The Late Show: Mildred Coming Through!

the historical Constantine the Great (272 - 337 C.E.) was the Roman emperor who "legalized" and legitimized Christianity throughout the Empire, after centuries of persecution

the DVD of the movie Constantine came out last week, the latest in a spate of "A-List" films over the last few years with strong plotlines or themes of "spiritual warfare" taking place amidst "real-world" phenomena and lives

many have dismissed Constantine as a superficial, action-oriented, comic-book film, but methinks that's a bit hasty . . .

Keanu Reeves plays the lead, very much as extension of his role in the Matrix trilogy, which also was driven by a "holy war" theme (e.g., the safe haven of the "rebels" in the trilogy was a subterranean city called "Zion")

in Constantine, the protagonist's sidekick/chauffer is a plebe named Chas Kramer, played by Shia LeBeouf (a surname reminiscent of Beowulf, the first epic poem written in English, which also concerns spiritual warfare and the paradox of the Heroic Monster, likewise applicable to the Constantine character)

Wikipedia notes:

This explanation reads the hero's name Beowulf as bee-wolf, a kenning for "bear" (due to their love of honey), and therefore links him to Bodwar Bjarki (Battle Bear), who somewhat corresponds to Beowulf in Scandinavian sources. The poem is the only substantial Old English poem to survive that addresses matters heroic rather than Christian.


"Constantine" is an interesting word in the above contexts -- one breakdown being con/stan/tin/e

if we identify the "con" syllable in usual denotation of "against," and the "stan" syllable with its near-anagram, "satan," we indeed get a name that reflects a kind of spiritual opposition or antagonism

the last syllable, "tine," is of course a prong on a fork (suggesting a tuning fork) -- and the word "tin" is prominent in Qim Tunes, an online document that also concerns spiritual warfare, like many of the Dead Sea Scrolls (e.g., the War Scroll)

the Internet Movie Database's page of "Memorable Quotes from Constantine" lists the sidekick character as Chas Chandler

weirdly, the IMDb review contains the following dialogue-clip, as Chas practices his tough-guy act in the safety of his taxi's rear-view mirror:

This is Kramer. Chas Kramer. Asshole.

that's a typical bit of dialogue from Chas, a character who -- against expectations -- actually comes through in the end, and turns into the surprise of the film, undergoing a transformation and ascent that we witness only AFTER the closing credits have run for the film, an unusual and innovative technique

ennyway, it's a very brief, but visually powerful, coda to the film, providing closure, and opening new possibilities for "future productions"

then this popped up today, an apparently unrelated "new's item" -- check the lead, with its apparent contradiction of the emperor's image being conserved for centuries in a Roman sewer -- an environment suggesting spiritual lowness or baseness, a "fallen condition"



Statue of Emperor Found Among Rome Ruins

By ARIEL DAVID, Associated Press Writer Thu Jul 28, 1:30 PM ET

ROME - A sewer might be no place for an emperor, but it is precisely from an ancient drainage system that archaeologists have dug-up a large marble sculpture of Constantine, one of Rome's greatest leaders.

Archaeologists found the 24-inch-tall head last week while clearing up a sewer in the Roman Forum, the center of public life in the ancient city, said Eugenio La Rocca, superintendent for Rome's monuments.

"We can't be sure of why it was put there," La Rocca said Thursday at a news conference during which authorities showed the bust to the media.
One possibility is that the sculpture of the man who reunited the Roman Empire in the early fourth century and ended years of persecutions against Christians was unceremoniously used later to clear a blocked sewer, he said.

La Rocca called the statue a rare find, saying that its insertion in the sewer probably saved it from the plundering the Forum suffered after the fall of the Roman Empire in the fifth century.

"Many portraits have been found in Rome, but these days it's not easy to find one, especially of this size and so well preserved," he said.

Experts confirmed that the sculpture portrays Constantine by comparing it to coins and two other giant heads of the emperor that are kept in Rome's Capitoline Museums, La Rocca said. The Carrara marble head probably belonged to a statue of the emperor in full armor, and was erected in the part of the Forum built by the emperor Trajan after Constantine conquered Rome from a rival in A.D. 312.

The style and stern features used in all of Constantine's portraits also recall the traits of Trajan, who expanded the empire to its maximum size in the early second century.

"Trajan was the greatest emperor and Constantine considered him a model," La Rocca said.

During his reign, which lasted from 306 to 337, Constantine tried to stop the fracturing of the empire and sought to restore it to its ancient glory. Although not a Christian himself, he ended the frequent waves of anti-Christian persecutions by proclaiming religious freedom throughout his lands. He also moved the empire's capital to Constantinople — today's Istanbul — closer to the Eastern borders threatened by the barbarian invasions.

La Rocca said that restorers will now take charge of the work, which will probably be put on display next year in a museum being built in the Roman Forum.

there's more to this thread, but for now we gotta leave it at:

this post is for you, Millie!

and let the future figger out the rest . . .

:O)