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Doug Sly's avatar

The "meek-eyed Peace" in the Nativity Ode is Venus with her myrtle wand dividing the clouds and turtle wing. During the shortest days is the ideal opportunity with the help of Eros to wrestle us out of the fascinations thrown up by the lesser suns of fakery. A price must be paid to the prince of peace.

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Tom Willard's avatar

A very nice pre-holiday posting. You are right to emphasize the element of good will as a necessary precondition for peace. Thinking back to our teacher NF, I recall the kinds of nits he would pick. While Luke’s gospel has the general wish “on earth peace,” Matthew’s has Jesus tell his disciples to wish peace only on worthy house and then tell them, in the same talk, “Think not that I come to send peace on earth. I came not to send peace, but a sword.” NF might note that Luke writes for a Roman audience, who may still recall the Jewish wars, and places the nativity in a Roman context, “when Cyrenius was governor of Syria (i.e., after 4 CE). Meanwhile, Matthew writes for an Aramaic audience (Syriac, Milton would say), probably in Damascus, and dates the nativity to the days when Herod the Great was the client governor of Judea (i.e., before 4 BCE, though some suggest the date of 1 CE). This might come during the last Tuesday class meeting before the Christmas holidays.

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