Wednesday, June 08, 2011

Cf. Thebes ca. 1250 B.C.

In his coverage of the 1996 presidential campaign, Norman Mailer compared Bill Clinton to Ramses II, who

at the climax of the year's largest religious festival in Thebes circa 1250 B.C., lifted his short white robe to reveal to 300,000 Egyptians a mighty phallus. It was erect. Ramses is probably the star of all time. Those 300,000 souls cheered. Their pharaoh was mighty; Egypt would prosper.

We are civilized, even corporatized, but our enthusiasm may still go back to that root. ("How the Pharaoh Beat Bogey", George, January 1997, reprinted in The Time of Our Time, p. 1166)

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