Flying Holy Men

Tales of Mystic Poets : III

 

 

 

 

The Persian King Xerxes I ( 519 BC - 465 BC ) had mounted a campaign against the Greeks after the death of his father Darius. At the Hellespont, the army built a pontoon bridge to cross the straits. A storm during the night destroyed the bridge and Xerxes was facing the prospect of a failure in his Kingly ambitions.

 

In a furious disposition regarding the matter, Xerxes ordered that the waters of the Hellespont be whipped three hundred times, which was then carried out. Thereafter, he built the pontoon bridge again and crossed it.

 

Quite a tale indeed! And how does a modern day man of letters react to such a story?

 

Did we used to identify with a relation to the all as father or son and undertake our life's activities as if in congruence with such wishes of the all, as they might have been? Do we continue to do that today, clandestinely, wishfully or through the whimsical nature of mysticism?

 

A man would wonder about these things. When Mt. Vesuvius erupted and buried Rome, did the Roman man of letters see in that the end of an eminent career he had, lament the loss of an empire and ponder on the changing nature of life? Did he come to see anew life's changing relations to the endemic and ephemeral events of man. Were we in some way omnipresent, at some point in our experiences?

 

What would that mean to me today? Personally. It would, I guess, refer to a specific event, relation, love or achievement that I think I might be in engagement with at this time( besides thinking loud on the pages of WC ). I would come to perceive of such a new relation by the way that such expectations come to be received. I guess!