Skip to main content

Oh, Rumor—Lily Caswell

So when I read Book IV, I loved how Virgil described Rumor. And I’ll be honest, it took me a minute to figure out that Virgil was referring to the goddess Rumor. I’ve never had the misfortune of people telling rumors about me (knock on wood) so I can’t say for certain exactly how it feels because different people take things differently. Virgil says that Rumor “ thrives on motion, stronger for the running, lowly at first through fear, then rearing high, she treads the land and hides her head in cloud.” (Aeneid, p 102, lines 242-244)


Rumors always start out slow, then gain momentum and basically play a large-scale form of the game Telephone. Rumor never sleeps, she broods in the daytime, “harping on lies and slander evenhandedly with truth.” (p 102, lines 257-258) It seems that rumors usually have at least a small basis in truth and then everything gets exaggerated from there. 


I commented on Jamie’s and Haley Riddle’s posts.

Comments

  1. abbieheddenNovember 16, 2020 at 9:51 PM

    Rumors grow so quickly, and it's always so hurtful to learn about. I'm reminded of three things. The first is in James 3:6, where it says "The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one's life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell." Like a wildfire, a rumor can start so small and end up decimating lives. The other two things I am reminded of is the VeggieTales episode with The Rumor Weed and Dear Evan Hansen! Everything starts with a small lie to cover something else up - an embarrassment or another lie. Then it keeps growing and growing until you're in a giant mess and it's very painful to clean up.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Lovers of Wisdom, Not Power—Lily Caswell

In Book VIII of Plato’s Republic, Socrates talks about the possibility of having a well-governed city. However, he also talks about how that particular form of government is impossible to have. A well-governed city becomes a possibility only if you can discover a better way of life for your future rulers than holding office.” (Plato, p 215) Maybe his version of a better life was for those in office to not be lovers of power, since it would then become a fight among rival lovers. Socrates gets to the point that the only rulers who don’t love power are true philosophers. Philosophers are lovers of wisdom and knowledge and not power, ergo they are the perfect rulers. Absolute power corrupts and power corrupts absolutely, so I’m thinking that maybe the trick to being a good ruler is for you to be a philosophical person who loves wisdom and not power. I commented on Jamie’s and Isabelle’s posts.
4 comments
Read more

How to Make a Clone - Clabo

I found books three and four to be very cringy. I mean, to me the idea of structurally producing good soldiers/guardians through heavy censorship is somewhat inhumane. I feel as if human beings should be allowed to experience every bit of knowledge they can at some point in their lives. To me, it seems as if the guardians are being guarded against information throughout their entire lives so they can solely fulfill the duties they were birthed into.  However, the influence and importance Plato places on poetry and music do make me wonder what it would be like if we had the same values as our military today. What if the United States military invested in the souls of its soldiers and placed within them emotional and intellectual values outside of what they have learned previously. Perhaps the military instills values and principles within soldiers to fulfill the same purpose as the guardians would in Plato's Republic and that is to only be that which the government wants you to be....
5 comments
Read more

Dystopian Origins Uncovered ////// Isabelle Ferguson

  I think that ideas eventually run out of originality and circle back to the original idea. During this week's reading, many of Socrates’ suggestions for a place of perfection reminded me of some novels I’ve read depicting dystopian worlds. Disclaimer: There are spoilers ahead. You have been warned.        To begin, in  The  Giver  by Lois Lowry censorship is a major theme. The novel is centered around a boy who is receiving memories withheld from the population! The government in The Giver is especially careful to censor the memories that may cause strife, anger, fear, sadness, etc. In the adults, this society is cemented. So, the government is especially strict with the youth. Socrates talks about verses to “obliterate” to prevent the descriptions from doing “harm to our future warriors” for the better half of Book III (Plato, page 44). The warriors he speaks of are the youth. He goes on to list the multitude of verses that should be done ...
7 comments
Read more