"'...the world isn't entirely governed by laws of nature; it's capricious, changeable, magical.'"
-Poul Anderson, "Ivory, and Apes, and Peacocks" IN Anderson, Time Patrol (Riverdale, NY, 2006), pp. 229-331 AT p, 254.
The friend of Italian descent whom I have mentioned is a Pagan who reveres the Roman goddess Fortuna. Apparently, a priestess kept her temple clean and neat although no prayers or sacrifices were offered there. Fortuna must be respected but not entreated although fortuna audaces iuvat.
That Latin proverb would make a good motto for the Time Patrol. Everard guards time sometimes by daring action as when he attacks two Exaltationists and their military escort and grabs a communicator to summon instant help. The course of history depends on such Time Patrol actions.
4 comments:
Fotruna:
Which reminds me of the 'O Fortuna' section of Carmina Burana.
The words were written roughly 1200 IINM, though the music we are most familiar with is 20th century.
The Carmina Burana poems show an interesting survival or revival or pagan attitude after centuries of Christianity.
Kaor, Jim!
More likely, it was Christians making use of a part of their Classical heritage. Dante, for example, was a big fan of Virgi's poem THE AENEID, without believing one bit in the pagan gods.
There's also Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius' THE CONSOLATION OF PHILOSOPHY, where we see a lot about Fortune. Another Christian who had no trouble making use of his pagan heritage.
Ad astra! Sean
Holding pagan attitudes, and belief in pagan gods, aren't quite the same thing.
The writer of the 'O Fortuna' poem may have held some rather non-Christian attitudes without believing in a literal goddess Fortuna.
Kaor, Jim!
My point being that these Catholic Christians had no problems making cultural use of their pre-Christian heritage.
Ad astra! Sean
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