Life, 1923-12-06 · page 45 of 84
Life — December 6, 1923 — page 45: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This satirical story contrasts American commercialism with classical mythology. A small-town American mayor named Thomas B. Thompkins encounters a Greek goddess near Mount Olympus and attempts to court her with offers of marriage and middle-class respectability—insisting she abandon her "pagan" ways, adopt Presbyterian values, wear corsets, and play Bridge. The goddess responds in elevated Homeric Greek, addressing him as an uncultured outsider ("ungodlike"). The humor mocks American provincial arrogance: Thompkins tries to "civilize" divinity itself through Victorian propriety and consumerism. The goddess's formal classical language exposes his mundane materialism. The ending reveals his complete cultural disconnect—he abandons the encounter and later crudely describes her in crude terms to fellow tourists. O'Neill satirizes American tourists' cultural ignorance and the era's assumption that Western middle-class values represented civilization itself.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
A DIFFICULTY OF DICTION By Rose O'Neill ONE a prominent citizen on a Tour round the World, in passing through a grove near the well-known hill, Olympus, met a young female god. He addressed her in his straight- forward, manly way. “T think you are perfectly lovely, and if you will come with me to my little old town, I can offer you a good home. | am the Mayor and the Board of Public Works, and if I do say it, there isn't anybody there but me. I am Thomas B. Thompkins and I've got Thompkinsville where I want it—nowhere. But you must behave nicely, my little lady. None of that ambrosia nibbling, no nectar cocktails, you understand. “You will have to dress better, and you must really wear a you-know-what. I'll buy you a straight-front Fragile as we pass through Athens. “And I forgot to mention, my dear, that the children must be brought up Presbyterians. No pagan rites, no Eleusinian Mysteries with the kids. Youmust also learn to play a decent game of Bridge. We shall see what can be done about your feet. They seem a bit large and the great toe is rather detached from the others. That's what comes of letting little goddesses wear sandals. There are no detached toes in Thomp- kinsville; in fact, no toes at all. We'll see what French heels can do for you.” He looked at her leniently. The young Im- mortal returned the gaze with majestic calm, then she inquired in a strange voice resembling a flute: “Who is this well-greaved stranger coming in hollow ships across the unvintaged sea, loud- sounding Thalassa! O thou ungodlike, though wide-ruling Thompkins, Waster of Cities! Who addresses the Blue-eyed, the daughter of Zeus, the Cloud-gatherer, and niece of Hera, the White-armed! Who art thou, that speakest of toes to the Fleet-foot, in strange words unwingéd ?”" Thompkins, never a man to waste words, had rejoined his fellow-tourists. But his language seemed slightly affected by the classic atmosphere when he confided to them that the girl did not live that could get his quadrupedal, horned and bearded ruminant. , comicbooks.com