A Halloween treat

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mwh
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A Halloween treat

Post by mwh »

A tale of a phantom female with a lust for human flesh.
Best read to the accompaniment of Radiohead’s We Suck Young Blood. I greet trick-or-treaters
with that, played at full volume, but they pay no heed.

“οὐ γὰρ ὕλη ἐστίν, ἀλλὰ ὕλης δόξα. ὡς δὲ γιγνώσκοιτε
ὃ λέγω, ἡ χρηστὴ νύμφη μία τῶν ἐμπουσῶν ἐστιν,
ἃς λαμίας τε καὶ μορμολυκίας οἱ πολλοὶ ἡγοῦνται.
ἐρῶσι δ’ αὗται καὶ ἀφροδισίων μέν, σαρκῶν δὲ
μάλιστα ἀνθρωπείων ἐρῶσι καὶ παλεύουσι τοῖς
ἀφροδισίοις, οὓς ἂν ἐθέλωσι δαίσασθαι.” ἡ δὲ
"εὐφήμει" ἔλεγε "καὶ ἄπαγε" καὶ μυσάττεσθαι
ἐδόκει ἃ ἤκουεν. ἐπεὶ μέντοι τὰ ἐκπώματα τὰ
χρυσᾶ καὶ ὁ δοκῶν ἄργυρος ἀνεμιαῖα ἠλέγχθη καὶ
διέπτη τῶν ὀφθαλμῶν ἅπαντα οἰνοχόοι τε καὶ ὀψο-
ποιοὶ καὶ ἡ τοιαύτη θεραπεία πᾶσα ἠφανίσθησαν,
δακρύοντι ἐῴκει τὸ φάσμα καὶ ἐδεῖτο μὴ βασανίζειν
αὐτό, μηδὲ ἀναγκάζειν ὁμολογεῖν ὅ τι εἴη· τέλος δ’
ἔμπουσα εἶναι ἔφη καὶ πιαίνειν ἡδοναῖς τὸν νεὸν
ἐς βρῶσιν τοῦ σώματος, τὰ γὰρ καλὰ τῶν σωμάτων
καὶ νέα σιτεῖσθαι ἐνόμιζεν, ἐπειδὴ ἀκραιφνὲς αὐτοῖς
τὸ αἷμα.

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jeidsath
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Re: A Halloween treat

Post by jeidsath »

While your story was quite fun, but I wasn't sure why τὰ καλά and τὰ νεά would necessarily have αἷμα that was ἀκραιφνές, any more than anybody else's, that is. So I looked it up in the LSJ, which led me to E.Hec.537. I was horrified by the immediate context, and then proceeded to read the whole section. Now there's a story to scare the kids with! But not really "spooky" enough for Halloween.
“One might get one’s Greek from the very lips of Homer and Plato." "In which case they would certainly plough you for the Little-go. The German scholars have improved Greek so much.”

Joel Eidsath -- jeidsath@gmail.com

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