Saturday, April 6, 2024

Orphic Mystery of Penelope’s Ophidian Face and Gaze


With too many, the soul and their eyes

and face have gone separate ways.

 

Orpheus: Ophius = Eurydike: Eurynome

 

The face—the way that either brings

the soul out into view or hides her

like a shroud—like a dimming pall

that blocks what ought to be alive,

 

instead turning seeing and the seen

into patent blindness to the light,

tantamount to forswearing a God

who cares, knows, and truly loves.

 

And one should ask what else

is then moving in—if the soul

has left the given human face?

 

But that face and such eyes—ops

in ancient Greek—isn’t it poesy

well-mirrored—as it was to be?

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