Sharing is good

[Blackrat]

I think we should all do a lot more exercise:

(Note that "exercise" is a link. Otherwise that just looks like a dumb thing to say.)

[scarletharlot]

LH...do I get xp for my lemon picture? It's like research isn't it?

[Learned Hand]

You'd be much more likely to get xp for having my quote.

[scarletharlot]

From Hesiod's Theogyny (Hesiod was a contemporary of Homer and thereforejoins him in being author of one of the oldest pieces of western literature ever ever. 8th century BC being pretty old. It is our oldest written account of Greek mythology. This is the war with the titans)

And on that day
They joined in hateful battle, all of them,
Both male and female, Titan gods and those
Whom Kronos sired and those whom Zeus had brought
To light from Erebos [the Darkness], beneath the earth,
Strange, mighty ones, whose power was immense,
Each with a hundred arms, darting about,
And each had fifty heads standing upon
His shoulders, over the crowded mass if arms.
They stood against the Titans in the grim
Battle, with giant rocks in their strong hands,
While on their side the Titans eagerly
Strengthened their ranks, and both at once displayed
The mightiest efforts their hands could make;
The boundless sea roared terribly around,
The great earth rumbled, and broad heaven groaned,
Shaken; and tall Olympus was disturbed
Down to its roots, when the immortals charged.
The heavy quaking from their footsteps reached
Down to dark Tartarus, and piercing sounds
Of awful battle, and their mighty shafts.
They hurled their wounding missiles, and the voice
Of both sides, shouting, reached the starry sky,
And when they met their ALALE was great.

Then Zeus no longer checked his rage, for now
His heart was filled with fury, and he showed
The full range of his strength. He came from heaven
And from Olympus, lightning as he came,
Continuously; from his mighty hand
The bolts kept flying, bringing the thunder
and flashes of lightning, while the holy flame
Rolled thickly all around. The fertile earth
Being burnt, roared out, voiceless forest cried
And crackled with the fire; the whole sea boiled
And Ocean's streams and the unfruitful sea.

The hot blast reached the earthborn Titans; flame
Unspeakable, rose to the upper air;
The flashing brightness of the thunderbolt
And lightning blinded all, however strong;
The awful heat reached Chaos. To the ear
It sounded, to the ear it looked as though
Broad Heaven were coming down upon the earth:
[this is clearly a solar circle spell, isn't it called 'Call down the Sun' or something?]
For such a noice of crashing might arise
If she were falling, hurled down by his fall.
Just such a mighty crash rose fromt he gods
Meeting in strife. The howling winds brought on
Duststorm and earthquake, and the shafts of Zeus,
Lightning and thunder and the blazing bolt,
And carried shouting and the battle-cry
Into the armies, and a dreadful noise
Of hideous battle sounded, and their deeds
Were mighty, but the tide of war was turned:
Until that moment, they had kept it up
Continually, in the long, hard fight [had been fighting for 10 years before this scene].

Among those gods who made the fighting harsh
Foremost were [the celestial exalts] Kottos and Briareus
And Gyes, who loved war insatiably.
With their strong hands they hurled three hundred rocks
In quick succession; with their missiles, they
Overshadowed the Titans, put them down
In everlasting shade. Under the earth
Broad-pathed, they sent them, and they bound them up
In painful chains. Proud though the Titans were,
They were defeated by those hands, and sent
To misty Tartarus, as far beneath
The earth, as earth is far beneath the heavens.

An anvil made of bronze, falling from heaven,
Would fall nine nights and days, and on the tenth
Would reach the earth; and if the anvil fell
From earth, would fall again nine nights and days
And come to Tartarus upon the tenth.

A wall of bronze runs around Tartarus,
And round this runs a necklace, triple-thick
Of purest night, while up above, there grow
The roots of earth and of the barren sea.
There, in the misty dark, the Titan gods
Are hidden, in a mouldering place, lowest
And last of giant Earth, by the will of Zeus
Who drives the clouds, and they may never leave.
[Not even to visit little Jimmy for Christmas]
Poseidon set bronze gates upon the place,
And all round it runs the wall; there live
Gyes, Kottos and Briareus
As faithful guards, for aegis-bearing Zeus.

And there, in order, are the ends and springs
Of gloomy earth and misty Tartarus,
And of the barren sea and starry heaven,
Murky and awful, loathed by the very gods.
There is the yawning mouth of hell, abd if
A man should find himself within the gates
He would not reach the bottom for a year;
Gust after savage gust would carry him
Now here, now there. Even the deathless gods
Find this an awesome mystery.


Then it goes on to Hades etc. It's very badly written in general, material that Homer would have you practically passing out with excitement to behold Hesiod trundles through, repeating and going back on himself as though we might forget who is fighting etc. But it's still pretty cool. Tartarus is wonderfully Malfean. After the Titans fall Gaia (who didn't fight) has a child with Tartarus, this amazing creature far-beyond the comprehension of the gods, so Zeus quickly destroys him before he usurps his throne and casts him down to Tartarus as well, where he becomes a fierce and burning wind. The Theogyny isn't very exciting for the main part, mainly listing which god was fathered by whom, but these bits are cool. Naught on Homer though.

[Learned Hand]

There are pregnant men on the internet.

Finally, my theory that Arnie films are all documentaries is being proven true.

One was interviewed on Oprah if you want to youtube it.

[johandenerad]

Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo!

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffalo_buffalo_Buffalo_buffalo_buffalo_buffalo_Buffalo_buffalo

[Blackrat]

There is not a verb "to buffalo". No fucking way.

[johandenerad]

Stop trying to buffalo me out of believing "to buffalo" is a verb.

At least its easy to conjugate.

[Blackrat]

buffaloff.

[bravesirrobin]

I always preferred the one with all the "had"s in a row. And yeah, I'm not entirely buying the sentence construction, firstly buffalo as a verb which is a synonym for bully is odd, and also the sentence annoys me because it seems to imply recursion. "The animals from buffalo, who are bullied by animals from buffalo, bully animals from buffalo"? I don't think this sentence is logically coherent.

[Blackrat]

That foxed me for a while, but it is coherent (and not recursive) - see the explanation on the page:

(Buffalo buffalo [which] Buffalo buffalo buffalo) buffalo Buffalo buffalo.

The italics indicate verbs, the captitalised ones are adjectives (i.e. "those from the city of Buffalo"). The brackets contain the second verb's subject.

An alternative, substituting for all different words, in the hope of making the sentence comprehensible:

Heavy gates [which] thoughful people close obstruct wandering animals.

[Blackrat]

... or do you just mean that it doesn't make sense because all the nouns represent the same group of creatures? Because yes, that's true.

[bravesirrobin]

Oct 6, 2008 17:58:03 GMT Blackrat said:

... or do you just mean that it doesn't make sense because all the nouns represent the same group of creatures? Because yes, that's true.

Yeah, it's basically because the two sets are equal - it's not even nested subsets or sepearte groups or anything.

[Blackrat]

No. That's true. But I don't think anyone who utters a sentence consisting entirely of the word "buffalo" is trying to make sense :-) They're just pointing out that it's grammatical.

[cardinalsin]

This is the worst forum thread I've ever seen.