Achilles in Love

Achilles and Penthesilea

This is an ancient Greek painting on a big platter.
It illustrates a story the Greeks all knew.
The man is Achilles, the Greek hero, and the woman is Penthesilea, queen of the Amazons (mythical warrior women).

Remember the famous war between the Greeks and the Trojans?
Penthesilea joined the Trojans and meets Achilles on the battlefield. They fight and Achilles kills her, though not before—the very moment the picture illustrates—he falls in love with her!

The nameless artist, one of the greatest, drew the look of love (and death) in Penthesilea’s eyes.  She reaches up to touch Achilles’ breast while her legs buckle. Achilles seems to pause in thought the moment he drives his sword into his enemy’s breast—and he looks into her eyes.

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A Real Letter from a Roman Soldier

Written in the second century by a kid named Apion from a small town in Egypt.

He enlisted in the Roman army at Alexandria, got on a big government ship, and sailed to Italy. The ship made it through a terrible storm.
As soon as he landed and got his new uniform and pay, he went to have his picture painted for his family and sent it home along with this letter:

Apion to  his father and lord Epimachos: Many good wishes!
First of all I hope you are in good health and that things are going well for you and my sister and her daughter and my brother.  I thank the Lord Serapis [an Egyptian god] for saving me right off when I was in danger at sea.
When I arrived at Misenum [the Roman war harbor, near Naples], I received three gold pieces from the Emperor [Trajan?] as road money, and I’m doing just fine.
Please write me a line, my lord father, about your own well-being, second about that of my brother and sister, and third so that I may devotedly greet your hand, because you brought me up well and I may therefore hope for rapid promotion, the gods willing. Give my regards to Capiton [some friend] and my brother and sister and Serenilla [a family slave?] and my friends. I’m sending you my little  portrait through Euktemon. My [new]Roman name is Antonius Maximus.
All my best!

Here is the actual letter, beautifully written in Greek on papyrus, not by the boy himself but by a hired public letter-writer.

 

Two of Apion’s friends who enlisted with him added their greetings in the left-hand margin.
The letter was originally folded and sealed like this one:

 

It went by the great Roman military post and made it safely all the way to the little village in Egypt, where the boy’s father and family read it almost two thousand years ago. After the father died, the letter got lost in the household rubbish and  archaeologists found it not too long ago under the fallen walls of the house. With it was another letter written by Apion years later  to his sister, after he had long been stationed somewhere on the Roman frontier and had a wife and children of his own.  That is all we know.

His little portrait was something like this:

This is an encaustic (the colors applied with wax) portrait of a Roman-Egyptian, found at Faiyum, Egypt.  Like others found there, it was attached to a mummy.

My source is  Ancient Times: A History of the Early World by James Henry Breasted, Ginn and Company, 1944, p. 708.   It is an exceptionally well-written and informative presentation of ancient history and was used as a textbook in American schools for nearly two generations. There are still many copies around at second-hand booksellers.

 

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Your First Bullfight? Here’s What You’ll See

You find your seat in the grandstands and sit down. In front of you is a big circle of yellow sand, surrounded by a red fence.

Horns blow, a gate opens, and the toreros (bullfighters) come out into the ring. Band music starts up.

The Parade (paseillo)

All the toreros walk together across the ring in a little parade, along with the horses and mules that will take part in the fight.  They bow to the president (presiding authority) who sits in the box of honor; then they get behind the fence.

The Bull Appears

Silence. Suddenly a gate opens in the fence and the bull comes running into the ring, its head high. It charges anything it sees moving, man or cape. Bullfighters (subordinates) wave a big cape at it to make it come their way, then they get behind the fence before it reaches them.

Now the main bullfighter steps into the ring and stands firm while the bull charges him. It looks like the bull will get him. But he holds out a big cape and the bull barges right through it, galloping past, just inches away from him. The crowd cheers, maybe they already shout “Olé!”

The bull turns around and comes back.  The torero again stands still and receives the charge, holding open the big pink cape. Again the bull drives right by him through the cape. This will happen several more times and then a trumpet blows and the torero gets back behind the fence, leaving the bull alone in the ring.

The Picadors

Out into the ring come men (picadores) mounted on big horses.  They look a little like heavy-set Don Quijotes because they wear some armor and hold a lance.

The horses (there are two) wear a long padded skirt for protection. The bull charges one of them and while it is trying to gore the horse, the picador on top drives his lance into the bull’s shoulder muscles. The lance has a pin to keep it from penetrating more than a couple of inches.

Two or three times the bull charges a horse and gets lanced. Then a trumpet blows and the horses walk out of the ring.

The Banderilleros

Now it is the turn of the banderilleros, bullfighters who put in banderillas—decorated sticks or harpoons. Holding these in both hands, they provoke a charge and when the bull arrives they avoid his horns by deftly stepping aside and at the same time they drive the two sticks into its shoulder muscles.

Three times they do this, so the bull has six banderillas hanging from his shoulders (if none fall out). Then they leave the ring.

The Bullfighter Alone with the Bull

Now comes the final part: the close passes and the killing of the bull. The head torero comes out holding a smaller cape and a sword. Alone with the bull and working very close, he provokes charge after charge. The danger is evident.

The horns just miss his body as the bull drives through the cape. The torero’s  way of effecting these passes, his grace and timing, make this final part of the fight the most tense and exciting.

The Kill

Finally, he raises his sword and, running directly at the bull,  drives it between its shoulder blades.

If the sword is well-placed, the bull will die immediately. Sometimes the bullfighter needs more tries before it falls down dead.

The Applause

That is all. If the crowd likes the torero’s work they will wave handkerchiefs to ask the president to give him one of the bull’s ears as a prize. The torero walks around the ring, receiving the ovation of the spectators.  The dead bull is dragged out of the ring by a team of mules.

Six bulls will be fought and killed in the same way during a bullfight—two for each of the three  star toreros.

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