Ekphrasis

ek•phra•sis


A graphic, often dramatic description of a visual work of art


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Ekphrasis is a term often used in Classical texts when a work of art in the narrative is described in such a way that it comes alive in the mind of the reader. 


In both Homer's Iliad and Virgil's Aeneid, the shields of the main protagonists are described in such great detail that the descriptions almost become stories within the larger poetic stories. What I like about the differences between these two shields is how they reflect the attitudes of the characters who hold them and the opinions of the authors who wrote about them.


Achilles' shield depicts harsh images of war, death and destruction. I won't post the actual section from the poem describing it because it's really long and I don't want to have to type it all out. So here's a picture instead:





You can't tell, but it's really itchy, I mean depressing.


His shield reflects the present, that is, the war of Troy that Achille's had begrudgedly joined. His war-slave, Chyseis, was taken from him by Agamemnon, for which he left the war and he only rejoined because his best friend, Patroklos, was killed by Hektor. The only reason Achilles' fights in revenge, so his view on war is grim and bleak, which his shield reflects perfectly. 


Meanwhilst, Aeneas' shield contains a plethora of images about the glory of Rome. 



Still hard to tell, but all the pictures have Romans cheering and being all victorious and stuff.


The Aeneid tells the story of Aeneas and his crew, the only Trojan survivors of the Trojan War. Aeneas is destined to be the founder of the Roman Empire, so when his is given his shield, it bears images of the future of Rome, depicting all of its major battles and accomplishments. 


The big difference between the two is the focus of time. While Achilles' is preoccupied with the grim present, Aeneas looks to the bright future. While part of the reason for this is because Achilles knows he's going to die soon and Aeneas knows that he will survive and be victorious, I think the real reason these two warriors have such differing opinions is the circumstance of culture they find themselves in. 


The Aeneid was commissioned to Virgil by Caesar to glorify Rome and justify its history as grounded in the mythologies that the Romans adapted from the Greeks. While the purpose of The Aeneid is essentially propaganda, there is still a lot of deep moral issues explored (although most are never actually resolved). 


Meanwhile, Homer composed The Iliad to retell a story that all Greeks would have been very familiar with. Just like all oral poets of his time, Homer had to make the story his own to grab people's attention. His emphasis was not simply a chronology of the war, but a snapshot of a singular instance which reflected a much more human perspective of a war fought over very futile purposes. The poem isn't completely depressing or pessimistic, but rather it contains a wide spectrum of human emotion, from laughing to crying, from valiant 
aristeias to passionate speeches about war and suffering. 

In a sense, ekphrasis is yet another funhouse mirror within the larger funhouse mirror that is literature and art. Obviously art can never be a mirror and perfectly reflect life and we the people who inhabit it, but in its distortion, it reveals more about us than a simple identical image ever could. Ekphrasis is another layer of this distortion, one that helps us to see the larger picture, not necessarily more clearly, but from a better vantage point.  

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I really liked what you had to say about Taxonomy and the  constant of categorization catatonia that I know I suffer from all the time. I like Binomial Nomenclature too, but mainly because of the way it sounds. 

Congratulations on your Orgtest!!! That's great to hear you're doing so well!

Although I don't have any more midterms, I have two more giant papers to do and an HKIN project to finish in the next few weeks, so I don't know if I'll be able to post in that time. Do you think we should put the blog on Winter break hiatus soon?

Talk to you soon!