Please remember that when M. Lucius Nobilior brought back the "Muses" from Ambrakia in 187 BC, the statues were placed under the protection of Hercules in Circus Flamineus . The tem[ple was called Aedes Herculis Musarum and was restored by the step-father of Augustus, mentioned in Cicero's Pro Archia and is the subject of the last poem of Ovid's Fasti I own a 16th C engraving of Hercules driving envy from the temple of the Muses. At least for the Romans Hercules had a real connection with the Arts. tpr [log in to unmask] wrote: > Yes, I am so assuming, although if we (homo sapiens) evolved more toward > the southern part of Africa we were probably not as black as Oroonoko but > more like the San people. The reason I assume Europeans bleached out, > either in Europe itself or during the time they were making their way > slowly out of Africa and into the steppes from which they and one sort of > future Asian both branched out (says a recent book on DNA and early > migration) is simply that people without much melanin in their skins are > more subject to damage from ultra violet. Of course after we lost our nice > chimp fur we may have spent some time getting blacker. Since skin doesn't > fossilize there's no way one can prove anything about ancient skin color, > I do admit. What I would want to tell Mrs. Behn and the others remains the > same: the DNA evidence suggests that we are all descended from Africans, > finally (unless one wants to go back to the originary bacterium, of > course). > On Hercules: the epigram from Alciato is wonderful and a reminder > that in one of his guises Hercules--the Gallic one--was indeed famed > for eloquence. I wonder if there is anything on his "proles" in > Erasmus. Hercules was unusually good at making offspring, of course, > having begotten how many--fifty?--kids in one night. Whether the kids > were talented is, I guess, another question. > Two queries: does anybody on the list know of parallels to > Contemplations mount other than St. John's vision on Patmos and that > scene in Tasso? I don't include Bat(e)man's picture of a redcross > knight gazing across the water at a heavenly city because there's no > mount. The reason I ask is that I found a French poem in which David > goes up the "Mont de Contemplation" and sees the New Jerusalem. Is > there a lot of this sort of thing around? Other hills named > "Contemplation" or at least with a hermit so named? I need this for > an (overdue) essay and could use the help. > Second query: has anybody ever written on, even briefly, a poem by > Samuel Rowlands (I think--I forgot to print out the bibliographical > info) in a book called "Pasquils Palinodia (1619) that begins "Lo, I > the man whose Muse whilome did play / A horne-pipe both to Country > and the Citty, / Am no againe enjoyn'd to sing or say, / And tune my > crowde unto another ditty, / To comfort Moone-fac'd Cuckolds, that > were sad, . . ." Yes, the lines rang a bell with me, too, and I > suspect Spenser, not the cancelled lines by (or not by) Virgil, are > what's being sent up here. Anne (Prescott) > > > In a message dated 11/28/2003 3:39:06 PM Pacific Standard Time, > > [log in to unmask] writes: > > the first > > Europeans were almost certainly black. > > This is a sidelight, and a bit trivial...but you are assuming that the > > first Africans were black. This was not necessarily so. > > > > MRS > >