Polis and Water

"If we look closely into the roots of the Greek word for city, polis, we find that these roots draw from a pool of meanings related to water. The Sanscrit-Indo-Iranian-Aryan syllable of polis goes back to words meaning pour, flow, fill, fill up, swim...The very word polis locates city in the wet regions of the soul. For the true meaning of city is full, pulsating with folk, streaming, subject to waves of emotion, tides of opinion, ripples of gossip, and always feeling too full, too crowded. The flow must go on...

--James Hillman "Soul Takes Pleasure in Moisture"

(Aerial photo Via The Third Battle For New Orleans)

"Between Piety and Desire", the 9th Ward before Katrina reviewed by Colleen Mondor. This book is part of the Neighborhood Story Project. One can see the ambiguous state of the polis in street stories like this.