A ship called the Bona Dea, the Good Goddess, carries wine from Puteoli to Miletus. Her captain wears a plumed casque.
When Eodan has ordered an attack on the Bona Dea, he sees that Hwicca and Phryne:
"...held each other's hands, unspeaking in that mystery of woe whose initiates are all womankind." (p. 161)
Initiates to mysteries, e.g., to the Mystery of Mithras, were members of mystery religions. The Catholic liturgy still refers to the celebration of "Sacred Mysteries." See here.
On the Bona Dea, a German attacks Eodan with a longsword which is also a glaive but Eodan, who has only a shortsword, nevertheless kills the German and appropriates his longsword.
Eodan's crew hesitate to board the Bona Dea but one runs up the boarding plank and the others pour after him. That is what I mean by a "leader": someone who has no power to coerce but who gives a lead which may or may not be followed. Every human society has leaders. Not every society needs rulers, let alone bureaucrats ("rulers from offices").
I want to reread the rest of this chapter about combat on the Good Goddess but am flaking out after an early start to drive Aileen and Yossi to Leighton Moss. (Scroll down.)
Laters.
6 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I am aware of how the most holy Eucharist, along with the other six sacraments of Christianity, are referred to as "mysteries." And quite rightly so, I have often thought of what a strange mystery Eucharist is, for Christ to become truly and actually present under the accidents of bread and wine following the consecration by the priest. I know of how many, many have boggled at that!
It's all very well to, quite rightly, praise leaders who also DO as well as command. Nonetheless, there is no getting away from the need for a bureaucracy that all advancing societies requires once literacy has been mastered. The trick would be to keep the state and its civil service within reasonable bounds.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
As long as bureaucrats are necessary, we should control them, not vice versa.
Paul.
Sean,
But "accidents" is an outmoded philosophical way of discussing transubstantiation.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
We agree, that much, at least on the need for keeping bureaucrats under control. But, IMO, that inevitably requires renouncing ideologies (or philosophies, if you like) that grossly expands the powers and scope of activities of the state and its civil service.
How would you define the Eucharist, in Catholic and Orthodox terms, using non-Scholastic terminology? And there have been philosophers as recent as Jacques Maritain who did not think Scholasticism outmoded!
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
I comment not on Scholasticism but just on "accidents." If we list all the properties of an object, then we have fully described the object. It is not an entity that exists independently of its properties and possesses them as I possess the clothes that I wear. An object is nothing but the sum total of all its properties. They are not "accidents" because they are what differentiates one object from another. There is no underlying substance that can change while the "accidents" (properties) remain unchanged.
I would say only that Christ is believed to be somehow present and would add that any group of Christians can obey the command, "Do this in memory of me..." There is no scriptural necessity for a specially ordained "priest" to bless the bread and wine. Christ is the priest of the order of Melchizedek.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
But I have to disagree with this understanding of the Eucharist, which is actually a very low church (to use an Anglicanism!) Protestant view. The "accidents" referred to are merely those of the bread and wine mysteriously transubstantiated to the actual body and blood of Christ beneath those accidents.
But the Catholic Church believes Christ to have founded or instituted that priesthood of the New Covenant, of Melchizekek. Christ first selected the Apostles, and they in turn ordained the bishops, presbyters, deacons of the new priesthood. Which can be amply demonstrated from both the NT and the earliest Christian writings (some as old as the NT).
In addition, we also believe Christ MEANT what he said at the Last Supper about "This is my BODY,...my BLOOD..," etc. And that in order for that to continue, was one of the reasons the ministerial priesthood was founded. Moreover, revelation was contained not only in the Scriptures, but also in the TRADITION of the Church. and tradition included a literal understanding of the words of insitution.
Ad astra! Sean
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