Saturday, May 22, 2004

If you didn't know already, the "thousand ships" reference is not from the Iliad at all, but from Christopher Marlowe's Doctor Faustus. Basically Faustus meets Helen, who ended up in Hell, and he says:

Was this the face that launch'd a thousand ships /
And burnt the topless towers of Ilium?


Mmm. Iambic pentameter rolls so nicely off the tongue.

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