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Today is— was— the day.
- Casca. Bid every noise be still: peace yet again!
- Caesar. Who is it in the press that calls on me? 100
I hear a tongue, shriller than all the music,
Cry 'Caesar!' Speak; Caesar is turn'd to hear.
- Soothsayer. Beware the ides of March.
- Caesar. What man is that?
- Brutus. A soothsayer bids you beware the ides of March.105
- Caesar. Set him before me; let me see his face.
- Cassius. Fellow, come from the throng; look upon Caesar.
- Caesar. What say'st thou to me now? speak once again.
- Soothsayer. Beware the ides of March.
- Caesar. He is a dreamer; let us leave him: pass.110
(As an aside here, y’all know that man was just too ridiculously handsome...and y’all know who “that man” is...but I digress...DAYUM!)
Of course, Shakespeare didn’t simply imagine that particular bit, it came straight from his source, the Greek biographer Plutarch.
The following story, too, is told by many. A certain seer warned Caesar to be on his guard against a great peril on the day of the month of March which the Romans call the Ides; and when the day had come and Caesar was on his way to the senate-house, he greeted the seer with a jest and said: "Well, the Ides of March are come," and the seer said to him softly: "Ay, they are come, but they are not gone." Moreover, on the day before, when Marcus Lepidus was entertaining him at supper, Caesar chanced to be signing letters, as his custom was, while reclining at table, and the discourse turned suddenly upon the question what sort of death was the best; before any one could answer Caesar cried out: "That which is unexpected." After this, while he was sleeping as usual by the side of his wife, all the windows and doors of the chamber flew open at once, and Caesar, confounded by the noise and the light of the moon shining down upon him, noticed that Calpurnia was in a deep slumber, but was uttering indistinct words and inarticulate groans in her sleep; for she dreamed, as it proved, that she was holding her murdered husband in her arms and bewailing him.
Going back beyond Shakespeare and Plutarch there’s...Tiresias.
I’ve always found literature’s seers and fortune tellers fascinating because as someone who predicted football games as a child, that’s...kind of what I did (plus I find the mythological background of Tiresias fascinating) but not anywhere near that scale.
Much like what I did, these (fictional) seers weren’t pulling prophecies out of thin air, their prophecies do seem to have been based on some empirical information.
I had my fortune told once. It was by a friend who knew how to read tarot cards so I allowed him to read my cards just as a lark.
He predicted...disaster. I really didn’t think anything of it at the time but after about a month, my life began to get progressively worse in many ways.
I haven’t had my fortune told since that one time, it’s been 38 years now. I don’t even get fascinated with astrology columns in the newspaper, although I read them every so often.
But believe in them? I don’t think so.
(To repeat myself, I don’t think I have seen a more ridiculous thing in my life!)
Comments below the fold.
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From userexists:
yogibear1963 succinctly points up the institutional hypocrisy of McAfee's ruling regarding Fani Willis: "When is Clarence Thomas going to be held to the ‘appearance of impropriety’ standard?" Posted to the front page AP story announcing Judge McAfee’s decision to allow Fani Willis to remain in charge of the Fulton County case.
And from the same diary, Clues sums up the general insanity of DK members echoing RW talking points with flair and economy.
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