The finishing touch brings us back to the beginning...

* I apologize that my final blog is late. for some reason when I heard Thursday, i was thinking the Thursday of Finals Week. which makes no sense at all, but hey c'est la vie.

I don't think there is really any way that I can sum up my feelings and ending thoughts on Mythologies. I fully loved the class! It was both thoroughly insightful and surprisingly relative to my own life. This semester and especially this class has brought a new understanding of who i am and where i come from and even where I'm going. it has also taken away a lot of pressure to strive for greatness because this has all been done before; this too shall pass; don't take life so seriously, we ALL die in the end!    ...and yet we can still be remembered forever. This class has definitely taught me to have a deeper appreciation for reading. because it is with our words that we are immortalized. no matter what the newest worldly fad is, good ole books will always be around to be referenced and to lend support to eager impressionable Enlish lit majors who want to speak profound volumes in a classroom full of intelligence that only maybe 40% of the students actually understand what they are saying. ( i was NOT that 40%) but I put my best foot forward, i searched for Africa, and although I didn't always keep up with the language barrier I, like Henderson, gained and transformed from my journey. Thank you to all my classmates who shared their personal triumphs and tragedies that put my own life into perspective. and thank you most of all to my guide Romilayu, Dr. Sexson! I hope to take more of your classes in the semesters to come and will no doubt be just as pleased as I was in taking Mythologies. Mythos + Logos. Myth plus Logic. These are not just stories to be passed over as childish fairy tales. They are living breathing things all around us. Be prepared to look down to that basket and witness what story you are in before you miss an opportunity to transform!

Presented with Insight

Day one of presenting has gone by and I must say that I am so relieved that it is finally over! I hate public speaking so getting up there was really hard for me to do. When I first heard what the topic was going to be, I thought it was going to be boring because all of us would stand up there and retell the story of Henderson over and over and over and over again! but to the contrary! We all had different takes and different tangents and it was the complete opposite of what I thought it was going to be. I thought that one book would narrow our possibilities but like Dustin (I think it was Dustin) said, this one book gave us endless possibilities.I was amazed at all the different things that fellow classmates came up with! and then while they were presenting I was making new connections and realizing different mythological ties that I hadn't thought of before. It was so eye-opening and interesting! I'm definitely glad that we were forced to do this for the class and can't wait for days 2 and 3.

Henderson the Rain King paper

“You could never convince me that this was for the first time.” –Henderson (p.318)

Upon finishing the book I couldn’t help but feeling that a burden had been lifted off of me. It could possibly just be that the stress of finals was reduced by checking an item off my to-do list, but I think it was more than that. I think that I was experiencing Henderson’s own change; the sublime feeling of a new beginning.

            All throughout the book I was repulsed by this pompous ass. He was so…American. He felt that he knew everything, could help anyone, and always had to get in the way. I realize that the author made him this obnoxious on purpose. But something else amazed me; the fact that I kind of liked him. He reminded me of me in a way. How you have high hopes and the best of intentions but you can’t see beyond the trees to take-in the entire forest. He was an old guy just trying to make sense of his life and find a purpose. The purpose to life; now that is a huge question that most of us tend to ponder when in our lowest days. This purpose and truth is what I chose to focus my paper on; how doses of truth represent mythical eschatology that happens in each of our lives on a daily basis.

            Initiation, Separation, Return. The second stage is by far the longest and the hardest. But there are always glimpses of hope, reminders of metempsychosis, and truth presenting itself in blows. Henderson experiences these mythical apocalypses all throughout the book. These “phases of a hero” do not occur over one lifetime, like mythological eschatology they can happen again and again. He is continuously evolving. He views his world a certain way, something happens, and his view of that particular world changes entirely. It is a cycle; a cycle that we are all caught in; a cycle that only occurs while we are neck-high in the conflict.

            And Henderson is definitely neck-high. He can’t explain it but he has an urge to get out of the daily routine of his life. The inner-voice is started to be too loud to drown out. He has to discover just what it wants. What he finds is an apocalypse of his old self and an “awakening of his spirit.” He first notices this when he enters Arnewi land. He describes it as “entering the past—the real past, no history or junk like that.” (p. 49) He talks with the woman of Bittahness and she perceives him with grun-tu-molani, wanting to live. He agrees with her and does some soul searching but is cut short because being his egocentric, ignorant self he ruins the opportunity and must move on to the next village.

            There he meets Dahfu, the King of the Wariri, and since this king is well-educated they indulge in some very eye-opening conversation. Henderson explains that people who have found truth are be-ers but people who are still searching are becomers. These two distinctions are the differences between separation and return. You must learn to be in order to “arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.” (T.S. Elliot) Henderson exclaims that “every man born has to carry his life to a certain depth;” the more of a be-er you become, the deeper you can go, and the more truth will be revealed. Henderson explains that witnessing this truth leads to living in reality. “It wanted reality. How much unreality could it stand?” (p.298) This was the final answer that Henderson came to addressing his inner wanting. He wanted an apocalypse of his current view of the world; he wanted his “soul to be awakened.” Henderson feels this awakening in many instances throughout the book and each of these instances represents a mini-apocalypse. He goes from being a human to a pig to a lion and in the end, he returns home a far different man than when first left for Africa.

Something that interferes with the discovering of truth is fear; “Fear is a ruler of mankind. It has the biggest dominion of all.” (p.243) Henderson is most scared of Dahfu’s lion, Atti. This fear is what he must overcome in order to witness reality and change. He makes references to Moby Dick a lot in this book. Since I have never actually read the book (I know, bad!) I cannot really comment on Ishmael and the whale but another “animal-fear” story comes to mind; The Short and Happy Life of Francis Macomber by Ernest Hemingway. In this story a spineless man goes on a water buffalo hunt in Africa (hmmm, a pattern emerging?) with his quick-to-degrade wife. He is paralyzed by fear on their first outing, but on the second outing he confronts his fear and kills the buffalo as it is charging him. His wife, however, accidentally shoots him and he dies in his greatest moment of glory. Macomber’s buffalo is Henderson’s lion. Once they both get over their fear, they are both changed by the experience, Henderson the luckier of the two because he can discover the new depth he has acquired during his metamorphosis whereas Francis only knows his happiness of truth for a few fleeting seconds.

            This continuous changing of Henderson is precisely why Dahfu introduced him to Atti in the first place. Although Henderson didn’t totally buy in to the mind being the total controller of how we physically and mentally grow and change like Dahfu did, he did agree that change is possible. There is a quote that I really enjoyed; “And as man is the prince of organisms he is the master of adaptations.” It reminds me of my science teacher. He was a really really really (three really’s is totally needed) odd man but he had this quote on his podium “I am the master of my fate; I am the captain of my soul.” (Yet another Ernest Hemingway reference). Through all these trials and tribulations of the middle, Henderson realizes that inside him is the power to change, and it has been there all along.

            I’ll try to wrap-up this totally disorganized paper by shortly addressing the final return, death. But more than just death, immortality. Henderson’s reaction to this notion is “But these dead should go. They make us think of them. That is their immortality. In us.” Another powerful reminder of how humans truly can live forever and how important our role is in the cycle of life. We continue to face trials, not just so the poets have things to write about, but so we can overcome them, change our perspective of ourselves, and immortalize the concept. We discover our depth and our reality and then we wake up the next day and discover a whole new depth and reality. This suffering, these cyclical apocalypses, these powerful blows of truth is our daily lion. The question is whether or not we put our best foot forward to go to Africa and catch it or just stay in our own comfort as ignorant, pompous swine.

one minute Ovid

Perseus and Atlas:


Perseus is this young cocky kid who thinks he's the shit because Zeus is his father and he has wings. He has also just defeated the gorgon Medussa and he carries her head around like a medal to show everyone how awesome he is. So he's flying along and decides he's tired and wants to bed down for the night. So he asks Atlas, the land owner he happens to be flying over, if he can stay.
Atlas is this huge Titan and his land is vast and wide with plenty of room for a visitor, but Atlas long ago was warned that a son of Zeus would come and despoil all his trees of their golden fruit. Thinking that Perseus is this son (in actuality it is Hercules) he insults the boy by saying, along the lines of, "no you cannot stay here. you are not the son of zeus. and you are not awesome!"
Well this pisses dear Perseus off so he throws a punch. and soon the two men are throwing each other around in a pushing match. but Perseus is getting his ass kicked because he is no match for the Titan. so as a sore loser he says "okay okay i'll leave. but before I go, here is my farewell present." and he lifts up the head of Medussa.
It is too late for Atlas to turn away and he stares into her eyes. He is transformed into a huge mountain mass, his hair and beard become trees, his arms and shoulder blades become the ridges, his bones become stones, and his head must hold up the heavens and stars forever.

*In modern days, this story repeats itself, for me, most visibly in assuming. "You know what happens when you assume- you make an ass out of u and me" OR you insult a powerful prick who turns you into a mountain. potatoe-potato!

Ovid Book XV

MYSCELUS:     The son of Alemon follows Hercules' instrutction and constructs a town.
PYTHAGORAS:      A wise man who warned against killing and eating animals--"For all things change, but no thing dies."
NUMA:      A follower of Pythagoras teaches his Latin state the arts of peace.

EGERIA & HIPPOLYTUS:      Numa's wife cannot be consoled by learning of other's anguish and she continues to cry until she is turned into an eternal spring.
TAGES:     A clod turns into a man who teaches people to read the future.
CIPUS:      A man is ashamed of his horns and cannot enter the city but are given land outside of it.
AESCULAPIUS:     Apollo's son can transform into a snake and stops at the Island to make his shrine and brought good health.

CAESAR:      The great ruler cannot be spared from human plots but is taken up into the sky and can still look down on his son.
EPILOGUE:    Nothing can stop Ovid from being immortalized; writing gives him life--"I shall have life!"

Ovid Book XIV

GLAUCUS, CIRCE, SCYLLA:     Circe tries to woe the creature but fails so instead turns his love into a sea creature feared by boats.
THE CERCOPES:     The father of the gods turned his people into monkeys and stripped them of speech.

THE SIBYL:   Aeneas enters the underworld to get the Golden Bough and learns that Sybil was granted long life but forgot to ask for youth.
ACHAEMENIDES:     A survivor of the monstrous Cyclops was shown mercy from a Trojan ship and escaped the island.
AEOLUS, ULYSSES, CIRCE:       Right as the men were about to get home they got greedy and opened up a bag of wind which pushed them in the opposite direction and landed them with Circe who turned them to pigs.

PICUS & CANENS:     A nymph told of a story where Circe captured a beloved husband and the wife filled with grief withered away in a spot that then was named in remembrance of her.
DIOMEDES:     Explains that he cannot help in a fight because his men pissed of Venus who sends storms and turn all his men into birds.
THE APULIAN SHEPHERD:     An arrogant douche is turned into a tree for mocking nymphs.
AENEAS' SHIPS:    The ships destroyed at sea were turned into Naiads who still hate the Greeks.
ARDEA:       A city falls and as it does a bird rises from the ashes and gets its name from that place.
AENEAS:     Aeneas is made into a god by his mother Venus' plea.
VERTUMNUS & POMONA:      A satyr dresses in disguise to talk to a gardening nymph.

IPHIS & ANAXARETE:     A young man falls in love with a bitchy tease and then kills himself to appease her and she turns to stone, cold like her heart.
VERTUMNUS & POMONA:     He reveals his true self to the nymph and she falls for his godly beauty.
THE FOUNTAIN OF JANUS:      Venus asks the Naiads to flood the fountain and add hot sulfur so as to stop an attack and let the other side have time to prepare for a bloody battle that ended in a tie.
ROMULUS:     A great King is made into a deity--Quirinus
HERSILIA:     Romulus' wife is filled with grief and begs to be reunited so it also turned into a deity--Hora

Ovid Book XIII

AJAX & ACHILLE'S ARMOR:     Ajax says that he single handedly defeated the Trojans and deserves glory.

ULYSSES & ACHILLE'S ARMOR:    Odysseus is much more humble in his plea for keeping the armor.
AJAX:    After losing the armor he kills himself with his won sword and Hyacinth appears.
THE FALL OF TROY:     The war is over and as the men get killed the women are drug away by the Greeks.
POLYMESTOR & POLYDORUS:     The King was supposed to hide Priam's son but instead cuts his throat after the war has ended.
POLYXENA:     Achille's shade makes the virgin his sacrifice and she is murdered to appease.
POLYXENA & HECUBA:    The poor mother is left with no sons or daughters and taken captive.
HECUBA, POLYDORUS & POLYMESTOR:     When she learns of her son's death she rips out the lying King's eyes and begins to howl with despair.
AURORA & MEMNON:     The deities son dies and is turned into Memnonides while she continuously weeps and creates dew.
THE VOYAGE OF AENEAS:     One boat of refugees flees Troy in an attempt to  be spared.

THE DAUGHTERS OF ANIUS:      Daughter's trying to flee are turned to white doves.
THE DAUGHTERS OF ORION:     Therses sends Anius a cup with an engraving of how the daughter's sacrificed themselves to save their city from plague.
THE VOYAGE OF AENEAS:       The men sail all over the place and eventually end up at Messina's sands.
GALATEA & ACIS:    A beautiful women is coveted by the Cyclops who kills her husband who then became a river god.
CLAUCUS & SCYLLA:     A monstrous sea god tells his story to a prospective love who breaks his heart by running away in fear.

Ovid's Metamorphoses Book XII

IPHIGENIA:       The fleet in pursuit of Helen cannot continue until the sacrifice Agamemnon's virgin daughter but she is spared at the last second.

RUMOR:     She lets the Trojans know that the Greeks are coming!
ACHILLES & CYCNUS:     Two men who seem to be immune to physical pain in a fight.
CAENIS/CAENUS:      A beautiful women gets raped and wishes to be a man so that nothing can hurt her again, Neptune grants the wish and also gave her immunity to wounds.
LAPITHS & CENTAURS:      Being drunk has its consequences for the centaurs who get a little too frisky; they all get killed rather grotesque and violently.
CYLLARUS:     A handsome centaur also perishes and his wife, distraught, casts herself on the same spear.
CAENUS:     The massacre is ended when the centaurs gang up and suffocate their killer, but before he is crushed completely be becomes a bird and flies off.

HERCULES & PERICLYMENUS:       The old storyteller confesses his hatred of Hercules for killing his brother while he was in the shape of an eagle flying away.
THE DEATH OF ACHILLES:      Neptune is still angry over Cycnus' defeat that he calls upon Apollo to guide one of Paris' arrow into the susceptible spot.

One big bang vs.repeated cycles

All this talk about the "lifting of the veil" and the zombie/nuclear/alien/rapture-tribulation end of the world have got me thinking about whether or not I believe in literal or mythical eschatology. And I don't claim to know which one is right and which one is wrong. Like most contradictions in this (like to believed) black-and-white world, I feel that the answer lies somewhere in the middle.
I do go to church though, so that causes some biased opinion on the whole reincarnation-metempsychosis thing and therefore I don't buy into the cyclical eschatology in regards to coming back as different objects/beings. Although once again, I do not claim that this view is neither wrong nor right.The thought of not eating meat intrigues me since it IS possible that the life form is my great uncle, but that won't stop me for devouring and digesting it. But I do think that the important life lesson out of metempsychosis is the idea that we need to have respect for all things. whether that be animals, or nature, or even a brick wall; respect is the key. But I digressed (or maybe not).
The balance between the two (for me) is the notion that cyclical mythology occurs when our perceived view of the world around us changes. and I think that in that aspect, I have suffered many apocalypses already! and then my Religious upbringing kicks in (Protestant, not Jewish) and I believe that when Christ comes back he will bring an "eschatological" end for the earth as we know it as well. Both will occur, and one has been and will continue to be occurring all throughout my lifetime.
I realize that there are a LOT smarter people than I in the universe that will think what I just said is complete rubbish, and that there are also a LOT dumber people that will view it as complete bull shit as well. *The respect thing comes into play here; it doesn't matter if your view is different than someone else's because your view will change. and in the end regardless of which apocalypse you believe in we ALL die.
I think that how I continue to perceive my world will change a few more thousand times before I kick the can. Especially during the phase where what my parents taught me to believe differs from what I'm discovering to believe. An example of both occurring is the notion that we measure everything in years. I just had a birthday and every single person asks "Do you feel older than last year?" Why LAST year. Why last YEAR. why can't it be two days ago or 10348634098623409863098345 minutes ago? We already perceive our world on a cyclical yearly basis. But I think everyone will agree that it is not the actual 365 days that make us feel older or give us a new outlook, it's the events; the mythological eschatology, changing of our minds, witnessing something sublime, fearing death, taking on a new identity, losing weight, getting married, getting divorced, having kids, etc. THOSE are the apocalypse. and although change is scary, it should not be feared to the point of debilitation and so for all those zombie and radical end of the world freaks, calm down! You have nothing to fear. I guess maybe the rapture will bring forth a literal end but I'm guessing that I'll already be dead by then and those on the earth that are left can create their own interpretation of what's to come. the important thing is that what's to come has already been done before and will change something within you. What's to come is Mythology!

Ovid's Metamorphoses Book XI

ORPHEUS:       The poet is attacked by a frenzy of women and is torn from limb to limb but bitter sweetly meets his love in the end.
THE BACCHANTES:        The God is saddened by Orpheus' death so turns the followers who killed him into oak trees.
MIDAS:     The foolish king asks for gold but then learns his lesson only to witness a lyre contest and be cursed with the ears of an ass.
TROY:     An untruthful king pays for not following through with paying some in-disguise Gods.
PELEUS & THETIS:       Jove is warned to not sleep with the Goddess so he gives the task to Peleus, his grandson, who must tie the girl down to win her as a bride; how romantic.
CEYX:       Peleus accidentally kills his own brother and seeks refuge in Ceyx's city.
DAEDALION:       Ceyx's own brother is a hawk who leaped to kill himself after his foolish daughter's downfall.
THE WOLF:      Revenge gave birth to a ravage wolf who was only stopped by Thetis' mercy for her husband.
CEYX & ALCYONE:      The king goes on a voyage and never comes back but both are turned to birds so as to still be together.
 
AESACUS:    Hector's brother is at fault for the death of his lover so he tries to die as well only to be turned into a bird who forever dives to feel death.

Ovid's Metamorphoses Book X

ORPHEUS & EURYDICE:    A man wishes to get his wife from the Underworld but looks back too soon and loses her forever.

CYPARISSUS:     A young boy accidentally kills his beloved stag and wished eternal mourning as a tree.
ORPHEUS' PROLOGUE:      Stricken with grief the musician begins his a song in a meadow.
GANYMEDE:     Jove now rapes (kidnaps) a boy who prepares Jove's nectar.
HYACINTHUS:      Apollo's love for a boy is the destruction and H's blood turns to a flower.
THE CERASTES:      Inhabitants that used to sacrifice strangers are turned into savage bulls.
THE PROPOETIDES:      The girl inhabitants were cursed to prostitute their grace and then turn to stone.
PYGMALIOM:     A man despises women so much that he makes his own out of ivory and falls in love with her.

MYRRHA & CINYRAS:     A daughter seduces her own father and turns into a tree, pregnant with his seed.
THE BIRTH OF ADONIS:      The beautiful babe is born of a tree full of disgrace.
VENUS & ADONIS:      The goddess warns her lover to not hung courageous beasts.
ATALANTA & HIPPOMENES:       The race for either a wife or death ends in good spirits with the help of three golden apples, but he forgets to be thankful and both are turned to lions.

THE FATE OF ADONIS:     The boy fails to heed the warning and hunts a boar who sinks him in the groin and as he dies Venus turns his blood to the floor anemone.

Ovid's Metamorphoses Book IX

ACHELOUS & HERCULES:     Both men want Deianira's hand in marriage and fight for her, but Hercules strength overpowers the river-god and a cornucopia is used by Abundance made of his horn.

HERCULES, DEIANIRA, NESSUS:     The evil satyr tricks poor D into believing her husband is cheating but as he takes her across the river, Hercules shoots him, and his dying breath is to give a shirt of "magic."

HERCULES & DEIANIRA:      The poor girl thinks she is giving a love spell and instead the shirt of flame burns chunks of flesh and cannot be taken off.
ALCMENA:      Hercules' mother tells her granddaughter the story of his delivery and how Juno had not been successful with her attempt to prevent the birth and had taken her anger out on a poor maiden.
DRYOPE:      The granddaughter tells of her poor sister who ate berries off the wrong tree and was turned into a tree herself.
IOLAUS:     Hercule's nephew was given the gift of rejuvenation and all the other gods and goddesses wanted it for their children as well.
BYBLIS & CAUNUS:      A sister falls madly in love with her brother and goes too crazy to function so is made into an eternal fountain.
IPHIS & IANTHE:       A baby's sex is hidden so as not to be killed and on the eve of the wedding, she is changed from a girl to a man to wed his bride.

Ovid's Metamorphoses Book VIII

SCYLLA, NISUS, MINOS:     Out of love a daughter betrays her father and loses the war to Minos, who rejects the girl as both of the betrayed turn to birds.
DAEDALUS, THE MINOTAUR, THESEUS, ARIADNE:     The haughty king neglects to sacrifice all the bulls and is punished a half-bull son who he locks away until Theseus with help from the king's own daughter slays him.
DAEDALUS & ICARUS:    The father creates wings but the naiive son flies too close and falls to his death.
 
DAEDALUS & PERDIX:     The nephew was proving to be a better innovator so Daedalus pushed him to his death, but he was spared and turned into a bird who is afraid to fly too high.
THE CALYDONIAN HUNT:     Diana's wrath has a huge boar killing hunters but Atalanta and Meleager kill the beast.
ALTHAEA & MELEAGER:       A mother wants vengeance against a son for killing his brothers so burns the symbol of his life and then kills herself as the daughter mourn and turn to guinea-hens.

THESEUS & ACHELOUS:     The river God begs Theseus to rest for the night.
THE ECHINADES & PERIMELE:     The river God turned 5 nymphs who had forgotten to invite him to a party to islands and a sixth is his lost love whose father threw her from a cliff.
BAUCIS & PHILEMON:     An old couple gives shelter to Gods in disguise and become priests of the temple and then die together and become trees.
ERYSICHTHON'S SIN:     A stupid man cuts down a sacred tree of Ceres and another who tried to stop him.
ERYSICHTHON & FAMINE:      Ceres calls upon Famine to curse the sinner, making him always want more.
ERYSICHTHON'S DAUGHTER:     She gets sold for her father's addiction but changes shape to deceive her masters.

ACHELOUS:     The river-god reminds the group of how he can change shapes as well and shows his missing horn.

Ovid's Metamorphoses Book VII

MEDEA & JASON:     The leader of the Argonauts is helped to victory of the Golden Fleece through the king's daughter, whose undying love for him saved him from the tasks he faced.

MEDEA & AESON:     Jason uses the love his sorceress feels for him to ask her to add years to his ailing father's life and she abides, making him feel 40 years younger.
MEDEA & PELIAS:     Medea tricks Pelias' daughters into trying the age-regression on their own father, but instead she kills him and flees.
THE FLIGHT OF MEDEA:     She travels quite aways before taking her revenge on Jason through his children and new love then weds at the citadel of Athens for protection.
THESEUS & AEGEUS:     The sorceress is back to her dirty tricks by almost having Aegeus poison his own son without knowledge, but luckily he stops Theseus from drinking the potion and Medea hides for safety.
MINOS:     The tyrant wants revenge on Athens for killing his half-breed son.

CEPHALUS:     The messenger from Athens travelled to ask for Aeacus's assistance in fighting Minos.
THE PLAGUE:      All of Cephalus' friends are dead due to a plague that envious Juno unleashed on the city which did not have enough space to bury the bodies.
THE MYRAMIDONS:      Aeacus prays for the plague to stop and the gods grant him his wish and use a tree to bear many men to rebuild/replenish the town, he calls them Myramidons.

CEPHALUS, PROCRIS, AURORA:      The poor hunter's wife thinks he has cheated on her and spies on him but only to get speared by his beloved javelin and to learn he was not having an affair all along.

Subliminal views from a fellow classmate

One of our assignments was to write about someone else's blog, I chose Tristan Head's blog on a sublime experience he encountered.
His pictures of his trip are amazing first off. The views from the top of Froze to Death Plateau capture the complete essence of nature as a sublime experience; that is that nature takes us away to a place where we can clear our minds of the muddle are reconnect with our creation; separation, initiation, return all in one breathtaking view.
My favorite line:
          "...because half the fun is going up and makes you appreciate the turns on the way down. I know each one of us enjoys doing at least one activity that gives us the feeling of nirvana. Once we have found the nirvana it leaves us with a dire thirst for more, it isn't until we recreate the event that we are satisfied, and then as we drive away are thirsty once again."
I get this feeling when I'm in nature all the time and luckily my family is obsessed with camping so I get to go a lot! It takes you back to a time, illo tempore, where everything seems right and good. You can't help but feel the presence of a divine being up there in a hectic week full of midterms and meeting this breath of fresh air is a great reminder that all of this has been done before and worrying about it does nothing. Thanks Tristan.

Mythological events

Our assignment to witness something mythical is not a hard one because as I look around I see plenty of things that are right out of Ovid.

The first thing is that I'm pretty sure birds watch me. Every time I walk to class there is a particular spot of grass by the science building that a certain bird (possibly a magpie) is hanging out on and as I walk by this bird stares right into my eyes and then follows me. It is only like 5 feet at the most but it is still unnerving having this small powerful animal tracking me down. Could be Tereus still searching for his wife and sister-in-law. Possibly I look like Procne did in her first life. Interesting to ponder...

The second cue comes from the many seasonal festivities that are happening. Specifically the idea of corn mazes. The very first mythological story I ever learned was of the minotaur and the labyrinth. And corn mazes are just a different cultures way of reliving this mythological tale. I'm glad our mazes today do not include a giant man-bull trying to hunt us down, but the thought of being trapped in a maze still makes me anxious as did the labyrinth back in illo tempore.

The third mythological event I have witnessed happened over dinner. My mom was making stew and as I walked through the door I was hit with this awful smell that somehow made me want to throw up and bathe in it at the same time. It was some sort of meat that she was boiling so that the meat (flesh) would fall away from the bone. Instantly I was reminded of Tatalus and Pelops. Since humans are sometimes transformed into animals, I couldn't help thinking that I was eating somebody's son. This made me very unsettled and dinner was not as enjoyable as I would have hoped.

Bad Days and Deja' Vu

“Better visit hell in your lifetime than after you’re dead.” -- Yiddish Proverb

* I didn't particularly try to have a bad day and this week has actually been one of the best weeks of the school year so far so I have nothing new to write about, but I have quite a few bad days from the past and one of these stories should suffice.

A bad day that really sticks out in my mind is the day that my dad left us. I was 17 and had just graduated high school, oh and another bombshell, I was pregnant. I had been depressed for weeks because being pregnant so young is not really a fun experience to go through and had added a lot of extra pressure on my family. My dad had been distant for a couple years now. Only coming home to watch TV and go to bed and then off to work for another 12 to 13 hours the next day. This particular day he had pissed off my mom royally and they were arguing downstairs while I grew fat sitting on the couch.
They had been down there awhile when my dad came upstairs to say goodbye. He had tears in his eyes and all he said was "I can't be here anymore. It's killing me." I only got misty-eyed and nodded with understanding, because this day had been a long time coming. He got down on his knees beside the couch and gave me a big hug...and then he walked out the door.
And instantly I fell apart... my dad was my rock, my superman, my hero, and then he just walked out, how could that be?! I ran to the bathroom and threw up, a mix of disbelief and morning sickness. As I sank to the linoleum I felt as though my world was caving in. There was no longer black and white; I was in the middle, in the muddle of my own self-destructing creation.

Not a very pleasant story but what bad days are? so on a lighter note, let's kill two birds with one stone and hit up the deja' vu experiences I've endured in the last two days. I've heard that smell is the greatest of the senses tied to memory so now that the leaves are changing (thanks to Persephone going back to the Underworld) the smell of fall is upon us. Last night I was walking to my car and the wind thrust a bunch of leaves into my face. And instantly I was nine years old again raking leaves with my best friend and jumping into the biggest pile that we could make. It was the smell of something that I had done, something I vaguely remembered, something "already seen." It was the smell of complete, enthralling bliss, and it smelled wonderful!

Ovid's Metamorphoses Book VI

ARACHNE:      we went into great detail about this one in class, it is extremely hard to summarize it in one sentence; hubris always ends in destruction!

NIOBE:       A mother is a little too boastful of her kids and loses all 14 of them before turning into stone.

LATONA & THE LYCAIN PEASANTS:      Artemis and Apollo's mother wants nothing more than a drink from a lake and turns the selfish withholders to frogs.

MARSYAS:      A satyr gets cocky with Apollo and turns into a stream.

PELOPS:      The famous boy that Tantalas tried to feed to the God has a spot of ivory in his shoulder.

TEREUS, PROCNE, PHILOMELA:      Two sisters feed the son to the adulterous king and all three take flight.

BOREAS & ORITHYIA:       The wind of the north takes the mortal girl for his bride and gains two sons who make their own mythology with Jason.

Ovid Book V

PERSEUS & PHINEUS:       Andromeda's lover gets pissed that Perseus took her and attacks but he and hundreds of his men are turned to stone.
PROETUS:      A bad dude got his karma for kicking out his family.
POLYDECTES:      Another bad dude got what was coming to him for belittling Perseus.



MINERVA, THE MUSES, PEGASUS:       The stream from under Pegasus's hoof blesses the daughters.

PYRENEUS:    A cruel king tries to rape the sisters but in a blinded judgment falls to his death trying to follow them.
THE PIERIDES:     9 boastful sisters travel to The Muses and call them out for a contest.
TYPHOES:      The Pierides embellish the stories to make Typhoes and the other Giants seem victorious.
CERES & PROSERPINA:       Cere's daughter is taken by Pluto to be queen of the Underworld, but her father Zeus allows her to be shared between the two kingdoms.

ARETHUSA & ALPHEUS:        A nymph flees from the river-god and is turned into a stream so as not to be raped.
TRIPTOLEMUS & LYNCUS:     Trip is a servent of Ceres who is delivering good harvest but the king is envious and just as he is about to attack gets transformed into a lynx.
THE PIERIDES-AGAIN:       The sisters are sore losers are insult the Muses, who as a result turns them into magpies.

Mythos + logos

"If the test of truth lay in a show of hands or a counting of heads, the system of magic might appeal, with far more reason than the Catholic Church, to the proud motto, Quod semper, quod ubique, quod ab omnibus ["Always, everywhere, and by all"], as the sure and certain credential of its own infallibility."

Being in this class has brought up a lot of (well needed) questions of my own religious beliefs. I never would have labeled myself as "religious" but I believed in one God who had a son that died so that I may one day live eternally in heaven. I wasn't quick to judge or condemn other religions, including lack there of, or to change and convert people. I believed that Faith is made up of a personal relationship with Christ.

Now that sounds all fine and dandy until someone questions me WHY? And my only reply is because when I was little my parents forced-fed me the bible and because I was so young with childlike enthusiasm I swallowed every line. not a very good answer. but yet it's the truth. It's because I undoubtedly believed these bible stories to be true; but that's all they are, stories. I loved hearing the 1 minute creation myths of my fellow classmates, but it got me thinking of how it would sound if someone did the Christianity creation myth. "A long time ago there was this God who spoke into the dark and created light. He spent 6 days making the earth and living creatures. He made man out of clay and then took that mans rib to make a woman." To be honest--it sounds just as ridiculous as some of those other myths (aka the Egg splitting up into the heaven and earth). So why do I choose to believe this creation story over all the rest?! This is a hard question that I have been struggling with since I was finally able to choose what I believed separate from that of my parents.

These myths can easily be someone's reality. We should not treat them like meaningless stories, but we also need to decipher which ones we believe and why. But this deciphering should NOT be judgment. Who are we to say which myth is the correct one? after awhile they all sound pretty silly. I guess that's where Faith comes in, believing in something that you are unsure of. What we have faith in is a powerful foundation of how we build our lives. Don't simply raise your hand or swallow because they tell you to; Go out and find it for yourself.

Ovid Book IV

THE DAUGHTERS OF MINYAS:      Refuse to partake in Bacchus' sporagmos and stay home to weave.
PYRAMUS & THISBE:     The original Romeo and Juliet and origin of the mulberry bush's color.
 
MARS, VENUS, VULCAN, THE SUN:     Apollo witnesses an affair and tells Vulcan, who traps the lovers in their predicament as the other Gods gaze on in amusement.
LEUCOTHOE & CLYTIE:      A sister betrays the other and slowly withers away into the ground.
SALMACIS & HERMAPHRODITUS:      A good looking boy gets ambushed by a nymph who pleads to never be separated from him.
THE DAUGHTERS OF MINYAS:      Smoke and fire interrupt the weaving story-time and each girl becomes a bat in the darkness.
ATHAMAS & INO:       Juno gets a Furie to poison the happy couple to as destroy them but Venus takes pity and turns mother and child into sea-deities.

CADMUS & HARMONY:     Cadmus finally takes his serpent shape and his wife changes with him.
ACRISIUS:     Denies that Bacchus and Perseus are of Olympian lines but wakes up and realizes the truth as Perseus spills drops of Medusa's blood to form snakes in Libya.
PERSEUS & ATLAS:     Atlas refuses to give Perseus rest so Perseus holds up Medusa's head and turns Atlas into the earth.
PERSEUS & ANDROMEDA:     Perseus saves Andromeda from her death at sea and Medusa's blood forms coral.
PERSEUS & MEDUSA:     The son of Jove cuts off the head of the poor girl (whose hair was changed to snakes because she was raped in Minerva's sanctuary) and gains his winged horse.

Ovid's Metamorphoses Book III

CADMUS:     Europa's brother kills a snake and plants the teeth to birth men who annihilate each other instantly.
ACTAEON:       Naked ladies are fun to look at if they aren't virgin Goddesses, you may get eaten by your own stag-hunting dogs.
SEMELE:     Another rape victim is punished by Hera who tricks the girl into unknowingly asking for her death.
TIRESIAS:     Which gender enjoys sex more? Don't tell Juno the answer, she may make you blind.
NARCISSUS & ECHO:     A cursed nymph forever remains in the hills and the cause of her broken heart learns what it's like to love something you can't have.

PENTHEUS:      Refuses to respect Bacchus and gets torn from limb to limb; bitches be crazy.

Ovid's Metamorphoses Book 2

* Now I know that we are only supposed to choose 5 of the outlines and write a sentence, but choosing the particular 5 is too difficult so I opted to just do the entire book. but you may choose to only read 5!

PHAETHON:      Some promises are deadly to keep and the entire world suffers at a boy's ignorance and bad driving skills.
THE HELIADES:     Mourning sisters of Phaethon turn to trees that drip amber as tears.
CYCNUS:     Kin of Phaethon also went to mourn and became a swan; moral is Don't Mourn for Phaethon.
PHOEBUS:     Mourning his son's death throws a hissy fit and refuses to do his work, spitefully blaming the other Gods.
CALLISTO:      Beautiful virgin is tricked and raped by Jove and then banished for getting pregnant and Hera's wrath transforms her to a bear.
ARCAS:    Callisto's son and Mother Bear are taken up into the sky as constellations and never to return.
 
THE RAVEN:       This talkative bird loses his color due to the peacocks newly addition of eyes.
CORONIS, THE RAVEN, THE CROW, NYCTIMENE:       A bunch of women are turned into birds after engaging in sex, some willing some forced; and the raven gets a black outfit for instigating Apollo to kill the unfaithful Coronis.
OCYRHOE:     A daughter who knows to much should have kept her mouth shut before turning into a horse.
BATTUS:      Mercury steels some cattle and an old man lies about keeping the secret and becomes stone.
MERCURY, HERSE, AGLAUROS:          Envy turns the wicked sister to stone.
EUORPA & JOVE:     Zeus takes the form of a bull to lure the innocent virgin away.

Myth and Reality Chapter 7

"This is why, in so far as it is 'forgotten,' the 'past'--historical or primordial--is homologized with death. The fountain Lethe, 'forgetfulness,' is a necessary part of the realm of Death. The dead are those who have lost their memories."  (M&R pg. 121)



* This is a picture of The Awakening, a statue in Washington, D.C. most definitely related to a mythological event! *


In class, as well as the earlier chapters of M&R, the most important part of mythologies is to know the origin. If we remember (remember being the key word because we were there to witness it in illo tempore and the rest of history is just a repetitious cycle) the origins of the earth and of the things of the earth then we can hold power over these things and control them. Examples are of the many Rain Dances, or Harvest Ceremonies (mythologically based to honor Ceres).  These origins are the primordial past that we should not forget. By respecting our history we can change our future.


Historical past is remembering transmigrations, or former lives. These people like Pythagoras or Empedocles are said to overcome death by anamnesis, literally translated on dictionary.com as "Platonism . recollection of the Ideas, which the soul had known in a previous existence, esp. by means of reasoning." This reasoning, this truth, this wakefulness is what keeps us from dying.


This quote never relates this forgetfulness to sleep or being blinded by ignorance, but those are key synonyms for "death" in this chapter. "Waking" implies re-cognition of the celestial origin. So everyone Wake Up! Take those espresso shots or straight adrenaline injections and shed the veil or ignorance that we have all acquired in our slumber. Our history and therefore the key to our futures are waiting!

Ovid's Metamorphoses Chapter 1

"The explanation of life by the theory of an indwelling and practically immortal soul is one which the savage does not confine to human beings but extends to the animate creation in general." New Golden Bough (pg. 549)

I thought this quote was appropriate because from all our one minute creation stories we discover that animals are just as important as humans. Some are Gods that help create the world in illo tempore, or some are people who were changed due to bad things that they accomplished in their human life. Either way, animals play an important role in Mythology and need not to be forgotten.

THE  CREATION:     "unraveling these things from their blind heap" a God forms everything and creates the noblest of animals- human beings.
THE FOUR AGES:     Gold, Silver, Bronze, and Iron; things only got worse as man became more selfish.
THE GIANTS:      Get greedy trying to overthrow Jove and get killed, their blood forming angry humans.
LYCAON:     Lycaon gets changed into a wolf after trying to trick Zeus; bad idea.
THE FLOOD:      The wrath of Jove lets loose all his natural disasters and floods the earth of all it's evil; sound familiat?
DEUCALION AND PYRRHA:     The sole survivors of the flood are innocent and obey the oracle by "spreading the bones of the mother" which turn into other humans.
PYTHON:    A horrible snake, killed by Phoebus, that started legendary games of men proving themsleves as manly.
APOLLO AND DAPHNE:     Phoebus teases Cupid and gets a love shot to a woman who despises him so much she chooses to be changed into a tree; ouch, love bites.
IO AND JOVE:     Jove rapes a girl and then changes her into a heifer (sexist bastard) and yet his wife blames the girl; wtf.

SYRINX:     Pan falls in love with a nymph who also despises him so much she is changed into reeds that whistle in the wind and become pan's signature instrument.
IO AND JOVE:    Mercury kills Argus and so Juno gives into Zeus and restores IO to her human form.
PHAETHON:     Son desperately wants to know of his father the mighty sun and travels to meet him.



* I chose the picture of IO and JOVE to reperesent Chapter one because it is the myth that sticks out to me the most and represents Frazer's quote of animals with souls who may be trapped and degraded *

living in a story

I'm gonna apologize upfront for writing blogs that are probably of no great intellectual stimulation or interest. But this is the time that I first felt alive and part of a story:

The book was Adam Raccoon in Lost Woods. It's about this raccoon that goes on a trip with King Aaron and wants to bring all his possessions with him. But crossing the river he drops ALL of them except one, this small red ball. So he and King Aaron and walking along and he is distracted by this ball so stops watching where King Aaron was leading and gets lost. His ball rolls away into Lost Woods and he runs in after it. The words are scary and full of wolves, but he searches and searches frantically for his ball :( Then the wolves start surrounding him, slowly closing in. And who appears but King Aaron! and He roars (he's a lion) and scares all the bad wolves away. Adam picks up his ball in one hand and in the other grabs King Aaron's hand who leads him out to safety. At the edge of the woods Adam Raccoon lets his ball fall to the ground. And King Aaron asks if he wants to pick up his ball. And Adam replies "No, I don't need it anymore!" and they walk off into the sunset.

I bawled like a little baby!!! I could NOT believe that Adam Raccoon would just leave his ball on the ground, and frankly it pissed me off that he did since he went into so much trouble trying to find it.

My parents were fairly religious so the book was supposed to represent humans leaving their earthly possessions to follow the King, but I never really took it that way because I was too devastated that the little red ball had been left behind.

First Memory

My first memory is December 17th, 1992. I had just barely turned two years old (25 months old). It was the day our house burned down.

I was just playing in my room when my mom screamed frantically to get my winter gear on (it was Winter in Canada afterall) and so I ran downstairs to smoke. I put on my coat and gloves and walked across the street to my neighbours house. I stayed there all night. I kept on trying to look out their huge front window that looked directly at my house but the mother wouldn't let me, said that there was stuff going outside and we needed to stay hidden. I kept on asking about my parents and they said that they had gone into town and would be back later. I could hear the sirens from the firetruck and I just laid on the carpet and watched the celing flicker with the red lights going round and round. The next time I looked out the window, my house was completely gone.

The next memory I have isn't til a couple months later and I think I remember this so vividly because it was a traumatic experience for me.

No worries all my family was safe. But we did lose ALL our posessions and christmas presents and our cat :(

Dream

The last few nights I have been unable to remember most of my dreams :( but there is one that is a little more vivid than the others. It's about a boy...but this boy is a kid who was a few years younger than me in high school. He was good friends with my ex actually and I have never really spoken to him ever. So anyways this dream. We are at a building, maybe it's a church, I cannot remember. but it's me, him, and one of my best friends this little asian chick named Breckyn. All three of us are laughing and having this awesome time, rolling around and wrestling on the ground (where this boy and I are flirting quite a bit while falling all over each other). Then it starts thundering so we run outside and climb up the tree to our fort. and it's like "Swiss Family Robinson" style like totally huge and totally awesome. So we're just running around up there when the cockroaches come out due to the rain. and they are everywhere! and totally disgusting. So I hop in my car to drive away but I come to a T in the road and it's blocked off by a flash flood! So I reverse the car and run out back into the rain to hang out with this super cutie of a boy and my bestie.
Random I know. So maybe I'll get a better one tonight that I can actually remember...

(Melody Brucks) History; novel or repeating?

"The notion of a man-god, or of a human being endowed with divine or supernatural powers, belongs essentially to that earlier period of religious history..." --James Frazer (pg 95)
"Those that ignore history are doomed to repeat it" -- George Santayana

I felt both of these quotes were a perfect addiction to the topic discussed in class today; that is that "history is bunk" and everything repeats itself. One of the points that Sexson has been trying to get us to realize is the notion of "precedent behind action"; that there is no such thing as originality; that myths have already written history; and that nothing is novel because it has all been done before!

The quote by Satayana was one of my friend's senior quote, but I doubt she even knew what it meant. To me it almost a contradiction with myth, because you must know your history of mythology but this is because you WILL no doubt repeat it. But I guess the "catch" lies in the word doomed. For those that respect the myths of origin they are granted the power to control these things, but for those who ignore the origin myths and forget where they came from then these people will have very little control over what's around them and are therefore doomed.

This is a good lesson to all of us because no one wants to be doomed! We need to learn to respect the myths/history because in doing so we gain power and control. This power may not be the ability to walk through fire without it burning or to make rain, rather this power may come in the subtle form of knowledge. As T.S. Elliot said "The end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and knew the place for the first time."

(Melody Brucks) What is REALity?

"Myth is a passsage into reality" --Eliade (as discussed in class)

Today in class we discussed Plato's allegory of the cave. In high school we had gone over this particular story and had to write a few paragraphs on our thoughts. This was my take:

"As I read Plato's essay about the cave I found myself in deep thought of just what exactly he was saying; this idea of ignorance vs. enlightenment, of dark vs. light. His allegory of the prisoners was not far off from realization that I came to, that we are all prisoner's of our own mind.



I found it interesting how Plato defined truth. He states that this "truth" is found in the condition that the people are put in. The prisoner's would not consider actual forms truth, they would consider the shadows of these forms real because that is what they were accustomed to. This made me relate "truth" to the people around me. No one person is in the same truth as any other one person! This is because we are all in our own cave of reality that we have made throughout our lifetime.


Plato also addresses how the darkness of the cave represents ignorance. This makes sense to me because it always seems to be that the person with the least amount of knowlege on a topic thinks that he or she is absolutely correct on the issue. This is because they have come accustomed to the shadows and cannot see clearly to admit that their reality is not actually real.


This brings up an entirely new topic of what exactly reality is?! Plato calls it the light. But how do we know whose light is actually the pure sun or whose possibly is only UV rays inside of some tanning bed? This question is exactly the thoughts that Pluto was trying to stir. He goes on to say that even in the light, prisoner's can still be led astray, and that to find true enlightenment, we need to keep searching. We must never be satisfied with our cave of ideas, because there may always possibly be another world out there that can show us more than mere shadows. We just have to have the courage to admit we were wrong and keep on looking for the sun."

I find my thoughts completely relevant to mythology because our own cave of reality is no more right or wrong than any other person's cave of reality, so who are we to judge myths and say that they aren't truth and who are we to tell someone not to believe in Santa Clause?! Myths are powerful and meaningful to the person believing and retelling them and we should honor and repect that whether we think they are sane or not, because maybe what we consider "real" is completely off from the actual truth as well.

Inception is an amazing movie and I would tell everyone to watch it. The topic of what is real or not plays heavily in that movie and there is a scene where a bunch of old men get together and dream everyday. A character asks why they want to be in a dream and another character replies (and I'm totally paraphrasing because I cannot remember the exact quote) "because to them, the dream is reality; they come here to live." If that is not a modern sentence for illo tempore I don't know what is!

I'll end with a quote from Joseph Cambell that we also discussed in class; "What is a dream if it isn't a personalized myth? And what is a myth if it isn't a depersonalized dream?" --great quote and shows how dream/myth/reality are all interchangeable words. Re-read this post and substitute each word for the other two; the message is still the same!

(Melody Brucks) Myths as part of our Reality

"Again, magic be wrought on a man sympathetically not only thgough his clothes and severed parts of himselg, but also through the impressions left by his body in sand or earth. In particular, it is a worldwide superstition that by injuring footprints you injure the feet that made them. Thus the natives of south-eastern Australia think that they can lame a man by placing sharp pieces of quartz, glass, bone, or charcoal in his footprints. Rheumatic pains are often attributed by them to this cause." --The New Golden Bough pg. 68


I like this incerpt because it goes along withe the voodoo dolls we were talking about in class last Thursday; the fact that you can take something of someone else's and by disrespecting that item you can cause harm to the human being.


It also shows how "myths" respect a person's history because they attribute that everything in life is present due to a myth itself. So as the old saying goes "Don't step on a crack or you'll break your mother's back"....some cultures might actualy believe this because like a footprint, maybe that crack was left by their mother, and you should respect your mother and be careful not to alter the piece of history that she left. Or if you hate your mother, you can add quartz. glass, bone, etc. and slam that down into the crack by jumping repeatedly over and over again...depends on the family dynamic. But either way, you can show respect or disrespect by how you treat the little things.


Even little things such as a footprint or a crack can represent some origin of myth...and this is why cultures still strive to remember these myths because to forget is to lose parts of yourself. I liked a quote in Myth and Reality saying "Myth is a vital ingredient of human civilization; it is not an idle tale, but a hard-worked active force." Myths are the origin of the World and this is why when we remember these myths we can control the certain elements based on the stories of their origin.


This goes along with what the professor said about not being able to go 24 hours without witnessing a mythological event. Everything has origin and so everything relates to myth. an example of my own is when I was sitting in church yesterday morning. The sermon was on Job and how God was telling Job that he knew nothing of supernatural power and as an example of astronomy he asks "Can you bind the beautiful Pleiades? Can you loose the cords of Orion?" Mythology in the Bible....I was blown away!


Anyways I am probably rambling here so I will stop now and just say humbly that I think we were supposed to read chapter 1 in Myth and Reality and then post something about it; so here is my first offical mythology post!