Greek Legends by Terry Deary - 9 out of 10

 

Greek Legends by Terry Deary

9 out of 10

 

 

The under signed is not religious, but The Ancient Greek Mythology does have its attraction, indeed, it may even seem more palatable than many of the other ones, seeing as the Gods here act like humans, they even have Hermes among them, who is quite a character, represented as he is with that double snake on the cane

 

The symbol is supposed to show us the duality of this god, who was somehow connected with Olympus, but also of Hades, protector of the thieves and liars, he was born in a cave, the father was the ultimate fornicator, Zeus was making Hera, his wife, so angry with his philandering, fathering so many offspring, and Hermes

Immediately after he was born, Hermes walks on his feet – remember who his father is – and then he comes across this herd of cattle, with golden horns, that belong to his half-brother, Apollo, the latter is seducing women (and this boy, in other words, they were quite open minded back then, more so than fundamentalists today)

 

Hermes takes the cattle away, quite an extraordinary achievement, for someone who is just an infant, but then again, he is a god, and hides them, furthermore, he sacrifices two cows, cutting them in twelve portions, and when he is asked later why was that, seeing that there were only eleven gods, and who is number twelve?

Hermes says it is him, and surprises and enchants Zeus, who makes this prodigy son the patron of thieves and liars then and there, but this one is not limited to stealing – he finds a turtle, takes the shell of the poor animal and some intestines from sacrificed cattle and makes a liar – which brings us to one of the best comedies

 

Mel Brooks https://realini.blogspot.com/2020/02/the-producers-written-and-directed-by.html has made some of the best films you can see, and in The History of The World, part I, we have Dom DeLuise as Caesar, or one of the emperors anyway, who is disenchanted with the massive treasure he gets and then asks for a liar

And what they bring is a physical liar, and the emperor says ‘not that kid of liar’, he wanted the instrumented invented by Hermes – Apollo was very angry to find his special herd missing, so he sends out his ‘private investigators’, the satyrs, half men and half goats, who search for the missing cattle and find a clue

 

They hear the music and then Apollo takes Hermes to their father, to complain, Hermes becomes patron of musician and artists, not just the likes of Orange Jesus – this is the name found by republican leaders for one of the most despicable ghouls the world has today – frauds and cheats, and Apollo becomes obsessed with the instrument

 

To prove his talent and power, Hermes takes a bamboo and makes another magical instrument, a flute, and Apollo offers…well, I forgot what he has to give, but Hermes is anyway a good negotiator and does not accept the proposal, he has a good sense of business (I think this is why he also gets merchants and traders in his flock)

Hermes wants to predict the future, and thus he travels to Delphi, where they had the famous Oracle – the one that declared Socrates to be the wisest man in ancient times, which made the philosopher wonder about the reason and so he looked around and found that most people think they can tell you the secret of most things

 

Jesting, these are the ones I hear today, at the sauna Downtown (by the way, if for some reason you are still on this page, be careful, they have closed down some World Class premises as inadequate) explaining the truth of the various dumb conspiracy theories, from the US has wanted the war in Ukraine, to Orange Jesus won the elections

With the war in Ukraine, it is simple to see the truth now, although it is also horrible, since the Cult of Orange Jesus refuses to pass a law to fund the poor people fighting for their freedom and lives – they have rejected this for months now, I think it is already half an year – it is clear that they do not want the fighting

 

Socrates found that thought they are not expert in a field, hoi polloi say whatever, on anything and he is the one who does not venture to tell you what the truth is, almost all the others act like Chili Palmer, the hero from Get Shorty https://realini.blogspot.com/2020/04/get-shorty-by-elmore-leonard-aka.html by Elmore Leonard

Chili Palmer has that memorable line ‘I am the one telling you the way it is’, well, Socrates was not, and he concluded that, since he does not pretend to know what he does not know, it must be the reason for the prophecy, the statement that ‘he is the wisest man alive’…Hermes is off to Delphi and then he wants to be in charge upstairs

 

They give him that funny hat, because he is also the messenger between humans and gods, and needs to keep rain away, he escorts the dead into Hades, albeit I wondered if he does not interfere with Charon and the three-headed dog, Cerberus, Hermes has sandals with wings, so that he gets the messages across faster

He is also involved in the famous dispute over who is selected by Paris, out of the three goddesses, Aphrodite, Athens and…who was the third, easy to Google, but let us leave this testimony of short memory – it might have been the hunting goddess, or was it Hera – notwithstanding that, it is Aphrodite who gets the apple

 

Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/unique-in-world.html?q=unique+in+the+world  – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se

 

 There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know

 

As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/realini-in-newsweek-participant-in.html

 

Some favorite quotes from To The Heritage and other works

 

‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’

 

‚Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus’

 

“From Monty Python - The Meaning of Life...Well, it's nothing very special...Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.”