Hearth Of Ilium © Surazeus 2026 01 03 Ilium has grown since the Trojan War over thirty-two centuries of expansion through empires of Athens, Macedonia, Roma, and Britain to America, mutating process of social control to construct United Nations of Earth. Heirs to ancient sociological codes, that favor unity of special states where all are equal under one fair law, we fight with honest passion of respect to ensure each breathing soul born from hope has freedom to achieve their goals in life. Though Achilles still kills Hector in rage to destroy the city that controls truth, Odysseus always finds his way back home to manage estate of farms growing crops and rebuild community of his clan till time erases us all from the land. Though time wrecks temple of wisdom we built with vision Pericles projects through faith, where well-trained women manage social growth, the glorious Parthenon of fertile love shines brightly in our hearts to sustain play where we perform our social roles with pride. Each empire we design to manage fear, that grows from ruins of the previous state, reconstitutes programs of social games through more complex system of legal keys that might operate checks and balances providing capital to fund dream power. Battered by external forces of greed, that shake foundation of firm principles when Achilles traitorously attacks to crown himself king and marry the goddess, we unite our hearts with courageous faith to protect Liberty against his hate. Though our federation of special states, bound in republic for the common good, appears to fracture from opposing goals when greedy Midas obtrudes tyranny, we rally round bright sword Minerva wields to free our state from blind dictatorship. Hearth of Ilium, lit by divine flames which animate our world democracy, still shines within heart of America to nurture sense of justice in our minds, providing guidance of social respect when Jesus helps us defeat evil kings.
Saturday, January 3, 2026
Hearth Of Ilium
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Orpheus chronicles transformation of Ilium into America over thirty-centuries of social transformation through socialist democracy.
ReplyDelete"Hearth of Ilium" through Lens of Theory of Modes
ReplyDelete1. Frye’s Framework
Northrop Frye classifies literature by the power of the hero relative to other humans and to the environment:
1. Mythic – heroes are gods; laws of nature are suspended
2. Romantic – heroes are superior to others and to nature (legendary)
3. High Mimetic – heroes are superior to others but not to nature (epic, tragedy)
4. Low Mimetic – heroes are on the level of ordinary people
5. Ironic – heroes are inferior to their environment; power is systemic, abstract, or oppressive
Frye also emphasizes that modern works often mix modes, using myth to organize historical and ideological material.
2. The Poem’s Dominant Structure: A Modal Descent and Reconstitution
ReplyDelete“Hearth of Ilium” is organized as a historical spiral, not a linear fall. It repeatedly descends from mythic and high mimetic frames into low mimetic and ironic realities, then re-mythologizes those realities to sustain civic meaning.
This oscillation is the poem’s governing poetic strategy.
3. Mythic and Romantic Modes: Ilium as Eternal Archetype
ReplyDeleteMythic Grounding
The poem begins by situating Ilium not as a city but as a civilizational archetype:
“Ilium has grown since the Trojan War
over thirty-two centuries of expansion”
Here, Troy becomes mythic substrate—a primal city whose destruction and rebirth generate history itself. This aligns with Frye’s mythic mode, where events are foundational and symbolic rather than contingent.
The final stanza returns to this mode:
“Hearth of Ilium, lit by divine flames
which animate our world democracy”
The “hearth” is explicitly sacred fire, echoing Vesta/Hestia, turning democracy into a mythic continuity, not merely a political arrangement.
Romantic Figures as Civilizational Forces
Achilles, Odysseus, Minerva, Midas, and Jesus function less as characters than as romantic archetypes:
> Achilles = rage, ego, tyranny
> Odysseus = endurance, domestic order, prudence
> Minerva = rational justice, strategic wisdom
> Midas = greed absolutized
> Jesus = redemptive moral authority
These figures exceed ordinary human limits and thus belong to Frye’s romantic mode, where heroes embody single dominant virtues or vices.
4. High Mimetic Mode: Civic Epic and Political Idealism
ReplyDeleteThe poem strongly inhabits the high mimetic mode, particularly in its treatment of governance and law:
“Heirs to ancient sociological codes,
that favor unity of special states
where all are equal under one fair law”
This is the language of epic civics, akin to Virgil’s Rome or Milton’s republican heaven. Leaders and institutions are elevated, yet still subject to historical failure—precisely Frye’s definition of high mimetic realism.
Pericles’ Athens and the Parthenon are emblematic:
“the glorious Parthenon of fertile love
shines brightly in our hearts”
This is idealized but not supernatural—a hallmark of the high mimetic epic tradition.
5. Low Mimetic Mode: Social Roles and Everyday Continuity
ReplyDeleteThe poem repeatedly grounds its abstractions in ordinary social life:
“manage estate of farms growing crops
and rebuild community of his clan”
Here Odysseus is no longer a wandering hero but a manager, farmer, rebuilder—a shift into the low mimetic mode, where survival and continuity depend on common labor and social cooperation.
Similarly:
“where we perform our social roles with pride”
The epic collapses into civic theater, suggesting that modern heroism lies in participation rather than conquest.
6. Ironic Mode: Power Systems and Abstract Tyranny
ReplyDeleteThe poem’s most modern—and Fryean—moments occur when power becomes impersonal:
“mutating process of social control”
“more complex system of legal keys”
Here the enemy is no longer a hero or villain but systems themselves. This is classic ironic mode, where individuals are dwarfed by institutions, bureaucracies, and historical inertia.
Achilles’ degeneration is especially telling:
“when Achilles traitorously attacks
to crown himself king”
Achilles has fallen from romantic hero to ironic tyrant—no longer larger than life, but corrupted by it. This modal collapse is intentional and central to the poem’s critique.
7. Modal Synthesis: Myth Reclaimed for Democracy
ReplyDeleteWhat distinguishes this poem from simple propaganda or allegory is its refusal to remain in irony. Instead, it reclaims myth as a sustaining force:
“still shines within heart of America
to nurture sense of justice in our minds”
In Frye’s terms, this is a return to myth after irony, a conscious re-mythologizing of democratic ideals to prevent cultural exhaustion.
Jesus, notably, appears not as a theological redeemer but as a mythic guarantor of moral resistance:
“when Jesus helps us defeat evil kings”
This restores ethical transcendence without suspending historical reality.
8. Conclusion: Fryean Assessment
ReplyDelete“Hearth of Ilium” operates as a modern epic of mixed modes, with:
> Mythic structure (eternal city, sacred fire)
> Romantic archetypes (Achilles, Odysseus, Minerva)
> High mimetic civic ideals (law, republic, federation)
> Low mimetic social realism (roles, labor, community)
> Ironic critique of systems and tyranny
In Frye’s terms, the poem is an attempt to rebuild myth from within history, arguing that democracy survives only if it remembers its archetypal origins.
This makes the poem not nostalgic but structurally conservative in Frye’s deepest sense: conserving myth as the grammar through which civilization understands itself.