Open To Interpretation
Measure Measure
To let understanding stop at what cannot be understood is a high attainment. Those who cannot do it will be destroyed on the lathe of heaven. (知止乎其所不能知，至矣。若有不即是者，天鈞敗之。)
To let understanding stop at what cannot be understood is a high attainment. Those who cannot do it will be destroyed on the lathe of heaven. (知止乎其所不能知，至矣。若有不即是者，天鈞敗之。)
Setting: Mt. Olympus' Judgment Hall. Seated on a stone and chained is Hephaestus. Above in the Upper Gallery is Hades with his entourage of Shades, including Orpheus. Zeus is seated on a stone bench on a platform. Athena and the gods are in attendance in the Lower Gallery.
Prosecutor
Are your chains comfortable?
Hephaestus
I made these chains.
Prosecutor
Are they too tight?
Hephaestus
I made you.
Prosecutor
How so?
Hephaestus
You're an automaton,
Made to examine and measure.
Prosecutor
That is what I do.
What I am is irrelevant.
Hephaestus
Is my judge just so?
Prosecutor
Zeus? He is immortal
And beyond measure.
Hephaestus
I am immortal as well.
Prosecutor
You are what you are.
It is what you have done
I assess.
Zeus will judge.
Athena has it
You gave to mortals
Beyond the Pillars
The means to record, store,
And replay songs
With a device in semblance
To the golden lyre of Orpheus.
Hephaestus
I befriended them,
And related how
As one would tell of
Catching a great whale.
Prosecutor
It was for their enjoyment?
Hephaestus
Yes. By your simple measure.
It was music.
I've made automatons like you,
Kaledones,
That sing and entertain the gods,
And record and store and play
Music as you do Measures.
Prosecutor
Can you sing?
Hephaestus
Poorly.
Prosecutor
The songs you recorded,
Who gave them to you?
Hephaestus
Orpheus.
Prosecutor
You see him here?
Hephaestus
Yes, beside Hades he sits,
Shade made by Zeus
With lightning bolt.
And now I sit in
Zeus' forge
And await his hammer's thunder.
Prosecutor
Have you a Defender?
Hephaestus
Another Automaton to parry with you?
Prosecutor
So Measures are arrived at here.
Orpheus
I will defend Hephaestus!
Are your chains comfortable?
Hephaestus
I made these chains.
Prosecutor
Are they too tight?
Hephaestus
I made you.
Prosecutor
How so?
Hephaestus
You're an automaton,
Made to examine and measure.
Prosecutor
That is what I do.
What I am is irrelevant.
Hephaestus
Is my judge just so?
Prosecutor
Zeus? He is immortal
And beyond measure.
Hephaestus
I am immortal as well.
Prosecutor
You are what you are.
It is what you have done
I assess.
Zeus will judge.
Athena has it
You gave to mortals
Beyond the Pillars
The means to record, store,
And replay songs
With a device in semblance
To the golden lyre of Orpheus.
Hephaestus
I befriended them,
And related how
As one would tell of
Catching a great whale.
Prosecutor
It was for their enjoyment?
Hephaestus
Yes. By your simple measure.
It was music.
I've made automatons like you,
Kaledones,
That sing and entertain the gods,
And record and store and play
Music as you do Measures.
Prosecutor
Can you sing?
Hephaestus
Poorly.
Prosecutor
The songs you recorded,
Who gave them to you?
Hephaestus
Orpheus.
Prosecutor
You see him here?
Hephaestus
Yes, beside Hades he sits,
Shade made by Zeus
With lightning bolt.
And now I sit in
Zeus' forge
And await his hammer's thunder.
Prosecutor
Have you a Defender?
Hephaestus
Another Automaton to parry with you?
Prosecutor
So Measures are arrived at here.
Orpheus
I will defend Hephaestus!
Zeus and Hades exchange hard looks.
Hades
He has the right to choose his defender.
Zeus
Just so.
Orpheus
I request time to prepare.
Zeus
You are content with Orpheus?
Hephaestus
Yes.
Zeus
Tomorrow then.
He has the right to choose his defender.
Zeus
Just so.
Orpheus
I request time to prepare.
Zeus
You are content with Orpheus?
Hephaestus
Yes.
Zeus
Tomorrow then.
DolphinWords
Notes: reference my play Women Can Do No Wrong for this setting and trial procedures!...ral...I may have to nestle that into the Tales...reference Kaledones...oh!...they had the appearance of Wrynecks!...Riordan in his saga has a Hall...Hall of Ma'at?...and there are a Hall of Two Truths, and the White Hall of Heaven...probably more...oh!...this study out of Halls has been a major diversion!...much stuck as to where early folk met to dispense justice...unstuck with the word 'basilica', 'stoa (stoic), 'comitium', 'Bouleuterion', Stoa Basileios !...the Ronald Reagan Federal Building hereabout in Santa Ana is sheathed in white stone, maybe marble...I can't tell...beautiful building...Zeus' 'forge' reference The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula Le Guin...
:)
DavidDavid
:)
DavidDavid
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