Two Knights and a Non-Knight

I am pretty far into THE MANUSCRIPT FOUND IN SARAGOSSA and there have been no owls, even though there are owls on the cover. But there are plenty of other things! Like, these two knights are talking and this one knight is like, "Alas, we all must die. Only the hour of our death is not certain." And the other knight is like, "Wait, who has told you all these pleasant novelties? It must be a mortal with an extraordinarily witty turn of conversation. Is he often invited out to supper?" And when I read that, I thought, "Hey! 'Is he often invited out to supper?' must be the 'He must be fun at parties' of the 18th century!" And then I thought, is that something people even say: "He must be fun at parties"? I think I've said it. I think, for example, when I went to see Dr. Theresa get an award - before she was a doctor! - and the speaker at the ceremony, for some reason, was a guy whose whole life was spent studying the sense of smell in lobsters... on that occasion, I do believe that as he went on for some time about the sense of smell in lobsters, I turned to our friend Chuck, who was seated next to me, and said, "He must be fun at parties." So I did a "google search" for the phrase "must be fun at parties" and turned up 145,000 matches, so I guess it is something that people say. More and more often, since my little medical hiccup, I wonder whether I know certain things or only think I know certain things. On the other hand, maybe I was never sure. As I type this long series of thoughts, I am in unbearable suspense about whether the "internet" will stop working, as it often does now, thanks to the good folks at AT&T, ties with whom I am assiduously working to sever forever as we speak. (As further evidence of my mental state, I just looked up "assiduous" to see if it means what I think it means, and it does, almost.) Oh! So a few pages later in THE MANUSCRIPT FOUND IN SARAGOSSA, someone (not a knight) is playing a cithara, which took me straight back to the "blog's" big cither/citer/cithern/cittern/kithara/zither craze of 2010. (Citterns were poised to make a comeback in 2011, but it didn't take. Though I will say that as I continue to examine the "blog" for zombie "links," I am astonished to find that the "Frequently Asked Questions about the Renaissance Cittern" webpage not only survives, it was updated - ! - as recently as April 2023. I guess they found out something new about renaissance citterns.) Now, did I immediately assume that the cithara I read about in THE MANUSCRIPT FOUND IN SARAGOSSA was identical with a kithara? Good God, no! I learned my lesson back when I stupidly assumed that a cither and a cithern were the same thing ("click" on "link" after "link" for the incredible details). I'm so glad we had this talk. Postscript: Yes, as predicted above, the godawful AT&T "internet" ceased to work at a vital juncture in the composition of this delightsome bagatelle. (Continuing a theme: I second-guessed myself about the existence of "delightsome" as a word and did not find it in the dictionary that came with this laptop. When the "internet" began to work again, however briefly, I checked out the OED online, which cites numerous uses of the word - well, maybe "numerous" is going a bit too far - beginning in the 15th century and ending only a few years ago, in what seems to be an advertising brochure: "our Sheraton Lagos Hotel teams have come up with a line-up of delightsome and inspiring culinary options." Ugh! Now I see why my computer doesn't want me to use "delightsome.")

The Center Citer

With all this talk of citers, cithers, zithers, citherns, citterns, and kitharai - yes, that's the plural of kithara! - I am afraid that some of you may have missed "clicking" on the "link" that would have taken you to this, which I think (I no longer pretend to be a "know-it-all" about citers cithers, zithers, citherns, citterns, and kitharai) is a Chinese citer (center):

Charlie Daniels Theory

Our in-depth investigation into the kithara continues apace. My friend from Hubcap City writes in: "Your search for the meaning of cither reached the right conclusion. Cither is the word in my translation of The Republic. I’m reading the Bloom translation. Apparently, Plato’s aversion to certain kinds of instruments is old news and goes back to a musical duel between Apollo and Marsyas (start humming 'Devil Went Down to Georgia' here). Marsyas was a satyr and played flute, the most reprehensible of all instruments in The Republic. Apollo played the cither. I don’t know the specifics about the smackdown, other than that the Muses deemed Apollo the winner. How did Apollo celebrate his victory? He skinned Marsyas alive (a far worse fate than the invitation to 'come on back if you ever want to try again' that the Devil received in the Daniels song). Although Plato would have loathed Daniels' instruments—both the guitar and fiddle are many stringed and capable of playing all modes—he would have applauded more than a few of the self-described Redneck Fiddlin’ Man’s lyrics. The chorus to 'This Ain’t a Rag, It’s a Flag,' is packed with the militaristic bravado Plato sought to teach the future leaders of his ideal nation: 'This ain't no rag, it's a flag
/ Old Glory red, white and blue
/ The stars and the stripes when it comes to a fight
/ We can do what we have to do
/ Our people stand proud
/ The American crowd/ is faithful, loyal and tough
/ We're good as the best and better than the rest
/ And you're gonna find out soon enough.' So, there you have it, the ideal citizen of Plato’s Republic is a cither playing Charlie Daniels!" So says our friend from Hubcap City.

Pernicious Influences Haunt My Little Pony

I mentioned the "reliability" of wikipedia in my last "post," and I suppose it is instructive that if you "click" on the OXFORD CLASSICAL DICTIONARY "link" in it, you will be taken to something about "pterippi," which is something some dude made up, I guess, and stuck on wikipedia, the pernicious influence of which reaches even unto this My Little Pony fan forum, wherein someone says, "Lol, should we start calling winged ponies pterippi?!" Lol indeed, my friend. Lol indeed. But not in a nice way. Enough about My Little Pony! Our real project for today is to see what THE OXFORD CLASSICAL DICTIONARY has to say about the kithara. "Late in the 7th cent. BC, apparently after a period of experimentation, the great kithara that became the major instrument of professional and public performance first appears in art." And then there is a lot of stuff about "horn-shaped extensions" and lack of readily apparent "sound-holes" and arms that are "certainly hollow," arms which "curve forward" in later Roman depictions. "Quite probably this was so on the classical kithara, but Greek artists never successfully portrayed that instrument in profile." Hey, look: "Star instrumentalists and singers were idolized by the public, and like their modern counterparts enhanced their musical acts with striking costumes and histrionic bodily movements," sniffs THE OXFORD CLASSICAL DICTIONARY. "But as always in musical history, the new music gradually became old hat." What does THE OXFORD CLASSICAL DICTIONARY have stuck in its craw, I wonder? "There was a steady demand for instrumental accompanists, chorus-trainers, elementary teachers, and other hacks. [! - ed.] Pipe-girls and other entertainers... were professionals too, in their way, relying on music for a living." In their way! Wow. Way to put down the pipe-girls. What did the pipe-girls ever do to you? THE OXFORD CLASSICAL DICTIONARY really hates rock and roll. You know, I thought this OXFORD CLASSICAL DICTIONARY was going to come in handy. Yet it never truly helped me understand the allusions in Battlestar Galactica.

Look At This Guy Jamming Out on a Kithara

Of course it's all moot because Plato was talking about a kithara, and none of these other items we've been discussing. Kithara! That's where we get the word for guitar! I think wikipedia said that. So I believe it. My friend from Hubcap City's "cither" is closer in pronunciation to kithara than my "cithern." But according to the cittern FAQ, "Renaissance musicians may have seen the instrument as a rebirth or renovation of the ancient Greek kithara, which can be seen from... the 'scrolls' found near the neck of the cittern resembling vestiges of the 'wings' on the kithara." This looks like a job for THE OXFORD CLASSICAL DICTIONARY. But I'm so tired.