A review of the Two Borgias.

Just finished the second viewing of the European “Borgia”, after watching the Showtime version.
Both sent me into a frenzied Wiki-wander that roamed all over Political Science, Philosophy, Religion, Ethics, as well as History(of course), and even stranger frontiers...like the History of Organised Crime, and “Dominator Society”(Patriarchy)...and the place that those two meet in the shape of our World, today...our Power Structures, and all the attendant mores, folkways and similar automata, that defines who we are...as Civilisations, as well as Individuals.
It is hard not to admire, if not like, Cesare Borgia...in spite of his many, many faults.
The Incest made even me squirm.
But here we have if not the first, the quintessential Individual; unwilling, or unable, to allow others to define him....forging his own path.
Remember, that the very Idea of “Individual” was a new thing, then, at the apex of the Italian Renaissance. Prior to this time, the vast majority of Human Beings thought of themselves as something else...as 'serf' ..as 'member'of the tribe, the city, the Manor...as cogs in a great machine...
“Remember that thou art dust”....
This is one of the fundamental aspects of the rediscovering of Greek Thought, after a thousand years of European Darkness.
Similarly, the idea of “Fate is my Whore”...no longer subject to her whiles and whims, Cesare was Free, as few men, before or since.
Of course, the failure to produce the Third Season leaves us wanting...for there, we would have seen Fortune,the Goddess Nemesis ,strike down his Hubris at last...many would argue proving him wrong in his assessment...but the point has already been made.
As for Lucretzia...I was surprised, there, as well,that I ended up admiring her at the end.
Here is the spirit of community and compassion, leavening the hyper-Individualism of Cesare....for such an unlikely one to end up embodying this is remarkable.
I encourage anyone interested in History, Philosophy or Ethics, to watch these 2 versions.
Two thumbs, and 2 big toes, up.