a distant fire and a far-off sword

Two of Cups. Art by Celeste Pille, from The American Renaissance Tarot.

The Marble Faun

The Resting/Leaning Satyr of Greek Sculptor Praxiteles. Unlike other sculpted fauns in Ancient Roman & Greek history, Praxiteles’ Satyr offers a friendliness and an offering that hints at being approachable. Human features are evident as we take in the details of his face and body, freed from the muscle-bound and often prominent features & gestures fauns are essentially known for. His mythological side (tail) is hidden behind the Panther Belt and his pointed ears that would instantly give away his true identity, are hidden under his curly hair.

The way Ofelias sacrifice of her escape for the sake of her brother feels like it mattered regardless of your interpretation of the film. Whether the Faun was real or not, whether he was a threat or not, the love she had for her brother mattered, purely because it was there. Perhaps because to love and be loved is in itself a precious, if not the only true, reward for the perils of life

[...] when Odysseus meets the shade of Achilles, he addresses Achilles as "best of the Achaeans". But the Odyssey then has Achilles saying that he would rather be alive and the lowliest of serfs than to be dead and the kingliest of shades. [...] Achilles seems ready to trade places with Odysseus, whose safe homecoming will be marked by a painful transitional phase at the very lowest levels of the social order. The words of Achilles in the first nekuia are ironically conjuring up the glorious days of the Iliad when he had said: "I have lost a safe return home [nostos], but I will have unfailing glory [kleos]." (IX 413) The destiny of the Odyssey is that Odysseus shall have a nostos, 'safe return home'. From the retrospective vantage point of the Odyssey, Achilles would trade his kleos for a nostos. It is as if he now would trade an Iliad for an Odyssey. By contrast, at a moment when Odysseus is sure that he will perish in the stormy sea, he wishes that he had died at Troy: "...and then the Achaeans would have carried on my kleos." (v 308-311)