Epilogue to "Holy Places": World Trade Center as a Mythic Place

Published: February 16, 2017, 4:38 am

Updated: February 16, 2017, 4:48 am

Epilogue to "Holy Places":

The World Trade Center as a Mythic Place

by Dr. Cora Angier Sowa

In "Holy Places", first published in New York Affairs in 1977, I discussed the role of landmarks like Pennsylvania Station, the Empire State Building, the Brooklyn Bridge, and cities such as New York as sacred places, landmarks that orient us physically and spiritually. About them powerful myths of origins and life crises like birth, death, marriage, and transcendent intersections with the divine collect and swirl. They are centers of mana or spiritual force. The World Trade Center, tragic landmark of beginnings and endings, of hopes and aspirations, and of sudden disappearance, was only then being completed and was not described. This epilogue places the Twin Towers, cut down, alas too young, by terrorists flying high-jacked airplanes into them in 2001, in their mythic context. It has been said that since the disaster, with its great loss of life, the area is now a "sacred place." But the site has always been sacred, since long before the Trade Center was built, going back to the earliest days of New York, and before that, to the Lenape Indians. The unique architecture of the towers, beloved by many, criticized by others, was iconic, adding to their mystique. Rebuilding the site in some form as a vital urban center will carry on the mythic significance and spiritual symbolism of the place, perpetuating its function, both real and legendary, as a psychic center, a source of dynamic energy and a place of

trade.

http://www.minervaclassics.com/wtcholy.htm

The above essay is an excerpt taken from MINERVA CLASSICS website by Dr. Cora Angier Sowa .

Below is a brief overview about her site, followed by her BIO as taken form that site. All writings here are excerpts from her extensive website.

(My Note: A Brilliant, Accomplished Scholar and most interesting person and spirit)

Minerva Systems

Welcome to Minerva Systems, an enterprise created by Dr. Cora Angier Sowa. It is a product of the author's longtime search for connections between the aesthetic and the technological. It is also devoted to examining the continuity of influence of Greek and Roman Classical civilization, and to exploring how ancient insights can be applied to today's world.

Athena -- the Roman Minerva -- was, we remember, the patroness both of intellectual wisdom and of crafts and technology.

This site presents a selection of writings by the author on some interconnected topics: Classical literature, computers and humanities, myths of machines, music, movies, architecture, and technology, and the aesthetic appreciation of the marvels of the built environment.

Entry #93

Comments

eddessaknight - Feb 16, 2017, 4:45 am

'Te Es Non Carbonrundom Illegitmum.'
Don't let the <snip> grind you downÂ

sully16 - Feb 16, 2017, 4:17 pm

Interesting, Thanks.

Epilogue to "Holy Places": World Trade Center as a Mythic Place

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