Ovid’s Metamorphoses #085/111: “The Fall of Troy”

What this project is about.  

This one is from Book 13.

How long it took to read this (aloud): 2 mins 40s

What it’s “about”: What it said on the tin. No horses though.

Words I didn’t know: none

Quotable quotes: 

Troy burned, nor had its fires guttered out, 

While Jove’s shrine drank, a single draft of fire, 

The last thin drops of blood old Priam offered. 

Cassandra, priestess of Apollo’s temple, 

And though she lifted helpless hands to heaven, 

Was hauled through half the city by her hair.

AND

The last to leave — 

O what a fearful sight — was Hecuba; 

The Greeks had found her crouching in drear tombs, 

The very tombs where all her sons lay buried. 

And there she clung; she tried to kiss their bones. 

The Greeks were forced to tear her wretched body 

Out of the house of death, and yet she carried 

Between her breasts that handful of spent dust, 

Once Hector’s ashes — that was all she had. 

And on his tomb she scattered her grey hair, 

These with her tears, the last small gifts she owned. 

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