Benevolence (I): Light in August

2021 ◽  
pp. 47-83
Author(s):  
Michael Wainwright
Keyword(s):  
1963 ◽  
Vol 58 ◽  
pp. 30-43 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. N. Coldstream

On the east slope of Lower Gypsades hill, about 100 metres west of the Temple Tomb, a chamber tomb came to light in August 1958, when a cutting for a new water pipe was driven through the area (A in Plate 9 a). In the course of this operation, part of a plain larnax (iii) was sliced off, and much earth removed from the west end of the collapsed chamber: at no point, however, had the municipal workmen penetrated to the tomb floor.The chamber was approached by a sloping dromos (Plate 9 a: length 2·80 metres; max. width 1 metre), roughly cut into the natural kouskouras rock: its walls were approximately perpendicular. Although the gradient varied a good deal, there was no suggestion of a stairway.The blocking wall was found in good condition. Of especial interest were the numerous fragments of larnakes that had been built into its fabric: some of them could be recognized as belonging to each of the three fragmentary larnakes (i, ii, v) whose scattered pieces were found below and around the two undisturbed burials in the chamber (iii, iv). We may thus distinguish two periods in the history of the tomb: larnakes i, ii, and v were evidently smashed up in order to make room for iv and iii, which must have been deposited in that order. The debris of v was found under iv, with a few adult bones in its wreckage. Part of i lay on the floor near the south-west corner, where two plain vases (2, 3) were found in situ, hence, also, came most of the fragments of the fine L.M. IIIA 2 stirrup vase (1), although its other pieces were scattered all over the floor of the tomb. This small group of offerings may belong to the disturbed adult skeleton, whose skull lay up against the lower edge of iii. Curiously, some fragments of i and ii were also found above the broken lid of iv (Plate 9 b): perhaps the lid of the later larnax was accidentally smashed at the time of the funeral, in which case the debris from earlier burials could have been piled up above it, as a rough and ready means of protection.


2002 ◽  
Vol 60 (2) ◽  
pp. 89-91
Author(s):  
Irene Visser
Keyword(s):  

Author(s):  
Thornton Wilder

This chapter contains a number of journal entries, written between April 10, 1940 and November 6, 1949. In them, Thornton Wilder talks about three of William Faulkner's novels: Light in August, The Hamlet, and Absalom, Absalom!. Wilder first comments on Light in August, the climax of which is the castration of the half-Negro demon-hero Joe Christmas. According to Wilder, Faulkner represents the humiliation of the once gallant South in sexual terms; the Negro's strength is perpetually before their eyes to remind them of their loss. He then turns to what he believes is Faulkner's fancy overwriting in The Hamlet before concluding with a discussion of Absalom, Absalom! and its motif that the institution of slavery set in motion its own retribution.


1985 ◽  
Vol 31 (4) ◽  
pp. 675-690
Author(s):  
Ronald Wesley Hoag
Keyword(s):  

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