When You Can See the Dimension of Time

It is not uncommon that we read thousands of years of history in one stanza of Childe Harold's Pilgrimage; it's mind-blowing how the concept of time can expand and shrink just like that, and sometimes a few simple words can bring back memories of centuries past, and stories from hinges of history brought to tears, people of all time. Byron's vast knowledge of history made his poetry incomparably rich, with his words floating through time and space, his work pulls together pieces of the wildest imagination. 

Poetry brings to our attention the connection between events in time in a linear fashion. We read through them word by word, line by line and legend of extraordinary individuals create indescribable images in our minds. It's sort of an abstract concept at least, for we couldn't put a frame around it, but rather brew the kaleidoscopic vision in the caldron of our consciousness. 

Visual artists sometimes have the ability to bring us back on our feet, and with their brushes, create one after another aha moments and make us say: indeed this is how the imagination of all collides. 

Gustav Klimt, one of my favourite painters of all time, had been labeled as a symbolic painter. I'd rather think of it as his ability to make the parallel elements apparent between different characteristics in his paintings. The female figures being one of the prominent themes, Klimt's extravagant splashes of gold and generously spread decorative strokes earned his paintings the title "frank eroticism". Personally I don't quite agree with that, for the study of female bodies has been an unavoidable theme in all, maybe save few misfits in the art world, categories of western art. Artists admire perfect proportions and the smooth curves of a female figure, painting them over and over again regardless of their styles or methods. Klimt for one, had been quite versatile, painting traditional realistic figures with a twist in the composition as well as abstract shapes during his "golden phase": those art nouveau paintings drove art connoisseurs wild, and they put those shimmering pieces in living rooms, on furniture, scarves, jewelries, etc. However, Klimt's most admirable accomplishments lies in his symbolic compositions. Being a member of the distinguished Vienna Succession movement, he was, among the like minded fellow artists, aiming to create a style that entirely stands alone from previous influences. 

Allegory of Sculpture

Allegory of Sculpture, completed roughly in 1889, was one of Klimt's best known portraits. Within one canvas, you see layers of sculptures from different periods and cultures. The artist is doing the job of a curator as he was creating this piece, thus creating an early manifestation of augmented reality. It's a masterpiece of a skilled painting, but the most extraordinary character of this painting lies in the fact that there's an entirely different kind of dimension presented in front of us. 

From background to foreground, you can tell vaguely the sculpture in the style of ancient Greek, a traditional bust of Athena with distinguishable facial features; in front of that is another sculpture of Athena in her shiniest armour and glorious helmet, holding her sceptor (although unseen from the painting). Before that, a modern sculpture of a seated female figure, led by a beautiful water colour painting of a female with Egyptian accessories (and some of Klimt's favourite circular motifs in her hair).  The foreground figure is standing on a platform, holding a posture as though she's a sculpture. It's almost as if she's indeed a sculpture yet turning into life by the touch of the artist. It's happened before, if you're familiar with Pygmalion's story. 

There are chunks of empty spaces in the painting, something you wouldn't see in the more traditional pieces. Modern artists have been exploring what they can do within the limitation of a frame, and Klimt here, has indubitably created a sense of infinity through leaving blank the spaces in between the present and the past, the foreground and the background. One thing is certain: Allegory of Sculpture is not a realistic presentation of still life, but a visualized flow of thoughts, a poetry in the form of a picture. 

II : X - XV The Lost Treasures of Greece

About the disappearance of the statue of Zeus at the Temple of Zeus of Olympia, there are many stories, some fantastical. Some said that Roman emperor Caligula wanted to take the statue from Athens so he could remove its head and put his own on it. There's tale of the statue letting out laughters as it was being removed and transported to Rome, foretelling the approaching assassination of Caligula.

6th Son of Cronos (Saturn in Stanza X), Zeus became the king of gods, fulfilling the oracle and his father's biggest fear, thanks to his mother's protection from the envious and murderous Cronos. Here's how Homer described Zeus in Iliad. Indeed the big boss of the Olympia, Zeus had been feared and revered by gods and men alike, maybe save Hera, his deservingly jealous wife.

ἦ καὶ κυανέῃσιν ἐπ' ὀφρύσι νεῦσε Κρονίωνἀμβρόσιαι δ' ἄρα χαῖται ἐπερρώσαντο ἄνακτοςκρατὸς ἀπ' ἀθανάτοιο μέγαν δ' ἐλέλιξεν Ὄλυμπον. 

He spoke, the son of Cronos, and nodded his head with the dark brows,and the immortally anointed hair of the great godswept from his divine head, and all Olympos was shaken.                                                                                    

---- Iliad Homer

Now, Iliad (read it, seriously, it's one of my all time favourite books), is about two plundering forces collide: the Aegean and the Trojan fought to their last drop, losing the lives of most magnificent heros: Hector, Patroclus, Achilles, Ajax...just to name a few. Byron paid a visit to Patroclus' tomb himself. He amongst all would be moved by the friendship between Achille and Patroclus. It's a war without a righteous side, partially caused by the Priam's no-good-son Paris yielding to his desire (the golden apple was merely a bait as far as I'm concerned), leading to the Aegean's' despicable deeds, blood-washing a city that used to be glorious and peaceful.

  

Achilles and Patroclus

I don't think Byron was on the Aegean's side completely, but he idolized Achilles. Proof? He designed his own armour and helmet according to the one Athena bestowed to Achilles! Hobhouse thought the plumes were way overly fancy, and Byron didn't end up wearing it either because he died before confronting the enemies...but that's another story.

It's hard to imagine the span of time when the poet includes the history of thousands of years within one stanza. Mycenaean Greece, or better known as the Bronze Age, marked a series of conflicts and at the same time, artistic development. The construction of many beautiful temples in Athens with Doric order had been taken place during that time, as well as many Homeric epics. And then Virgil depicted Aeneas' journey out of Troy and thus the beginning of Ancient Roman Civilization which lasted until the year of 480. I always thought it's quite proper that Aeneas is Venus' son, and a civilization was born out of Love after a lifetime of suffering and loss.

Venus and Aeneas

The Elgin Marbles somehow survived all the rise and fall of empires, until in the beginning of 19th Century, Britain started to transport all the remaining sculptures from Parthenon and other temples across the ocean. Byron was obviously unhappy about it, scathing the fact that the British is finally taking away Greece's last bits of wealth and memory of their bountiful history. One can argue that to this point, the remnants of ancient Greek have become heritage of the entire human race, and it's understandable to take those sculptures to better care, such as in a museum, it's still robbery by all means.

After the war, treasures of the defeated side usually end up getting ripped off, for they're trophies for the victors.

There are five rivers in the realm of Hades, Styx, the river of Hate, being one of them. It was the very river Achilles had been dipped in to be made invincible by his mother when he was merely an infant. We all know what happened afterwards: the mother missed one spot, which let to the son's fateful downfall. Achilles didn't enjoy his afterlife. In Homer's Odyssey, Achille's soul said to Odysseus: "I would rather follow the plow as thrall to another man, one with no land allotted to him and not much to live on, than be a king over all the perished dead". And a much more serious problem is: the Greek hero can no longer protect his beloved land, lest she's lost to the foreign robbers.

There's always a conflict of interests when it comes to deciding what to do with ancient cultural heritages. There's nothing the Greek can do in the beginning of 19th century. They were week, wounded and seemed unrecoverable. The Britannica had been on the rise, conquering the ocean with flying colours. Is it moral to transport the Elgin Marbles from a country that wasn't able to say no, even with the best intentions? You can only have an attitude towards this kind of things, but not a sound explanations.

History can always be examined, studied, evaluated, with which we predict the future, for it is based on human nature. Yet even if we see through it in all clarity, it's still impossible for us to offer an explanation to the tendency towards conflicts and destruction throughout our history. It takes a lot of precaution and willpower to protect a legacy, which is all so easy to lose.  

II : I - VI In Ruins

People call it the cradle of western civilization, Athens, the city named after the goddess of wisdom. There is a constellation of temples dedicated to her, or at least carrying her title. The Parthenon is probably the one that attracts most attention. I remember visting the "fake Parthenon" in Nashville in the summer of 2012. Although it is almost impossible to imagine what it would be like to see the Parthenon in Socrate's time, or even in Byron's, with the newly constructed temple in front of my eyes, sitting amidst the lawns beautifully laid out and all those greeneries in the Mecca of American country music. Of course, I did catch glimpses of the past glory and was given the opportunity to visualize the scale of the worship Athena had. 

Being a Pagan temple, the Parthenon represents values that the Christian church wouldn't approve. After 900 years of its time being a shrine for the votaries of Athena, the Parthenon was transformed into a Christian church dedicated to the Virgin, although ironically Athena was actually one of the only three virgin goddesses in Greek mythology.

painting of the Parthenon ruin

In 1456, the Turks turned the Parthenon into a mosque, only to be destroyed yet again after 231 years by the Venetian crusaders.

Mosque inside Parthenon - the evidence of its Turkish past is now gone as well

Layers and layers of changes: generations of rulers and robbers adding new trophies of their victories and ripping off evidences of past glories of their enemies. In 1806, the last of the Turkish mosque on the original ruin was finally removed, giving the site its Greek origin, although a mere graveyard of what was once the most beautiful of ancient architecture and the epitome of arts. In 1816, several years after Byron's steps onto this piece of soil, the Parthenon marbles were sold to British Museum in London.

I wondered for about an hour in the Nashville Parthenon, most of which spent looking up at it from afar. There isn't any spirit around that structure. I can only imagine the haunting air Byron must have felt at the site of conflicts for centuries past. Standing in front of a ruin with several zeroes on her age, one can only stay silent in awe, and sigh over the tempest of fate: who would have thought, those constructors who originally designed and built the Parthenon, that future tenants of this building will have a completely belief system?

In short, power decides culture, religion, and belief.

Parthenon was one of the chief examples of architectures featuring Doric orders. Another great example was Temple of Zeus in Olympia with the same striking characters. By the time Byron visits the site, the temple of Zeus, although finally identified during the 18th century, was still in the state of partial burial due to the destruction in 426 CE and the subsequent earthquakes in 522 and 551 CE.

Ruins of the Temple of Zeus Olympio

There's one thing you'll realize indubitably if you see the ruins of a lost civilization, that eternity doesn't exists. Time and space shrink into one spot when you stand in front of a ruin, especially a ruin of a society you have known so well in your head. When Canto ii of Childe Harold was written, Byron was barely 25 years old, an age of great expectations and hopes. All his childhood had been spent having an endless longing of the Greek culture, thus the almost unreasonable sympathy the poet had for this land. His fateful fight during the Greek independence war was unavoidable if you think about how much influence this culture had on him.

The destruction of something beautiful is the roots of tragedy. The ruined temples of ancient Greece are proofs. Childe Harold saw an empty shell, unoccupied, abandoned by the gods who supposed to bestow blessings onto a city that needed them the most. The words are with sorrow, yet also with distain: for the human-like gods of Olympia understandably left the shattered houses once built for them, yet neglected and unrecovered. 

I remember a trip to the Forbidden Palace in Beijing back in high school with all my buddies. There was an exhibition room in which you can see all the past images of the palace, different from each dynasties. Emperors had this habit of burning down everything from the last kingdom and rebuild their own on top of the original site. Thus the Forbidden Palace became a site of blood and tears of generations as well as glories and wealth. It's a surreal and indescribable sight, for you have no idea whether to sigh in melancholy or in awe.

Arch of Hadian

I'm in no position imagining if it'd be the same looking at the Greek ruins, but the trip ti the Forbidden Palace would be the closest thing I can think of to embody an experience like that. It's pointless to recreate ancient sights, at least I don't think it necessary. The ruins are the evidence of what human beings are capable of and premonitions of what could happen if we don't respect what is sacred and succumb to the desire of power.