Infant Mild and Astyanax, the Son of Hector, Hidden in Hector’s Tomb

Our western world begins its dating with

The birth of one warm glowing baby. Glow

And gilding in the paintings are like myth.

They make truth truer. Little foot and toe

On manger straw are our beginning. Sweet.

The Greeks began their dating with the sack

Of Troy. Included in this bronze defeat

Was Andromache’s son thrown down and slack

Against the paving under broken walls,

His body and his bones there broken by

Greek voting, then by Pyrrhus’ hands. These falls,

The city’s and the smashed child’s, clarify

For us the differences between our thought

And Greeks’ views. They liked “is” and we crave “ought.”

by phillipw | Sep 17, 2020 | AN, AS, GR, HE, JE, PY, TR | 2 comments