For Homer, something is good if it is powerful and noble and inspiring respect, not because it is harmless. Achilles is great because he is the fleet-footed man-killer, not Achilles son of Peleus the Doer of Good Works with Excellent People Skills. Apollo is the god of disease, something he is fond of unleashing on people. He is also supremely beautiful.
Christianity on the other hand has the idea that the world is a perfect creation of God ("perfect" meaning "good for people"). Disease and death are aberations, Very Bad Things mussing up the ideal face of the universe, the product of the Devil. This is totally un-Greek (though it is sort of Roman).
--- On Fri, 10/17/08, Carrol Cox <cbcox at ilstu.edu> wrote:
> From: Carrol Cox <cbcox at ilstu.edu>
> Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] It's Teh Bigneth, stoopit
> To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
> Date: Friday, October 17, 2008, 11:39 PM
> Chris Doss wrote:
> >
> > Well, in ancient literature at any rate, nature is
> viewed as dangerous, and beautiful precisely because of its
> being dangerous. Danger = ugly is a Christian trope.
> >
>
> ??? Cite some passages from ancient literature. I'll go
> out on a limb:
> all Homer's positive similes involve human scenes --
> not one from
> untouched 'nature.' It's been a long time since
> I read Virgil, but my
> guess is it's the same in his epic. Nor do I remember
> any positive
> scenes of 'untouched nature' (dangerous or not)
> from either Ovid or
> Propertius.
>
> And please identify where in specifically Christian
> literature
> danger=ugly appears??
>
> Carrol
>
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