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.