Air Series

So... my current fascination, the subject I give the most thought to on a daily basis is the air. I see this paragraph as a kind of introduction to you about an aspect of my self you may or may not have much knowledge of. I plan to follow this paragraph with a series of posts delving a bit deeper into the fascinations I tip my hand to here. I am fascinated with fable, myth, fairy tales, and folklore in general. Most of what I consider my best poetry is inspired by these. Also air, water, fire, and earth (the elements). Also theories, philosophies, about how the world works and why. In particular pre-socratic philosophers who, in order to make sense of an admittedly chaotic world, try to figure out which particular substance that world is made of. A fascination modern science continues to this day, though in the form of cells, atoms, molecules, quarks and those sort of building blocks to the universe. Pre-socratic Democritus, for example, who was known as the laughing philosopher. He believed everything was made from fire, especially our souls. All of our knowledge is "bastard knowledge" because it comes through the senses. We should get used to living in doubt, laugh at our situation. Especially since, "excess" laughter would build up the fire of our souls, whereas everyday life and emotion wore off our "fire atoms". I love looking at the world from this perspective, because it's so different. It also shows that what seems to be a perfectly reasonable scientific theory to us right now, is actually utterly fantastic if we stop to think of it. But Anaximenes is my trye lover, well not exactly. Not much of Ana's writing has made it to our era. So it is mostly through other later philosophers that we hear about his theories (like Aristotle). However, his buddy Thales believed everything was made of water, and Anaximander believed everything was of an unspecified substance. Anaximenes believed everything was made of air, "[Air] differs in essence in accordance with its rarity or density. When it is thinned it becomes fire, while when it is condensed it becomes wind, then cloud, when still more condensed it becomes water, then earth, then stones. Everything else comes from these." Aristotle explains Ana's theory about one of the phenomena that was most interesting to Greek scientists, namely "why can humans blow both hot air and cold air?" Ana's answer is that when we tighten our lips, we condense air, making it cooler, and when we make our lips slack we expand the air making it warmer. No sooner do I read this than a little think clicks in me ol' brain. I remembered one of Aesop's fables, one that had always quite bothered me, "The Man and the Satyr." Keep in mind the alleged Anaximenes and the alleged Aesop would have been alive at the same time. This fable always bothered me because I could not except the moral drawn from it by my parents, nor could I puzzle out a fitting moral for it on my own. So eventually I dropped the matter thinking I would understand when I got older. I still didn't understand when I got older, so now I am on this train of thought again. In addition Bob is actually in the process of creating a literal translation of a Latin, in verse, rendition of this fable so that I may glean even more insight. He is already through the first two stanzas, and I must say this version is much more interesting than the typical english translations of the story, and does give me more reason to believe that my beloved philosopher and this puzzling fable belong in the same discussion. For this post, however, I would like to start out by providing a few links to paintings of this story, and versions of this story, and I would appreciate any and all insights about this story from the raw "I have never heard this before, but this is what I think" to the "I also heard this as a kid and this is what I thought" to the "I am a scholar on such matters and this is what you should think" anything guys! Spare me a sentence? I would really appreciate it. Keep in mind that the endomythium (the sentence that seems to sum up the moral of the story in the case of this story "endomythium" or said by one of the characters) might not be seen as the actual meaning of the story, but rather the teller's viewpoint. Also endomythium are much more difficult to decipher because they are said by a character and remain embedded in the enigmatic atmosphere of the text itself (http://www.apaclassics.org/AnnualMeeting/98mtg/abstracts/gibbs.html) So here goes...

http://www.soupsong.com/saesop2.html (some typical versions of the story)
http://aesopfablesonline.blogspot.com (the story with an added epimythia not found in the original text, but representative of the moral I felt was unjustly and weakly defended by this story and accompanied by a painting more like the ones I have more typically seen depicting this fable)
www.julescrittenden.com (an interesting depiction of the story where the Satyr comes to the peasants home instead of the other way around... a typical painting theme in Northern Europe I am told??)