In Poul and Karen Anderson's Roma Mater (London, 1989), the Speaker for Taranis speaks of winning concessions from the Roman Empire, then adds:
"'I seek the welfare of my city, my House, my sons, and myself... What else is there to strive for?'" (p. 159)
That question almost answers itself. Other cities? Other families? The Empire? Civilisation? Mankind? The world? But that would be asking rather a lot of an Ysan. His Gods have a covenant only with his city, not with the world. They are the sorts of Gods that you make deals with out of expediency, not as a result of any higher moral obligations.
So perhaps there are two moral levels higher than that of the Speaker? -
devotion to a truly universal deity who is served only because of His goodness, not because of any specific deal that He might have made with the founders of a single city;
dedication to the welfare of humanity whether or not this has been ordered by any deity.
Polytheism, monotheism and atheism: from our historical perspective, we are able to assess these three world views.
5 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
And, in fact, we see Gratillonius patiently working to persuade the Ysans to take a larger view than merely the welfare of their city. He worked to convince them that buttressing an increasingly precarious Empire benefited them as well as Rome. And to defend Rome was also to defend civilization itself.
Sean
Paul and Sean:
"What else is there to strive for?"
Depending on whether or not I'm in an easy-going mood that minute, either:
"The open steppe, a fleet horse, falcons at your wrist, and wind in your hair."
or:
"To crush your enemies, to see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentations of their women!"
Hi, David!
Ha! Rather grimly and amusingly put! I think I came across the first alternative, but not sure where. I KNOW I came across the "To crush your enemies..." line somewhere, but I can't remember the source.
Sean
Sean:
Both were used in the Arnold Schwarzenegger *Conan the Barbarian* movie of 1982, but before that were an exchange attributed to Genghis Khan and one of his aides. The Khan asked the young aide "What is best in life?" The aide gave the answer about riding on the steppe. The Khan declared that to be wrong and gave the "crush" answer -- or, in the movie, asked Conan, who was with them as a guest. Conan spoke the "crush" line and was approved.
Some historians have judged that "crush" wasn't really in character for Genghis Khan; despite what he did in war, he wouldn't have SAID that (the historians assert).
Hi, David!
Very interesting, that the sources were from biographies of Genghis Khan or the Schwarzenegger movie. I THINK I might have first come across these lines reading up about Genghis Khan.
Sean
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