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Forgive me if this has already been started and let me know so we can merge but I wanted to get a discussion going about today’s painting and quote.
Also this is long as heck. Sorrynotsorry.
Quote was from Henry Adams “Chaos was the law of Nature, Order was the dream of man.” It’s from the Education of Henry Adams, his autobiography regarding his journey towards self-education beyond traditional schooling through relationships and experiences. I’m not an expert on this book so if anyone has more insight I’d like to hear it, but on face value I’d say it’s being used to demonstrate that no matter how we try to make sense of what we’re seeing or believing, chaos is the natural state we’re going to return to. Maybe we need to rely on what we know from experience and about each other to get through it.
The painting I can do a bit better on. Another (the third I believe) Jacques-Louis David. “The Intervention of the Sabine Women.” (Thank you @mkarrett for finding that title so quickly.)
Let’s talk about early Rome without getting into too too much clunky history, ok? This story actually comes from mythology so I am not sure beyond the many art works about it that there’s specific source material verifying it.
Rome was founded by Romulus and his (mostly male) followers. Eager to spread throughout the area and populate, he tried to negotiate for wives for his men amongst the local Sabines, and was refused. What followed you will hear referred to as the “rape of the Sabine women,” an act that was probably a calculated abduction/coercion by the Romans to lure the Sabine women away from their families and relocate to Rome proper.
Many small battles followed, with Rome easily defeating and absorbing the locals, until the Sabines themselves, led by Titus Tacitus, arrived at the gates. They were let in by a vestal virgin named Tarpeia, who thought she’d be rewarded in gold for her betrayal. Instead she was crushed by the shields of the Sabine army and her body was thrown from the rock outcropping above the city, henceforth known as the Tarpeian rock–home of many executions, notably for traitors. The rock is depicted in David’s painting and draws attention to in civil conflict depicted beneath it.
The Romans were beating back Tacitus when the Sabine women stepped between their now husbands and their fathers and demanded the conflict stop, willing to give their own lives–they were the cause of the war, weren’t they?–in exchange. The Romans and Sabines laid down their arms and joined together as a singular nation from then on.
Tl;dr So. What does this mean in context for us? Signs of internal conflict to come? Our experience informing us as our relationships dissolve into chaos? I’ll wager it’s no coincidence we are getting imagery about the destruction of Rome and an untrustworty emperor followed by the rise of Rome and it’s calculating founder. Sins of the father. Take what you want. Don’t ask for anything.
Happy to hear what everyone else thinks.
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Fabulous research @wanda102. I don’t know much about Roman history and these posts have encouraged me to research this topic more and I’ve learned some really cool stuff. I’m sure I’m not alone in this.
This story you found does make me think a lot about something that’s been milling around in my head in relation to the marriage of Noah and Sarah. There’s a hunch in me that feels like Sarah was assigned to Noah. Like an iConfidant. They realized they couldn’t control him with authority, so they controlled him with emotion. Sarah was sent in to appeal to him and he fell in love with her. He loves her and she is obligated business wise to pretend to return the favor, which would explain why when he started acting out, her immediate fear was that as a result she would be punished. If he doesn’t behave, she’s done a bad job. It would also explain his phone call where he expressed that she was unhappy and did things within the marriage as “self-preservation” and yet despite being unhappy stayed in the marriage, so Noah went AWOL as an act of love for her, to force her out of the marriage she was unhappy with since she herself wouldn’t leave. Maybe she wouldn’t leave because she COULDN’T.
So why can’t she leave. What would cause her to enter this arrangement in the first place? Was she forced? Perhaps Sarah thought she had the upper hand and thought she’d be rewarded for her involvement, but now realizes she’s not as powerful as she thought- but she doesn’t want harm to come to Noah or Timothy.Or, you know, maybe I’m just talking out of my ass and none of this relates.
ROMAN HISTORY! WEEE! -
@meghanmayhem this relates perfectly to me. If you see Sarah as a Sabine woman, lured away by promises of autonomy and perhaps fortune to marry a “stranger.” When her husband causes civil conflict, this time between his own father and himself, she sees the potential that she may have to offer to sacrifice herself in order to end the war. And is Macy our Tarpeia, the traitor who let us in the gates to Sinclair industries?
But this is 2017, baby, women don’t have to throw themselves on a sword to restore order anymore.
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@meghanmayhem then let’s find out.
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@wanda102
Women: Getting shit done since…ever. -
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