THE WHISPERERS

War is a mythical happening...
Where else in human experiences
except in the throes of ardor...
do we find ourselves transported
to a mythical condition and the
Gods most real?
                                 -James Hillman
                               " A Terrible Love of War"


I fought single-handed,
yet against such men no one
could do battle.
                                 - Homer, Odyssey, Book 1



I dream of Horsemen in smoking hills,
shadows on horseback, reed breastplates,
quirts, half-breed moon.  Some other
war.  Some other ancient war but this
same place.
                                -Richard Currey, "Crossing Over:
                                                                 The Vietnam stories"



Q:  What were you firing at?
A:   At the enemy, Sir.
Q:   At People?
A:   At the enemy, Sir.
Q:   They weren't even Human Beings?
A:    Yes, Sir.
Q:    Were they Men?
A:     I don't know, Sir.
                              - Testimony of Lieutenant William Calley,
                                  the My Lai Courts-Martial, 1970



Menelaus:  We were swindled by
the Gods.  We had our hands upon
an Idol of the Clouds.
Messenger: You mean it was for a cloud,
for nothing, we did all that work?
                               - Euripides,  Helen, LL



I wish I Lived in my house with
only a third part of all
these goods, and that the men
were alive who died in those days
In wide Troy Land...
                               -Homer,  Odyssey Book 24