A Mystical Tale of Love or Democracy Turned Free

By Adriana C. Miramon

This story deals in part, indirectly, with the theme of law and order. Let us take this phrase apart and examine it. Law is good and was meant to be set up for the protection of all people. One of the meanings of order is to command, making the commanded obey. Order in its negative sense is rigid, not flexible to the rights of man. Too much order is detrimental. What follows in these pages touches on this theme. Order in the extreme is restrictive to the individual. This should be understood: respect is due the law when it is just and it is for one's own good. It is the word order that deserves the thought. As the inheritors of democracy, we can think for ourselves. The danger lies in those who wish to think for us. Our mind or intellect, a divine gift, is our identification. The mind is the only real thing that is free and was never meant for mass communal sharing. To submit ones mind is to relinquish the most precious gift bestowed on man by God.

When a case is being presented, both sides must be examined, making fair the hearing of each. On the positive side of order, law and order have to go together. If the land were lawless, the individual would have no protection. However, if the courts have been inequitable, justice has been denied, what then? Then the laws of land have been violated. It follows then that like justice depicted blindfolded, so she will remain impartial, does not have one central scale, she has two. She is seeking the perfect balance, respect for the law when it is just, with freedom for the individual. Anything in extreme tends to be less than good. That is, there is a world of difference between the sincere patriot and one who is chauvinistic. The latter flaunts his beliefs with a roaring passion. Like the eternal flame, the true patriot loves his country with constant undying flames, and he balances this with love for the individuality of man. The fanatic is often consumed by the fury of his fire and remains anonymous even to his own identity. To lose one's identity is to give up one's freedom.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Dec 17, 2015
• ISBN: 9781514416389

Adriana C. Miramon

Adriana Catalina Miramon was born in 1969 in Manhattan, New York and her parents were of Portuguese, Spanish, French and English descent. Her father was a restaurant manager and her mother was an Executive Assistant working for 2 of Manhattan's most successful real estate moguls. Residing in Manhattan, she was exposed to a diverse culture in the city. Although she faced adversity throughout her life, she managed to successfully put herself through school while she worked in various industries as an Executive Assistant. In her spare time, she continues to give back to charitable organizations that helped her during difficult times. She also inherited her grandmother's talent and passion for writing. She has a wonderful daughter, an only child, who studies cosmetology, specializing in theatrical make-up with Hollywood aspirations! Marie Lucille D'Avellar was born in 1919 in Boston, Massachusetts and her parents were of Portuguese, Spanish, French and English descent and were entertainers in vaudeville. In fact, her father once worked with Abbott and Costello who ventured to California and went on to fame and fortune. Residing in Boston, she was exposed to the rich culture of that city and although she became an entertainer herself under the stage name of Lucille Leighton, she was an avid reader and also developed a talent for writing. In time, as vaudeville began to fade out and ended when TVs were available to everyone, she married and had one daughter. In her later years, again due to her interest in literature, she also worked as a librarian. She passed away in 1975 from ovarian cancer and was survived by one daughter and three grandchildren.

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Copyright © 2015 by Adriana C. Miramon.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

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Rev. date: 01/14/2016

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Table of Contents

Host of Characters

Preface

EROS

Plato’s Republic

Related Arts And Sciences

Poetry

Dedication

I fondly dedicate this book in loving memory of my dear grandmother, Marie Lucille D’Avellar and my beloved mother Lucille Adrienne Cook, for which I am grateful for having inherited both of their combined talents for the love of the arts.

HOST OF CHARACTERS

• Cretus

Aristocrat. High born, good blood line works for government as a tax collector. Very well liked, married to Helen.

• Helen

High born good blood line. Has an arranged marriage to Cretus. Beautiful, smart warm, open-minded and compassionate. Loves her husband and son very much.

• Eros

Son of Cretus and Helen. Very good blood line.

• Dionysius

Very handsome and wise gentleman. Slave to Cretus and Helen. Ax on left wrist to show he is a slave.

• Mineola

Beautiful inside and out. Wife of Dionysius also a slave and loves her husband and family very much

• Helena

Beautiful young water maiden. Half girl, half fish. Possibly a mermaid.

• Xerxes

Fourth born son of Dionysius and Mineola. Born a slave.

• Aristotle

Philosopher, teacher within the Academy in Greece. Protégé of Plato.

• Hersus

Speaker of the House

• Pretorius

Guard at the Academy

• Marculus

One of the rulers of Greece to judge the Academy graduates and gives them their points. Appoints graduates as scholars once points are obtained. (a graduate needs to receive 10 points in order to be eligible and receive a scroll)

• Academy

School for Aristocrats in Greece

Preface

T HIS STORY DEALS in part, indirectly, with the theme of law and order. Let us take this phrase apart and examine it. Law is good and was meant to be set up for the protection of all people. One of the meanings of order is to command, making the commanded obey. Order in its negative sense is rigid, not flexible to the rights of man. Too much order is detrimental. What follows in these pages touches on this theme. Order in the extreme is restrictive to the individual. This should be understood, respect is due the law when it is just, and it is for one’s own good. It is the word order that deserves the thought. As the inheritors of democracy we can think for ourselves. The danger lies in those who wish to think for us. Our mind or intellect, a divine gift, is our identification. The mind is the only real thing which is free and was never meant for mass communal sharing. To submit one’s mind is to relinquish the most precious gift bestowed on man by God.

When a case is being presented both sides must be examined, making fair the hearing of each. On the positive side of order, law and order have to go together. If the land were lawless the individual would have no protection. However, if the courts have been inequitable justice has been denied, what then? Then the laws of land have been violated. It follows then that like justice depicted blindfolded, so she will remain impartial, does not have one central scale, she has two. She is seeking the perfect balance, respect for the law when it is just, with freedom for the individual. Anything in extreme tends to be less than good. That is, there is a world of difference between the sincere patriot and one who is chauvinistic. The latter flaunts his beliefs with a roaring passion. Like the eternal flame, the true patriot loves his country with constant undying flames, and he balances this with love for the individuality of man. The fanatic is often consumed by the fury of his fire and remains anonymous even to his own identity. To lose one’s identity is to give up one’s freedom.

EROS

Fairest of the deathless gods.

-Hesiod

Plato tells us you are found in the human heart

Not all know you are a noble counterpart

Like Justice you are shown with a blindfold

She to be impartial to truly judge the whole

You, for isn’t love very often blind?

This makes you both two of a kind

Do you dwell on some Utopian sphere?

Time is growing less, if you don’t appear

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Cogito, ergo sum:

I think, therefore I am.

- Rene Descartes

Preface to Eros or Democracy Turned Free is based on this philosophy.

One’s mind is one’s identity.

M ANY CENTURIES AGO in a very ancient Greece, a baby boy was born to Cretus and his beautiful wife Helen. This was to be their only child, but a very special one; one who would indirectly shape history without recognition in history books. Helen would cradle her tiny son close to her breast, trying to dispel the feeling of unhappiness that would engulf her. She concealed these feelings, and so she and Cretus watched their tiny son begin to grown into young manhood. As time progressed, these memories left her and she experienced only joy in her life with her husband and son. This was ancient Greece, and all boys were trained for the state. For those who were high-born there arose the problem of keeping in their own class. It was an absolute necessity for parents to make certain their off-springs would do nothing to break the pure strain of nobility. Slavery was an accepted truth; with the cultured Greek scorning physical labor. The slaves seemed happy enough with their lot in life, for if one knows just one side of life, one can experience no discontent. They were glad to have a place to live, enough food to eat, and employment was never an issue. If a slave tried to better himself, he soon found the going too difficult and was soon back with his master. The slave was lost, for the state ruled with an iron hand; although many so-called city states were at war with one another. This was the age of culture; but refinement may not have always entered into it.

Although the high-born Greek might consider physical labor to be beneath him, and although he might not do the actual building, it was from his highly developed mind and for the innate beauty that was in him that architecture was to gain greatly. With his compass and his geometric forms passed on from the Egyptians, he performed the pediment. Next followed the columns; namely, the Doric, Ionic and the Corinthian. To one Colum he added the Ram’s Scroll at the top, another was beautiful with its pure lines of simplicity, and the last most elaborate and ornate. From the Romans, whom he considered barbarians in his secret heart, he learned to build triumphal arches, aqueducts, and magnificent roads. This was the age and setting that Eros, this special child came into.

Eros came from good parents of the finest lineage on both sides and he was perfect of form and face created from love and hereditary traits. From a young age he was singled out with a few choices others selected to have special training to be used ultimately for the good of the state. Eros was not an exceptional student; nevertheless he might be considered a trifle above average. Of course there was much his young mind could not grasp. Logic, ethics, and the science of government escaped him. The letter made him think, for this was the underlying theme in all his studies, but carefully disguised in all of his studies. It even permeated music that comprised many things, including poetry, for it did not mean formal training in music as we think of it.

It embraced much as was essential for the truly cultured Greek to be a man of letters, or at least understand them. The inquiring trait in the nature of Eros, not any great brilliance, made him realize democracy as it was being taught in this case was not for all citizens. He went along with the true principles of democracy, but in the back regions of his mind were his faithful friend and family slave Dionysius and the glaring fact that he did not enjoy equality. This was the giant question in his mind that he was wise enough not voice. A different cloak of words merely emphasized the same thought that must be learned; all was for the glory of Greece. Eros recognized this just by common sense. The very pronounced and existing condition of slavery contributed to the inevitable political upheaval, and another ponderous thought that compulsory military training with the anticipation of war, and not self-defense, has at different times throughout history preceded the downfall of a nation. The danger of a military state arising comes to mind, but it is the problem for the heads of state. It is all contained in history, the answers from past mistakes from wrong decisions.

The youth’s lessons were often comprised of debates¹. Slowly and artfully he learned the technique of letting his voice rise and fall. Thus he mastered inflection and his voice was comparable to that of an instrument. These hand-picked children, always from the upper classes, would mature into brilliant orators. In time he would be able to sway the uneducated masses, and were therefore susceptible to strongly-suggested ideas by the carefully trained men.

Mob psychology was mastered, and the young student-trained boys for the state knew how to arouse a mood to circulate through a crowd, inciting them to near hysteria, and then move in with the soothing tones of a liberator. The good orator is a master showman. The training of his body was important, and as this was not Sparta, the great extremes of plunging into icy-cold water were avoided. Eros bathed with exceptional care, taking a long time. He could swim, run the marathon² and throw the discus; he was an invaluable property of the state. Equality in a small measure would come many centuries later, but not until powerful nations would fall one by one; learning that true power does not come by conquering, but in living in peace with each other. Cretus was in the midst of this hardship, as he was a kindly man, an unusual thing sometimes in a man of his noble heritage; and yet the state required of him that he be firm.

Cretus and his family with one male slave called Dionysius lived just outside the city along the