Hydra-Plagiar-ology?

A.D. Freudenheim, The Editor

Or ... is it?

A little more than a week ago now, I posted an article that I titled Hydra-ology, that began with a description of Heracles’ battle against the fearsome serpent known as the Hydra. I then moved from that ancient Greek myth, drawing an analogy between Heracles’ challenging battle and evolving tactics and the mistakes that Israel and America have made in their handling of some recent (and not-so-recent) Hydra-like problems.

All is fine and dandy. And then I happened upon this blog piece, titled “If you fight [fill in the blank] it will get stronger,” posted on 2 August, a good week after my article.

Now, let’s be clear: I am not accusing anyone of plagiarism. The story of the Hydra is hardly new. So, I suppose it’s not so shocking that two people might decide to use the story as the starting point for an article, and begin their articles by filling in the background on the story. Right? Right. And of course, given the outbreak of open war between Israel and Lebanon a couple weeks ago, not so surprising that the subject of the article would be that very war, and that the author might tie it back into the story of the Hydra, even if the two articles are about a week apart. Right? Right. And, clearly, any vindication would come from the fact that, politically, we’re on opposite sides of the spectrum, this other blogger and me. Right? Right.

Well, whatever. Let me conclude with another reference that may (or may not) be relevant, one that even has tangential Greek connections: “Imitation is the sincerest flattery,” a statement attributed to Charles Caleb Colton, from his book Lacon, or Many Things in Few Words, addressed to those who think. What’s the Greek reference in there? Well, for a change, I’m not saying. You’ll have to look this one up for yourselves.