Arden by: dnrock(dnrock@rock.com)
68: Prince & Philosopher?
1320, 3rd month, 2nd day:
I left Hy with the math teachers at the castle and departed for the university. Hy has classes in the mornings, as do I. His will continue for many years, mine will soon finish. I will miss the university. I do love learning and the related discussions so much. Several of my professors, in the Philosophy department, have promised to continue to work with me in the future. They will suggest material for me to read, I will meet with them after I have completed each work and discuss it with them. I had thought about seeking an advanced degree. As appealing as that may be, we are all expected to take an increased role in the operations of government. Advanced degrees seem to focus one to learn more and more about less and less. If I desired, I know all would support me. I can not, it would be taking advantage of their love and our brotherhood.
I also gave some thought to Plato's idea of the Philosopher King, explained in book 7 of The Republic. Plato defined a philosopher firstly as its eponymous occupation (TN: wisdom-lover). I am that and I make no secret of it. He then distinguishes between one who loves true knowledge, as opposed to simple sights or education; by saying that a philosopher is the only man who has access to forms -- the archetypal concept, which lies behind all representations of the form (such as a table as opposed to any one particular table). While I have utmost respect for Plato, I am not completely convinced that the philosopher is the only man who has access to forms. Nor am I convinced these forms are quite all Plato thinks they are.
It is next and in support of the idea that philosophers are the best rulers, than Plato fashions the ship of state metaphor. (TN: one of his most often cited ideas, along with his allegory of the cave). "True pilot must of necessity pay attention to the seasons, the heavens, the stars, the winds, and everything proper to the craft if he is really to rule a ship". Plato claims that the sailors (i.e., the people of the city-state, over whom the philosopher is the potential ruler) ignore the philosopher's "idle stargazing" because they have never encountered a true philosopher before. I think Plato is perhaps drinking a bit to much of his own wine here.
Plato describes the philosopher-kings' education as beginning with the general primary education until the age of eighteen and two years of intense physical training. Those performing exceedingly well receive ten years of rigorous mathematical education -- because Plato believes the forms cannot be fully understood less they be tied in with the sacredness of mathematics. If successful at this stage, the student moves on to five years of training in dialectic. There is a final fifteen-year period of apprenticeship in managing the polis. (TN: city)
"And when they are fifty years old, those who have lasted the whole course and are in every way best at everything, both in practice and in theory, must at last be led to the final goal, and must be compelled to lift up the mouth of their psyches towards that which provides light for everything, the good itself. And taking it as their model, they must put in good order both the polis and themselves for the remainder of their lives, taking turns with the others. After extensive education, the kings finally understand the form of the Good.
That may be so and it may not. I fear it is little more than an ideal itself. Ideals, as my experience shows, are wondrous and wonderful things. They are almost never attained in full. That does not mean they should not be some ultimate goal. It does mean that goal may never quite be reached and all we men can do is continue to strive toward it. It seems to me that if we ever achieve what we think is this ideal goal we will loose the will to continue striving. On the other hand we may find that goal wanting. I even wonder if any goal we might conceive of can ever be anything but wanting at least in the eyes of others.
I am 19, soon 20 and I have completed far more education and a much wider range of subjects than poor old Plato ever envisioned. I already have my fitness and physical skills, long in advance and far greater, than any two year training period could provide. I also have some apprenticeship in government, management of the city state. I am now gaining much more.
The reality is, I and my brothers may well be called upon to rule long before we are 50. In a sense our fathers, and I would assume the council, have implemented a plan not unlike that of Plato but with more flexibility and a strong Aristotelian bent. The depth and breath of knowledge available today is far greater then in Plato's time. I doubt that his regimen would be adequate today. I am sure he had no knowledge of our present mathematics and it would astound him. I am not so sure how sacred numbers are either. I doubt he had Mohammed's equations in mind, however. He believes the study of mathematics, the mathematics he understood, would sharpen our thinking skills but little else.
That aside, I am not convinced that the form of the Good is all that needs be fully or even finally understood. I also suspect that if we ever achieved a group of say 5 or 6 that all completed his regimen we would have 7 or 8 forms of the Good; at least in the minds of his philosophers. I think he has ignored the role of leadership in his analysis of good polis government. He abandons the old ideas of democracy. The citizens can be and sometimes are foolish and ignorant. To correct this flaw he substitutes another.
The historians suggest that Solomon, the Great Alexander, Marcus Aueilus, John II Komeneos are all examples of Philosopher Kings. The philosophers do not. The Plationists point to them and others as examples but recognize their strong short comings.
I have a problem with this. First, we only know of them from incomplete records, often written long after they were dead. Or contemporary records written by less than independent scholars. Nor do we have any real knowledge of their education or the political influences and the realities they worked under and with. Finally, Alexander, Marcus and John were all know for their superior leadership as well as their understanding of the Good, as interpreted by non philosophers.
If one examines each, one finds that Good was often quite different between them and between them and us; and far short of Plato's Ideal. Did these men all study philosophy and mathematics? Probably so, we are told they did, except for Solomen. Marcus and John wrote several volumes and demonstrated wise thought. Did they live lives that strove for an ideal? Probably. Was their ideal ever achieved? Probably not. Was their ideal and Plato's the same? I doubt it. Did the reality of their lives and times allow them to act, always as defined by their ideal, let alone Plato's? I would say not, many times over.
Plato's Idea of the Good is the child or offspring (ekgonos) of the Good, the ideal or perfect nature of goodness, and so an absolute measure of justice. Plato also explains his theory of justice in The Republic, in relation to his conception of a city in speech, both of which necessitate rule of the rational mind; in other words, philosopher-kings, who can grasp the Idea of the Good. If one looks at the actions of these men and others, one finds they probably all grasped some part if not all of the ideal. Their actions suggest grasp or not they were only rarely able to implement it.
Plato said that the highest form of knowledge is the Idea of the Good, from which things that are just gain their usefulness and value. Humans have a duty to pursue the good, but no one can hope to do this successfully without philosophical reasoning. I agree with him in general, I am not sure he established this duty. I think most humans want to peruse the good, philosophical training or no, this good often differs.
According to Plato true science (TN: knowledge) was conversant, not about those material forms and imperfect intelligence, which we meet within our daily interactions with all mankind however; it investigated the nature of those purer and more perfect patterns which were the models after which all created beings were formed.
I think Plato's metaphysical musings requirer a level of faith in gods I just do not have. Aristotle had other ideas but he came later. Plato supposes these perfect types to have existed from all eternity and calls them the ideas of the great original Intelligence. As these ideas can not be perceived by human senses, whatever knowledge we derive from that source is unsatisfactory and uncertain. He maintains that degree of skepticism which denies all permanent authority to the evidence of sense. In this he is not completely wrong as we all know. However, arriving at this understand, he talks about, is far more difficult than he gives credit and its results are also uncertain. I suspect that one man's understanding may be different from another's.
Having discovered or created the realm of ideas, he surveyed it throughout. Plato defined its' most excellent forms from goodness as the "Hierarchy of Forms". This suggests that from goodness comes such things as justice, truth, equality and beauty, among many others. Plato then determines what was the supreme and dominant principle of the whole. It is the Idea of the Good. This is the harmony of intelligence throughout its entire extent with goodness being the most important.
I will continue to study philosophy and seek knowledge and I hope gain wisdom. I will be me, Arden, not some ideal or some ancient emperor or king. Plato is wrong on one thing, no true seeking of wisdom and knowledge can be compelled. The true philosopher compels himself.
The true test for all judgments, even for the understanding of the form Good is its universality. It is right and correct or moral and proper if and only if, it applies to all men uniformly and evenly. Some would say it must apply to all things in the universe. I doubt that he thought quite this way.
If it is right and proper for me to kill my neighbor, it is equally right and proper for my neighbor to kill me. This is not quite the same as Natural Law and Natural Justice, both are applied in Parga. They are common in one respect, at least in Parga they are both universal.
The implications of my killing example, to the form of Good or in understanding Good, is clear. If it was acceptable for neighbors to kill one another chaos would result. That would obviously be the from of Evil, not Good. (TN: Arden here uses chaos in the old mythological sense. That is: no rules, no order, no ideals, no forms. I remind the reader that Arden did not have the benefit of the last 600 years of thought and science, or language development. It is obvious that his thinking both predates and suggests Kant's Categorical and Moral Imperatives. Is it possible Kant had read Arden? It is of course, Kant would have been able to read Greek and Latin as well as his native German. See this reff. for more about him and his imperative http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immanuel_Kant)
There in lay the test. We can know the right from the wrong by examining the implications of universality; we then need examine them in the light of our understanding of this Ideal Good. This will work here in Parga as we are all citizens and all of equal status. It will work between states or for other groups but only in principal. All the study and training and understanding possible will not replace the realities of existing in a world of greed, avers and delusional power. That necessitates the political or as one scholar suggested the art of the possible.
I think the king need be a philosopher but he had best not be a philosopher king. I think it best that the power be shared and the guiding principals be as universal as practical. The greatest danger to us all, are those who believe their chosen faith represents this form of Good or Truth, and that by accepting some ancient writings they have a short cut to understanding it. The ideal of Good or the faith based rules of social engagement are not in and of themselves wrong, so much as they show either a poor or highly biased understanding of humans and how they function.
Philosophy, Science (TN: used here in the modern sense) and Religion all offer explanations of the world and the humans that occupy it. Given the number of different views or truths they represent, one is lead to question the voracity of them all. We can only conclude no absolutes exist, and if they do we have not yet discovered them. I see the same short coming in metaphysical thought as physical observations. The senses can be fooled, so can the mind. There in lay the greatest danger. The mind can and does realize the senses have been fooled. Can it recognized when it has been fooled or fooled itself. I think not, at lest not at this time in my education and experience.
Given our cultural heritage, educational level and secular nature, we had best keep well away from adopting any in whole. That does not mean we can not and should not learn from them all. A good and workable idea is just that and must not be rejected based on origin. An examination shows that some universal ideas or Goods can be identified. That I think Parga has done and without me.
I may wish to think I am the greatest leader, best athlete, smartest scholar and of course the finest prince in Parga's history; the truth is I have no way to know this. To articulate such thoughts, except for my running, is to demean all those who went before and who built what I have inherited. Just because I have knowledge they did not and could not, does not mean I am smarter or better. It only means I had advantage of what they created. I have the advantage of learning from their errors and successes. This prince is taller than all others, because he stands on the shoulders of others.
Later this morning I went to the plaza. Kastor, Iason, Poly and Hy, joined me. We spent a few minutes in silent remembrance by the statue. Hy was mystified by this. Iason explained to him the meaning of our little vigil. "You do not pray to a god but just stand here and remember?"
"That is correct. You may pray to your god or gods if you choose. You do not need even stand hear with us in silence, unless you wish. Odo's ode of dedication is what I think, as I stand here. I am sure the same for Arden. This is a privet time of remembrance. For me it is one of the most meaningful of those times. Men of note, great kings and great scoundrels are often remembered in many forms. Our direct ancestors are remembered as we are taught by our mothers to do so. The boys we remember, often of humble origin live again, even if only in our thoughts. Boys are rarely remembered except by their immediate family. This statue honors them and their memory, that was our idea and intention; they achieve immortality in our thoughts, as the poem states."
Hygonis was overcome and said noting. I could see he was desperate to understand his princes. He believes he must understand us to serve us. He will in time gain some understanding of each. He will in time realize he can never completely understand.
We went over to the fountain instillation. The Argoanuts were finishing their work. Water would flow from it in a few days. The final design was simple and mostly as I described before. The fountain has a number of levels. The lowest for dogs and small animals. A large central basin for horses and other beasts of burden. It has several places for people to drink and several designed to fill vessels.
Edward and Philon had assisted them in planting a number of trees to provide some shade in the summer. The mayor has promised to employ blind story tellers and poets to give recitations in the afternoons. The next project for the Argoanuts will be a clock tower. It will stand tall in the center of the plaza. Several sundials are already in the plaza but they only work during the day and only on days without much cloud cover. We are not the only people to be considering the idea of public clocks. We know in Milano they are designing a clock tower, it is reported to be a large chiming device that will chime between one and 24 times on each hour in turn.
Polydeukus wants our clock tower to be the first we know of. If Milano is talking about it, but has not yet commissioned its construction, we can easily achieve that. Apparently they have no plans for a dial or face, just the chimes. I thought a dial with 24 hours would be to large. Kastor thought if we divided the day into two, twelve hour time periods, then the dial need not be so great but the numbers would be large enough to be easily seen from some distance. Iason thought 24 chimes a bit much but 12 more reasonable. He also thought it could chime on the half hour, but just once. At the hour, two chimes could be struck at the same time, giving that a different tone from the half hour chime.
Others had suggestions too. Heron thought we should divide the day at noon, the 12th hour and the 24th hour, what he called midnight and midday. The astronomers could send time adjustments at noon from the tower at the university to the clock tenders. I thought we could still use the spring drive of our accurate clocks for timing with a reasonable size pendulum and a modified verg-and-foliot weight driven escapement system, to move the large hands and strike the chimes. The verg-and-foliot weight driven system is most standard, as I discussed before, not accurate enough for accurate time or timing. Spring drive is more dependable until the spring becomes almost completely unwound. With a large tower the springs could be more than large enough to work for several days without winding.
Volos thought the tower should be equal sided and triangular; with only three faces that would be unique and would be simpler than four. It could taper from top to bottom. One or two would be less useful. That shape is not even common for obelisks or columns, which are mostly round or rectangular. Hy was busy making notes of what we were saying. I did not have the heart to tell him it was not necessary. It may prove useful, one never knows.
Iason did not think this was a good task for the Argoanuts. He was all for them being a sponsor. Why not a joint effort of the Academia and the Argoanuts, paid for by the mayor and the king, I suggested. If the dial was made of glass it could easily be lighted from the inside. Why not partly paid for by all the guilds that would be involved in its creation. It if is a triangle then 1/3 from the guilds, 1/3 from the city and the remaining 1/3 from the king. The Argoanuts could oversee the construction and the Academia, engineering and science.
As we walked back to the castle Hy was full of questions. "Is that how you princes always work," Hy asked?
"Oh no, that one went more smoothly than most." Kastor told him.
"I do not understand, you all made suggestions, then you attacked your own idea and all the others, then you all nodded in agreement and congratulated yourselves on a job well done," Hy said.
"That is the way they always do things. It is their method of testing the idea for soundness. Everyone probes, looking for the weakness, when none can no longer be found, they know it is sound and are prepared to make it happen," Damao instructed.
It is like a game. All of our successful and some less so ventures, started this way. We have been doing this since we were young pages, thinking up mischief during the most boring parts of our duties. The most important thing to remember, it is the problem, idea, plan or what ever is being examined, never the person. Personal examinations are made in the bath or bed. Hy smiled widely as I enveloped him under my arm. Being this tall is often an advantage for me.
When we returned to our apartments, in preparation for the council meeting, we were greeted by 8 boys, Panther and Lyuben along with several pages and senior Palace Boys.
"These are the new Palace Boy recites. This is you patron Prince Kastor..."
They were all introduced and we learned the new names. Panther told us and everyone else what their schedule would be for then next few weeks. Each boy was assigned an older boy to teach him the castle and our rules, start his schooling and sports. We did not learn much about them until after they departed. Lyuben told us 5 of the eight were all the sons of prostitutes, the other three were interested in adventure and saw few opportunities in their large and often poor families.
I was suitably impressed with the lot. They are young and a bit shy. One seemed to be quite girl like, his speech was very musical. I suggested to Kastor that he be placed with Dysme or Ikaros for his first assignment.
"Uncle Iason will not want another Ganymede for some weeks I am sure, as am I," Kastor said. All seemed polite, we were assured bright and hard working.
The council meeting held nothing worthy to note. When we returned: Odo, Thoren, Akakios, Stephnos, Lysandros, Nikias, Akakios and Umar were holding court in the Page's Common Room. Several of the pages were engaged but doing more listening than speaking. They were all debating the nature of creativity and art: music, poetry, painting and sculpture. At first I thought they were trying to decide which is more nobel. That was not the case. Iason joined them as he is so greatly interested in performance, which is a kin to the poets.
Odo and Thoren were attempting to separate their respective types of poems. Odo tends to short odes, songs and the like. Thoren recites and writes story poems often epic in nature. They are as he and Odo agreed oral history, genealogy and law. Thoren pointed our his tradition predated literacy, mentioning the Vedas, Iliad and Odyssey as examples. (TN: The Vedas is from ancient India but would have been know to the Greeks in translations probably from Persian.) Ancient thinkers and some of us modern ones, I told them, sought to determine what makes poetry distinctive as a form and what distinguishes good poetry from bad, resulting in the development of "poetics", or the study of the aesthetics of poetry. Some ancient societies, such as the Chinese through the Shi Jing, one of the Five Classics of Confucianism, developed canons of poetic works that had ritual as well as aesthetic importance. More recently, thinkers struggled to find a definition that could encompass formal differences as great as those between Homer and you Odo.
Context can be critical to poetics and to the development of poetic genres and forms. For example, poetry employed to record historical events in epics, such as Gilgamesh or Illiad will necessarily be lengthy and narrative, while poetry used for liturgical purposes in hymns, psalms, suras and hadiths is likely to have an inspirational tone, whereas elegies and tragedy are intended to invoke deep internal emotional responses.
Other contexts include music such as our songs, formal or diplomatic speech, political rhetoric and invective, light-hearted children's and nonsense rhymes, and even medical texts and philosophical treatises. I think plays and forms such as the dialogues of Plato sometimes reach this. Where as the General's histories, my journals and treatises on most subjects are different.
I pointed out that poetry had two concepts, as we already said if not in those words, the term is applied to two distinct things that, as the poet Odo observes, "at a certain point find union. Poetry is an art based on language. But poetry also has a more general meaning that is difficult to define because it is less determinate: poetry expresses a certain state of mind." The others are much more factual and straight forward.
Aristotle's Poetics describes the three genres of poetry: the epic, comic, and tragic, as we have already noted, and develops rules to distinguish the highest-quality poetry of each genre, based on the underlying purposes of that genre. Much of what he said is observed by us in Parga.
Later aestheticians identified three major genres: epic poetry, lyric poetry and dramatic poetry, treating comedy and tragedy as sub-genres of dramatic poetry. That is not unlike what you have been saying, again in different words. Aristotle's work is influential throughout our traditions and from what I understood of your writings Ikraam, in Arabic speaking places. Some poets and aestheticians often distinguished poetry from, and defined it in opposition to, prose, which was generally understood as writing with a proclivity to logical explication and a linear narrative structure. Like histories or some of your stories Thoren.
Iason thought the high level of literacy in Parga is leading to the development of more personal poems, often intended to be sung. He pointed to Odo and myself. And not just while playing the lura (lyre). He then reviewed the development of plays, the theatrical traditions, performance poetry like Thoren often recites.
Odo thought the different forms lent both cultural and contextual meaning to his poems. As do the epics of Homer which have a specific stanza length, line length and meter, they are blank verse and not usually rhymed. He often uses the very ancient Anaphora, what he calls the Ballad, much loved in France, he proudly announced, "In Parga." Eulogy has three stages: lament, praise and solace." I can see he is learning something at the university. "Thoren writes and recites the Epic form as we have talked about. I like Odes and often write them as you all know, mine do not always praise the virtues of the subject. I like being different. In England we heard many in the form of a Sestina, they have 13 lines, I think they were invented there. I have written a few of those, mostly love poems."
"I think you are being modest about the number," Iason said.
"Dante invented the Alighiere but I don't write them."
"Neither do I," Thoren added. (TN: The Sonnet had not been invented yet, it has 14 lines, a formal rhyme scheme and unitary idea or thought, mood, etc. No mention is made of the Epigram which was very popular in ancient Greece. Perhaps our protagonists did not think them art.)
"I think my stories are not always poems. Most of the exploits of you princes, are just that, stories, prose not in formal language. Often I use the vernacular especially if I am telling them to children. They then are not poems even if the subject is the same, if not the length of the Epic. I often do not use the from of stanza and meter for them."
The discussion moved to the other creative arts, as we called them. None could arrive at a good definition of creativity. Nikias thought his sketches of new objects were art, not in the same formal way of the painters and drawers. I suggested creativity is creating what has not existed before, from that which has, by taking the old and seeing it in a new or different light or by placing together the old in a different or novel way.
We examined this idea and decided that it was in fact true. The notes do not change, the arrangement of them does and hence a new song is created. As it is for words and so on. Nikias was quite correct in his analysis, he was truly creative if not artistic. Iason felt that the players, if given license to change emphasis, gesture, expression an so on, displayed creativity while performing or interpreting the playwright's creation.
Not only are we all created, we all create. We create our lives and then make stories to explain them, make art and music and drama to make sense of our experience and our world. In our creating, we ask questions, pose answers, and celebrate our humanity. We often forget that every day is a creation, not only for us, but by us. We wake to it, step into it, and take our part in creating it by what we think, and say, and do. We don't regard our daily activities as creation or being creative, it's just what we do, it's just life. We take our days as they come, as if they were not moment-by-moment miracles. I think some times I do become a bit poetic. I also think that these journals are my personal act of creation. My expression of art.
I noticed the younger boys said almost nothing. They seemed to listen very intently and ran off to practice their music.
Later that night while we were playing games, my young Inquisitor & Lawyer friend paid us a visit. Kerion laughed and joked with us for a while, I think until he was more comfortable with us as men, not princes. Finally he broached what was on his mind. He asked which of us was William's protector. Iason told him, "all share that privilege, do you know the story?" We told him how the three brothers came to be with us in Parga, with Odo embellishing every detail. He claims we are far to modest. We claim he is far to liberal with the facts.
"I would take him as my eromenos and apprentice, if you will allow," Have you spoken to his foster parents? "Yes, they are in agreement. I have courted him for some months now. I approached him in the classical way and we are in love."
"Then he has accepted you and desires the same," Iason asked.
"Yes, that is why I am here."
"Should we not bring Edward into this conversation? He is his older brother," Polydeukus asked. All agreed to seek his blessing in the morning. I asked what his wife might say?
Kerion replied, "nothing, we are estranged. She lives with her parents and our two daughters. I support them. That is why I gave up my house in the city and moved into the castle."
We all expressed our regrets at his family situation. Everyone needs some kind of social structure in their lives. Family often forms the heart of that.
In the castle we are one large extended family and a society within the larger society of the city and Parga. We princes have forged our own family, as do the pages. They are not separate from, but form parts of the whole. Euthalia and I, with our children are another kind of family, as are Iason and Sophia and the other couples, with or without children. It is not unlike the fisherman's net. I connect to a number of these families which are all part of the whole. Then I have my birth family and its connections. I am truly blessed.
The different net joins bring us different responsibilities and give different benefits to us. Even my university fraternity is a kind of family. For Kerion he will form new or strengthen old intersections to replace those which are broken. Moving into the castle brings him into closer contact with a number of new intersections, like knots in the net of the fisher. I think knot is a good term to use for this. Our lives become entangled with others and knots are entangled. We humans, most of us anyway, need some measure of entanglement with others. It is dictated by the gods, we have no choice. Some are more so than others. Some of those knots are forged by ourselves some are imposed upon us by birth, circumstance or custom.
An old aphorism tells us we can choose our friends but not our parents. Kerion can choose his beloved boy but he had limited ability to choose his wife or she him. We did not inquire into the reasons for the estrangement and he did not offer any. I think that is one large difference between men and women. Euthalia would want to know all about the details and reasons. For men we accept the situation as presented and while perhaps curious, I am that, would never ask. If Kerion wishes to tell me he will do so. He has, I am sure confided in those he most trusts.
We are friends and colleagues. We trust each other on a professional basis. We are not close friends. Miltiades is the only one among us who seems to have the talent for drawing things out of others. He is very careful to hold confidences to himself and because of it has gained the respect of everyone. All seek his council in matters of a personal nature. Polydeukus suggested to Kerion that Miltiades is the best of our lot, if he seeks this.
The three terrors and Dios, perhaps four terrors should be used, pounced on their men dragging us to bed. Being a powerful princes seems to hold no measure when your eromenos feels the need to be loved by his man. That man becomes weak and unable to resist. I assume Kerion is prepared for this, I know his experience not.
Nikias forced me to lay on our bed and climbing onto me presented his penis to my mouth and took mine into his. My boy's penis is now almost as prodigious as Iason's and fills my mouth well. His medallion neckless dangles to my abdomen and moves across it in the most stimulating of way as he ministers to my needs. For my part I take him in fully letting my tongue move around and along its length while pressing my fingers into his anus. His smell is so wondrous it almost rivals Iason's. Just as I was about to ejaculate I flipped him on his back and pressed my penis into his ass giving us both the pleasure we so desperately seemed to need. It is not just the sex that we require. Sex can be had easily in this family or the castle. It is the emotional connection that we make while sharing sex that is so important to us. There is no better feeling than laying with your lover and drifting off to sleep with him or her in your arms.
1320, 3rd month, 7th day:
The Great Dionysia fastivlas are to be held starting on the 10th day. They last a week. We do not officially celebrate any of these religious festivals but do often have civic equal-events for a day or two. All of the religious groups that wish, may hold what ever celebrations they wish. The Great Dionysia is focused on fertility and is heavy with the sex that accompanies it. The Christians hold their Easter celebrations around this time but it is tied to the phases of the moon so has no fixed calendar dates.
Our secular celebrations focus mostly on singing, dancing, feasting and games. Our secular festivals are not tied to the moon but to the solstices. We have taken what the ancient Athenians would have called Diasia or Zeus Meilikhios (TN: the Kindly One) which was toward the end of our second month to harold spring and moved it to the 10th of the third month. We call it Spring Announces.
It will be one day of singing, dancing, food and sports. The Argonauts have taken to marching around the city, singing on the way and ending up at the Plaza. There we sing, play, dance and share lamb Kandaulos on little sticks (TN: Souvlaki), pita, vegetables, olives, cheese and pasta. Wine, ale and other beverages as well. (TN: Remember potatoes and tomatoes have not yet reached Europe from the "New World" and rice would not likely be cultivated in Parga. It would have been imported from wetter areas of Greece, the Po valley, or Egypt, having been brought there by the Great Alexander.)
Alexandros wants the Boys Choir backed up by the Royal Guards Choir and Princes band to give a concert in the Plaza. Iason agrees with him and has issued strict practice schedules for all of us. Umar, Father and myself are doing double duty since we play both the pipes and the flute. I have recruited Lysandros and his clavichord and Dios with his bagpipes to assist us.
He has asked each of the Prince Class ships in port and a number of land military units to sing their anthems or a few verses of them, some are quite long. The Pages, Eagles and Amazons to also appear. He has arranged for the Stentorian to make the announcements. We are calling this celebration Spring Announces. It is fitting and secular.
It seems that everywhere in the castle one can hear music being created.
On the 4th day, several of us visited Philon and his triplets. I was amazed to see how much they had grown. It is hard to believe it has been seven months since they came to the castle. It is obvious any one of them realize the other two look alike. When they first saw our four twins they seemed to accept them as quite normal. I could see them looking over myself, Iason and Hy wondering where our twin brothers were. Edward picked up the little Iason and handed him to the Crown Prince, saying it is time you learned, it is not long now for you. I took Ianos and Philon, Ionas. That lasted until little Iason pissed on him, the Crown Prince returned his namesake to his wet nurse. This brought much laughter from us all but mostly from Grandmother.
Darkon the steward has searched our records and can not find any record of identical triplets. They must be extremely rare. He did find several records of triplets, one set, all girls but not identical, from the time of Iason the 1st and another set of two girls and one boy from the time of Iason the 4th. One of the midwifes told me every once in a while triplets are born but most do not live, with only one and sometimes two surviving the first week. Grandmother told us she could find no one in her village that remembers triplets being born before this. Since this is such a rare event, I would suspect, had it happened before, it would surely be remembered.
Another thing we learned is how frequently Princess Sophia and Euthelia have visited the triplets since our mother's passing. I was pleased at this. I know neither Iason or I have asked them to do so. This tells me they are both taking up the duties related to our stations.
Philon confided in me a concern. His father-in-law was proposing to send his youngest daughter, a girl of 12 to replace his late wife. "He thinks I need a wife and his grandchildren need a mother."
What does Philon think?
"I may need a wife but not now. I am still grieving and Edward and I have become very close. Prince Arden I do not know what to do."
You must do what is best for your children and then what is best for Philon. I think your children have a mother apiece now, plus a doting grandmother and a castle full of pseudo mothers and grandmothers. If you take the sister as a wife he will expect you to return to your village. Do you want to do that?
"No, my land is poor and my house is small. My mother must work very hard in the village. My sister-in-law is young and will want children of her own. She is a very lovely girl and I would gladly plant my seed in her, as would many others. I don't think it will work well. Nor do I think I can support a large family on that land."
You could insist she come here to live.
"I could, she will not like it. That one is the youngest and much attached to her parents. I know my mother would prefer being in the village but she knows this is the best place for the children. I doubt they will get along very well. Who knows I could be wrong about that."
I for one would not be pleased to see you go. It will be another year and some before the babies are weened at the earliest. The last thing you need is another woman in your household that is unable to feed them. Write you father-in-law and thank him for the kind offer. Explain you already have four women in your home, mother and three wet nurses. You can not leave here for at least 18 months, unless he can provide you with three wet nurses.
Also suggest it would not be fair to your sister-in-law, as the cost of three wet nurses takes a goodly share of your income. Say you are young and strong and praised much for your work but living with 4 women is taxing and five, one a new bride, may be beyond your ability; that you have no intention of returning to the village except for visits, once the boys are old enough to travel. Finally, say you are still grieving for your lost wife and you can not even imagine another women sharing your bed. Perhaps in two years your views will change, for now it is best left the way it is.
"I think that is brilliant Prince. I can reject the idea without rejecting the girl. Perhaps I should suggest I find her a husband here, as the castle is full of handsome young men with bright and promising futures. That would put her close to her nephews and give her a better chance to have a family truly her own."
Yes, that too will work. I can tell you if he pushes further, the king will not allow it until you tell him you are ready, he will not allow anyone in the castle to be forced into marriage. If necessary I could send you to Koalhurst for an extended period once the boys are weened. You know my family will give you all the assistance you may need. Let us see how this plays out. Have you given thought to Edward as a husband for her?
"No, I have not, sharing him with his mentor is difficult enough."
Yesterday after I finished my running and assisting the coaches with the others, I wondered over to the other sports fields. I still practice my archery fencing and other military skills, several times a week but this is not one of those days. The young boys were wrestling or more accurately being given wrestling instructions. This is one the sports all boys seem to enjoy, as long as they are not overmatched by size and weight. I think it is both the ruff and tumble combined with the close physical contact, that makes it so popular. The press of two naked and sweeting bodies seems to thrill all of us males no matter what our ages. The new boy with the musical voice seemed to be enjoying himself to the full. He laughed and giggles also in a most musical manner. His name is Apollodoros. His musical voice makes him that if nothing else does. I suspect he will live up to his name in other ways as well. (TN: Apollodoros means gift of Apollo.) I must suggest Alexandros test his singing ability. If my guess is correct he will be a valuable addition to his boy's choir.
Reports are arriving now from the northern countries. This past winter has been quite harsh and hard on them. Some places even saw famine, although not as sever as was the situation a few years ago. We are also told a new King has been crowned in Poland. His name is Wadyslaw Lokietek. It is hoped this will put a stop to the squabbling among his nobles, mostly his cousins. This squabbling had been going on for many years.
Dario writes that the Venetians will be opening new naval yards called the Arsenal Nouvo in the next month or so. They intend to build all their own navel ships and large merchants as we do. He claims they are planning to move construction to our model of frame first. This system uses less wood, is stronger and allows for larger vessels. He tells me they do not plan to go all sail for war ships, at this time.
This is good news for us as we are running short of trees of the size needed for ships and would need refuse their orders, in the not to distant future. We need give our forests time to re-grow. He also tells me Venice will be sending many more ingineers and other students to study in Parga, in the next few years. The Doge tells him his schools are under to great an influence from the Church. Venice will send large sums to us, so the university can be expanded. We are getting similar messages from Florence although we do not expect as many additional students from them.