Good well sourced video on the myth of the burning of the library of alexandria and how it didn't happen maybe
You touched on something really important. Greeks always seemed to have had this sense of decay. The Hellenic world was born out of the ruins and refugees of the Bronze Age, left among monuments and languages they couldn't read. But beyond that, Greek mythology emphasizes a decay with each generation. Each age's rulers are killed by their children but the children live shorter lives and are less powerful. Zeus is weaker than Kronos, Kronos is less encompassing than Uranus
The Ages of Man was at the forefront of a lot of Greek and Roman philosopher's minds , Hesiod describing his age as
O! would I had my hours of life began Before this fifth, this sinful race of man; Or had I not been call'd to breathe the day, Till the rough iron age had pass'd away: For now, the times are such, the gods ordain, That ev'ry moment shall be wing'd with pain; Condemn'd to sorrows, and to toil, we live;
Rest to our labour death alone can give; And yet, amid the cares our lives annoy, The gods will grant some intervals of joy: But how degen'rate is the human state! Virtue no more distinguishes the great; No safe reception shall the stranger find; Nor shall the ties of blood or friendship bind; Nor shall the parent, when his sons are nigh, Look with the fondness of a parent's eye; Nor to the sire the son obedience pay,
Nor look with rev'rence on the locks of gray, But, O! regardless of the pow'rs divine, With bitter taunts shall load his life's decline: Revenge and rapine shall respect command, The pious, just, and good, neglected stand. The wicked shall the better man distress, The righteous suffer, and without redress; Strict honesty, and naked truth, shall fail, The perjured villain in his arts prevail: Hoarse Envy shall, unseen, exert her voice,
Attend the wretched, and in ill rejoice. At last fair Modesty and Justice fly, Robed their pure limbs in white, and gain the sky; From the wide earth they reach the bless'd abodes, And join the grand assembly of the gods;
While mortal men, abandon'd to their grief, Sink in their sorrows, hopeless of relief.https://www.john-uebersax.com/pdf/Hesiod-Ages-of-Man-tr-Cooke.pdf
the kids are ruining our society / culture with their [ new form of expression or pastime ]
it really goes all the way back to ancient Greece lmao
the Bible, even. Lots of whining about how the failure of Moral Virtue cause the collapse of empires and the wrath of god.
And of course the Illiad/Odyssey are probably constructed from either Greek Dark Age or retold fragments of Late Bronze Age morality tales, about how a good leader should act (Not Angry, Not overly clever just for the sake of a cool Just As Planned, but especially, absolutely, Not Horny, ever. Especially not for women.). The old leaders acted properly, and the moral failings of Troy lead to the devastation of the modern age.
Did that feed into a lot of sci-fi and fantasy having a lost golden age?
I don't know, but I'd be interested if any sci-fi historians could speak to that. I do know that a lot of lost golden age stuff in sci-fi comes from Cold War anxiety about nuclear armegeddon
Kronos is less encompassing than Uranus
:bottom-speak: Why you gotta call me out like that?
The Mongols did worse to Baghdad and did more lasting damage to the knowledge of the world. :sadness:
I remember hearing about that, and apparently one of the muslim Mongolian leaders was so taken aback by this he led a campaign against the perpetrators (successfully).
Unironically the greatest tragedy of the last 1000 years, only tied maybe with the failure of the German revolution
at 6:50 there's a reconstruction print that just looks like a reskinned old saint peters lol. 19th century scholarship wasn't sending their best, folks! but does dovetail nice with the religious reverence people put on the myth of the library :thonk:
Yeah its always been funny to me how it is this big iconic moment in history, despite it not really being attested to. The fate of a lot of the old city is like that. We cannot find Alexander's grave in part because it is probably under the modern city and then under layers of earth, or is underwater.
:rage-cry: im gonna kill myself ptolemy is pronounced with the pt like that why do english people do this pt isn't hard to say why do they tell you the p is silent :cri:
