Gadarene
"headlong; precipitate"
"The rush of the Gadarene swine" is a phrase meaning to plunge or rush headlong into something, gadarene is derived from a Biblical story. Predictably, it's a word with some message other than its direct meaning. The implicit moral is not to plunge headlong into things; something Epimetheus, with his infinite aftersight would recommend. Only in retrospect, of course.
But whether it's swines possessed by demons making a gadarene rush into the Sea of Galilee, or some decision made in haste, how do we know that Epimetheus, the king of after-thought, is so wrong?
In Greek mythology, Epimetheus was the god of afterthought and his brother, Prometheus, was the god of foresight. When creating creatures of this earth, Epimetheus gave all the good gifts or fur, claws, etc. (a dubious classification of good and bad by today's standards) to the animals and had nothing left for man. So, his brother stole fire from the immortals to give to mankind. The moral of the tale is foresight is better than after-sight.
But is it really? Did Epimetheus's headlong rush into his gift-giving turn out to be correct. Perhaps leaving Prometheus to give a better gift was Epimetheus's plan afterall. And, Epimetheus is certainly not the brother chained to the side of the mountain as a punishment.
So, is Prometheus a hero because of his great foresight? Is a hero built on things like foresight? Well, swimming with superhuman skills to save people from a bursting dam has much better theatrics than preventing the dam from bursting in the first place. And theatricity has is place in the definition of a hero; Achilles sulks, Hercules has marriage problems, and many heroes bemoan their lives repeatedly. So, perhaps after-sight is the preferred predicament. It's certainly worth considering, when making cynical remarks about the next fashionable gadarene rush.
"The rush of the Gadarene swine" is a phrase meaning to plunge or rush headlong into something, gadarene is derived from a Biblical story. Predictably, it's a word with some message other than its direct meaning. The implicit moral is not to plunge headlong into things; something Epimetheus, with his infinite aftersight would recommend. Only in retrospect, of course.
But whether it's swines possessed by demons making a gadarene rush into the Sea of Galilee, or some decision made in haste, how do we know that Epimetheus, the king of after-thought, is so wrong?
In Greek mythology, Epimetheus was the god of afterthought and his brother, Prometheus, was the god of foresight. When creating creatures of this earth, Epimetheus gave all the good gifts or fur, claws, etc. (a dubious classification of good and bad by today's standards) to the animals and had nothing left for man. So, his brother stole fire from the immortals to give to mankind. The moral of the tale is foresight is better than after-sight.
But is it really? Did Epimetheus's headlong rush into his gift-giving turn out to be correct. Perhaps leaving Prometheus to give a better gift was Epimetheus's plan afterall. And, Epimetheus is certainly not the brother chained to the side of the mountain as a punishment.
So, is Prometheus a hero because of his great foresight? Is a hero built on things like foresight? Well, swimming with superhuman skills to save people from a bursting dam has much better theatrics than preventing the dam from bursting in the first place. And theatricity has is place in the definition of a hero; Achilles sulks, Hercules has marriage problems, and many heroes bemoan their lives repeatedly. So, perhaps after-sight is the preferred predicament. It's certainly worth considering, when making cynical remarks about the next fashionable gadarene rush.
posted by Kay at 12:52 PM
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