Bettie's Books

bookshelves: published-1944, summer-2015, mythology, tbr-busting-2015, classic, dip-in-now-and-again, epic-proportions, under-500-ratings, greece, ancient-history, a-questing-we-shall-go, adventure, bullies, casual-violence, cults-societies-brotherhoods, deus-ex-machina, divination, doo-lally, fantasy, fascinating-fayre, foxtrotted-uniform, fraudio, games-people-play, hell-breaks-loose-one-night-ashore, incest-agameforallthefamily, lifesa-beach, lit-richer, nowt-as-queer-as-folk, ouch, rituals, seven-seas, storage-box-tbr, superstitions, suicide

Description: THE GOLDEN FLEECE - a cloak tossed to earth by a drunken Zeus, a sheepskin book of alchemic secrets or the gilded epidermis of a young human sacrifice named Mr. Ram — nobody knows. But Graves is quite sure that, whatever the Golden Fleece was, the voyage of Jason & his Argonauts really happened. His story shows the legendary cruise as one of the bawdiest, bloodiest, most boisterous expeditions of all time.

Did I know that Poseidon was originally god of the forest? It does knell a distant bell.


Cloaked in the depths and the salty mist
few consider Poseidon Phytalmius.
Verdant lord, forest king,
to him each leaf and bud does sing.

Long before wrote thoughtful Homer
was he consort to Demeter.
Breathing life upon each branch
so lifeless bleakness was thus stanched.

Phytalmius, nourisher of plants
who sees the future of each seed,
we give thanks to their nature
so our people we may feed.

Anyway, Poseidon is important to Göteborg/Gothenburg so this reawakening of scholastic trivia I now find entirely fab!

I am not a fan of Carl Milles's Swedish Poseidon, he made the face trollish...



Another join the dots moment happened when it clicked with me that Cersei = Circe.
Of course!

John William Waterhouse: Circe Offering the Cup to Ulysses - 1891

Minions Here
Minions There
Minions, Minions
Everywhere

Graves's version of The Golden Fleece is not a Disney-esque production, it is for those who crave a deeper rendition with ALL the relevant facts (and some of them not so relevant but fun all the same!) thrown in. It is Good to revisit the classics now and again.

See also: Jason And The Argonauts (1963) Full film.


5* I Claudius
5* Claudius the God
3.5* The Golden Fleece
TR Goodbye To All That
TR The Greek Myths
3* The White Goddess