Thursday, October 13, 2011

Stories from Homer



I remember listening to my mother read these stories aloud and looking at the illustrations, many of which are of naked men with blankets strategically and illogically hanging about them.

Others are of men dressed for battle. I always wondered about some of their outfits, esp. their head gear. Some have helmets, and others have this thing on their head that makes them look like an upside down broom.

3 comments:

TC said...

I think the deal was this. Once the supply of authentic maidens had been depleted, and there was no one left to do the household chores, the more girly-ish of the warriors were recruited for these tasks; they were held upside down by the feet (the sandal thongs served very well as handles, for this purpose), and swung back and forth over the unclean places until those helmet-brush-thingies had broomed everything up, up and away. The bloody grime and gore of battle vanished, poof! All neat and tidy then, and ready for the next round of maiden-abductions, consequent wars & c. Never a dull moment.

Nin Andrews said...

Glad we have that settled . . . I like the skirts they wore, too, with all the pleats . . .
These things were of great importance to me as a girl.

TC said...

For boys it was different. Pleats in the trousers, in my geological period, meant zoot-suit. That was a sort of fashion battle statement. Switchblades not spears and lances, but still.

I suppose it's all the same really, the baby Myrmidons must have at each other with whatever means come to hand, in any historic era.