What this project is about.
This one is from Book 7.
How long it took to read this (aloud): 3 mins 28s
What it’s “about”:
The king dreams of having ants as soldiers and, well,careful what you wish for!!
Words I didn’t know: none
Quotable quotes: And there we noted that a trail of ants,
Each with a grain of wheat between his lips,
Marched in a single file through wrinkled bark.
Dazed at the sight of creatures beyond number,
I said, ‘Great Father, fill my empty cities,
Give me as many people as this army.’
As though a storm had burst in windless air,
The great oak shuddered and my body shook
With fears that made my flesh and hair rise up;
Falling, I kissed the oak down to its roots,
Nor dared to hope aloud, but kept thought hidden
In some dark channel of my mind. Night came
And with it sleep possessed our anxious bodies.
In that deep senselessness I had a vision:
There was the oak, as many-leaved as ever,
As many ants among its many branches —
The great tree shaken by a sudden tremor
While ants dropped to the grasses at its feet,
Then seemed to grow, to stand upright, to lose
Their shadow thinness and their black complexion
In human forms. I saw stout legs and arms.
When I awoke the vision seemed unreal;
I wept at lack of mercy from the gods,
And yet I heard strange noises in the palace,
Voices of men that had grown unfamiliar,
I thought they were another trick of sleep.
Then Telamon came running to my door
And cried out, ‘Father, more than any hope
Or dream now walks before us. Threshold waits
For you to step outside.’ And as I followed,
There was the multitude I saw in sleep
Who welcomed me and hailed me as their king
Then I praised Jove and gave to my new people
Parts of my kingdom that had been deserted,
And called that army ‘Human Myrmidons,’
How it lands to my eco-sensibility: xx
Obvious allusions, ways it was used (that I am aware of already) : xx
What I know I didn’t ‘get’: xx
To my knowledge, who’s used it why/how (RACC): xx
Further research questions: xx
Anything else: xx
marchudson.net 
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