The Disastrous Love Affair of Moon & Mars

by Alfred de Grazia

Can a dance and poem be a piece of astronomical history, tightly, not vaguely, related? We discern behind a famous Homeric scenario about the misconduct of the gods the shadow of a second scenario of astronomical catastrophe. By pursuing the connection relentlessly, many reasons are uncovered to suspect that the human drama is unconsciously imitating what the human eye witnessed as a prior catastrophe in the skies. Chant and catastrophe, dance and disaster seem to be historically linked.

If they are, then an idea that many psychologists have considered: that humans have a tendency to suppress the memory of terrible events, but also are somehow compelled by unconscious psychic forces to reenact the events - this idea is supported by our theory.

It appears that the reenactment may take place through religious rites, through wars, through literature, through individual and group behavior of many kinds. Here it is through the sublimated medium of poetry and dance. I think that such a process is occurring in the story of the Love Affair of Venus and Mars. If my readers will agree, then we shall begin to shape a consensus on a matter of great importance to several fields of science and the humanities.

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FOREWORD

INTRODUCTION

PART ONE: SACRED SCANDAL & DISASTER

1. AN ATHENA PRODUCTION

2. THE SONG OF LOVE
    THE SONG LITERALLY RENDERED IN ENGLISH VERSE
    HAPPY ENDING
    THE PHAEACIAN UTOPIA

3. THE LOVE AFFAIR AS THE MASK OF TRAGEDY
    AN ANCIENT PRIEST EXPLAINS
    THE HIDDEN STORY
    AUTHOR'S CODA

4. CATASTROPHE & SUBLIMATION
    THE GENERAL THEORY OF CATASTROPHE
    THE DISPLACEMENT OF AFFECTS

5. HOLY DREAMTIME
    THE SCANDALOUS LITTLE PIECE
    BURLESQUE OR RELIGION?
    THE PIOUS DRAMATIST

PART TWO: GODS, PLANETS, MADNESS

6. THE RAPE OF HELEN
    THE INDESTRUCTIBLE LADY HELEN
    THE AGE OF MARS

7. CRAZY HEROES OF DARK TIMES
    THE SAGE WHO BRIDGED THE DARK AGES
    SOCIETY IN SHOCK
    THE CART BEFORE THE HORSE

8. THE TWO FACES OF LOVE
    A MOST ANCIENT GODDESS
    TURBULENT BIRTH IN MYTHS & REALITY
    ENCYCLOPEDISTS & THE MOON GODDESS
    THE COSMIC SPINNER
    CONFUSION COMPOUNDED
    A MATCH OF SOURCES
    HOW TO NAME A PLANET ?
    THE ROMAN VENUS

9. THE RUINED FACE OF A CLASSIC BEAUTY
    THE INNOCENT ASTRONAUTS
    RADIOACTIVE CLOCKS
    THE RILLES OF MOON

10. HE WHO SHINES BY DAY
    THE EPITHETS OF VENUS
    CONGENITALITY & HOMOLOGY
    ATHENA'S LAST BATTLES
    APPENDIX TO CHAPTER TEN
    LOGIC OF IDENTIFYING RELATIONS

11. THE BLASTED CAREER OF THE MIGHTY SWORDSMAN
    THE QUALITIES OF ARES
    THE FATAL WOUND

12. THE LAUGHING GODS
    MERCURY
    APOLLO
    POSEIDON
    HELIOS
    A DIVINE SENSE OF HUMOR

13. HOW THE GODS FLY
    THE MOVEMENTS OF THE SCENARIO
    ELECTRO-MECHANICS OF THE GODS

PART THREE: THERAPY FOR GROUP FEAR

14. THE USES OF LANGUAGE
    METER & METAPHOR
    HOMER: EDITOR & PUBLISHER
    TRADUTTORE TRADITTORE
    THE THROES OF ORIGINAL PLOT
    HUMAN STRESS AND LANGUAGE
    THE RULES OF MYTHICAL LANGUAGE

15. THE BIRTH & DEATH OF MEMORY
    TRAUMATIC ORIGIN OF MEMORY
    THE RULES OF MEMORY
    FORGETTING
    AMNESIAC PHILOSOPHERS

16. THE TRANSFIGURATION OF TRAUMA
    DREAMWORK
    SEXUALITY & DISASTER
    IN ILLO TEMPORE
    THE KERNELS OF HISTORY

17. SETTLED SKY AND UNSETTLED MIND
WHAT HOMER REMEMBERED
    THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE
    A CLAIM OF SUCCESS
    FROM SAVAGERY TO SUBLIMITY