A quiet notice V2Melody closes at midnight on , Spanish time.

Closes

A note from Richard

V2Melody will close at midnight on 20 January 2028

This site has been a retirement project in musical poetry: poems chosen with care and set to music, offered freely for as long as it felt right to keep the garden open.

The work no longer holds the place it once did in my life. I have gone as far with it as I wish to go. Like a sand mandala, it was made to be completed and then released. I am not attached to its permanence, and I do not believe any of it needs to last beyond the time it was given. The poems were already here before I arrived and began to experiment with them. They will still be here when these musical experiments, and indeed myself, have been swept away, like the sand of a mandala. Nothing has been lost.

I want a simpler end to my life, days of simple love and enjoyment with my wonderful wife of 20 years. The work of maintaining a server, the monitoring, and the residual obligations that come with keeping a site alive no longer fit that life.

From 4 November 2026 I will not be adding new poems or musical poems to the site.

The experimental music I am making now is on my Suno profile. Those pieces stay there, and are not added to this site.

Until midnight on 20 January 2028, Spanish time, everything remains available exactly as it is. That is when my VPS server contract comes to an end, and it will not be renewed. After that, the server will be switched off and the site will disappear.

The Mandala Is Finished explains this more fully.

Thank you to anyone who found a poem, a track, or a quiet moment here.

The pleasure was in the making.

Richard

Home › Glossary › Letter B

Biton

Mythology
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

Want to hear it? Click the Listen button to hear the browser speak the word using text-to-speech!

The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

In Greek legend, Biton was a son of Cydippe whose act of piety—drawing his mother’s cart to a festival—led to divine reward and eternal honor.

Detailed Definition
Biton and his brother Cleobis pulled their mother’s cart to a festival when oxen failed; they died peacefully afterward, honored by Hera as models of virtue. Herodotus recounts their tale. Poets reference Biton to celebrate devotion, humble heroism, and the ideal of a blessed death.
Example
Example in poetry:
Herodotus’s Histories recounts Biton and Cleobis, who died after honoring their mother; In Pausanias, their statues at Delphi commemorate filial piety; Later moralizing poetry cites them as exemplars of virtuous death; In Roman exempla literature, they represent ideal brotherly devotion; Their story appears in Renaissance humanist texts as a lesson in honor.
Additional Notes
Biton and Cleobis are Argive brothers who die after pulling their mother’s cart to a festival—rewarded by the gods for filial piety (Herodotus). Students should use their story to discuss Greek ideals of eusebeia (piety) and kalos thanatos (beautiful death). Their statues at Delphi made them exemplars in moral philosophy. Related: Solon, Herodotus’s ethical tales, sibling devotion.
Also Known As
Biton the Devoted Son Brother of Cleobis Paragon of Piety Honored by Hera Cleobis
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