Beware the Ides of March

Caesar: Who is it in the press that calls on me? I hear a tongue shriller than all the music Cry "Caesar!" Speak, Caesar is turn'd to hear.

Soothsayer:
Beware the ides of March.

Caesar:
What man is that?

Brutus:
A soothsayer bids you beware the ides of March.

-From The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, Act 1, Scene 2, 15-19

 

When I was in 10th grade, my Literature teacher, Mrs. Morrissey, had us reading William Shakespeare's The Tragedy of Julius Caesar in class, and I remember being fascinated by this dialogue. It was perhaps one of the only works of literature that could invoke the type of curiosity and willingness to learn about one extremely specific piece of dialogue that many of my other reading assignments at the time failed to do. I can really only think of one other assignment that had a similar effect, and that was from the same class. So apparently, Mrs. Morrissey's Literature class was interesting after all.

So, the Ides of March...what does it mean? You know, aside from eerie foreshadowing of future events to be wary of?

The actual terminology "ides," comes from the Latin word "idus," which symbolizes the approximate day that represents the middle of the month on the Roman calendar. In March, May, July, and October, this is the 15th of the month, whereas "ides" is the 13th of the month throughout the rest of the year.

On March 15, the Romans celebrated the day in honor of the God Mars, and held a military parade. However, in the literary sense, it was on this day in 44 BC that Julius Caesar was stabbed to death in the Roman Senate by a group of conspirators, led by Marcus Junius Brutus ("et tu, Bruti?") and Gaius Cassius Longinus, along with 60 other co-conspirators. The soothsayer who warns him of this prophecy crosses Caesar's path again, only to remind Caesar that the prophecy is not yet gone upon Caesar's informing him that the Ides of March has come.

Hence, possibly one of the most well-known passages in literature, and the explanation thereof.

And now for the real reason you're still reading this article...the part where I extol the way to make a mixed drink!

Bloody Caesar

Its a lovely combination of Vodka, Clamato, hot sauce, and Worcesteshire sauce, served in a large, salt-rimmed glass with ice, a wedge of lime, and a celery stick. It is a popular mixed drink consumed in Canada, where it was created, with over 350 million Bloody Caesars consumed annually.

And now that I have thoroughly bored (or perhaps educated) you, one can take away from this that something new was learned today.

So, when in Canada on the Ides of March, drink a Bloody Caesar. And When in Rome...avoid the Senate that day. :-)

Who ever said you couldn't learn something from one of my blog entries?

TGIF all!

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