“That Homeric epic and the earliest Hebrew poetry were the results of long and rich developments should have been apparent to anyone who realizes that artistic perfection is never created ex nihilo.”

— Cyrus H. Gordon

Introduction
Adventures in the Nearest East (1957)

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Cyrus H. Gordon 73

American linguist 1908–2001

Cyrus H. Gordon (1908–2001) American linguist

Source: The Common Background of Greek and Hebrew Civilizations (1965 [1962]), Ch.VIII Further Observations on the Bible

“Troy is based on the epic poem The Iliad by Homer, according to the credits. Homer's estate should sue.”

Roger Ebert (1942–2013) American film critic, author, journalist, and TV presenter

Review http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/troy-2004 of Troy (14 May 2004)
Reviews, Two star reviews

“He who improvises can never make a perfect line of poetry.”

Titian (1488–1576) Italian painter

As quoted in A Dictionary of Art and Artists (1959) by Peter Murray and Linda Murray, p. 321.
undated quotes

“Gertrude Stein, in her work, has always been possessed by the intellectual passion for exactitude in the description of the inner and outer reality. She has reproduced simplification by this concentration, and as a result the destruction of associational emotion in poetry and prose. She knows that beauty, music, decoration, the result of emotion should never be the cause, even events should never be the cause of emotion nor should they be the material of poetry or prose. Nor should emotion itself be the cause of poetry and prose. They should consist of an exact reproduction of either an outer or inner reality.”

Gertrude Stein book The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas

Source: The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas (1933), p. 259

“As I walk, I construct perfect sentences that I cannot remember later at home. I don’t know if the ineffable poetry of those sentences derived from what they were or from their never having been (written).”

Fernando Pessoa book The Book of Disquiet

Source: The Book of Disquiet

“Heroic epic and saga (Indic as well as Greek and Hebrew, etc.) combine action with genealogy. This is necessary because the action is performed by aristocrats who require genealogies.”

Cyrus H. Gordon (1908–2001) American linguist

Source: The Common Background of Greek and Hebrew Civilizations (1965 [1962]), Ch.VIII Further Observations on the Bible

“Epic poetry is divinely inspired (Iliad I: I) and as such is just as true as oracles, and for the same reason. It is no accident that oracles (such as those at Delphi) were enunciated in the same dactylic hexameter as the epic.”

Cyrus H. Gordon (1908–2001) American linguist

Source: The Common Background of Greek and Hebrew Civilizations (1965 [1962]), Ch.VII Further Observations on Homer

“Valmiki (14th - 15th century B. C.), the author of the epic Ramayana, bears comparison with Homer.”

Vālmīki Legendary Indian poet, author of the Ramayana

Valmiki

“As an artist, you should not wish to create what you don’t feel you have to create.”

Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach (1830–1916) Austrian writer

Künstler, was du nicht schaffen mußt, das darfst du nicht schaffen wollen.
Source: Aphorisms (1880/1893), p. 21.

“Never trust the artist. Trust the tale. The proper function of a critic is to save the tale from the artist who created it”

D.H. Lawrence book Studies in Classic American Literature

Studies in Classic American Literature (1923)

“That Homeric epic and the earliest Hebrew poetry were the results of long and rich developments should have been apparent to anyone who realizes that artistic perfection is never created ex nihilo.”

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