john singer sargent, mural of the danaïdes, located over the library door of the mfa boston, 1925
For many commentators this [the Danaïdes' punishment, eternally bringing water to fill a sieve] became an image of the unhappiness related to something that can never be achieved. But Bachofen sees the forty-eight girls differently […] As Bachofen saw it, that constant pouring of water into a bottomless container had nothing futile or despairing about it. On the contrary, it was almost an image of happiness. He recalled another mythical girl: Iphimedeia. She had fallen in love with Poseidon, as had Io with Zeus. So she would often walk along the beach, go down into the sea, raise the water from the waves and pour it over her breasts. A gesture of love. Then one day Poseidon appeared, wrapped himself around her, and generated two children. Iphimedeia’s gesture has something blissful and timeless about it; it is the motion of feminine substance toward the other, toward any other. A motion that cannot be satisfied, satisfied only in its unfailing repetition.
roberto calasso, the marriage of cadmus and harmony, trans. tim parks, 1993
Marcel Proust “In Search of Lost Time".
1. Swann's Way (1913)
2. Within a Budding Grove (1919)
3. The Guermantes Way (1920–1921)
4. Sodom and Gomorrah (1921–1922)
5. The Captive (1923)
6. The Fugitive (1925)
7. Time Regained (1927)
insanların anlattıklarını duymazdım, çünkü beni ilgilendiren, ne demek istedikleri değil, bunu nasıl söyledikleri, söyleyiş biçimlerinin ortaya koyduğu kişilikleri veya gülünçlükleriydi.
proust: Danaids of the unseen, umbrageous priestesses of the Invisible, ever-irritable handmaidens of the Mystery, Daughters of the Night, Messengers of the Word, capricious Guardians of the miraculous portal
le due componenti della realtà esteriore alle quali, sapendo che non possiedono nemmeno i rudimenti di un’anima analoga alla nostra, ci parrebbe insensato rivolgere un sorriso o uno sguardo: i minerali, e le persone che non frequentiamo.