Pirro Ligorio, Diana and Apollo Slaughtering the Children of Niobe, c. 1550. Red chalk, squared with black chalk and indented for transfer, on two joined sheets of laid paper. National Gallery of Art, Washington, Gift of Jeffrey E. Horvitz, 2008.117.3.…
What price may peace set in flesh when a border takes its measure from an arrow? On my desk rests a cedar shaft from my field kit, fletching rubbed soft by thumb, nock scored by string, point dulled by straw,…
What burden rests in Abaris’ hand when Herodotus grants him an arrow, a road about the earth, a fast carried to its furthest pitch? Does the object keep the bite of a weapon, settle into a pilgrim’s staff, speak as…
A limestone abdomen tightens beneath a carved rib cage; the navel sinks into a hard cup, the chest turns off its axis, the left knee bites the pedimental floor. What form of self comes forward when a hero folds around…
What kind of theology tightens itself across the small arc between a child’s throat and a god’s relaxed wrist? Along the outer wall of the Louvre krater named from the Niobids, a white rise of ground cuts through black glaze…
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By Marin Smallridge Also available as a Winning Paths Podcast episode “Straight be your arrows, Horus, your heart unstained.” If nothing else, it’s a way of saying the same thing—in ancient Egyptian lingo—about Horus, god of Egypt and divine archer,…
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