaced the Olympians to become the single god of the Roman state and the Bishop of Rome became the Pontifex Maximus, the chief priest of the Roman state religion. Dante has Virgil in the Inferno and both Classical and Biblical scenes depicted in Purgatory. The first science fiction novel, Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, is sub-titled The Modern Prometheus (Classical) and begins with a quotation from Paradise Lost (Biblical).

In Poul Anderson's Technic History, Manuel Argos declares that his Terran Empire, like the Roman Empire, will admit aliens to citizenship. Later, one of those aliens converts to Jerusalem Catholicism and seeks evidence for a Universal Incarnation. Thus, Classical and Biblical traditions transcend the Solar System and humanity.

In SM Stirling's Nantucket Trilogy, Alban converts to Christianity fight at Troy!

5 comments:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

And we see William Walker himself aware of such things! As he was mounting his horse in Walkeropolis to journey to Troy he said it was traditional for a big horse to be there!

Sean

Jim Baerg said...

One of the things I like about at least that villain by Stirling. The villain is smart, which makes him a more dangerous villain & has a sense of humour. I suppose the sense of humour also makes him more dangerous because it would tend to disarm someone talking to him.
See also where Walker says he lost his eye to gain wisdom.

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Jim!

Good points! I agree, Stirling created smart villains: the Draka, William Walker, Count Ignatieff, Adrienne Breze, Gwen Ingolfsson, Norman Arminger, etc. Unlike those murderous bunglers, the Communists and Nazis. Idiots who BELIEVED their ridiculous ideologies.

Ad astra! Sean

Jim Baerg said...

Actually that is an interesting point.
Are there real life villains as smart as Stirling's fictional villains?
In the 1632 series Eric Flint had Richelieu oppose Grantville because he wanted them to have a *smart* opponent.

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Jim!

Interesting point. I don't recall many real world villains as smart as the ones Stirling created. If monsters like Ilyich, Stalin, Hitler, Mao, Pol Pot, et al, had been cast from the Stirlingian mold, many millions of people would not have died so pointlessly, cruelly, and wastefully.

Ad astra! Sean