The Reading Room

Q: How do we know that Shelley's "Adonais" refers to Byron and Moore?

10:30 AM

@Bookworm The question about the Wells quote became HNQ 11 hours ago.

3 hours later…

CowperKettle

1:12 PM

Hopkins of the day

Bookworm

1:51 PM

In every site I've seen that analyzes Shelley's Adonais, they all agree that in the following stanza the "Pilgrim of Eternity" refers to Byron. Here is one example: From stanza 30 to 35, Shelley says that contemporary poets, in the guise of mountain shepherds with “garlands sere” and “magic mant...

4 hours later…

Bookworm

6:07 PM

Q: What does "keep happiness away with a shotgun" mean here in this context?

In [In the Midst of Alarms][1] (1894) by Robert Barr, a man was talking about a self-sufficient people in a Canadian village, saying: “Why, that this is the proper way to live. Old Hiram has an anvil and an amateur forge. He can tinker up almost anything, and that eliminates the blacksmith. Howa...

in-the-midst-of-alarms robert-barr

3 hours later…

Q: Has Herakles been swallowed by a whale?

9:03 PM

I heard a rumor that there was an ancient Greek myth about a human swallowed by a whale (or other large sea monster) and living to tell the tale, similar to the Biblical story of Jonas the prophet. I was surprised because I hadn't heard of such a myth yet, and it's one that would have surely stu...

greek hercules

It's been rather quiet here in the last 24 hours because everybody has been (and probably still is) watching or reading about you-know-what...

Also North and I have been busy making characters for a D&D campaign

ahem

*and Mith

there you go

9:08 PM

No idea what else you're talking about. What else important is happening in the world right now?

D&D?

@bobble absolutely nothing

Dungeons & Dragons, a table-top roleplaying game

though we'll be playing it in a chatroom, since we don't know each other in real life...

Oh, nothing. I thought there was something yesterday, but I may have overestimated its importance.

just an attempted coup in one of the most influential countries in the world, nothing major

9:12 PM

My family watched news instead of Angel (the TV show) last night

Though I'd rather deal with evil lawyers than crazed rioters any day

noted: bobble is not one of the Nac-Mac-Feegle

no idea what that means

Pratchett characters who have a fear of lawyers

I was re-reading The Wee Free Men while stuck on base with nothing to do

Gareth Rees

@b_jonas This is from (pseudo-)Lycophron's Alexandra (2nd century) in which the Trojan princess Hesione is about to be sacrified to the sea monster Cetus by her father Laomedon, but Heracles rescues her by allowing himself to be swallowed and hacking his way out

The story of Heracles and Cetus is mentioned in the Iliad, but the detail of Heracles being swallowed seems to have been introduced by pseudo-Lycophron, so it could be based on Jonah

10:13 PM

@GarethRees Ah good. I have heard of him saving Andromeda at least.

Gareth Rees

@b_jonas It was Perseus who saved Andromeda from Cetus — Heracles was their great-grandson

@GarethRees I see.

"Heracles rescues her by allowing himself to be swallowed and hacking his way out"

Gareth Rees

Cetus must have had a long princess-eating career

1 hour later…