#lucian dialogs

[katerinaaqu]

Honestly the Lucian Dialogs of Gods (Dialogi Deorum) are so lively and so direct!

For instance here is the clip of the dialog between Hermes and Apollo! Apollo is grieving over the death of Hyakinthus!

Hermes: Why are you sad, Apollo? Apollo: Oh Hermes! I am so devastated! My beloved! Hermes: Ah that is worthy of sorrow indeed but whom are you grieving for? Are you sad about Daphne? Apollo: Not at all. I grieve for my lover (eromenos), the Laconian son of Oeballus Hermes: Don't tell me Hyakinthus died! Apollo: Very much so! Hermes: But who, Apollo, who could be so incapable of love so that to kill that beautiful boy?! Apollo: It was by my own hand! Hermes: Undoubtedly you must have gone mad, Apollo! Apollo: No I wasn't, it was an accident that happened without my will! Hermes: How? I want to hear the way! Apollo: He was learning how to throw the discus and I was throwing with him however Zephyr also loved him and he (Hyakinthus) was not interested and because Zephyr couldn't stand the insult when I threw, like we were used to, upwards he (Zephyr) blew over the mount Taygetos and it (the discus) flew towards the boy's head and so much blood flowed from the wound, immediately killing the boy! I attacked immediately Zephyr with my arrows and he ran away back to the mountains. However the boy I buried in a grave in Amyclae where the discus killed him and from his blood, oh Hermes, from his blood I made a beloved flower come out of the earth, the most beautiful flower of all and I wrote on it letters to mourn for the dead! Do you think now that I mourn unjustly? Hermes: Ah, Apollo you already knew you had chosen a mortal for your lover! Do not grieve now that he died!

(Translation by me)

I love how you can literally play the scene so simply! You just need two people. Apollo is crying devastated, Hermes notices and asks him what is going on wishing to hear the story. We also hear that the events with Daphne have passed now but also we see that Apollo grieves for his "eromenos". Hermes originally wonders who would do such a thing and then when Apollo reveals the truth Hermes assumes he was mad or something because who would dare to harm him?! (here again the concept of καλός καγαθός "beautiful and pure)

However after Apollo tells his sad story Hermes seems to drop the "logic bomb" here that Apollo made the choice of loving a mortal man that was destined to die anyways. Somehow not showing as much sympathy at the end of the story! In one way that seems to be the final punchline that in the end of the day the gods that wish to love mortals are already up for sorrows because mortals are destined to die anyways

However the way that we see in such a small piece of dialog how Hermes and Apollo interact; how Hermes is more insensitive while Apollo is grieving and taken over by emotion, we hear their "roles" in the relationship (erastes and eromenos), we hear the story of Zephyr being jealous of Hyakinthus for not returning his feelings, we see the immediate enraged reaction by Apollo and the way he buries the boy back at the place he was hit and also the dramatic details about the child's fate... And finally the Hyakinth flower that says to have the letters of YA (Υάκυνθος ) forming on the leaves I remember mentioning this to my Achilles and Patroclus analysis (I also mentioned it more to my reblogs with @likethexan ) and the way the clip seems to be influenced by the same pattern of rage and grief is really beautifully written!

The Lucian Dialogs are generally so great but the dialogs of gods have some great elements in them such as Zeus and Ganymedes or Hera to Zeus about Ganymedes!