Hilaira (hil’ a i’ ra), n. Class. Myth. the daughter of Leucippus who served as a priestess of Artemis. Also, Hilara (hi lar’ a).
Leucippus (loo sip’ us), n. Class. Myth. 1. a youth who disguised himself as a girl to be near Daphne and was killed by Daphne and her companions when his disguise was discovered. 2. the son of Gorgophone and Perieres who fathered the Leucippides.
Daphne (daf’ ne), n. 1. Class. Myth. a nymph who, when pursued by Appolo, was saved by being changed into a laurel tree. 2. (l.c.) Bot. a. the laurel, Laurus nobilis.
Daphnaea (daf ne’ a), n. Class. Myth. an epithet of Artemis, meaning “of the laurel.” Random House
And on it goes. The Oracle pledges nothing but the deep well of language. The task of the Report is giving context to the randomness.
An introduction to the rich worlds of Classical Mythology.
Hints of the origins of words.
Lessons in morality passed along through story telling.
The cyclical nature of our timeline.
Hilarious follows Hilaira in my dictionary and the word hike precedes it; both of them lending a lightness to an otherwise heavy subject. Further contemplation will be left to you - the portal is opened.
Poignantly Pointless Updates:
Not every post can be exciting, or even interesting - but always reflects the march of time. Sometimes the unexciting, uninteresting, uneventful routine of daily living can be a blessing. If you are here, then all must be well in your world.
Much of this is an exercise to challenge myself; it is also intended to challenge you, to bring you out of the ordinary and maybe your comfort level. Once again, the only power any of this has is given by you, the reader, casting your spell.
Chapter 5 of The Spell of Ai arrives next. Revisit chapter 1 and continue through the chapters if you can and watch as a pattern begins to arise. Life is full of patterns - they are there if we look.
We have some four- and five-star readers here in S&UP. Stay with it. The expectation is for the platform to languish in the stacks for a time and when its time arrives, launch into viability. We’re being noticed.
Until then:
Postscript: upon looking this over again, it doesn’t escape my notice that language is in fact beautiful, and the lessons can be profound - even the subtle.
And lastly: sometimes this is work. The Oracle can throw curves. This one was tough, not knowing much about Classical Mythology (notice all the cross-referencing), and spell-check was kickin’ my ass. A scholarly person will see a lot of missing squiggly lines.
And finally: this platform is free, and always will be for founding members. A broader audience is out there and S&UP has to pursue it in order to offset the costs of producing this content. Activity is what the audience is seeking, which is why new posts come out weekly. Let us know you’re out there. Ask questions, comment or start a conversation.
Amendment 1: use it or lose it.
There's alot to learn of our culture and ourselves through language. The words people often use give us a small insight into their thought patterns and behaviors. My culture uses language unknowingly at times not fully comprehending what is being said, despite understanding to a basic degree what is being said. Language has always fascinated me, the origin of words also fascinate me. Being bilingual has opened my eyes a bit more to the tendencies of language and how it's created, and that despite the differences in all languages the similarities are there as well.