Soul Mates

All of the speeches about love given in the Symposium were interesting, but the one that I liked the most was Aristophanes'. Although I do not necessarily agree with his idea that we all have one soul mate, I like it. People today always talk about their "soul mate" and how there is that one person out there that will complete you. I am not sure if the idea came specifically from this piece of literature or not, but before reading it I never knew how the idea a of soul mate came about. Whether or not Aristophanes' story is where it originated, I would like to think that it is because it is such great story. It makes complete sense as well because if we did used to be one body but were split in half, two people truly would share a soul. When looking at love in this way it kind of does give someone hope and trust that there is one person out there that is perfect for you.

When I read this the first thing that popped into my head was the movie "Hancock." Hancock is a superhero that remembers nothing about his past at all. For the majority of the movie he believes that he is the only one of his kind, but later he finds out that this isn't true. There is one other being like him, a woman in fact. She explains to him that there used to be many others like them, but they all lost their immortality and died. When such godlike beings were created, it was done in pairs. The other was similar to their soul mate. Now, if the two spent too much time together they would be able to live in love and happiness, but they would lose their immortality. I thought that the idea of love and soul mates presented in the movie was a kind of representation of that described by Aristophanes in his speech. Once again, it is an example of how the past can be seen in present pop culture.

Something else that I found interesting was the idea of tallys, or symballem. When I was young I had friendship bracelets and necklaces that I shared with many of my friends. In fact, I am pretty sure that to this day I still have the pieces somewhere. It is interesting that the idea went from a broken coin and morphed into friendship charms centuries later.

Test 1 Prep

1. Stycomythia: A rapid succession of one liners (conversation)
ex) lines 441-581 in "Antigone"

2. Hubris: Excessive pride or arrogance

3. Eleusinian Mysteries
a. done: a reinactment of the abduction of Persephone
b. seen: a stalk of corn or wheat
c. said: "rain concieve"

4. 5 conflicts of Steiner
1. men vs women
2. youth vs aged
3. living vs dead
4. individual vs society/state
5. gods vs men

5. Epithet: a handle
ex) trim ankled Persephony

6. Sparagmos: the tearing or rinding of live flesh

7. Anthropocentric view: humans, rather than gods, at the center of the universe

8. Miasma: "the polution," kind of implied curse that falls over a land that has not treated the dead properly

9. Antigone's view of politics: she is not really interested in politics, but believes in devine law over a king's decree

10. Meaning of Creon's name: ruler

11. Notion of a moving target: characters change throughout the story as things change around them

12. Myth of eternal return: endless repettion of things (cyclical)
ex) Homeric Hymn of Demeter (seasons)
ex) "Ground Hog's Day"

13. Who is Hermes like? Stewie from family guy (trixter)

14. Thoreau said that we should read the eternities rather than the times.

15. Who is guilty of taking one who lives above and throwing them below?
1. Zeus (orchestrated Persephone's fall)
2. Creon ("Antigone")

16. Inillotempore: "in the great time"

17. Which two mythological figures are polytropic?
1. Hermes
2. Odysseus

18. 3 Great Tragedians
1. Sophocles
2. Euripedes
3. Easchylus

19. Who is the god of the crossroads? Hermes

20. Agon: conflict

21. "All that is past posseses the present."

22. 2 best thins that can happen to you according to the chorus of Oedipus.
1. never to have been born in the first place
2. to die

23. Sarvam dukam sarvam anityam: "everything is suffering everything is fleeting"

24. Anitgone's name means? "Anti-birth"

25. What injury did Oedipus sustain as an infant? Holes in the ankles

26. Hermes used these two words to prove his innocence: born yesterday

27. What did Robert Johnson do at the crossroads? Sell his soul to the devil to become an epic musician

28. According to Freud, why do we laugh? To keep from crying

29. What does it mean to make something anagogic? going into the hevenly realm

30. Synex: impotent old man

Steeling Fate

Like Hermes, almost all of us have stolen something at some point. There is that one thing that you just have to have. Maybe you do have the money to buy it, but figure that there is no point when you can just take it. Maybe you don't have the money to buy it, but just have to have it anyway. Some people steel for the rush that it gives them. Some feel that they are invincible and will never get caught. Different people steel for different reasons, but no matter what their reasoning is, steeling is steeling.

As Kayla revealed in class, she stole her brother's chocolate when she was young. Unlike Hermes, she was luckily enough not to get caught. Unfortunately as a child I was less lucky, and got caught for my crimes. There are two incidents that really stick in my mind. One of the times I stole a piece of cut fruit from a grocery store. At the time I didn't realize that what I did was wrong. I'm pretty sure that the fruit was sitting there cut as a kind of display of what it looked like on the inside. Seeing the meat of the fruit, I guess I figured it was a sample. While my mother pushed the grocery cart I sat on the bottom rack and ate my stolen treasure. It was my mother that eventually saw that I was eating a piece of fruit that was obviously not paid for. Needless to say, she was not very happy with me. There were some harsh words and not so harsh reprimands that time.

The next time that I remember I was very young as well. It was then, in one sense of the word, that I stole fate. For some reason I was attracted to a small pink role of paper in a little plastic tube at the checkout line. I had no idea what it was. In fact, I don't think that I could even read the majority of the words written on that bright colored paper yet. In some ways, I must have known that it was wrong to take the paper without paying for it because I hid it in my sock drawer. I was not doing my own laundry at that point, of course, an my mother found it while looking through my drawer. I remember her asking me where I got it, and I told her. She asked if I knew what it was, and I told her that I had no real idea. She told me it was a horoscope. Once again, I had no idea what it was. The funny thing about it was, it wasn't even my horoscope. It was someone else's fate that I had stolen. Anyway, my mother made me take it back to the grocery store and apologise for taking it. I was absolutely mortified. Getting caught was bad enough, but having to do that was almost unbearable. Needless to say, I did not steel anything again for a very long time. I had temporarily learned my lesson.

That is the way in which I am like Hermes...to some degree anyway. Like it is said, the past possesses the present. What I did was simply another version of the thievery done by young Hermes, the boy born yesterday.

Tale of a Trickster

I am taking both Classical Foundations of Literature and Mythologies this semester, and have found that there are in fact a lot of similarities between many Greek and Roman stories and those of other cultures. Perhaps the most obvious similarities are found in the tales of tricksters. We read the tale of Hermes for this class, but I have read many other trickster tales from different cultures in Mythologies and even a couple in American Literature.

One of the stories that most reminded me of the tale of Hermes was called "The Mwindo Epic." It is an oral story told by the Nyanga people in the Congo. Like Hermes, the trickster of this story is a baby who was born the day before he starts playing his tricks. He is very full of himself and likes to boast and brag. Although he is not a god like Hermes, he did have an unusual birth. He uses his trickery in order to help himself, but it does help others in return. A brief summary/description of the "Mwindo Epic" can be found at http://www.rickriordan.com/mwindo_epic.htm

Another trickster story that we discussed in my Mythology class was the Raven myth. It is a native American myth that has a number of different versions. The raven has an unusual birth, is a baby throughout a large portion of the story (he has the ability to shape shift between the raven and a baby), and lives on the outskirts of society as well. He tricks people into giving him the moon, stars, and the sun/daylight. Although he did this for selfish reasons, all of these things did end up helping society.

Throughout the semester we have read a number of Native American, African, and African-American trickster stories and it has surprised me how much they all have in common. In a number of them the trickster is a baby. They all are selfish and do things in order to please themselves, even if their actions do in some way help society. Almost all of them have unusual births, and a number of them are either gods or in some way conceived with the help of the gods. They live on the fringe of society and do not adhere to their laws and social rules. Reading the tale about Hermes has helped me to see these stories in a different way. I think that that is one of the things that many of the pieces of literature that we have read thus far in this class has helped me to do. I am now more able to "read the eternities rather than the times" now than I was before because I have the background knowledge. It is something that I find immensely interesting, and knowing similar stories, in many cases the very stories that more modern ones are based off of, has made the experience much more interesting for me.

The Modern Hermes

The comparison between Hermes and Stewie (the baby from "Family Guy") came up in class, and I found it really interesting. For some reason or another, despite the fact that I watch family guy on a regular basis, I never made that connection. After discussing their similarity in class I thought for a little while and considered what kind of trickster characteristics Stewie embodies. Although his birth was not unusual to our knowledge, he does have the ability to speak with extremely advanced grammar at a very young age. There is, however, and episode in which Stewie enters Peter's body in order to stop his parents from having anther child and all of the sperm are actually little babies in ship-like things. In that sense, I suppose one could say that he did have an unusual birth if he entered his mother's egg in a ship and was born with knowledge and the ability to talk. Stewie most definitely plays tricks. There is an episode in which the dog can't help himself from peeing in the house, and he goes to therapy and tries all kinds of things to stop himself from doing it. He is finally able to, but Stewie pees in the house so that the family thinks that it is the dog, and even the dog blames himself. Stewie is selfish, plots out his tricks (such as killing his mother), comical, clever, mischievous, and a male. He fits many of the common trickster characteristics.

After thinking about Stewie as a trickster, I was curious to see what other modern characters embody the trickster qualities of Hermes. I came up with a list of a few that I thought were good examples:





1. The wolf in little red riding hood: he used tricks to get little red riding hood to disclose where she was going, and then disguised himself as her grandmother. Tricksters often change forms, as did the wolf, and use tricks to benefit themselves (although it didn't really work our well for him).





2. Bugs Bunny: he is always playing tricks on Elmer Fud or those who are trying to harm him. He is elusive, comical, and clever. He likes to disrupt conventional order as well.





3. The joker in batman: In the new batman movie he changes his appearances many times (dresses as a nurse in the hospital, poses as a cop, parades as another robber in the bank scene, etc). He tricks people into doing what he wants them to as well. He plots elaborate schemes, he is kind of a loner and lives on the fringe of society, and he breaks conventional rules and laws set up by society.





4. The mask: Jim Carrey openly mocks authority and convention in his role in "The Mask." He helps to get the bad guys while pursuing his own personal desires, such as that for money and a gorgeous woman. He is also able to change the way that he looks and conjure up random things while the mask is on.









5. Jack Sparrow: He is very self centered, tricky, and manipulative. For example, in the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie he manipulates the guards into arguing about whether or not the Black Pearl is real while he escapes with a ship. He defies laws and conventions of society, and as a pirate lives on the outskirts of society. Captain Jack Sparrow dupes others like Hermes as well.









These are just a few examples of more modern tricksters that we are all familiar with.

The Eleusinian Mysteries

Although we spoke briefly about the Eleusinian mysteries in class, we did not go into what all they entailed. Dr. Sexon mentioned that little is known about the religious practices that occurred in the city of Eleusis because everthing was kept very secretive. He did, however, say that he believed that three things were done during the ritual. Something was said, done, and seen. The thing that he belives was said was "rain, concieve." That which was done, according to Dr. Sexon, was a reinactmen of the abduction of Persephony. And lastly, that which was seen was an ear of corn or a stalk of wheat. Whether this is exactly what happened we will probably never know for sure. I was curious to see what else is known, or at least thought to be known about the mysteries.

To begin with, the Eleusinian Mysteries were held annualy in Eleusis, Greece. They were held in celebration of Demeter and her daughter Persephone. Although the followers were extremely widespread, their practices and beliefs were kept very secretive. Much of what we know about them today is based on what is said in literature of the time, portrayed in artwork and on pottery, and found in the ruins.

One thing that we do know for sure is that the celbration of the Eleusinian Mysteries took place over nine days in September and were very elaborate. There were specific rituals and sacrifices associated with each day as well. Before the celebratios began all initiates had to cleans and purify themselves in the ocean as well as scrifice a piglet. Things such as these that were done outside of the temple are those that are known. However, that which was done inside the temple has remained for the most part a sectret. Once Christianity became widespread it condemned the Eleusinian Mysteries and practices, and it is because of this that a religion and set of practices that lived for thousands of years died out.



Here are a couple of links that present futher and more in depth information that I found helpful/interesting:

http://users.erols.com/nbeach/eleusis.html

http://www.pantheon.org/articles/e/eleusinian_mysteries.html

http://www.themystica.com/mystica/articles/e/eleusinian_mysteries.html

American Gothic Parodies

I found Dr. Sexon's comparison of Persephony and Aidoneus' scene in the chariot (pg. 15) to the famous painting "American Gothic" interesting. It is not one that I would have made if he had not pointed it out. Another interesting thing is the number of people who have incorporated the image presented in "American Gothic" into other pictures with different themes. After seing Katie Potter's blog and the parodies that she put on it I thought I might add a few more to the list.

The Original Image

The Modernised Version

Watercolor Horse Version (Also Modernised)

Soldier Version (Censored)

George and Barbra Bush

Obama and Clinton

As is blatently obvious by the images above, many of the parodies of the "American Gothic" are very political. They are used to criticise our society and government. It is interesting how the message displayed in the original painting has been twisted to represtent something so different.