@@> Intercept from  Day Brown to Frank Masingill
 @@> on "Achievable Ethics"
 
 DB> that the Romans chose a more expedient method of improving ethics,
 DB> rather than choosing the best ethical standard available.  If they
 DB> are known for anything, this expedience is typically Roman.
 
 DB> But: I raise this question because I think that the resources that
 DB> we have *today* are sufficient to teach the best ethical standard;
 DB> and that standard is *not* that of the Judeo-Christians, but is in
 DB> fact: Aristotle, Plato, Epictetus, Seneca, & Marcus Aurelius.
 
  Yes "you think" but that is not enough. Large segments of "nature's
  children"  have need of emotionally warm anchors (not exactly overflowing
  from stoicism). Many want freedom from "select few" rightness; many
  like moving with the flow. Ideal cures for mankind's ills usually
  *END UP* with one part of society becoming the dictators of another
  part of society in a disfunctional relationship. What will be will be-
  sometimes more good than bad, sometime more bad than good. There is no
  evidence, historical or intellectual, that any system is better than
  "natural fallout"! The Romanish type ("expedient") thinking is perhaps
  more naturally acceptable and successful (with bits of religious warmy
  thrown in). "Spose" it boils down to how much of who we are is still
  natural and how much is now contrived ??? Perhaps not as simple to me
  as it is to you........!
 
  -----
   P.S. Persephone and the POMEGRANATE SEEDS:
 
   My painting of Persephone emerging from Hades (framed against
   a night image of Enna) into spring is coming along but I'm
   still working on the symbology aspects. I have her maidservants
   pulling back her black winter cloak to expose her dressed in
   green as her function among flowers. The inner of her cloak runs
   from bright yellow at the top down through orange, red and brown
   to depict the coming summer sun and the seasons in between.
   Demeter's grief is shown by a large single tear off in the upper
   left just over the fire mountain. It is surrounded by a half circle
   of the six pomegranate seeds.
        Persephone's case for escaping hell was lost because she
  had already eaten the pomegranate seeds (food of the dead). After
  that the best that could be arranged was Six months above with her
  mother (Demeter) and six months below (as Hecati), queen of the dead.
     My question- Does the pomegranate (seeds) hold some special
  mythical or plant life meaning beyond the simple (food of the
  dead). I know that hidden meanings are often draped in symbology.
  My sources Graves/Hamilton are very plane and I know you've
  looked further into many of these things. I remember from my
  Egyptian studies that the symbology can be enormously rich, but
  meanings had to be "homeworked" out to get it all near straight.
  NOTE: I tried eating a pomegranate and it was a terrible seedy
  experience!
 
                           @@ ... Dave
 
 
 
 
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