Humanizing a Monster: The Saddest Scene in Latin Literature

SENTENTIAE ANTIQUAE

As a high-school Latin teacher, I am tasked with guiding young minds through the world’s finest piece of propaganda literature, Vergil’s Aeneid. We read through substantial portions of the text in preparation for the AP Latin exam, but this reading is largely dictated by a syllabus of readings which do not include the part of the poem which I regard as the most emotionally affecting scene in all of Latin literature. This is the scene in which Aeneas describes his first glimpse of the cyclops Polyphemus:

“Hardly had he spoken, when we saw the pastor Polyphemus moving himself in a great mass among his flocks and seeking the well-known beach – a horrible monster, deformed, huge, whose eye had been taken. A broken pine guided his hand and firmed his step, while his woolly sheep kept him company; that was his one pleasure, the one solace in his suffering.”…

View original post 744 more words

Advertisements

Vulnerable man constantly sanctioned, when will this Universal Credit hell end?

via Vulnerable man constantly sanctioned, when will this Universal Credit hell end?

Vulnerable man constantly sanctioned, when will this Universal Credit hell end?

The poor side of life

Hello readers, and an extra hello to all the new subscribers to my blog. I welcome you with open arms and I hope that you enjoy reading my blog. Enjoy is perhaps the wrong word to use because it can be very upsetting reading. But it’s essential reading, so many people don’t realise how awful the DWP and Universal Credit system is.

My apologies for last week, I wasn’t well but I’m on the mend now, thankfully. This week has been a very busy one and a big thank you to everyone that took the tome to watch my interview on Channel 4 news and my interview on Talk Radio also. I don’t do it for personal fame, far from it, I mean who wants to look at my ugly mug on the TV. I do it to raise awareness, and to hopefully one day get justice for each and…

View original post 1,434 more words

I’m sick of people looking at me as if I’m dirt. This weeks blog.

The poor side of life

Hello readers! I was extremely worried about being able to write the blog in time but I’ve managed it. This makes me very happy. I’ll write this weeks blog in the usual manner, it’s easier that way.

The weather was lovely and warm, so has made life a bit easier for many of us. I’m also thankful for that and long may it last!

The first person that I spoke to was an older woman, she told me that she wasn’t in the best of health but had failed her ESA ‘medical’ examination. Note how I highlight the word medical. These assesments are mostly a farce to force ill and people with disabilities off their rightful benefits and onto either a benefit that they can’t cope with or to take themselves off the system. Indeed, some people force themselves to work again even though they can’t cope. It’s a choice…

View original post 1,182 more words

I’m sick of people looking at me as if I’m dirt. This weeks blog.

via I’m sick of people looking at me as if I’m dirt. This weeks blog.

Recognise who was behind Powell too

rebel notes

I once had the opportunity to do serious physical harm to Enoch Powell and it still shocks me that I even contemplated it. It was around 1987. I had arranged to meet a Palestinian friend outside Gloucester Road tube. She would be taking me to a meeting nearby of other Palestinian and supporters of their struggle for justice. As I waited for her, I saw an old man, fairly smartly dressed and wearing a hat, who was having to make quite an effort to climb the stairs that led up to ground level from the tube. He was definitely familiar. I didn’t take me more than a few seconds to recognise Enoch Powell. I felt rage inside for so many victims of racial violence, including young people with their lives ahead of him who had died, their attackers ultimately inspired by his hateful words. I fleetingly, but seriously, contemplated turning…

View original post 1,533 more words

I was going to go to Ikea and steal some milk for my children.. Failed ESA medicals.. Long Universal Credit waits. Today’s blog.

via I was going to go to Ikea and steal some milk for my children.. Failed ESA medicals.. Long Universal Credit waits. Today’s blog.