I : LXV - LXVII Interlude

On the 29th of July, Byron arrived at Cadiz. Of course, it's impossible to match perfectly his agenda to that adventure of the Childe (the timeline would be skipped and sometimes backwards if you insist doing so.) In Cadiz, Byron was startled, and nonetheless, marveled by the bullfight, which I will get into details in a future post. And now as we get ready for a bloodier scene, let's do some fact check of the surroundings. 

Poster of Cadiz's carnival of 1926

Being one of those ever-so-populated cities, Cadiz have always attracted revels and its streets are always loud. The poster is for the carnival in 1926, more than 100 years since Byron set foot on its shore, but hey, things don't change that much, and the Spanish passion lives on. Rather different from the amiable Seville with her more sensible taste in arts and culture, Cadiz had an appetite much more fierce. Her blood-thirst desire fascinated the boy who hungered for strange sights.

Paphos is the birthplace is Aphrodite, also the name of Pygmalion's son with Galatea, the marble maiden that came to life thanks to the goddess herself. Another of her most noted business here was when Odysseus was on his way homewards, the goddess stopped by her birthplace to help our beloved hero.   

There's proper magic in those words: "a thousand altars rise, for ever blazing bright". The cult of Aphrodite started in Paphos. The city and the goddess is linked together for eternity.

The Temple of Aphrodite

The snapshots of Spain have been the richest of kinds. The votaries of Venus were, turned out to be, brought up to be compared with the crowds at the bullfight. It's a feast of sight, sound and scent all at once; and emotion too. You can almost see the ladies in the audience holding their breaths, worrying about the bullfighter, yet still over-excited about the glorious sight they about to witness.

All is ready and all is waiting; time stands still.