reykr (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} reykr) wrote,@ 2006-08-25 10:21:00 |
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"PLUTO," meaning "wealth" and also "death."
There's a Gospel story about Dives, the rich man, who ignores Lazarus, the poor beggar. In the end, Lazarus goes to heaven and Dives goes to hell.
In the original Greek Bible, Dives' name is "Ploutos," meaning "rich." It's the origin of the English word "plutocracy," which means "rule by the rich."
I think something is lost in the translation of that story from Greek to Latin and other languages, because in the original Greek there seems to be the idea that wealth is connected with death.
I think Lowell's poem captures that idea, but it also has the idea of redemption at the end.
1848, the year Lowell published that poem, was the year of the July Revolution in France, and of unsuccessful revolutionary attempts in other countries, too.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pluto_(myt
There's a Gospel story about Dives, the rich man, who ignores Lazarus, the poor beggar. In the end, Lazarus goes to heaven and Dives goes to hell.
In the original Greek Bible, Dives' name is "Ploutos," meaning "rich." It's the origin of the English word "plutocracy," which means "rule by the rich."
I think something is lost in the translation of that story from Greek to Latin and other languages, because in the original Greek there seems to be the idea that wealth is connected with death.
I think Lowell's poem captures that idea, but it also has the idea of redemption at the end.
1848, the year Lowell published that poem, was the year of the July Revolution in France, and of unsuccessful revolutionary attempts in other countries, too.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pluto_(myt
