Konstantinos Konstantinidis – Amphiktyon
The markets — at times wild, always speculative,
now bulls, now doves.
Without feeling, yet always rational,
materialistic, relentless, often punishable.
Whoever ignores them, whoever shows no respect,
will be cast into ruin by the daughters of Fate.
Ruthless and at times uncontrollable,
wild like the horses of Diomedes,
poisonous like a viper, like a serpent—
yet at times self-regulated, even deranged,
when scandalously they favor a few.
Highly attractive to speculators,
they burden the people with rising costs.
Hermes the Gainer, god of the market
and of finance,
of cunning and transaction,
empties our coffers with every increase,
like Scylla and Charybdis playing with the Straits.
Like the Pythia, he delivers oracles—
now good, now grim—
and measures the pulse of the world.
Like Medusa, with a glance
he petrifies wealth in an instant
and lays waste to entire regions.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) now changes everything—
no one knows where it leads us, what it prepares.
For all unfolds in the deep darkness of multinationals;
it reveals only what it is fed.
The global market never sleeps;
its star rises elsewhere each moment.
Now rich, now poor,
it shapes nations and enlarges corporations.
At times it calls for war, at times for peace,
yet remains untouched, without pain—
always winning, whatever may come.
In peace or war, it bears no responsibility.
For peoples and armies, destroyer and rebuilder alike,
it turns blood into loans and rights,
and lands into fields soaked in blood.
The markets — without feeling, without shame,
possess only an endless appetite.
They do not distinguish friend from foe.
Profit, like a magnet, unites them,
and global power regulates all.
Religions and nations do not divide them;
only in sharing spoils do they even start wars.
They sell and wager everything—
food, energy, gold, currencies.
Old empires weaken; new ones are built.
Aristotle laid the cornerstone:
only the spirit remains truly priceless.
Without shame, without ethos,
it lies in surplus—yet unwanted.
The masses are cast aside.
Often the markets are manipulated;
the greatest sharks are favored,
and the peoples are driven into poverty.
The markets — children of communication—
alongside war, advanced technology.
Omnipresent in innovation.
Banks are their right hand;
together they play the “one-armed bandit.”
And be certain—whatever you take,
they have seen you, they have marked you.
Market means abundance—yet also kleptocracy.
New technology, a source of wealth,
and robots in labor.
Will man be left unemployed?
Will the worker lose his daily bread?
And the surplus flow to the plutocrat?
Only necessity will change them.
Hermes the Gainer — their god,
and money their only aim.
Without money, trade stands still;
without a coin, not even at the cemetery gate.
Money makes you rich and fair,
transforms you into a notable politician.
The market, a school that educates,
and Wall Street magnifies wealth.
Yet it does not uplift the common man—
and now, where does AI lead him?
The market — the horn of Amalthea,
devouring all; for the people, not a share.
Luxury for the “high” society,
but shadows too—drugs and prostitution,
and human greed.
Excess wealth brings arrogance.
Democracy demands a full stomach.
Through dialogue society may change—
and through education.
The hungry know only complaint and misery;
dogma and theocracy stand as obstacles.
In the market you will hear the news,
there you will find company and delight,
the crier’s voice,
and fresh goods at the open stalls.
Nothing on earth is free.
Everything has a price and some value.
Only the spirit is found free—yet devalued;
that is why you despise it.
And if the intellectual becomes an outcast,
without a place in society,
the world will remain forever blind—
and if AI is not regulated,
it will sink deeply into chaos.
Even the gods are persuaded by their words,
and the powerful of the earth bow before them.
On battlefields
and in diplomatic bargains,
essence is lost in darkness.
The peoples — eternal victims,
while others live like beetles,
and the powerful gamble with us like dice.
The messenger of the gods,
chosen one of communication,
stands among us.
Hail, Hermes the Gainer—
remain with us.
(12/4/26)
Amphiktyon – Major General (ret.) Konstantinos Konstantinidis
Author, Member of the Hellenic Literary Society
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