Wei,

An ideogram for you:

    CART HORSE

The first question is, what does Pound mean by "demi-god".  Only when we
arrive at an answer to that question, can we meaningfully ask the question,
What does Pound mean when he says "I am not a demi-god"? To begin to anwer
the first question, one must go all the way back to _Religio_.    Being a
'demi-god,' for Pound,  has litttle or nothing to do with expectation of the
"worship" or "adoration" of mortals.

Moreover, your series of ostensibly rhetorical questions puts me in mind of
scenes in films about Maoist China, where a bespectacled village
school-teacher, say, is humiliated in front of the entire village by the
bullying communist party prosecutor for his backsliding ways. One has only
to imagine Pound sitting in a chair, tears streaming down his stricken face,
the prosecutor asking the following questions in shrill tones:

> Are we still so prone to worshipping human beings as the Imperial Romans
> were, that some of our poets have dared to think we should worship them?
> Have poets like Pound expected adoration, or worship, simply because they
> believed at one time that they were divine?

Also, when you speak of "pride in remission" ---- is "remission" the _mot
juste_"  ?   If so, why?

Tim Romano



> Does the statement "I am not a demi-god", viewed from the purview of the
> Greco-Roman pagan tradition, suggest a sort of "hubris" or spiritual pride
> (pride in remission perhaps, but pride, nonetheless)?


> So my question is, "What does 'I am not a demi-god,' actually mean?" I am
> tempted to react, "OF course you are not a demi-god.  What made you
believe
> any sane person would think otherwise?"
>
> Are we still so prone to worshipping human beings as the Imperial Romans
> were, that some of our poets have dared to think we should worship them?
> Have poets like Pound expected adoration, or worship, simply because they
> believed at one time that they were divine?
>
>
> ---Wei
>
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>
>
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>
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