Tuesday, August 13, 2013

Does the U.S. national anthem violate Russia's law against gay 'propaganda'?

     When sung, the U.S. national anthem is known as The Star-Spangled Banner, after the lyrics written by Francis Scott Key.
     But during Olympic medal stand ceremonies, the anthem of the gold medalist's country isn't sung (too political), it is only played–and without Key's lyrics, the U.S. national anthem isn't The Star-Spangled Banner, it's Anacreon in Heaven — the popular-in-colonial-days drinking song composed by John Stafford Smith to which Key substituted his lyrics for those of Ralph Tomlinson. Both Smith and Tomlinson were bachelor's, Smith until his death at 86 and Tomlinson until his at 33.
    Here is part of Anacreon in Heaven:

     Anacreon composed a lot of verse about women for his patrons, but women weren't his only inspiration.
     Any paean to Anacreon (575 to 485 BC) is also a glorification of a poet notorious for his objectification of young males, who "wrote many poems on homosexual themes, celebrating the charms of boys or young men." 
"Boy with the virginal face," he wrote, "I pursue you but you heed me not. You do not know you are the charioteer of my heart."
     Anacreon was the last Greek to be included in the canonical list of nine lyric poets. According to Pausanias, Anacreon's statue on the Acropolis of Athens depicts him as drunk.
     From the Encyclopedia Britannica entry on Anacreon:
From his erotic verse there survive striking images of beloved young men: the peaceful character of Megistes, the eyes of Cleobulus, the blond locks of the Thracian Smerdies.
     AKSARBENT thinks this association could provide the basis for an exquisitely subversive statement during the games. Any gay rights supporter and adversary of Russian gay "propaganda" legislation could simply look up during the playing of The Star Spangled Banner  Anacreon in Heaven. It would also be spectacularly visible, since TV cameras are always trained on the medal winners. What could the IOC do? Disqualify dozens of athletes? They wouldn't dare.

And Now With All Thy Pencil's Truth

And now with all thy pencil's truth,
Portray Bathyllus, lovely youth!
Let his hair, in lapses bright,
Fall like streaming rays of light;
And there the raven's die confuse
With the yellow sunbeam's hues.
Let not the braid, with artful twine,
The flowing of his locks confine;
But loosen every golden ring,
To float upon the breeze's wing.
Beneath the front of polish'd glow,
Front, as fair as mountain-snow,
And guileless as the dews of dawn,
Let the majestic brows be drawn,
Of ebon dies, enrich'd by gold,
Such as the scaly snakes unfold.
Mingle in his jetty glances,
Power that awes, and love that trances;
Steal from Venus bland desire,
Steal from Mars the look of fire,
Blend them in such expression here,
That we by turns may hope and fear!
Now from the sunny apple seek
The velvet down that spreads his cheek;
And there let Beauty's rosy ray
In flying blushes richly play;
Blushes, of that celestial flame
Which lights the cheek of virgin shame.
Then for his lips, that ripely gem
But let thy mind imagine them!
Paint, where the ruby cell uncloses,
Persuasion sleeping upon roses;
And give his lip that speaking air,
As if a word was hovering there!
His neck of ivory splendour trace,
Moulded with soft but manly grace;
Fair as the neck of Paphia's boy,
Where Paphia's arms have hung in joy.
Give him the winged Hermes' hand,
With which he waves his snaky wand;
Let Bacchus then the breast supply,
And Leda's son the sinewy thigh.
But oh! suffuse his limbs of fire
With all that glow of young desire,
Which kindles, when the wishful sigh
Steals from the heart, unconscious why.
Thy pencil, though divinely bright,
Is envious of the eye's delight,
Or its enamour'd touch would show
His shoulder, fair as sunless snow,
Which now in veiling shadow lies,
Remov'd from all but Fancy's eyes.
Now, for his feet-but hold-forbear
I see a godlike portrait there;
So like Bathyllus! -sure there's none
So like Bathyllus but the Sun!
Oh! let this pictur'd god be mine,
And keep the boy for Samos' shrine;
Phoebus shall then Bathyllus be,
Bathyllus then the deity!
                                   — Anacreon

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