The Fall of Hyperion (Hyperion Cantos, #2)

by Dan Simmons

Pyramid of Caius Cestius.

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44473/hyperion John Keats' "Hyperion" is an unfinished epic poem that deals with profound themes and ideas. Here are five important concepts explored in the work: 1. **The Inevitability of Change and Progress**: - "Hyperion" is centered around the transition of power from the Titans to the Olympian gods. This reflects the natural progression and inevitability of change, suggesting that even the mightiest must eventually yield to new forces. The poem portrays this shift not just as a historical event but as a necessary evolution towards improvement and enlightenment. 2. **The Role of Suffering in Growth and Development**: - The characters in "Hyperion," particularly the fallen Titans, experience profound suffering and loss. This suffering is depicted as a catalyst for growth and transformation. The poem suggests that through suffering, beings gain wisdom and a deeper understanding of their place in the universe, a theme that resonates with Keats' broader poetic philosophy of "negative capability." 3. **The Contrast Between Old and New Orders**: - Keats contrasts the ancient, decaying world of the Titans with the emerging, vibrant realm of the Olympians. This dichotomy represents the tension between tradition and innovation. The old order, represented by Saturn and Hyperion, is portrayed with a sense of grandeur but also inevitability in their decline, whereas the new gods symbolize fresh vitality and potential. 4. **The Power and Limitations of Art and Beauty**: - In "Hyperion," Keats explores the power of beauty and art through the character of Apollo, the god of the sun and arts. Apollo's emergence as a deity symbolizes the transcendent power of beauty and the arts to inspire and elevate humanity. However, the poem also acknowledges the limitations and struggles inherent in artistic creation, reflecting Keats' own views on the challenges faced by poets and artists. 5. **The Interconnection of Nature and the Divine**: - Keats imbues the natural world with a divine presence, reflecting the Romantic ideal of nature as a source of inspiration and spiritual renewal. The descriptions of the natural environment in "Hyperion" are lush and vivid, portraying nature as an active participant in the cosmic drama. This intertwining of the natural and the divine underscores the poem’s broader themes of renewal and transformation. These themes showcase Keats' exploration of profound philosophical and aesthetic questions, reflecting his concerns with the nature of change, the significance of suffering, and the transformative power of art and beauty.

HERE LIES ONE WHOSE NAME WAS WRIT IN WATER There was nothing else: no birth or death dates, not even the poet’s name. Hunt stood back, surveyed his work, shook his head, keyed the pen off but kept it in his hand, and started back for the city, making a wide circle around the creature in the cypresses as he did so. At the tunnel through the Aurelian Wall, Hunt paused to look back. The horse, still attached to its carriage, had moved down the long slope to munch on sweeter grass near a small stream. The sheep milled about, munching flowers and leaving their hoofprints in the moist soil of the grave. The Shrike remained where it had been, barely visible beneath its bower of cypress branches. Hunt was almost sure that the creature still faced the grave.

On Qom-Riyadh a self-appointed fundamentalist Shiite ayatollah rode out of the desert, called a hundred thousand followers to him, and wiped out the Suni Home Rule government within hours. The new revolutionary government returned power to the mullahs and set back the clock two thousand years. The people rioted with joy. On Armaghast, a frontier world, things went on pretty much as they always had except for a dearth of tourists, new archaeologists, and other imported luxuries. Armaghast was a labyrinthine world. The labyrinth there stayed empty. On Hebron there was panic in the offworld center of New Jerusalem, but the Zionist elders soon restored order to the city and world. Plans were made. Rare offworld necessities were rationed and shared. The desert was reclaimed. Farms were extended. Trees were planted. The people complained to each other, thanked God for deliverance, argued with God about the discomfort of that same deliverance, and went about their business.

For most of his life and for all of his career, Sol Weintraub the historian-cum-classicist-cum-philosopher had dealt with the ethics of human religious behavior. Religion and ethics were not always—or even frequently—mutually compatible. The demands of religious absolutism or fundamentalism or rampaging relativism often reflected the worst aspects of contemporary culture or prejudices rather than a system which both man and God could live under with a sense of real justice.

Sacrifice and the agreement to sacrifice had written human history in blood.

years Sol had refused. He had agreed, finally, only when time was gone, when any other hope was gone, and when he had realized that the voice in his and Sarai’s dreams all those years had not been the voice of God, nor of some dark force allied with the Shrike. It had been the voice of their daughter.

Abraham was testing God. By denying the sacrifice at the last moment, by stopping the knife, God had earned the right—in Abraham’s eyes and the hearts of his offspring—to become the God of Abraham.

Abraham came not to sacrifice, but to know once and for all whether this God was a god to be trusted and obeyed. No other test would do. Why then, thought Sol, clinging to the stone stair as the Sphinx seemed to rise and fall on the storm seas of time, why was this test being repeated? What terrible new revelations lay at hand for humankind?

Even without a datasphere, it is quite possible for my persona to travel through the rich, Void-Which-Binds soup which now surrounds Hyperion. My immediate reaction is to want to visit the One Who Will Be, but although that one’s brilliance dominates the metasphere, I am not yet ready for that. I am, after all, little John Keats, not John the Baptist. The Sphinx—a tomb patterned after a real creature that will not be designed by genetic engineers for centuries to come—is a maelstrom of temporal energies. There are really several Sphinxes visible to my expanded sight: the anti-entropic tomb carrying its Shrike cargo back in time like some sealed container with its deadly bacillus, the active, unstable Sphinx which contaminated Rachel Weintraub in its initial efforts to open a portal through time, and the Sphinx which has opened and is moving forward through time again. This last Sphinx is the blazing portal of light, which, second only to the One Who Will Be, lights Hyperion with its metaspherical bonfire.

my old attitudes of bachelorhood and reflective poet’s stance,