Page 319 "I watched his father, seeing him as Anchises, and then looked at Owen, seeing him as Aeneas."

Raphael's "Aeneas Carrying Anchises Out of Troy" (1514)

Two sides of a Roman coin, 2nd century A.D., depicting Aeneas (on the right) carrying his father out of Troy.

Pierre il le Pautre, "Aeneas Carrying His Father," 1716, marble, height 264 cm, Tuileries Gardens, Paris

From page 319 of the book: Owen turned to me, and then toward his father, watching as the man, hunched over because of the strain on his legs and heart, made his way to where we stood. As we stood by the shores of Troy, I watched his father, seeing him as Anchises, and then looked at Owen, seeing him as Aeneas. I heard the low rumblings, like thunder, of the gods who waited around us in the ground, in the bushes, and in the clouds. I heard them complain about us. I knew we had nothing to do with the way the world worked, but the subterranean noise was a constant storm of disagreeable, roaring sounds. I was feeling guilty for the fall of man. When Owen's father stood in front of him, a smile on his face, he held up his arms.

Page 316 "...bringing up a passage from Simone de Beauvoir, whose writings I recently consumed."

Simone de Beauvoir's very famous, controversial, and widely acclaimed book.

de Beauvoir with American novelist Nelson Algren.  I love these two people.

Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir

Simone de Beauvoir  (yes, she's one of my heroes)

From page 316 of the book:  My reactions to his calm were contradictory and confusing.  What was he going to do?  While I resumed my pacing along the top of the unstable wall, I originally took the sophisticated track, bringing up a passage from Simone de Beauvoir, whose writings I recently consumed.  She felt fidelity was reserved for those who needed to bestow mutilation upon themselves.  She explained, during the 1950s, how men and women were beginning to conclude much the same as she and Sartre did; that is, maintaining some degree of fidelity while embarking on individual deviations. 

Page 313 "The mukhannath were a caste of professional homosexuals in Moslem court culture."



Images above depict transgender males, either eunuchs or transvestites, in ancient near east civilizations.



From page 313 of the book: "The mukhannath," began Ebert, "were a caste of professional homosexuals in Moslem court culture. Around the 10-century, they wrote poetry, sang, performed dances, painted. Such perfumed, ear-ringed, coiffed effeminate men kept culture alive, at the sultan's court, in spite of all the killing and destruction that the empire was famous for. Thanks to them, Islamic culture was improved upon at a time when it might have fallen, like the Dark Ages of Europe. It was brought to new heights by the very people whose existence the Moslems would eventually outlaw.