12/9/11 Journal #15: The Koran First off, it’s rather bittersweet that this semester is ending and this is my last journal. I really enjoyed the weekly journals, and as I have said before they allow me more time to think about my opinions and ideas. In class I just am not good about making deep comments very quickly, I am the person who needs to mull over ideas and I have my best comments and philosophies on paper. All that aside, I somewhat enjoyed reading the Koran this week. I grew up in a Catholic Christian household so I believe in Jesus Christ and the teachings of the Bible. It was interesting to see what Muslims based their religion off of, and I tried to get a sense of what everything meant. That, however, I found to be very difficult. There were some passages where I could see similarities between the Bible and the Koran, but it would seem that two sentences later it was completely different. I just could not follow some of the passages, and it did not seem to flow and transition well. Again this may be because it is a series of Muhammad’s “revelations” memorized and later written down. However, in the prelude to the reading it talked about how the Koran is not organized chronologically but rather the texts or suras are organized from the longest to the shortest. To me this does not make a lot of logical sense, because in this way it is rather a smattering of ideas, rules and teachings in random order. We talked in class about how it lacked the narrative sense that the Bible has, and perhaps this format based on text length worked because it would seem that a lot of the sections of the Koran we read were simply different rules and the like. So in that case the order would not matter, nonetheless the erratic structure confused me.
As we talked about in class on Friday the Bible contains a lot of figurative language, and it would seem that the Koran’s teachings and phrases are taken rather literally. Perhaps that is why we often associate the religion of Islam with violence and terrorism. I know that every Muslim is not a terrorist, but I cannot help but be somewhat apprehensive about Islam after attacks such as September 11th. Again as we discussed in class it is often only the radicals of a group that get recognition. We see the devout radical followers and immediately catalog all followers of Islam into the violent, terrorist stereotype. That is exactly what Muslims do to Christians as well. We are all guilty of it, and it was just really interesting to see Islam in a different light. I also found it interesting, as I said in class, the diverse names that the Koran uses to refer to god. The Bible does this as well, but the usage of We, and Our in the Koran confused me and lead me to believe that We was a group of people. Initially I thought the We to be God and Muhammad, and or the Muslim people. It was just curious how they used such diverse pronouns that are plural in form, but they believed that god was one and only; to them there is no Holy trinity. I just found the use of We, Our and Us to be contradictory of their beliefs. Then again I do not know much about the Islamic religion and all these generalizations could be way off the mark.
12/2/11 Journal #14: Peer Edit
I really enjoyed reading Elizabeth’s paper. Being a girl myself I really find the topic of women’s rights to be very fascinating. American women still think that we have it tough now with certain inequalities, but these ancient women had much more to complain about. I personally cannot even imagine what it would be like to not leave the house, and be basically given to a man three times my age when I was a innocent teenager. I feel like the topic of comparing Athenian Women, Spartan Women and Women of today is very eye opening. Also in class we generally would tend to focus on the heroes of the stories, and not exactly the heroines. It was refreshing to read a paper focusing on the women in Greek culture, and to make them the center of attention.
To Elizabeth: I felt that your paper was full of thorough research and it presented a lot of relevant facts that created grounds for comparison between the two major groups of women, the Spartans and the Athenians. I also thought the way that you approached your topic was very effective. Instead of just comparing these two ancient groups, you also made connections to the women of today. For me personally as a reader this made the differences and comparisons between all groups stand out more because it was being related to the female group I know best. Perhaps you could go into more depth about the aspects that are different among the Athenian and Spartan women. For instance, you compare the age of the Spartan women to the Athenian women pointing out that the Spartan women typically marry at age 18, which is older than that of Athenian young women. Maybe just include the average age that Athenian women get married to make it easier to see a comparison between the two groups. The overall flow and transition of your paper was smooth and I felt that each paragraph got more in depth, and you got deeper into your topic, which for me in a paper is always the goal. You started general and then whittled it down into deeper connections. You did that well in your last body paragraph about modern women.
One key revision that you might consider is to add more connections to texts we have read in class. You touched a little on Penelope at the beginning, but maybe try to add some connections between other women we have read about in class. Perhaps you could talk about Sappho, Antigone or Clytemnestra and touch on their strong feminine qualities. Or perhaps provide more examples from the Odyssey highlighting the Greek view of women that Penelope portrays. There is even some good passages in Antigone where they imply that women, specifically Antigone, are beneath the men and the like. I would just suggest considering adding a paragraph making connections, or work some in in the other body paragraphs highlighting the differences and similarities. The more connections you can make the stronger your paper will be. Overall your paper was very informative and cohesive, just add a few more connections and elaborate a little more on specific examples of differences among Athenian and Spartan women.
Critical Essay 12/2/11:Masculine Tears: Attitudes Towards Emotion in Ancient Greece
Memo:
Is there enough research? I was worried about my structure.
Should I include other Greek heroes we read about as examples? Such as Aeneas in the Aeneid? Will this make my argument stronger or only clutter it?
Do my ideas seem to flow or are paragraphs and transitions disjointed?
Is my conclusion and intro strong?
Screams, tears, laughs and fears these are emotional responses that can rule, change and ruin our lives. Humans have the ability to express their emotions, but we also have the ability to repress those same feelings. When you see a tear drifting down someone’s cheek we understand that as a sign of sorrow, a scream as a symbol of rage or even pain, and laughter as an indication of joy. We can recognize fear, anger and sorrow, but to what level and in what situations does our society deem intense emotions appropriate? After reading many classical literary works from Ancient Greece, especially Homer’s The Odyssey, I began to wonder how emotions were viewed in Ancient Greek culture. Primarily I wondered what the attitude towards males showing sorrowful emotion was. Was public male crying appropriate in Ancient Greece, or was crying thought to be an emotion that should be kept hidden and private?
A lot of our readings this semester have revolved around the concept of “the hero”. When I entered this class, I and most likely everyone else had preconceived notions about what made a hero and what a typical hero’s characteristics were. I for one pictured the stereotypical hero who was strong, fearless, and never backed down in the face of danger. One aspect that I did not expect a hero to have, was a strong display of emotion. I realize it is human nature to show emotion, but I had never really pictured a hero such as Odysseus crying or gazing off into the distance in sorrow. With these thoughts I continued to wonder if masculine emotions were viewed in the same gender stereotypical way in Ancient Greece as they are in our modern society. Could a hero be both demonstrative and brave? Furthermore, I questioned how the Greek’s attitudes towards emotion affected the portrayal of literary characters such as our venerable Odysseus. Perhaps Homer made Odysseus cry, as well as other Greek heroes, because it was seen as okay for men to cry, or he simply wanted to relay a better emotional ideal to his audience. Crying conveys sadness on paper better then anything else that can be easily communicated as sorrow. As author Tom Lutz points out in his book entitled Crying, “Tears are so obviously there, and often so obviously significant, so clearly meant to communicate intense emotion” (Lutz 19). I muse that Homer applied the Greek outlook and practice of emotion to his characters, such as Odysseus. Then, in ways he amplified emotions such as sorrow to better get his point across in the oral recitation of The Odyssey. The views of heroes or males showing emotion in Ancient Greece were similar to our emotional views of today. However, classical writers often exaggerated these ancient outlooks and this affected how they portrayed and incorporated sorrowful emotional displays in their characters.
Across different cultures emotions are labeled and regarded in diverse ways, and Ancient Greece is no different. We have innumerable words in the English language to describe all aspects and ranges of human emotions. If you can feel it there is probably a label for it. However, the Ancient Greeks did not have a word for every human emotion, and the terms that they did have do not exactly correspond with our emotional definitions of today. Instead they had general terms that defined ranges of emotions. One such term is known as the thumos. The Ancient Greek thumos is the site where emotions take place, and it was regarded as the organ of emotion. Some relate the thumos to the common idea that the human heart is the center of all our emotions. With this being said the thumos is like the heart because it is the interior part of our being where our emotions, motivations and morals stem from. When our emotions are genuine we say that they “come from the heart”, in much the same way the thumos prompts the feeling of emotional responses. Both the desirable, pleasurable emotions of delight, gladness, and love, along with the troubling, painful emotions of sorrow, shame, and fear are housed in a person’s thumos (Homeric 1072). However, each of these emotions did not necessarily have it’s own word, or label. Ancient Greeks, particularly warrior heroes, considered their thumos to be the guiding force for their actions as well as their source of motivation. Heroes were known to say, "I was driven to fight by my thumos which was ready to undertake much with all its boldness" (Homeric 1081). Thus the thumos was a dynamic system that functioned as the core of different sensations; a repertoire of emotion. People could act on their thumos, as well as it act upon them, giving people a certain control over their emotions. The thumos was thought to be present in both men and women, however it tended to operate to a characteristic extent in the different sexes.
While the Ancient Greeks lacked specific terms to describe different sensations, they recognized categories of emotions that were typically masculine or feminine. Like our society today the Ancient Greeks considered softer emotional responses akin to love, forgiveness, and tears to be feminine, and rougher sensations such as pride, jealousy and anger to be masculine. However, the line between these gender-segregated emotions was more blurred in Ancient Greece than it is today. Heroes could be brave, strong, relentless, and audacious and yet they also were allowed to cry and have their moments of weakness. Author Barbara Koziak clarifies masculine crying in Ancient Greece in her article “Homeric Thumos: The Early History of Gender, Emotion, and Politics”, “Crying, lamentation, and what to us late- twentieth-century Westerners may appear to be excessive grieving were not limited to women. Men, even stout warriors in the prime of life, did not restrain their tears” (Homeric 1076). The men of the Homeric epics upheld this principle, while they were strong men that held great reserves of anger and bravado they were not immune to the sensation of devastating grief, which often meant crying. There existed a sense of gender emotional equity in Ancient Greek culture. Men could cry, women could be angry and seek revenge, but the way they went about showing these emotions created the rift of gender emotional display.
“In the West “emotions” are associated with the “female”, unaware of the history of male “sensibility” and its attendant weeping, unaware of the literary record of massive weeping by medieval warriors and unaware of the emotional expressivity of ancient warrior heroes like Odysseus and Aeneas” (Lutz 27). This hero sensibility was highlighted many times throughout Homer’s renowned epic The Odyssey. As aforementioned weeping to the Ancient Greeks was not an emotional response strictly reserved for women. Granted, women were often the sex that cried more frequently and more openly men, even heroes, still could shed a tear every once in a while and maintain their manhood. In ancient Greek culture both men and women were free to cry at the murder of a close relative or at reunions. For example, in The Odyssey, it was completely appropriate for Odysseus to weep when he was reunited with his son Telemakhos, his loyal dog Argos, and his beloved wife Penelope. Furthermore, while women were allowed to cry out of fear or loneliness, in Penelope’s sake she cried herself to sleep every night because she missed her husband Odysseus, men were not permitted to cry for such trivial matters. Men could cry because they missed their homeland, their duties as a ruler or leader, or if their family honor was compromised, but with all their manly gumption they did not resort to crying because they missed their spouse (Lutz 63). Additionally, men’s tears were more often a spur to action and an incentive to get up and do something to solve a problem. While women’s tears marked the end of an action and they usually were defeated by them, such as in Penelope’s case when she continually falls asleep or faints after weeping uncontrollably (Lutz 63) In these ways men in Ancient Greek culture did not have to be emotional blank slates and hide every moment of expressive weakness, but rather they could cry publically during socially accepted circumstances.
While masculine tears were accepted, the way a hero or warrior went about crying was considered a private matter. Men can cry, but as Tom Lutz points out in his book Crying they were often urged to hide their tears, “Warriors were expected to cry, but they were also expected to know when to do so alone” (Lutz 63). In this way Ancient Greek society accepted that heroes could cry, but they did not want to see them do so in public. Men could step down off their hero pedestal for a moment and shed a few bottled-up tears, but they were still expected to maintain some of their masculine pride and do their weeping in private. For example Odysseus does some private weeping of his own in Book 5 of The Odyssey, when he is stuck on Kalypso’s Island. Homer writes, “The great Odysseus, who sat apart, as a thousand times before, and racked his own heart moaning, with eyes wet scanning the bare horizon of the sea” (Odyssey 248). In this scene Odysseus is depressed because he is sick of being kept on Kalypso’s Island, he weeps because he wants to reach his dear homeland of Ithaka. However, no matter how sorrowful he is, Odysseus still refuses to cry in public, and chooses instead to sit forlornly on a rock and mournfully look out to sea when he sheds his tears. Like Odysseus’ attempt at privacy, modern performances with Kleenex, hands, and averted looks allow men to announce their private emotions publicly, but still allow them to make known those desires in ways that don’t incur the social costs associated with open tears (Lutz 295). Although emotions were labeled differently in Ancient Greece, and the line between what was considered a feminine emotion and a masculine was less concrete, the general attitude towards male emotions was much the same as our society today. Men could have emotions and cry, but they were expected to do so in private unless it was an extenuating circumstance.
Masculine crying was accepted in Ancient Greece, however there is an awful lot of crying in The Odyssey, and sometimes people may wonder, “Why all the tears?” Heroes are human too, but it would seem that Odysseus had very active tear ducks. The way masculine sorrow was viewed in Ancient Greek society effected the way that authors of the time, such as Homer, portrayed their epic heroes in their stories. Citizens in Ancient Greece did not have distinct labels for every specific emotion; in fact according to Aristotle there was no word to describe sorrow, sadness or grief (David 1). With this being said it must have been difficult for Homer to depict sadness to his audience in his epic The Odyssey. He simply could not write that Odysseus was sad, because the Greek language lacked a word to communicate to the audience the feeling of sadness. Rather, Homer had to have his hero Odysseus, and other characters, physically show the emotion, and then relate the character’s grief through those physical emotional responses. In this way Ancient writers often incorporated artistic expressions of emotion, such as crying, only in order to explain the effect of these expressions on the audience (Dana 119). For instance, in The Odyssey Homer incorporates many scenes with key characters, most often Odysseus, crying to relay to the audience Odysseus’ sadness. Such as the moving scene when Odysseus is finally reunited with his long awaited son, and they embrace and weep together in both joy and sorrow. Homer writes, “Salt tears rose from the wells of longing in both men, and cries burst from both as keen and fluttering as those of the great taloned hawk…so helplessly they cried, pouring out tears, and might have gone on weeping so till sundown” (Odyssey 411). This touching scene may seem a little over the top and move from the realm of sincerity into that of hyperbole. While heroes’ tears were technically accepted in Greek society, I believe that Homer added more crying to his epic, because crying is a universally understood emotional display of sadness and even sometimes joy. Thomas Lutz describes tears, “Tears are a kind of language, a primary, and often primal, form of communication. The language of crying can accomplish many different ends” (Lutz 24). Since Homer’s Odyssey was originally an oral epic, I believe that this only furthered his usage of weeping displays because of the lack of a Greek word for sorrow. Furthermore, if an audience is told that someone had tears gently rolling down their cheek, they are more apt to understand and feel the characters sadness, and the audience is more likely to give their sympathy. In this way the audience can more easily connect and feel Odysseus’ pain, and this only earns the character more of our respect. Crying is a vulnerable human emotion, and tears bring Odysseus down to a more relatable level and make him all the more the hero.
Emotions were put into a different light in Ancient Greece. While they did not have names for every emotion, their citizens and literary characters still felt a wide range of feeling. They housed all their emotions in their thumos, and men and women, heroes and the weak alike were all known to shed a tear every once in a while. Masculine greif was viewed in much the same way as it is in our modern society. Men, even the most valiant of heroes have the need to express their emotions, and sometimes a private tearful moment is justified. Tears do not make a hero any less heroic, and in fact the humble display of sorrow can give a hero that much more respect. Homer took this male emotional outlook and weaved it into his epic The Odyssey, and sometimes exaggerated it to convey the characters’ emotions in ways that we can better understand them. Without the words to express the feelings the physical action of crying has to work twofold to get the point across. Tears, imperfections, the ups and the downs these are all human flaws that audiences are drawn to. We understand these emotions because we have embodied them ourselves. To have a hero you can relate to makes Odysseus as well as other classical Greek heroes withstand the test of time. Homer understood the Greek attitude towards masculine emotions and used them to craft the passionate and brave Odysseus, a hero of classical antiquity.
11/18/11 Journal #13
Ball State Art Museum: A Picture's Worth a Thousand Words
Every building has it’s own story, and sometimes that story is not so easy to read at first glance. I think that the phrase, a picture is worth a thousand words, also applies to buildings. Simply looking at the exterior of a building can spark numerous thoughts, feelings, opinions and communicate a story all in one sideways glance. This is how I viewed the exterior architecture of the Ball State Museum of Art. I thought that the outside of the museum was both foreboding yet welcoming. It is a large building and its architecture relays a certain sense of respect and importance to the onlooker. The outside seems very formal, and gives me the sense that you must be important and knowledgeable to enter, which makes me wary and feel as if I do not belong. Yet, at the same time its classical style, large windows, and grand staircase leading to the front doors make it seem open and peaceful and prompt me to take a step closer; I can’t help but wonder what’s inside. As I gaze at the outside my curiosity is sparked and I can’t help but walk up those stairs to find out what is so important that is hiding behind those doors. (which I learned were donated by the Ball State University class of 1954 interesting and useless fact) For this reason I think that the Ball State Museum of Art’s exterior is both intimidating and welcoming at the exact same time.
Once you enter the sculpture court you are entering into the silent and peaceful atmosphere, and this room serves as a core for the whole museum. It would seem that all the other galleries and rooms branch off of the sculpture court, in a sort of labyrinth. Each room leads into another, and another in a series of open doorways that prompt the visitor to move freely from room to room. The feeling I got as I walked around the sculpture court were ones of elegance, peace, tranquility, and warmth. This room is mostly lit from natural light from the high windows, and the whole area is bright and inviting. The marble walls are beautiful and provide a delicate backdrop for the sculptures scattered across the area. I noticed that that sculpture court is filled with sculptures from a range of time periods, yet they all have the same general color and material. There is a sculpture of Abraham Lincoln, the goddess Diana, and a Buddha all mingling in one room. I think that this array of different sculptures gives the visitor the sense from the very beginning of the diverse topics, periods and areas of the world that are represented in this museum’s art collection. However the one piece of art that you cannot miss as you enter the museum is the large intricate sculpture hanging from the high ceiling in the sculpture court. It is entitled “Be like Water” and it is easily my favorite piece in the whole museum. I barely stepped foot into the museum when I looked up and gasped at this massive hanging sculpture. I spent about 5 minutes just walking around and looking at it from every angle, I was honestly just enthralled at its enormity. To top it off it is all made out of recyclable materials, and its peaceful and water like nature just adds to the sense of calm in the sculpture court. I think its placement in the very center of the entire museum proclaims its importance and intricate design. The large staircase branching off both left and right pulls the visitor out of the sculpture court and guides them through to the upstairs galleries.
As I wandered the galleries I paid keen attention to the environment in which the art was in. I noticed thermostats in every room and depending on the type of art in that room the temperature ranged from 70-75 degrees Fahrenheit. It was interesting to see just how controlled they kept the environments of the gallery. I also noticed that most of the galleries had white or crème walls and in these rooms were mostly painting and works of modern art. These rooms were bright, clean and simple and this really made the art stand out, instead of simply being paintings thrown on the wall. The art was the main focal point you noticed the painting on the wall and paid no attention to the wall behind the painting. While rooms with more ancient art and artifacts such as sculptures and the like has walls that were either a medium blue or a ruddy pink-rose. These rooms were not nearly as bright and the lighting just seemed more dim and somber. The art cast more shadows, and I felt like this was because the art was older and the softer lighting set a mood of reverence. Most rooms seemed to have a general theme, such as a time period or decorative art for example. While on the other hand I noticed clusters of paintings that seemed to have no common theme. Perhaps maybe they were all the same type of painting, but they had diverse themes such as grazing cows, Arabian horse riders, and a French maiden.
Overall I love the atmosphere of this art museum. I have been here one previous time, but there are so many works of art and even entire rooms I had not noticed before. The visitor simply has to take the time to look and search through the galleries, and though I have no background in art whatsoever I really enjoy looking at the pieces. My favorites would have to be portraits and landscapes. I just love looking at portraits of people and just wondering what they were like, and trying to piece together their life story from one serene and unsmiling facade. I know that art museum’s are an acquired taste, but I personally love wandering through them. My favorite would have to be the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C., I just simply love its calm and open atmosphere and its diverse and famous works of art.
11/11/11 Critical Essay Proposal
Critical Essay Proposal
A lot of our readings this semester have revolved around the concept of “the hero”. When I entered this class, I and most likely everyone else had preconceived notions about what made a hero and what a typical hero’s characteristics were. I for one pictured the stereotypical hero who was strong, brave, and never backed down in the face of danger. One aspect that I did not expect a hero to have, was a strong display of emotion. I know humans show emotion, but I had never really pictured a hero crying or gazing off into the distance in sorrow.
With that being said I want to explore either:
Topic 1: Gender Stereotypes and Emotion in Ancient Greek Society
Topic 2: What Role did emotions play in Ancient Greek Society (Politics, Daily Life, Religion,writings)
I cannot decide which direction I want to take as of yet. Whether I want to research what types and what level of public emotional display was seen as appropriate for the different gender stereotypes. Or, what types and displays of emotion were allowed in different aspects of Ancient Greek culture. Was it okay for men to cry? Could a hero/warrior be compassionate and still be fearless? In general how did the Ancient Greeks view public displays of emotion, or showing emotions in general? I may end up combining both topics into one, and explore the general opinion of emotion then for each gender stereotype. I also want to explore how these emotional ideas in Greek culture affected different aspects of life, such as politics, daily life, religion and even ancient Greek writings. Did the ideas of the time affect how literary characters were portrayed? My only hope is that I can find enough research on my topic.
11/11/11 Journal #12
America, Emotion and Understanding
I found myself thinking about three very different mini topics Friday at the end of class. My mind was all over the place and I couldn’t pick one to write about so I chose all three. First of all, at the very end of class on Friday we just started to discuss whether or not all the blood and death that had to come to pass, to found and build up Rome, were actually worth it. Was this future empire really worth all the lives lost to spark its creation? This really got me thinking, because on one standpoint I believe yes, that Rome and all its culture and ideas were worth it. While on the other hand when I think about all the bloody wars that took place and all the people who died as mere victims to the rise of Roman culture, I begin to wonder if it was it all really worth it. Does the history and innovation outweigh the death and blood lost? Then I began to think of our own country’s humble origins, and I realized that America too was founded and resulted in a lot of death, at numerous times during our history. Our country started on the account of a fight, we once split in half because of different ideas, and along the way we have aided other countries. All these have ended in war, and inevitably death. However, I believe that it was worth it for what we have today. We gained our freedom, our rights and our free will. I respect all the men and women who have given their lives for our country. Even though at times we may not all like the United States, and disagree with key issues, but deep down I think all American citizens believe that the founding of America was worth it.
Another idea I found myself pondering over, was the display of emotion in the Odyssey vs. the Aeneid. Both of the main characters, Odysseus and Aeneas, have one parent who is a god and they are heroes in their own right. However it seems that each character displays his emotion in different ways. While Homer depicts Odysseus gazing off into the distance mourning with a tear in his eye as he longs for home. Virgil lets Aeneas leave Dido and his love without much of a backwards glance. This caused me to wonder how the portrayal and view of emotional display was seen in Greek and Roman culture. This is something that I will explore in my critical essay, but I cannot help but wonder. How were emotions, specifically men, viewed in each culture. Can emotions and feelings be put before politics and the good of the people? Can a man still be “a man” and shed a tear every once in a while?
Also a smaller thing that I noticed in the Aeneid was the connection to Antigone and her reasons for burying her brother. I never realized that if someone was not properly buried, that they believed they went to the underworld and had to wait on one side of the river for 100 years. I thought Antigone’s actions were justified for her beliefs at the time when we read the work, but now it seemed to make more sense to me. I too would want my loved ones to be able to as they believed, “cross over” and not sit and wait in a type of purgatory for 100 years or until some nice passer by drops some dirt on their body.
11/4/11 Journal #11
Go with the flow, or direct the flow?
Emilie, this is an excellent summary and thinking through of these two ways of thought. [MH]
Before this weeks readings I had never really understood what exactly the ancient wisdom of China was. To me Confucius and the other philosophical leaders were just little old men with long white beards, who went around dressed up in robes giving witty advice about life situations. I assumed that these philosophies had a bigger purpose since there were and still are a lot of devote followers, but I had never really taken the chance to learn. Furthermore I did not exactly care. However after reading excerpts from the Analects, Chang Tzu and Tao Te Ching I realized that there was more of a substance to these philosophies then simple pithy tidbits of random information, that were meant to inspire.
When reading the Daoist writings and then the writings of Confucius I found it interesting how both seemed to point towards the same types of goals, peace and harmony but the ways they aimed at achieving those goals were somewhat polar opposites. The goal of Daoism is to live life through action without action, to simply live in harmony with life and follow the natural and eternal flow. Daoism is more focused on the individual and coming to be one with the Dao, through living a harmonious and simple life. While on the other hand Confucius’ teachings focused on people putting forth an effort to follow the ways of “the flow” and devoting themselves to the betterment of themselves. However, the betterment of themselves was not self driven, but Confucius focused on a person setting aside themselves for the good of the family and others. I found that I understood Confucius’ Analects better, perhaps because it was easier to follow and more applicable to life situations. The Daoist writings seemed more abstract and I did not really get a feel for what they were trying to say. I still do not really understand the action without action, is it simply just doing an action but not planning on or attempting to complete it? Is it just following the flow and letting things happen to you because of the natural way of things or fate, and not putting forth any action at all?
Perhaps that is why Confucianism resonated with me more, because I believe that you have to put forth an effort as you go through life. I believe that you can impact what happens, and you just do not go with the flow. If you just simply drifted along harmoniously sometime things are bound to back up and stop the flow, and sometimes the flow can lead you down different paths and in opposite directions. You have to have your own self control, and to effort fully devote yourself to following the flow, not just because it is the right thing to do but because you truly want to. This comes back to the idea of ritual becoming tiresome that we discussed in class on Friday. Rituals, religion and beliefs give one the basis for how they live their lives, and it is those “rituals” that promote what a person does and give them the morals that they base their actions upon. However, one must do those rituals because they genuinely want to not just because it is what they have always known. Just because they follow the flow does not mean that they really have their heart in it, they simply could be following it because it is right in front of them. I also liked how Confucius had an order of relationships. Do I think that we should have a concrete order of relationship roles in modern day? No, not exactly but I believe that within every relationship there is a balance and one person can bring out the good in others and a level of respect for one another. You have to give love to receive it, and in that lies the delicate balance of the life of the individual and the family. All my ideas are just jumbled up inside my head, and I find that my journal today is vague and sporadic. Perhaps that is because these philosophies still confuse me and I just cannot seem to grasp their full intended meaning.
10/28/11 Journal #10
What is the Good Life?
What is the good life? I feel like this is an age-old question that everyone asks themselves sometime throughout their life. Maybe one asks why don’t I have the good life? Or, do I have the good life? Everyone answers each question differently, because each individual’s view of the good life is different. As we discussed in class on Wednesday the idea of the good life is very subjective. These philosophers and writers of the text in this section may have outlined or described the good life in their own terms, and in a way that best pertained to their morals, beliefs and desires in life, but these facets may not reign true or pertain to everyone. For instance the good life could revolve around goodness to self, goodness in the service of others, pleasing others, pleasures, their connection to their god and religion and true happiness and joy. My idea of the good life will most likely be different than that of my neighbor beside me, we may have some of the same concepts, but in my opinion everyone’s ideal good life is a mixture of their personal beliefs, concepts and goals.
I noticed a major theme throughout the three readings on the good life we discussed on Wednesday. I noticed that the readings ultimately said that no one will be perfectly good all the time, and I took that to mean that truly no one can exactly achieve the perfect “good” life, but rather a modified version. In The Persian Wars Herodotus pointed out that, “no single human being is complete in every respect—something is always lacking.” To me this means that everyone is always lacking some quality or material good, so the good life is in turn not perfect, but rather a balance of good and bad. Whatever makes a specific person happy, can attribute to his or her own personal “good life”. Whether that be riches, religion, the people you are with, or simply happiness there are many routes to the so called “good life.” The good life is simply in the eye of the beholder.
I also found it interesting how Confucius taught that everyone has a little bit of wickedness within themselves, no matter how much they may abhor it no one can completely avoid wickedness. On the other hand no one can be completely good. This made me think of sin, and how Christians abhor sin, yet we do it everyday. We hate the idea that we are sinning and yet we still do it time and time again. We hate the act of sinning but love the sin. Also along the lines of goodness in everyone, it made me wonder whether or not every time people engage in service for others whether or not their heart is truly in it. Some people serve because they know it is the right thing to do and they feel inclined to partake in service because they believe it makes them a good person. While others serve to actually help those in need, with their better interests at heart. In this sense service can be both a selfless and a selfless act. This deviates from the idea of the good life, but I found it interesting and it really got me thinking about what is “good” and what is “bad”.
Finally, as a little side note I really enjoyed Plato's Apology. I loved that Socrates did not apologize for his so called transgressions at all, rather he defended his teachings and refused to deny the truth. It was amusing to picture Socrates, the bull dog faced philosopher, employing sarcasm in a court of law. He never once blamed anyone, yet he just heaped information and his own defense upon their heads. In this way he made some of his accusers look stupid in a sense. I respect him for not giving in and begging for forgiveness, and sticking to his principles and beliefs. I also enjoyed his, mockery of the court officials, it was humorous and even though it was a tad insolent it got his point across.
10/21/11 Journal #9
Midterm Reflection and Assessment
This class is what I expected, but also at the same time not exactly what I expected. I was in honors classes all throughout high school, and most were discussion based. However they were not as centered on discussion as Honors 201 is. I really enjoy this type of learning environment; one that is student discussion based, and not simply an hour of droning lecture. This may be the future teacher in me, but I feel like I learn better when I when I listen to others’ opinions and when I happen upon an idea on my own accord instead of being spoon fed the answer. I love discussions, however I am not the best active participant. I speak up from time to time, but I find that everything I want to say has been already covered in one way or another. I am just a naturally shy person and it takes me a while to warm up to a group of people. I love talking but I’m an auditory learner and I get just as much out of a discussion by sitting back quietly and listening as I do being the main contributor. Just observing is one of my favorite things to do in this course. I learn so much from everyone in the class, and I am often intrigued and blown away at the vast and diverse connections that people can make. It is great to have so many different points of view, and these differing viewpoints often help me to understand the text more and shine a light on a detail that I missed or did not realize the significance of.
One aspect of the course that I really enjoy is the weekly journals. As I said before, it is not a secret that I am not the most vocal person in the class. I have a lot of ideas and thoughts swimming around in my head, but I am the kind of person who expresses my thoughts better on paper. I like to have more time to refine my ideas before I share them and the journals have given me just that luxury. I find myself every week writing my journals and bypassing three hundred words and not even realizing it. I love to write and these journals have given me the ability to develop my ideas, and also dig deeper within the text. Another part of the class that I benefit from is the wiki. I find that I am on it everyday checking things out, and since I love writing my journals I love to read others’ and find out what they thought, and how they reacted. That is one aspect that I really appreciate, the wiki allows everyone to quickly and easily share our ideas in one central location.
I love the casual, and comfortable atmosphere of our classroom, and the small class size. We are able to discuss very deep topics, but with some sense of humor. Sometimes though I feel that we can get too casual in our discussion and drift away from the topic at hand; the text. I really enjoy the humor and our ability to poke fun at the text, but sometimes I think that as a whole we tend to focus more on the "funny"and not so much the function and meaning of the story. Though, when we do go deep in our discussion, we delve really deep into it and have some really great epiphanies that spark even more. There is a level of respect in our class and I really appreciate that. I just need to speak up and not be afraid to throw in my ideas. That is one thing that I need to improve upon, coming out of my familiar zone as the listener and becoming a speaker.
All in all I love this class, and I find that it is one of my favorites this semester. I absolutely love ancient literature and I have actually read every reading assignment. I find myself getting excited when I get to sit down and read, I really genuinely enjoy it. I’ll be honest, sometimes the readings are very lengthy and time consuming, but I nonetheless enjoy reading them. I love the topics of the literature, and the connections that we are able to make to modern themes and works.
10/14/11 Journal #8 A Family Tree turned Family Puzzle I first read Antigone my senior year in my Theatre Arts class. Since we were reading it with more of an artistic mindset, I tended to pay attention more to the idea and construction of the play rather than clueing in and dissecting key details. In summary, I did not catch all the little conflicts within the text, and dig deeper for more meaning. This second time I read the play I found myself thinking more about each character’s actions and what I would do if I were in their shoes.
I have always felt bad for Antigone, she has a lot of issues in her life and most of them are family issues. First off her father was her brother and her mother was also her grandmother, her Uncle Creon was her uncle and soon to be father in law, and to top it all off she was engaged to her cousin Haeman. Now the cousin as a fiancé part was not really an all out big deal, but her parents and all their different relational ties had to mess her up. Her mother/grandmother hung herself after she realized she married her son, and her father gouged his eyes out with the pins from his clothing when he realized he not only married his mother but had four children with her. Oh yeah, he also killed his father, there’s that too. Her father, Oedipus, then lived in exile the rest of his days, and Antigone and Ismene were with him a lot of that time. In theatre arts we drew out Antigone's family tree and goodness was it confusing. It was obviously not your typical family tree, there were random lines everywhere and it soon turned into a family puzzle rather than a easy to read pictorial description of her family. If I found it overwhelming just to look at it I cannot eve begin to imagine how confusing it was to live it. All her parents’ issues combined with the fact of her birth through incest really just mess a person up. In general she was just a big ball of issues. How does one cope with that? To be honest, I have no idea.
As we talked about in our discussion on Wednesday , we explored the idea that maybe Antigone’s motives for burying her brother were more self oriented than oriented by her love for Polynices. I used to believe that she buried her brother because she wanted him to have a peaceful burial and ensure that his soul would rest in peace. Then I began to entertain the idea, that Antigone did it simply because she wanted to die. Her life was so messed up, and maybe this was her way of finding a way out. By using her brother’s burial as an excuse she could in a sense die more easily and provide herself with a sound reason for her death. Maybe her death was a selfish or a selfless act, I really cannot decide. However, I do know that she was just a very messed up young woman and all her issues in a literal way “ruined” her life. It is also even more tragic when she dies right before her love Haemon comes to rescue her. The ending had a very Romeo and Juliet feel, where you as the reader know that if she had just waited a little while longer she could have lived. However, In Antigone's case I am not sure that living would have solved her problems, or her love for Haemon for that matter. I think that she was just too messed up for love to cure her issues. Thats a very pessimistic viewpoint, but really with all her issues I am not sure if Antigone could have ever been truly happy. There just simply is not a happily ever after option for this story.
10/13/11 Parody: Odysseus and the One-eyed Monster
Prologue
Once upon a time somewhere in a place far far away, in the middle of the bright blue ocean, beneath the even brighter blue sky, in the magical land of Ancient Greece, there lived a hero named Odysseus. Now this hero had done many incredible things, and had met many incredible people. In fact, Odysseus had the most friends out of anyone throughout the entire land of Ancient Greece, and he was very proud. He had been on many adventures and always loved making new friends, but now he was on his way home to tell his adventures to his family. He had been away from his family for more then ten years, and really missed them. On his way home poor Odysseus got lost, and did not know which way to go. So along with the help of his magical fairy godmother Athena, and the help of his many friends he got a very big boat so he could sail home. Now Odysseus was a very unlucky hero and he kept getting lost, and some of his friends told him the wrong directions to go home. So the hero Odysseus sailed the ocean for many years trying to get back home, and he had many adventures and met many interesting people. Sadly, not all the people he met became his friends; here is the story of one of his adventures.
Odysseus and the One-eyed Monster
One day while the brave and strong Odysseus was sailing the ocean in his big boat, he came upon an island. Now this island was the magical, enchanted island of the Cyclops. The Cyclops are giant people who only have one large eye, instead of two. Now the Cyclops are people who like to live alone in their large, dark, wet caves and do as they please. These one-eyed monsters do not like strangers wandering their island, and going places where they do not belong.
Odysseus knew the tales of what the Cyclops did to strangers, how people disappeared on the island and never came back, but he ignored them and decided to go ashore. He loved to make new friends, and had never been friends with a one-eyed monster before. If he was going to be the man with the most friends in all the whole land of Ancient Greece he knew he had to make friends with some Cyclops. However his crew did not want to leave the ship and make new friends, they only wanted to go home. Odysseus was the strongest hero and if he said they would go to the island in the morning, everyone would have to listen.
The next morning the Sky Fairy, named Dawn, finger-painted the sunrise with reds, pinks, and oranges. When Odysseus saw the beautiful sky he knew it was time to start sailing towards the island. He gathered presents from his ship that he could bring for his new one-eyed friends. Gifts like magical sweet soda pop, peppermints and gumdrops. No one could resist the sugary sweetness of the treats, and Odysseus was sure they would help him make friends. So, he gathered his twelve best friends and they set out towards Cyclops Island.
When the brave Odysseus and his twelve friends got to the island they could not believe their eyes. There were beautiful trees, flowers and goats everywhere. They were the prettiest goats they had ever seen, with the softest hair and biggest horns. They walked along the beach and soon found a large dark cave with a sign above it saying:
Now Polythemos was a very gigantic, lonely and socially awkward one-eyed monster. He had five warts on his face, four patches of black hair on the tippy top of his head, three big sharp teeth, two very hairy feet, and one enormous green eye in the center of his forehead. He lived all by himself in his large cave and his goats were his only friends. Now Polythemos was different than all the other Cyclops, he loved meeting strangers and his biggest dream in the whole wide world was to make some friends.
When Odysseus and his men climbed into his cave they soon realized that it was empty, and Polythemos was nowhere to be seen. However, there was so much to see within the cave. There was all different kinds of candy piled up on every wall, the cutest little baby goats in pens scattered across the floor, and lots and lots of bottles of chocolate goats milk hanging from the ceiling. Odysseus’ friends wanted to take as much candy, baby goats, and chocolate milk as they could carry and return to the ship. They didn’t care about making a new friend, but Odysseus was determined to stay and become friends with this Cyclops named Polythemos.
After what seemed like forever, but was only about five minutes, the men heard loud footsteps… BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM…. that rattled the cave walls and made them shiver with fear. They then a giant Cyclops enter the cave with five warts on his face, four patches of black hair on the tippy top of his head, three big sharp teeth, two very hairy feet, and one enormous green eye in the center of his forehead. Polythemos had returned home. He sat down on the floor with a giant THUMP, and began to pet his goats, one by one. As he was petting his last goat, he noticed the courageous Odysseus and his friends, and he smiled really wide.
“Hello there new friends!” he cried, “My name is Polythemos! What are your names? Want to be friends?” Now Odysseus was not expecting to become friends this quickly, and he was a little disappointed. He was a hero and liked to work and fight for his friendships, he had some pride and dignity. However, his men did not need to work to build a friendship and two of his best friends skipped behind Polythemos and the three of them quickly became the best of friends. This made Odysseus a little upset, because he was the one who had the most friends, and his men did not even want to come in the first place.
Odysseus now knew that the myth of Cyclops Island was indeed true. They would steal all your friends with their charming ways, and people would stay on the island forever, never to be seen again. He refused to believe it because he wanted to make a new friend and he believed that everyone was good. He was sorely mistaken. Instead of making a new friend he made two disappear. When Polythemos invited them all to stay the night in his cave, they all agreed. However, Odysseus was still upset and went to bed pouting.
The next morning the sky fairy finger-painted the sky in reds, pinks and oranges and the light from the lovely sunrise filled the cave of Polythemos. At breakfast the one-eyed Polythemos stole another two of Odysseus’ friends, and Odysseus felt as if his heart was ripped out and smashed to pieces on the cave floor. He now had four less friends than he did when he got to Cyclops Island, and he decided that something had to be done about this giant friend stealer. Odysseus was known to be the world’s best plan maker, and he sat in a dark corner of the cave where no one could see him and concocted a plan to escape the one-eyed monster’s cave. He came up with many great plans, he could thumb wrestle Polythemos, trip him, tickle him or pull his hair. However Polythemos was just too big for any of those plans to work. Then Odysseus remembered the magical sweet soda pop he had brought to the island.
A handsome prince had given Odysseus the magical sweet soda pop on one of his many adventures. Legend said that this soda pop contained a special magical chemical known as caffeine. No one could resist the caffeine’s sweetness and one small drop of the soda pop caused a magical sugar rush followed by a deep slumber. Odysseus planned to have the one-eyed monster Polythemos drink the whole bottle of soda pop, so he would fall into a deep deep sleep, so that Odysseus and his remaining friends (that had yet to be stolen by that mean Polythemos) could escape back to their ship. He also planned to glue the monster’s eye shut, so just in case the caffeine wore off Polythemos could not chase after Odysseus and his friends.
When Polythemos came back that night, Odysseus carried out his master plan. However, before he did so that dreadful, one eyed, two faced friend stealer, took another two of Odysseus’ friends during supper. He was now down six friends, and counting. This did not please brave Odysseus because the Cyclops almost had more friends than he did, and that simply would not do. At this point, Odysseus knew it was time to take action, and he did not have enough friends left to wait another minute.
After supper, Odysseus offered that one-eyed terror a cup of the magical sweet soda pop. Polythemos could not resist the sweet and delicious soda pop, and drank cup after cup until the whole bottle was empty. His cheeks turned all rosy, and he broke out in a wide grin. The magical chemical caffeine had done its job. The Cyclops had one of the worst sugar rushes ever witnessed in Ancient Greece. He ran around the cave for hours screaming, giggling, singing, dancing, and spinning in circles. Until, he suddenly fell down with a large SMACK onto the cave floor, and fell into a deep sleep. Then Odysseus glued his one large green eye shut tight, and gathered up his remaining friends to escape.
Odysseus and his men returned to their boat and prepared to set sail. Odysseus was very happy to get back to his ship where, he had so many friends. Yet he was still upset that the evil Polythemos stole six of his friends and he missed his friends very much. However he was still the hero and the winner, because in the end he had more friends than Polythemos. Odysseus was so proud of that fact that he decided to shout towards Cyclops Island, “ Hey Mr. One Eye!! I still have more friends then you do!! Nah nah nah nah nah nah nah! But you can’t do anything about it because you can’t see!! Haha you meanie head friend stealer! You can keep those six friends. I can go off tomorrow and make six more! I win, I am still the best.” Odysseus’ friends told him to be quiet and not to tease the Cyclops, to just leave him alone. Odysseus did not care, and kept yelling towards the island.
As Odysseus and his men sailed away toward more friends and adventures they could hear a loud scream from off in the distance. That scream was soon followed by the … BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM… of two very hairy feet running across the island….
THE END.
10/7/11 Journal #7
Agamemnon and the Evolution of the Hero
I found our discussion on Monday over Agamemnon to be very interesting. It was one of those discussions where you walk in with a strong opinion and set of ideals that you believe to be true. Then you listen to other people share their opinions and you begin to alter your own, and maybe even turn to the complete other side of judgment. This happened to me on a few topics we discussed, but instead of completely changing my opinions I began to ride the fence, and I could not decide either way. For instance when asked if we thought it was right for Agamemnon to kill his daughter, my initial reaction was NO of course not. I believe that killing is wrong no matter what the circumstance, and even though the gods demanded that Agamemnon sacrifice his daughter, I still believed he was an awful father for killing his own daughter. Then, in class Devin pointed out that there was a rift between what society expects of you and what would be your personal choice. When she pointed this out I began to realize that maybe Agamemnon only sacrificed his daughter because it was for the good of all his people. This may sound harsh, but I began to realize that her one life was far less than the death of thousands of people. I also came to realize that if I was in Agamemnon’s position what would I do? Naturally, I would hope that I say that I would not for any reason kill my own child, but if the gods told me to do it…and I had the weight of the world on my shoulders…it would most assuredly be a tough position and decision to make. I do not exactly condone or agree with him sacrificing his daughter, and under false pretenses no less, but I have come to understand why he did it.
Also this week during our various discussions about heroes, I began to think about the evolution of the concept of a hero in our society and around the world. Heroes were once the teachers to society; the ones who held the magic and basic intelligence needed for survival. Then it progresses towards this more literary hero ideal, the knight in shining armor that slays the dragon and rescues the damsel in distress or the Greek warrior who fought his way through epics and became a god. Also you have your religious heroes, civic heroes such as police officers and firefighters, and our legendary national heroes. Now a days though I think that societies definition of a “hero” is becoming slightly skewed. We consider celebrities, media personalities, corporation moguls, and people who are only famous “because they are famous” to be our heroes and role models. I am in no way condemning all of society to worship celebrities and view them as the role model for life, rather I have just noticed that it has become an ongoing trend that society is deeming some people heroes, when they simply do not measure up. The concept of the hero is devolving, and in general we are using the title of hero to freely in my opinion.
9/30/11 Journal #6
The Book of Job: Bad Things can Happen to Good People
The hero always comes out victorious while the villain gets just what he deserves. Bad things happen to the bad guys, and good things happen to the good guys. This is an idea that it is central to our culture. We grow up believing that nothing will happen to us if we are good and morally upstanding people. However, what happens when bad things happen to good people? Are the good people more adept to handle the bad, or do they shrink in the face of danger and loss and give up? This is one of the main ideas of the Book of Job. Job is a wealthy, devout, upstanding and God fearing man, who avoided evil. He has a good life, and loves God, but everything he loves and holds dear to his heart is quickly taken away. His life diminishes before his very eyes, and even though Satan initiated the destruction of Job’s life I believe that this was a way for God to test Job. God always does things for a purpose and with an outcome in mind, though we may not know why or what that outcome is. At first Job wishes he had never been born, then through his friends’ prodding and so called “wisdom” he begins to question why God did this to him, and he claims he is innocent of any wrong doing. It was very interesting to read about the exchange between God and Job. God never gives him a definitive answer as to why all this has happened to Job, and as we discussed in class he rather asks Job why he ever questioned him or posed the question at all. It is just interesting thinking about the “mindset” that if I am a good person nothing bad will happen to me. It really doesn’t essentially make sense because the goodness of a person does not affect the outside tragedy in their life. However we all do it, we believe that if we are good Christian people who abide to both religious and governmental laws, that we will be safe from disaster. I am not saying that this is how Job felt, but I believe that God was testing his faith to see if it was more than just skin deep. A test to see if he did not only believe in God because of his prosperous life, but if he had a strong belief within his heart. This idea of testing human beings reminded me a lot about the Greek gods. They would test to see if humans were worthy, and intervene in their lives if they deemed necessary, or simply because they felt like it. However, I get the sense that the Greek gods did not do it with a good reason all the time, they just simply were using their power as puppet masters to rule peoples lives. Maybe that is pessimistic view, but its just the vibe I get.
I also thought the video we viewed in class Friday about Greek tragedy was interesting. It was a little if not a lot strange, but it was interesting nonetheless to see how the idea and impact of tragedy has changed over the years and from culture to culture. Greek tragedy sought to explain and teach a lesson. I am not sure why but while watching the video I could not stop thinking about William Shakespeare’s quote, “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women are merely players.” Perhaps because you cannot exactly prevent all types of tragedy from happening, but I hope to explore more about Greek tragedy on Monday in class.
9/23/11 Journal #5
Creation Myths and the Human Need for Explanation
When reading all the different creation myths it got me thinking about how humans, as a whole, need to know how and why things happen. Humans have a desire and a need to explain the unexplainable. We are here on Earth and we as beings are not content with simply being here. We are uncomfortable with the unknown, and we yearn for something to believe in and some kind of direction to follow, a justification or a commonality among others to connect us to something somewhere somehow. Without a strong belief in something whether it is a religion or an ideology one can feel lost and not understand what our purpose is or why things are the way they are. Even though we cannot ever fully grasp the meaning of our existence we still strive to put it into words. I believe that is why there are so many different creation myths. So many people all across the world in different cultures and environments adapted their creation myths to what they sought in life. Also as we discussed in class Friday, they used key components in their cultures to explain the unexplainable; how the world and mankind came to be. For instance Babylonian culture was hinged on war and battle so their creation myth naturally involved concepts of combat between gods, and whether the cultures were monotheistic or polytheistic also affected how they view creation. They project the beginning or creation of Earth and mankind on their own specific culture and the details revolve around their ideals. As I said it is an innate quality of humans to want to find meaning and reason in their lives, and that causes us to look toward beliefs of creation and superior beings and find a sense of “human purpose”.
Also, I really enjoyed reading the poems by Sappho. I had never realized that there was a female poet from ancient Greek times. I had just always assumed that there would have been some, but like other female poets and authoresses before a specific time period, that they would have just used a pseudonym. However, it would seem that ancient Greek society valued women on a higher level than most ancient societies and even modern societies. Even though no one knows exactly who she was it is still intriguing that she was a women in a mans world and made such an impact. Her works were banned, and even though people did not read them she made an impact by stirring up people’s emotions and making them think. Her poems are simple and easily relatable. Even though most of her poems revolve around lesbian themes, I felt like I could reverse her poems to reflect my own emotions towards a boy I like. She simply evokes emotion and even with her "different" topics they can be relatable to many people.
9/16/11 Journal #4
The Anticipated Ending: Satisfaction, Disappointment and Respect
Pools of blood and dead bodies littered the great hall after Odysseus and his three finally succeed in their murder plot. I did not exactly expect Odysseus to give a war cry and do a happy dance after he killed them all, but yet I thought he would show some sign of triumph or pride. I found it interesting that Odysseus did not rejoice at all after the suitors were finally dead. He said to the nurse, “To glory over slain men is no piety. Destiny and the gods’ will vanquished these, and their own hardness. They respected no one, good or bad, who came their way. For this, and folly, a bad end befell them.” I believe that after his “epic adventures” he no longer takes death lightly. He saw so many of his comrades die, and often he felt at fault. He knew most times because of various prophesies that his men would die, and really he could do nothing about it, and could not help them when they needed him most. However, he justifies the suitors dying because they were awful people and led disrespectful lives. They did court his wife and take advantage of his home and forced hospitality, but deep down they were awful human beings anyway. They deserved to die regardless if he murdered them or not, the gods’ and their own faults brought about their piteous end. Therefore Odysseus neither feels joy or remorse at killing them, they deserved death, that’s that, dispose of their bodies and stench and go on with life. This lack of joy after their deaths, only makes me respect Odysseus more as a character. He knows they deserved to die, but glorying over the dead shows no virtue, and Odysseus is a man of virtue. He has had his fair share of transgressions but deep down, he is a good person in my eyes. (Very different from how he acts after defeating the cyclops. MH)
Overall, I really enjoyed reading The Odyssey. Even though some parts drug on, overall I thought it was a good read. I was actually really surprised that I had never read the epic in any of my previous English classes. I always knew the title and generally what the story was about, but I had never read even a small part. Even though I generally have praise for The Odyssey, I was heartily disappointed by the ending. To me it seemed that the books before Odysseus killed the suitors were long and overly drawn out. I understand that Homer needed to thoroughly develop Odysseus’ murderous plans to the reader, and Odysseus had to get a feel for what went on at home during his twenty-year absence. However, plot development aside the story just seemed to move very slowly and finally climax with the murder scene in the great hall. Then after the epic murder scene the story progressed too quickly for my taste, and the ending seemed abrupt and left things incomplete. I know authors often leave the ending of stories ambiguous so the reader can decide for themselves what happens, but this time the ending just really annoyed me. After all that built up to Odysseus revealing his identity and killing the suitors it simply ends with a peace treaty among the Ithikans. The ending really took my by surprise and I felt that the whole scene with Athena wanting peace came out of left field. It seemed out of place. I for one am a romantic to the core and I wanted that happy ending where Odysseus, Penelope and Tekemachus are finally reunited as a family. You would leave the book with a feeling that even though death and mourning filled the book everything was going to be okay in the end. I did not get the vibe I had longed for for the whole 24 books, and I was very disappointed. Also I found it annoying that after 20 years the nurse Eurykleia ended up revealing Odysseus’ return to Penelope rather than Odysseus himself. There was to much build up for me to simply watch the nurse spill the beans.
9/9/11 Journal # 3
Male vs. Female Roles
At a very young age society teaches children that girls and boys are different. Obviously they are biologically different, but also in a sense they are mentally different with their differing stereotypical characteristics. No matter how much we would like to deny it, there are underlying gender-defined roles in every society. Many learn to ignore or overcome these typecasts, but some simply get stuck in a role they do not want to play. The societies of Ancient Greece and Homer’s epic The Odyssey are no different. However I get a sense that there is a universal stereotypical male role, but two contrasting female roles.
Every man past and present at one time wanted to be the hero. That one guy who can outsmart anyone, has the strength of 1,000 men, has scores of war and adventure stories where they always come out on top, and is overflowing with pride and an ego to boot. Odysseus in my opinion is forever stuck in a cyclical loop of this hero role. He is victorious at Troy then begins to head home, but craves one more adventure and plunders and pillages at the city of Kicones. With that he embarks on a seemingly unending journey of trials and tasks, at some points you get the sense that he is proud of all these trials along the way and relishes in them with a heroic salute. While at others you get a feel for his human flaws with his indecisiveness, inability to follow directions, and guilt about not being at home. To me Odysseus’ journeys home from the Trojan War are synonymous to a coming of age. I believe that he matures over the course of his epic journey, and gains wisdom and a realization for what is really important in life; home, family and love. However, one would think he would learn from his mistakes, and avoid some of the story’s pitfalls, yet he keeps right on making those same mistakes. May I point out Kirke and Kalypso….you can fill in the rest. At first it was all fun and games, but now he is stuck and the thing he wants most, his home, the thing he always had is constantly just out of reach. His journey is always one step forward and two steps back. What I think Odysseus’ biggest life question is, “Can the life of a hero ever really be enough? Will one ever be completely satisfied and want and reach for nothing?” Maybe a little deep and vague, but it’s the feeling I get from him.
I just want to touch on the female roles in The Odyssey. As discussed in class I get a sense that women were both seen as manipulative and scheming, but also cunning and wise to Homer. One can only speculate as to how Homer viewed women, but I do get the overwhelming sense that he respected them. There are a lot of strong female characters in the story, Athena, Penelope, and even perhaps Kirke and Kalypso. These woman are headstrong in a man’s world. Athena being a god, is Odysseus’ voice of reason and guidance. When he has no idea which way is up she is there offering him direction. Penelope has been sitting at home for 20 years worrying about her husband, and most likely going through worst-case scenarios in her head at every given moment. He could be dead, he could be with another woman (or a few), he could be lost, or not even trying to come home at all. I respect Penelope for her faith in her husband. She loves him so much, and it takes a lot of wisdom and cunning to stave off power hungry suitors day in and day out. She is compassionate, strong willed and as I mentioned previously Odysseus’ intelligent female equal in my eyes. As discussed in class Friday, men are these stereotypical brutes, while woman are put on a higher pedestal. There exists that double standard. Men can get away with inadequacies easier then women can. Men can have mistresses, and it will be written off. Woman can have other lovers, and they are forever labeled adulterers, or they just go and off their husband as in Klytemenstra’s case. There will always be a rift between gender roles.
9/1/11 Journal # 2
Initial Thoughts on the Odyssey
I find myself enjoying the Odyssey much more than I did the Epic of Gilgamesh. It is ultimately a lot easier to understand and follow, because it has transitions and is more detailed. This enables me to become more drawn into the story, I don’t feel like an outsider looking in as I did while reading Gilgamesh. During Gilgamesh I was always confused and couldn’t exactly follow the plot line of the story, I found myself reading sections over and over again trying to make sense of them, and get a better feel for this so called “hero”. I never really understood what Gilgamesh was seeking, and in my honest opinion I wouldn’t regard him as a hero at all. To me a hero needs more than just strength, cunning, bravery, and an ultimate destiny. A hero is a very complex enigma, and in my eyes Gilgamesh never seemed to measure up.
A marriage for love is hard to come by in ancient times, and it would seem that Odysseus and Penelope have something special. After 20 years apart Penelope still remains loyal to him. Even with suitors literally sitting on her doorstep and eating her out of house and home she refuses to move on from her love, her Odysseus. Some may say that she is leading them on by weaving her tapestry by day and unweaving it by night, or that she is simply keeping them around as a sort of “plan B” if Odysseus winds up dead. However, I believe that her love and her character are deeper than that. She is in an awkward position being a “widowed” queen, but she refuses to let societies’ ideas about marriage push her into something she doesn’t want. She is the female equal of Odysseus’ cunning, strength and strategy and I highly respect her character. I also find myself drawn to the character of Odysseus, because of who I believe he is. I know very little about him besides the fact that he has been exiled on Kalypso’s island for years, and spent half of that time “consorting” in caves with the divine Kalypso herself. That is not the best reputation for any married man to have, yet for some odd reason I find myself defending him and his honor. Maybe I am just too positive or think too highly of people, but I believe that despite those years and revels with Kalypso he is still deeply in love with his dear Penelope, and that can be shown by his days of lamentation and aimlessly staring off into the distance. Speaking of his mourning, I have found it very interesting that both heroes in the ancient literature we have read have been very open with their emotions. Usually when you picture a hero you picture someone who does not cry, someone who is forever the strong, brave figure people can lean on. I think that this display of emotion just makes me like Odysseus more. It makes him more relatable as a character, more than a perfect hero who never bothers with paltry human emotions would. I also strongly agree with what Kate said in class on Friday, that these emotions make him more human, and therefore more of a hero. In this sense of human emotion and compassion I find myself overlooking Odyseuss' transgressions, and I am rooting for his homecoming and reunion with Penelope.
One little detail I noticed while reading the text is that Hermes is the only character that has spoken in rhyme. During his dialogue with Kalypso he speaks in couplets, “Now the command is: send him back in haste. His life may not in exile go to waste." This may have very little to do with the story, but it is just something little I picked up on. It somehow reminded me of characters from Shakespeare's plays. Also I still do not understand the question that I posed at the very end of class, "Why do the suiters all the sudden want to kill Telemuchas?" Maybe I am missing some key detail.
8/25/11 Journal #1
Gilgamesh Response
I am the kind of person who does not like to feel lost when reading a book, and I constantly ask myself “What, Where, Why, How” so I can make sure I understand and pick up on even the most intricate of details. However, while reading Gilgamesh I felt a little lost and sometimes could not decipher who was speaking or being spoken to. Granted, the text is over 2,000 years old and has gaps lost from time, damage, and translation, I still could not get a definitive feel for where I was in the story. The text jumps from what I consider the “real world” that Gilgamesh and Enkidu inhabit, to the “other world” of the gods. I could never fully grasp the switch between the worlds in the text, perhaps I was simply just missing something or the two worlds intertwine and are actually one in the same. Yet this story pulled me in and grabbed my attention from the beginning. It has so many themes that apply to the modern world, loss, love, friendship, dreams, and death. It is hard not to make a connection. Another aspect of Gilgamesh that really stuck out to me was the themes of destiny and fate. Gilgamesh always claims he hasn’t lived out his destiny, “I have not established my name stamped on bricks as my destiny degreed.” Like any hero in literature and history Gilgamesh wishes to make a name for himself, have a legend attached to his name, forever imprint himself in the memory of people past present and future. Despite his fervent desire to fulfill his destiny and make a name for himself, I still get the feeling that he does not quite fully understand who he is, where he belongs or even what his destiny entails. He is two thirds god and one third mortal, trapped between two worlds, and the yearning for two different lives entirely. He wants to conquer, wield power, obtain wisdom and live forever like a god, yet he wants to enjoy earthly pleasures, and explore and walk the earth with his friend and beloved brother Enkidu. In my opinion Gilgamesh is not only afraid of dying, but he is also afraid of living. He is afraid to make connections because his beloved Enkidu is now dead, and everything living must die. He asks how can he live when Enkidu is dead, yet he wants to live forever. He wants to be a hero, yet I believe he is as innocent and fragile as poor Enkidu. Gilgamesh is trapped between life and death, and destiny and fate, and I am not sure if he will ever find what he is looking for. As stated by Urshanabi the ferryman in the text, “You will never find the life for which you are searching.” Another thought that came to mind while reading Gilgamesh was whether or not he is actually a hero, perhaps only by reading the rest of the story can
Emilie Carrison's Journal
12/9/11 Journal #15: The Koran
First off, it’s rather bittersweet that this semester is ending and this is my last journal. I really enjoyed the weekly journals, and as I have said before they allow me more time to think about my opinions and ideas. In class I just am not good about making deep comments very quickly, I am the person who needs to mull over ideas and I have my best comments and philosophies on paper. All that aside, I somewhat enjoyed reading the Koran this week. I grew up in a Catholic Christian household so I believe in Jesus Christ and the teachings of the Bible. It was interesting to see what Muslims based their religion off of, and I tried to get a sense of what everything meant. That, however, I found to be very difficult. There were some passages where I could see similarities between the Bible and the Koran, but it would seem that two sentences later it was completely different. I just could not follow some of the passages, and it did not seem to flow and transition well. Again this may be because it is a series of Muhammad’s “revelations” memorized and later written down. However, in the prelude to the reading it talked about how the Koran is not organized chronologically but rather the texts or suras are organized from the longest to the shortest. To me this does not make a lot of logical sense, because in this way it is rather a smattering of ideas, rules and teachings in random order. We talked in class about how it lacked the narrative sense that the Bible has, and perhaps this format based on text length worked because it would seem that a lot of the sections of the Koran we read were simply different rules and the like. So in that case the order would not matter, nonetheless the erratic structure confused me.
As we talked about in class on Friday the Bible contains a lot of figurative language, and it would seem that the Koran’s teachings and phrases are taken rather literally. Perhaps that is why we often associate the religion of Islam with violence and terrorism. I know that every Muslim is not a terrorist, but I cannot help but be somewhat apprehensive about Islam after attacks such as September 11th. Again as we discussed in class it is often only the radicals of a group that get recognition. We see the devout radical followers and immediately catalog all followers of Islam into the violent, terrorist stereotype. That is exactly what Muslims do to Christians as well. We are all guilty of it, and it was just really interesting to see Islam in a different light. I also found it interesting, as I said in class, the diverse names that the Koran uses to refer to god. The Bible does this as well, but the usage of We, and Our in the Koran confused me and lead me to believe that We was a group of people. Initially I thought the We to be God and Muhammad, and or the Muslim people. It was just curious how they used such diverse pronouns that are plural in form, but they believed that god was one and only; to them there is no Holy trinity. I just found the use of We, Our and Us to be contradictory of their beliefs. Then again I do not know much about the Islamic religion and all these generalizations could be way off the mark.
12/2/11 Journal #14: Peer Edit
I really enjoyed reading Elizabeth’s paper. Being a girl myself I really find the topic of women’s rights to be very fascinating. American women still think that we have it tough now with certain inequalities, but these ancient women had much more to complain about. I personally cannot even imagine what it would be like to not leave the house, and be basically given to a man three times my age when I was a innocent teenager. I feel like the topic of comparing Athenian Women, Spartan Women and Women of today is very eye opening. Also in class we generally would tend to focus on the heroes of the stories, and not exactly the heroines. It was refreshing to read a paper focusing on the women in Greek culture, and to make them the center of attention.
To Elizabeth: I felt that your paper was full of thorough research and it presented a lot of relevant facts that created grounds for comparison between the two major groups of women, the Spartans and the Athenians. I also thought the way that you approached your topic was very effective. Instead of just comparing these two ancient groups, you also made connections to the women of today. For me personally as a reader this made the differences and comparisons between all groups stand out more because it was being related to the female group I know best. Perhaps you could go into more depth about the aspects that are different among the Athenian and Spartan women. For instance, you compare the age of the Spartan women to the Athenian women pointing out that the Spartan women typically marry at age 18, which is older than that of Athenian young women. Maybe just include the average age that Athenian women get married to make it easier to see a comparison between the two groups. The overall flow and transition of your paper was smooth and I felt that each paragraph got more in depth, and you got deeper into your topic, which for me in a paper is always the goal. You started general and then whittled it down into deeper connections. You did that well in your last body paragraph about modern women.
One key revision that you might consider is to add more connections to texts we have read in class. You touched a little on Penelope at the beginning, but maybe try to add some connections between other women we have read about in class. Perhaps you could talk about Sappho, Antigone or Clytemnestra and touch on their strong feminine qualities. Or perhaps provide more examples from the Odyssey highlighting the Greek view of women that Penelope portrays. There is even some good passages in Antigone where they imply that women, specifically Antigone, are beneath the men and the like. I would just suggest considering adding a paragraph making connections, or work some in in the other body paragraphs highlighting the differences and similarities. The more connections you can make the stronger your paper will be. Overall your paper was very informative and cohesive, just add a few more connections and elaborate a little more on specific examples of differences among Athenian and Spartan women.
Critical Essay 12/2/11: Masculine Tears: Attitudes Towards Emotion in Ancient Greece
Memo:
Screams, tears, laughs and fears these are emotional responses that can rule, change and ruin our lives. Humans have the ability to express their emotions, but we also have the ability to repress those same feelings. When you see a tear drifting down someone’s cheek we understand that as a sign of sorrow, a scream as a symbol of rage or even pain, and laughter as an indication of joy. We can recognize fear, anger and sorrow, but to what level and in what situations does our society deem intense emotions appropriate? After reading many classical literary works from Ancient Greece, especially Homer’s The Odyssey, I began to wonder how emotions were viewed in Ancient Greek culture. Primarily I wondered what the attitude towards males showing sorrowful emotion was. Was public male crying appropriate in Ancient Greece, or was crying thought to be an emotion that should be kept hidden and private?
A lot of our readings this semester have revolved around the concept of “the hero”. When I entered this class, I and most likely everyone else had preconceived notions about what made a hero and what a typical hero’s characteristics were. I for one pictured the stereotypical hero who was strong, fearless, and never backed down in the face of danger. One aspect that I did not expect a hero to have, was a strong display of emotion. I realize it is human nature to show emotion, but I had never really pictured a hero such as Odysseus crying or gazing off into the distance in sorrow. With these thoughts I continued to wonder if masculine emotions were viewed in the same gender stereotypical way in Ancient Greece as they are in our modern society. Could a hero be both demonstrative and brave? Furthermore, I questioned how the Greek’s attitudes towards emotion affected the portrayal of literary characters such as our venerable Odysseus. Perhaps Homer made Odysseus cry, as well as other Greek heroes, because it was seen as okay for men to cry, or he simply wanted to relay a better emotional ideal to his audience. Crying conveys sadness on paper better then anything else that can be easily communicated as sorrow. As author Tom Lutz points out in his book entitled Crying, “Tears are so obviously there, and often so obviously significant, so clearly meant to communicate intense emotion” (Lutz 19). I muse that Homer applied the Greek outlook and practice of emotion to his characters, such as Odysseus. Then, in ways he amplified emotions such as sorrow to better get his point across in the oral recitation of The Odyssey. The views of heroes or males showing emotion in Ancient Greece were similar to our emotional views of today. However, classical writers often exaggerated these ancient outlooks and this affected how they portrayed and incorporated sorrowful emotional displays in their characters.
Across different cultures emotions are labeled and regarded in diverse ways, and Ancient Greece is no different. We have innumerable words in the English language to describe all aspects and ranges of human emotions. If you can feel it there is probably a label for it. However, the Ancient Greeks did not have a word for every human emotion, and the terms that they did have do not exactly correspond with our emotional definitions of today. Instead they had general terms that defined ranges of emotions. One such term is known as the thumos. The Ancient Greek thumos is the site where emotions take place, and it was regarded as the organ of emotion. Some relate the thumos to the common idea that the human heart is the center of all our emotions. With this being said the thumos is like the heart because it is the interior part of our being where our emotions, motivations and morals stem from. When our emotions are genuine we say that they “come from the heart”, in much the same way the thumos prompts the feeling of emotional responses. Both the desirable, pleasurable emotions of delight, gladness, and love, along with the troubling, painful emotions of sorrow, shame, and fear are housed in a person’s thumos (Homeric 1072). However, each of these emotions did not necessarily have it’s own word, or label. Ancient Greeks, particularly warrior heroes, considered their thumos to be the guiding force for their actions as well as their source of motivation. Heroes were known to say, "I was driven to fight by my thumos which was ready to undertake much with all its boldness" (Homeric 1081). Thus the thumos was a dynamic system that functioned as the core of different sensations; a repertoire of emotion. People could act on their thumos, as well as it act upon them, giving people a certain control over their emotions. The thumos was thought to be present in both men and women, however it tended to operate to a characteristic extent in the different sexes.
While the Ancient Greeks lacked specific terms to describe different sensations, they recognized categories of emotions that were typically masculine or feminine. Like our society today the Ancient Greeks considered softer emotional responses akin to love, forgiveness, and tears to be feminine, and rougher sensations such as pride, jealousy and anger to be masculine. However, the line between these gender-segregated emotions was more blurred in Ancient Greece than it is today. Heroes could be brave, strong, relentless, and audacious and yet they also were allowed to cry and have their moments of weakness. Author Barbara Koziak clarifies masculine crying in Ancient Greece in her article “Homeric Thumos: The Early History of Gender, Emotion, and Politics”, “Crying, lamentation, and what to us late- twentieth-century Westerners may appear to be excessive grieving were not limited to women. Men, even stout warriors in the prime of life, did not restrain their tears” (Homeric 1076). The men of the Homeric epics upheld this principle, while they were strong men that held great reserves of anger and bravado they were not immune to the sensation of devastating grief, which often meant crying. There existed a sense of gender emotional equity in Ancient Greek culture. Men could cry, women could be angry and seek revenge, but the way they went about showing these emotions created the rift of gender emotional display.
“In the West “emotions” are associated with the “female”, unaware of the history of male “sensibility” and its attendant weeping, unaware of the literary record of massive weeping by medieval warriors and unaware of the emotional expressivity of ancient warrior heroes like Odysseus and Aeneas” (Lutz 27). This hero sensibility was highlighted many times throughout Homer’s renowned epic The Odyssey. As aforementioned weeping to the Ancient Greeks was not an emotional response strictly reserved for women. Granted, women were often the sex that cried more frequently and more openly men, even heroes, still could shed a tear every once in a while and maintain their manhood. In ancient Greek culture both men and women were free to cry at the murder of a close relative or at reunions. For example, in The Odyssey, it was completely appropriate for Odysseus to weep when he was reunited with his son Telemakhos, his loyal dog Argos, and his beloved wife Penelope. Furthermore, while women were allowed to cry out of fear or loneliness, in Penelope’s sake she cried herself to sleep every night because she missed her husband Odysseus, men were not permitted to cry for such trivial matters. Men could cry because they missed their homeland, their duties as a ruler or leader, or if their family honor was compromised, but with all their manly gumption they did not resort to crying because they missed their spouse (Lutz 63). Additionally, men’s tears were more often a spur to action and an incentive to get up and do something to solve a problem. While women’s tears marked the end of an action and they usually were defeated by them, such as in Penelope’s case when she continually falls asleep or faints after weeping uncontrollably (Lutz 63) In these ways men in Ancient Greek culture did not have to be emotional blank slates and hide every moment of expressive weakness, but rather they could cry publically during socially accepted circumstances.
While masculine tears were accepted, the way a hero or warrior went about crying was considered a private matter. Men can cry, but as Tom Lutz points out in his book Crying they were often urged to hide their tears, “Warriors were expected to cry, but they were also expected to know when to do so alone” (Lutz 63). In this way Ancient Greek society accepted that heroes could cry, but they did not want to see them do so in public. Men could step down off their hero pedestal for a moment and shed a few bottled-up tears, but they were still expected to maintain some of their masculine pride and do their weeping in private. For example Odysseus does some private weeping of his own in Book 5 of The Odyssey, when he is stuck on Kalypso’s Island. Homer writes, “The great Odysseus, who sat apart, as a thousand times before, and racked his own heart moaning, with eyes wet scanning the bare horizon of the sea” (Odyssey 248). In this scene Odysseus is depressed because he is sick of being kept on Kalypso’s Island, he weeps because he wants to reach his dear homeland of Ithaka. However, no matter how sorrowful he is, Odysseus still refuses to cry in public, and chooses instead to sit forlornly on a rock and mournfully look out to sea when he sheds his tears. Like Odysseus’ attempt at privacy, modern performances with Kleenex, hands, and averted looks allow men to announce their private emotions publicly, but still allow them to make known those desires in ways that don’t incur the social costs associated with open tears (Lutz 295). Although emotions were labeled differently in Ancient Greece, and the line between what was considered a feminine emotion and a masculine was less concrete, the general attitude towards male emotions was much the same as our society today. Men could have emotions and cry, but they were expected to do so in private unless it was an extenuating circumstance.
Masculine crying was accepted in Ancient Greece, however there is an awful lot of crying in The Odyssey, and sometimes people may wonder, “Why all the tears?” Heroes are human too, but it would seem that Odysseus had very active tear ducks. The way masculine sorrow was viewed in Ancient Greek society effected the way that authors of the time, such as Homer, portrayed their epic heroes in their stories. Citizens in Ancient Greece did not have distinct labels for every specific emotion; in fact according to Aristotle there was no word to describe sorrow, sadness or grief (David 1). With this being said it must have been difficult for Homer to depict sadness to his audience in his epic The Odyssey. He simply could not write that Odysseus was sad, because the Greek language lacked a word to communicate to the audience the feeling of sadness. Rather, Homer had to have his hero Odysseus, and other characters, physically show the emotion, and then relate the character’s grief through those physical emotional responses. In this way Ancient writers often incorporated artistic expressions of emotion, such as crying, only in order to explain the effect of these expressions on the audience (Dana 119). For instance, in The Odyssey Homer incorporates many scenes with key characters, most often Odysseus, crying to relay to the audience Odysseus’ sadness. Such as the moving scene when Odysseus is finally reunited with his long awaited son, and they embrace and weep together in both joy and sorrow. Homer writes, “Salt tears rose from the wells of longing in both men, and cries burst from both as keen and fluttering as those of the great taloned hawk…so helplessly they cried, pouring out tears, and might have gone on weeping so till sundown” (Odyssey 411). This touching scene may seem a little over the top and move from the realm of sincerity into that of hyperbole. While heroes’ tears were technically accepted in Greek society, I believe that Homer added more crying to his epic, because crying is a universally understood emotional display of sadness and even sometimes joy. Thomas Lutz describes tears, “Tears are a kind of language, a primary, and often primal, form of communication. The language of crying can accomplish many different ends” (Lutz 24). Since Homer’s Odyssey was originally an oral epic, I believe that this only furthered his usage of weeping displays because of the lack of a Greek word for sorrow. Furthermore, if an audience is told that someone had tears gently rolling down their cheek, they are more apt to understand and feel the characters sadness, and the audience is more likely to give their sympathy. In this way the audience can more easily connect and feel Odysseus’ pain, and this only earns the character more of our respect. Crying is a vulnerable human emotion, and tears bring Odysseus down to a more relatable level and make him all the more the hero.
Emotions were put into a different light in Ancient Greece. While they did not have names for every emotion, their citizens and literary characters still felt a wide range of feeling. They housed all their emotions in their thumos, and men and women, heroes and the weak alike were all known to shed a tear every once in a while. Masculine greif was viewed in much the same way as it is in our modern society. Men, even the most valiant of heroes have the need to express their emotions, and sometimes a private tearful moment is justified. Tears do not make a hero any less heroic, and in fact the humble display of sorrow can give a hero that much more respect. Homer took this male emotional outlook and weaved it into his epic The Odyssey, and sometimes exaggerated it to convey the characters’ emotions in ways that we can better understand them. Without the words to express the feelings the physical action of crying has to work twofold to get the point across. Tears, imperfections, the ups and the downs these are all human flaws that audiences are drawn to. We understand these emotions because we have embodied them ourselves. To have a hero you can relate to makes Odysseus as well as other classical Greek heroes withstand the test of time. Homer understood the Greek attitude towards masculine emotions and used them to craft the passionate and brave Odysseus, a hero of classical antiquity.
11/18/11 Journal #13
Ball State Art Museum: A Picture's Worth a Thousand Words
Every building has it’s own story, and sometimes that story is not so easy to read at first glance. I think that the phrase, a picture is worth a thousand words, also applies to buildings. Simply looking at the exterior of a building can spark numerous thoughts, feelings, opinions and communicate a story all in one sideways glance. This is how I viewed the exterior architecture of the Ball State Museum of Art. I thought that the outside of the museum was both foreboding yet welcoming. It is a large building and its architecture relays a certain sense of respect and importance to the onlooker. The outside seems very formal, and gives me the sense that you must be important and knowledgeable to enter, which makes me wary and feel as if I do not belong. Yet, at the same time its classical style, large windows, and grand staircase leading to the front doors make it seem open and peaceful and prompt me to take a step closer; I can’t help but wonder what’s inside. As I gaze at the outside my curiosity is sparked and I can’t help but walk up those stairs to find out what is so important that is hiding behind those doors. (which I learned were donated by the Ball State University class of 1954 interesting and useless fact) For this reason I think that the Ball State Museum of Art’s exterior is both intimidating and welcoming at the exact same time.
Once you enter the sculpture court you are entering into the silent and peaceful atmosphere, and this room serves as a core for the whole museum. It would seem that all the other galleries and rooms branch off of the sculpture court, in a sort of labyrinth. Each room leads into another, and another in a series of open doorways that prompt the visitor to move freely from room to room. The feeling I got as I walked around the sculpture court were ones of elegance, peace, tranquility, and warmth. This room is mostly lit from natural light from the high windows, and the whole area is bright and inviting. The marble walls are beautiful and provide a delicate backdrop for the sculptures scattered across the area. I noticed that that sculpture court is filled with sculptures from a range of time periods, yet they all have the same general color and material. There is a sculpture of Abraham Lincoln, the goddess Diana, and a Buddha all mingling in one room. I think that this array of different sculptures gives the visitor the sense from the very beginning of the diverse topics, periods and areas of the world that are represented in this museum’s art collection. However the one piece of art that you cannot miss as you enter the museum is the large intricate sculpture hanging from the high ceiling in the sculpture court. It is entitled “Be like Water” and it is easily my favorite piece in the whole museum. I barely stepped foot into the museum when I looked up and gasped at this massive hanging sculpture. I spent about 5 minutes just walking around and looking at it from every angle, I was honestly just enthralled at its enormity. To top it off it is all made out of recyclable materials, and its peaceful and water like nature just adds to the sense of calm in the sculpture court. I think its placement in the very center of the entire museum proclaims its importance and intricate design. The large staircase branching off both left and right pulls the visitor out of the sculpture court and guides them through to the upstairs galleries.
As I wandered the galleries I paid keen attention to the environment in which the art was in. I noticed thermostats in every room and depending on the type of art in that room the temperature ranged from 70-75 degrees Fahrenheit. It was interesting to see just how controlled they kept the environments of the gallery. I also noticed that most of the galleries had white or crème walls and in these rooms were mostly painting and works of modern art. These rooms were bright, clean and simple and this really made the art stand out, instead of simply being paintings thrown on the wall. The art was the main focal point you noticed the painting on the wall and paid no attention to the wall behind the painting. While rooms with more ancient art and artifacts such as sculptures and the like has walls that were either a medium blue or a ruddy pink-rose. These rooms were not nearly as bright and the lighting just seemed more dim and somber. The art cast more shadows, and I felt like this was because the art was older and the softer lighting set a mood of reverence. Most rooms seemed to have a general theme, such as a time period or decorative art for example. While on the other hand I noticed clusters of paintings that seemed to have no common theme. Perhaps maybe they were all the same type of painting, but they had diverse themes such as grazing cows, Arabian horse riders, and a French maiden.
Overall I love the atmosphere of this art museum. I have been here one previous time, but there are so many works of art and even entire rooms I had not noticed before. The visitor simply has to take the time to look and search through the galleries, and though I have no background in art whatsoever I really enjoy looking at the pieces. My favorites would have to be portraits and landscapes. I just love looking at portraits of people and just wondering what they were like, and trying to piece together their life story from one serene and unsmiling facade. I know that art museum’s are an acquired taste, but I personally love wandering through them. My favorite would have to be the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C., I just simply love its calm and open atmosphere and its diverse and famous works of art.
11/11/11 Critical Essay Proposal
Critical Essay Proposal
A lot of our readings this semester have revolved around the concept of “the hero”. When I entered this class, I and most likely everyone else had preconceived notions about what made a hero and what a typical hero’s characteristics were. I for one pictured the stereotypical hero who was strong, brave, and never backed down in the face of danger. One aspect that I did not expect a hero to have, was a strong display of emotion. I know humans show emotion, but I had never really pictured a hero crying or gazing off into the distance in sorrow.
With that being said I want to explore either:
Topic 1: Gender Stereotypes and Emotion in Ancient Greek Society
Topic 2: What Role did emotions play in Ancient Greek Society (Politics, Daily Life, Religion,writings)
I cannot decide which direction I want to take as of yet. Whether I want to research what types and what level of public emotional display was seen as appropriate for the different gender stereotypes. Or, what types and displays of emotion were allowed in different aspects of Ancient Greek culture. Was it okay for men to cry? Could a hero/warrior be compassionate and still be fearless? In general how did the Ancient Greeks view public displays of emotion, or showing emotions in general? I may end up combining both topics into one, and explore the general opinion of emotion then for each gender stereotype. I also want to explore how these emotional ideas in Greek culture affected different aspects of life, such as politics, daily life, religion and even ancient Greek writings. Did the ideas of the time affect how literary characters were portrayed? My only hope is that I can find enough research on my topic.
11/11/11 Journal #12
America, Emotion and Understanding
I found myself thinking about three very different mini topics Friday at the end of class. My mind was all over the place and I couldn’t pick one to write about so I chose all three. First of all, at the very end of class on Friday we just started to discuss whether or not all the blood and death that had to come to pass, to found and build up Rome, were actually worth it. Was this future empire really worth all the lives lost to spark its creation? This really got me thinking, because on one standpoint I believe yes, that Rome and all its culture and ideas were worth it. While on the other hand when I think about all the bloody wars that took place and all the people who died as mere victims to the rise of Roman culture, I begin to wonder if it was it all really worth it. Does the history and innovation outweigh the death and blood lost? Then I began to think of our own country’s humble origins, and I realized that America too was founded and resulted in a lot of death, at numerous times during our history. Our country started on the account of a fight, we once split in half because of different ideas, and along the way we have aided other countries. All these have ended in war, and inevitably death. However, I believe that it was worth it for what we have today. We gained our freedom, our rights and our free will. I respect all the men and women who have given their lives for our country. Even though at times we may not all like the United States, and disagree with key issues, but deep down I think all American citizens believe that the founding of America was worth it.
Another idea I found myself pondering over, was the display of emotion in the Odyssey vs. the Aeneid. Both of the main characters, Odysseus and Aeneas, have one parent who is a god and they are heroes in their own right. However it seems that each character displays his emotion in different ways. While Homer depicts Odysseus gazing off into the distance mourning with a tear in his eye as he longs for home. Virgil lets Aeneas leave Dido and his love without much of a backwards glance. This caused me to wonder how the portrayal and view of emotional display was seen in Greek and Roman culture. This is something that I will explore in my critical essay, but I cannot help but wonder. How were emotions, specifically men, viewed in each culture. Can emotions and feelings be put before politics and the good of the people? Can a man still be “a man” and shed a tear every once in a while?
Also a smaller thing that I noticed in the Aeneid was the connection to Antigone and her reasons for burying her brother. I never realized that if someone was not properly buried, that they believed they went to the underworld and had to wait on one side of the river for 100 years. I thought Antigone’s actions were justified for her beliefs at the time when we read the work, but now it seemed to make more sense to me. I too would want my loved ones to be able to as they believed, “cross over” and not sit and wait in a type of purgatory for 100 years or until some nice passer by drops some dirt on their body.
11/4/11 Journal #11
Go with the flow, or direct the flow?
Emilie, this is an excellent summary and thinking through of these two ways of thought. [MH]
Before this weeks readings I had never really understood what exactly the ancient wisdom of China was. To me Confucius and the other philosophical leaders were just little old men with long white beards, who went around dressed up in robes giving witty advice about life situations. I assumed that these philosophies had a bigger purpose since there were and still are a lot of devote followers, but I had never really taken the chance to learn. Furthermore I did not exactly care. However after reading excerpts from the Analects, Chang Tzu and Tao Te Ching I realized that there was more of a substance to these philosophies then simple pithy tidbits of random information, that were meant to inspire.
When reading the Daoist writings and then the writings of Confucius I found it interesting how both seemed to point towards the same types of goals, peace and harmony but the ways they aimed at achieving those goals were somewhat polar opposites. The goal of Daoism is to live life through action without action, to simply live in harmony with life and follow the natural and eternal flow. Daoism is more focused on the individual and coming to be one with the Dao, through living a harmonious and simple life. While on the other hand Confucius’ teachings focused on people putting forth an effort to follow the ways of “the flow” and devoting themselves to the betterment of themselves. However, the betterment of themselves was not self driven, but Confucius focused on a person setting aside themselves for the good of the family and others. I found that I understood Confucius’ Analects better, perhaps because it was easier to follow and more applicable to life situations. The Daoist writings seemed more abstract and I did not really get a feel for what they were trying to say. I still do not really understand the action without action, is it simply just doing an action but not planning on or attempting to complete it? Is it just following the flow and letting things happen to you because of the natural way of things or fate, and not putting forth any action at all?
Perhaps that is why Confucianism resonated with me more, because I believe that you have to put forth an effort as you go through life. I believe that you can impact what happens, and you just do not go with the flow. If you just simply drifted along harmoniously sometime things are bound to back up and stop the flow, and sometimes the flow can lead you down different paths and in opposite directions. You have to have your own self control, and to effort fully devote yourself to following the flow, not just because it is the right thing to do but because you truly want to. This comes back to the idea of ritual becoming tiresome that we discussed in class on Friday. Rituals, religion and beliefs give one the basis for how they live their lives, and it is those “rituals” that promote what a person does and give them the morals that they base their actions upon. However, one must do those rituals because they genuinely want to not just because it is what they have always known. Just because they follow the flow does not mean that they really have their heart in it, they simply could be following it because it is right in front of them. I also liked how Confucius had an order of relationships. Do I think that we should have a concrete order of relationship roles in modern day? No, not exactly but I believe that within every relationship there is a balance and one person can bring out the good in others and a level of respect for one another. You have to give love to receive it, and in that lies the delicate balance of the life of the individual and the family. All my ideas are just jumbled up inside my head, and I find that my journal today is vague and sporadic. Perhaps that is because these philosophies still confuse me and I just cannot seem to grasp their full intended meaning.
10/28/11 Journal #10
What is the Good Life?
What is the good life? I feel like this is an age-old question that everyone asks themselves sometime throughout their life. Maybe one asks why don’t I have the good life? Or, do I have the good life? Everyone answers each question differently, because each individual’s view of the good life is different. As we discussed in class on Wednesday the idea of the good life is very subjective. These philosophers and writers of the text in this section may have outlined or described the good life in their own terms, and in a way that best pertained to their morals, beliefs and desires in life, but these facets may not reign true or pertain to everyone. For instance the good life could revolve around goodness to self, goodness in the service of others, pleasing others, pleasures, their connection to their god and religion and true happiness and joy. My idea of the good life will most likely be different than that of my neighbor beside me, we may have some of the same concepts, but in my opinion everyone’s ideal good life is a mixture of their personal beliefs, concepts and goals.I noticed a major theme throughout the three readings on the good life we discussed on Wednesday. I noticed that the readings ultimately said that no one will be perfectly good all the time, and I took that to mean that truly no one can exactly achieve the perfect “good” life, but rather a modified version. In The Persian Wars Herodotus pointed out that, “no single human being is complete in every respect—something is always lacking.” To me this means that everyone is always lacking some quality or material good, so the good life is in turn not perfect, but rather a balance of good and bad. Whatever makes a specific person happy, can attribute to his or her own personal “good life”. Whether that be riches, religion, the people you are with, or simply happiness there are many routes to the so called “good life.” The good life is simply in the eye of the beholder.
I also found it interesting how Confucius taught that everyone has a little bit of wickedness within themselves, no matter how much they may abhor it no one can completely avoid wickedness. On the other hand no one can be completely good. This made me think of sin, and how Christians abhor sin, yet we do it everyday. We hate the idea that we are sinning and yet we still do it time and time again. We hate the act of sinning but love the sin. Also along the lines of goodness in everyone, it made me wonder whether or not every time people engage in service for others whether or not their heart is truly in it. Some people serve because they know it is the right thing to do and they feel inclined to partake in service because they believe it makes them a good person. While others serve to actually help those in need, with their better interests at heart. In this sense service can be both a selfless and a selfless act. This deviates from the idea of the good life, but I found it interesting and it really got me thinking about what is “good” and what is “bad”.
Finally, as a little side note I really enjoyed Plato's Apology. I loved that Socrates did not apologize for his so called transgressions at all, rather he defended his teachings and refused to deny the truth. It was amusing to picture Socrates, the bull dog faced philosopher, employing sarcasm in a court of law. He never once blamed anyone, yet he just heaped information and his own defense upon their heads. In this way he made some of his accusers look stupid in a sense. I respect him for not giving in and begging for forgiveness, and sticking to his principles and beliefs. I also enjoyed his, mockery of the court officials, it was humorous and even though it was a tad insolent it got his point across.
10/21/11 Journal #9
Midterm Reflection and Assessment
This class is what I expected, but also at the same time not exactly what I expected. I was in honors classes all throughout high school, and most were discussion based. However they were not as centered on discussion as Honors 201 is. I really enjoy this type of learning environment; one that is student discussion based, and not simply an hour of droning lecture. This may be the future teacher in me, but I feel like I learn better when I when I listen to others’ opinions and when I happen upon an idea on my own accord instead of being spoon fed the answer. I love discussions, however I am not the best active participant. I speak up from time to time, but I find that everything I want to say has been already covered in one way or another. I am just a naturally shy person and it takes me a while to warm up to a group of people. I love talking but I’m an auditory learner and I get just as much out of a discussion by sitting back quietly and listening as I do being the main contributor. Just observing is one of my favorite things to do in this course. I learn so much from everyone in the class, and I am often intrigued and blown away at the vast and diverse connections that people can make. It is great to have so many different points of view, and these differing viewpoints often help me to understand the text more and shine a light on a detail that I missed or did not realize the significance of.One aspect of the course that I really enjoy is the weekly journals. As I said before, it is not a secret that I am not the most vocal person in the class. I have a lot of ideas and thoughts swimming around in my head, but I am the kind of person who expresses my thoughts better on paper. I like to have more time to refine my ideas before I share them and the journals have given me just that luxury. I find myself every week writing my journals and bypassing three hundred words and not even realizing it. I love to write and these journals have given me the ability to develop my ideas, and also dig deeper within the text. Another part of the class that I benefit from is the wiki. I find that I am on it everyday checking things out, and since I love writing my journals I love to read others’ and find out what they thought, and how they reacted. That is one aspect that I really appreciate, the wiki allows everyone to quickly and easily share our ideas in one central location.
I love the casual, and comfortable atmosphere of our classroom, and the small class size. We are able to discuss very deep topics, but with some sense of humor. Sometimes though I feel that we can get too casual in our discussion and drift away from the topic at hand; the text. I really enjoy the humor and our ability to poke fun at the text, but sometimes I think that as a whole we tend to focus more on the "funny"and not so much the function and meaning of the story. Though, when we do go deep in our discussion, we delve really deep into it and have some really great epiphanies that spark even more. There is a level of respect in our class and I really appreciate that. I just need to speak up and not be afraid to throw in my ideas. That is one thing that I need to improve upon, coming out of my familiar zone as the listener and becoming a speaker.
All in all I love this class, and I find that it is one of my favorites this semester. I absolutely love ancient literature and I have actually read every reading assignment. I find myself getting excited when I get to sit down and read, I really genuinely enjoy it. I’ll be honest, sometimes the readings are very lengthy and time consuming, but I nonetheless enjoy reading them. I love the topics of the literature, and the connections that we are able to make to modern themes and works.
10/14/11 Journal #8
A Family Tree turned Family Puzzle
I first read Antigone my senior year in my Theatre Arts class. Since we were reading it with more of an artistic mindset, I tended to pay attention more to the idea and construction of the play rather than clueing in and dissecting key details. In summary, I did not catch all the little conflicts within the text, and dig deeper for more meaning. This second time I read the play I found myself thinking more about each character’s actions and what I would do if I were in their shoes.
I have always felt bad for Antigone, she has a lot of issues in her life and most of them are family issues. First off her father was her brother and her mother was also her grandmother, her Uncle Creon was her uncle and soon to be father in law, and to top it all off she was engaged to her cousin Haeman. Now the cousin as a fiancé part was not really an all out big deal, but her parents and all their different relational ties had to mess her up. Her mother/grandmother hung herself after she realized she married her son, and her father gouged his eyes out with the pins from his clothing when he realized he not only married his mother but had four children with her. Oh yeah, he also killed his father, there’s that too. Her father, Oedipus, then lived in exile the rest of his days, and Antigone and Ismene were with him a lot of that time. In theatre arts we drew out Antigone's family tree and goodness was it confusing. It was obviously not your typical family tree, there were random lines everywhere and it soon turned into a family puzzle rather than a easy to read pictorial description of her family. If I found it overwhelming just to look at it I cannot eve begin to imagine how confusing it was to live it. All her parents’ issues combined with the fact of her birth through incest really just mess a person up. In general she was just a big ball of issues. How does one cope with that? To be honest, I have no idea.
As we talked about in our discussion on Wednesday , we explored the idea that maybe Antigone’s motives for burying her brother were more self oriented than oriented by her love for Polynices. I used to believe that she buried her brother because she wanted him to have a peaceful burial and ensure that his soul would rest in peace. Then I began to entertain the idea, that Antigone did it simply because she wanted to die. Her life was so messed up, and maybe this was her way of finding a way out. By using her brother’s burial as an excuse she could in a sense die more easily and provide herself with a sound reason for her death. Maybe her death was a selfish or a selfless act, I really cannot decide. However, I do know that she was just a very messed up young woman and all her issues in a literal way “ruined” her life. It is also even more tragic when she dies right before her love Haemon comes to rescue her. The ending had a very Romeo and Juliet feel, where you as the reader know that if she had just waited a little while longer she could have lived. However, In Antigone's case I am not sure that living would have solved her problems, or her love for Haemon for that matter. I think that she was just too messed up for love to cure her issues. Thats a very pessimistic viewpoint, but really with all her issues I am not sure if Antigone could have ever been truly happy. There just simply is not a happily ever after option for this story.
10/13/11 Parody: Odysseus and the One-eyed Monster
Prologue
Once upon a time somewhere in a place far far away, in the middle of the bright blue ocean, beneath the even brighter blue sky, in the magical land of Ancient Greece, there lived a hero named Odysseus. Now this hero had done many incredible things, and had met many incredible people. In fact, Odysseus had the most friends out of anyone throughout the entire land of Ancient Greece, and he was very proud. He had been on many adventures and always loved making new friends, but now he was on his way home to tell his adventures to his family. He had been away from his family for more then ten years, and really missed them. On his way home poor Odysseus got lost, and did not know which way to go. So along with the help of his magical fairy godmother Athena, and the help of his many friends he got a very big boat so he could sail home. Now Odysseus was a very unlucky hero and he kept getting lost, and some of his friends told him the wrong directions to go home. So the hero Odysseus sailed the ocean for many years trying to get back home, and he had many adventures and met many interesting people. Sadly, not all the people he met became his friends; here is the story of one of his adventures.
Odysseus and the One-eyed Monster
One day while the brave and strong Odysseus was sailing the ocean in his big boat, he came upon an island. Now this island was the magical, enchanted island of the Cyclops. The Cyclops are giant people who only have one large eye, instead of two. Now the Cyclops are people who like to live alone in their large, dark, wet caves and do as they please. These one-eyed monsters do not like strangers wandering their island, and going places where they do not belong.
Odysseus knew the tales of what the Cyclops did to strangers, how people disappeared on the island and never came back, but he ignored them and decided to go ashore. He loved to make new friends, and had never been friends with a one-eyed monster before. If he was going to be the man with the most friends in all the whole land of Ancient Greece he knew he had to make friends with some Cyclops. However his crew did not want to leave the ship and make new friends, they only wanted to go home. Odysseus was the strongest hero and if he said they would go to the island in the morning, everyone would have to listen.
The next morning the Sky Fairy, named Dawn, finger-painted the sunrise with reds, pinks, and oranges. When Odysseus saw the beautiful sky he knew it was time to start sailing towards the island. He gathered presents from his ship that he could bring for his new one-eyed friends. Gifts like magical sweet soda pop, peppermints and gumdrops. No one could resist the sugary sweetness of the treats, and Odysseus was sure they would help him make friends. So, he gathered his twelve best friends and they set out towards Cyclops Island.
When the brave Odysseus and his twelve friends got to the island they could not believe their eyes. There were beautiful trees, flowers and goats everywhere. They were the prettiest goats they had ever seen, with the softest hair and biggest horns. They walked along the beach and soon found a large dark cave with a sign above it saying:
Now Polythemos was a very gigantic, lonely and socially awkward one-eyed monster. He had five warts on his face, four patches of black hair on the tippy top of his head, three big sharp teeth, two very hairy feet, and one enormous green eye in the center of his forehead. He lived all by himself in his large cave and his goats were his only friends. Now Polythemos was different than all the other Cyclops, he loved meeting strangers and his biggest dream in the whole wide world was to make some friends.
When Odysseus and his men climbed into his cave they soon realized that it was empty, and Polythemos was nowhere to be seen. However, there was so much to see within the cave. There was all different kinds of candy piled up on every wall, the cutest little baby goats in pens scattered across the floor, and lots and lots of bottles of chocolate goats milk hanging from the ceiling. Odysseus’ friends wanted to take as much candy, baby goats, and chocolate milk as they could carry and return to the ship. They didn’t care about making a new friend, but Odysseus was determined to stay and become friends with this Cyclops named Polythemos.
After what seemed like forever, but was only about five minutes, the men heard loud footsteps… BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM…. that rattled the cave walls and made them shiver with fear. They then a giant Cyclops enter the cave with five warts on his face, four patches of black hair on the tippy top of his head, three big sharp teeth, two very hairy feet, and one enormous green eye in the center of his forehead. Polythemos had returned home. He sat down on the floor with a giant THUMP, and began to pet his goats, one by one. As he was petting his last goat, he noticed the courageous Odysseus and his friends, and he smiled really wide.
“Hello there new friends!” he cried, “My name is Polythemos! What are your names? Want to be friends?” Now Odysseus was not expecting to become friends this quickly, and he was a little disappointed. He was a hero and liked to work and fight for his friendships, he had some pride and dignity. However, his men did not need to work to build a friendship and two of his best friends skipped behind Polythemos and the three of them quickly became the best of friends. This made Odysseus a little upset, because he was the one who had the most friends, and his men did not even want to come in the first place.
Odysseus now knew that the myth of Cyclops Island was indeed true. They would steal all your friends with their charming ways, and people would stay on the island forever, never to be seen again. He refused to believe it because he wanted to make a new friend and he believed that everyone was good. He was sorely mistaken. Instead of making a new friend he made two disappear. When Polythemos invited them all to stay the night in his cave, they all agreed. However, Odysseus was still upset and went to bed pouting.
The next morning the sky fairy finger-painted the sky in reds, pinks and oranges and the light from the lovely sunrise filled the cave of Polythemos. At breakfast the one-eyed Polythemos stole another two of Odysseus’ friends, and Odysseus felt as if his heart was ripped out and smashed to pieces on the cave floor. He now had four less friends than he did when he got to Cyclops Island, and he decided that something had to be done about this giant friend stealer. Odysseus was known to be the world’s best plan maker, and he sat in a dark corner of the cave where no one could see him and concocted a plan to escape the one-eyed monster’s cave. He came up with many great plans, he could thumb wrestle Polythemos, trip him, tickle him or pull his hair. However Polythemos was just too big for any of those plans to work. Then Odysseus remembered the magical sweet soda pop he had brought to the island.
A handsome prince had given Odysseus the magical sweet soda pop on one of his many adventures. Legend said that this soda pop contained a special magical chemical known as caffeine. No one could resist the caffeine’s sweetness and one small drop of the soda pop caused a magical sugar rush followed by a deep slumber. Odysseus planned to have the one-eyed monster Polythemos drink the whole bottle of soda pop, so he would fall into a deep deep sleep, so that Odysseus and his remaining friends (that had yet to be stolen by that mean Polythemos) could escape back to their ship. He also planned to glue the monster’s eye shut, so just in case the caffeine wore off Polythemos could not chase after Odysseus and his friends.
When Polythemos came back that night, Odysseus carried out his master plan. However, before he did so that dreadful, one eyed, two faced friend stealer, took another two of Odysseus’ friends during supper. He was now down six friends, and counting. This did not please brave Odysseus because the Cyclops almost had more friends than he did, and that simply would not do. At this point, Odysseus knew it was time to take action, and he did not have enough friends left to wait another minute.
After supper, Odysseus offered that one-eyed terror a cup of the magical sweet soda pop. Polythemos could not resist the sweet and delicious soda pop, and drank cup after cup until the whole bottle was empty. His cheeks turned all rosy, and he broke out in a wide grin. The magical chemical caffeine had done its job. The Cyclops had one of the worst sugar rushes ever witnessed in Ancient Greece. He ran around the cave for hours screaming, giggling, singing, dancing, and spinning in circles. Until, he suddenly fell down with a large SMACK onto the cave floor, and fell into a deep sleep. Then Odysseus glued his one large green eye shut tight, and gathered up his remaining friends to escape.
Odysseus and his men returned to their boat and prepared to set sail. Odysseus was very happy to get back to his ship where, he had so many friends. Yet he was still upset that the evil Polythemos stole six of his friends and he missed his friends very much. However he was still the hero and the winner, because in the end he had more friends than Polythemos. Odysseus was so proud of that fact that he decided to shout towards Cyclops Island, “ Hey Mr. One Eye!! I still have more friends then you do!! Nah nah nah nah nah nah nah! But you can’t do anything about it because you can’t see!! Haha you meanie head friend stealer! You can keep those six friends. I can go off tomorrow and make six more! I win, I am still the best.” Odysseus’ friends told him to be quiet and not to tease the Cyclops, to just leave him alone. Odysseus did not care, and kept yelling towards the island.
As Odysseus and his men sailed away toward more friends and adventures they could hear a loud scream from off in the distance. That scream was soon followed by the … BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM… of two very hairy feet running across the island….
THE END.
10/7/11 Journal #7
Agamemnon and the Evolution of the Hero
I found our discussion on Monday over Agamemnon to be very interesting. It was one of those discussions where you walk in with a strong opinion and set of ideals that you believe to be true. Then you listen to other people share their opinions and you begin to alter your own, and maybe even turn to the complete other side of judgment. This happened to me on a few topics we discussed, but instead of completely changing my opinions I began to ride the fence, and I could not decide either way. For instance when asked if we thought it was right for Agamemnon to kill his daughter, my initial reaction was NO of course not. I believe that killing is wrong no matter what the circumstance, and even though the gods demanded that Agamemnon sacrifice his daughter, I still believed he was an awful father for killing his own daughter. Then, in class Devin pointed out that there was a rift between what society expects of you and what would be your personal choice. When she pointed this out I began to realize that maybe Agamemnon only sacrificed his daughter because it was for the good of all his people. This may sound harsh, but I began to realize that her one life was far less than the death of thousands of people. I also came to realize that if I was in Agamemnon’s position what would I do? Naturally, I would hope that I say that I would not for any reason kill my own child, but if the gods told me to do it…and I had the weight of the world on my shoulders…it would most assuredly be a tough position and decision to make. I do not exactly condone or agree with him sacrificing his daughter, and under false pretenses no less, but I have come to understand why he did it.
Also this week during our various discussions about heroes, I began to think about the evolution of the concept of a hero in our society and around the world. Heroes were once the teachers to society; the ones who held the magic and basic intelligence needed for survival. Then it progresses towards this more literary hero ideal, the knight in shining armor that slays the dragon and rescues the damsel in distress or the Greek warrior who fought his way through epics and became a god. Also you have your religious heroes, civic heroes such as police officers and firefighters, and our legendary national heroes. Now a days though I think that societies definition of a “hero” is becoming slightly skewed. We consider celebrities, media personalities, corporation moguls, and people who are only famous “because they are famous” to be our heroes and role models. I am in no way condemning all of society to worship celebrities and view them as the role model for life, rather I have just noticed that it has become an ongoing trend that society is deeming some people heroes, when they simply do not measure up. The concept of the hero is devolving, and in general we are using the title of hero to freely in my opinion.
9/30/11 Journal #6
The Book of Job: Bad Things can Happen to Good People
The hero always comes out victorious while the villain gets just what he deserves. Bad things happen to the bad guys, and good things happen to the good guys. This is an idea that it is central to our culture. We grow up believing that nothing will happen to us if we are good and morally upstanding people. However, what happens when bad things happen to good people? Are the good people more adept to handle the bad, or do they shrink in the face of danger and loss and give up? This is one of the main ideas of the Book of Job. Job is a wealthy, devout, upstanding and God fearing man, who avoided evil. He has a good life, and loves God, but everything he loves and holds dear to his heart is quickly taken away. His life diminishes before his very eyes, and even though Satan initiated the destruction of Job’s life I believe that this was a way for God to test Job. God always does things for a purpose and with an outcome in mind, though we may not know why or what that outcome is. At first Job wishes he had never been born, then through his friends’ prodding and so called “wisdom” he begins to question why God did this to him, and he claims he is innocent of any wrong doing. It was very interesting to read about the exchange between God and Job. God never gives him a definitive answer as to why all this has happened to Job, and as we discussed in class he rather asks Job why he ever questioned him or posed the question at all. It is just interesting thinking about the “mindset” that if I am a good person nothing bad will happen to me. It really doesn’t essentially make sense because the goodness of a person does not affect the outside tragedy in their life. However we all do it, we believe that if we are good Christian people who abide to both religious and governmental laws, that we will be safe from disaster. I am not saying that this is how Job felt, but I believe that God was testing his faith to see if it was more than just skin deep. A test to see if he did not only believe in God because of his prosperous life, but if he had a strong belief within his heart. This idea of testing human beings reminded me a lot about the Greek gods. They would test to see if humans were worthy, and intervene in their lives if they deemed necessary, or simply because they felt like it. However, I get the sense that the Greek gods did not do it with a good reason all the time, they just simply were using their power as puppet masters to rule peoples lives. Maybe that is pessimistic view, but its just the vibe I get.I also thought the video we viewed in class Friday about Greek tragedy was interesting. It was a little if not a lot strange, but it was interesting nonetheless to see how the idea and impact of tragedy has changed over the years and from culture to culture. Greek tragedy sought to explain and teach a lesson. I am not sure why but while watching the video I could not stop thinking about William Shakespeare’s quote, “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women are merely players.” Perhaps because you cannot exactly prevent all types of tragedy from happening, but I hope to explore more about Greek tragedy on Monday in class.
9/23/11 Journal #5
Creation Myths and the Human Need for Explanation
When reading all the different creation myths it got me thinking about how humans, as a whole, need to know how and why things happen. Humans have a desire and a need to explain the unexplainable. We are here on Earth and we as beings are not content with simply being here. We are uncomfortable with the unknown, and we yearn for something to believe in and some kind of direction to follow, a justification or a commonality among others to connect us to something somewhere somehow. Without a strong belief in something whether it is a religion or an ideology one can feel lost and not understand what our purpose is or why things are the way they are. Even though we cannot ever fully grasp the meaning of our existence we still strive to put it into words. I believe that is why there are so many different creation myths. So many people all across the world in different cultures and environments adapted their creation myths to what they sought in life. Also as we discussed in class Friday, they used key components in their cultures to explain the unexplainable; how the world and mankind came to be. For instance Babylonian culture was hinged on war and battle so their creation myth naturally involved concepts of combat between gods, and whether the cultures were monotheistic or polytheistic also affected how they view creation. They project the beginning or creation of Earth and mankind on their own specific culture and the details revolve around their ideals. As I said it is an innate quality of humans to want to find meaning and reason in their lives, and that causes us to look toward beliefs of creation and superior beings and find a sense of “human purpose”.Also, I really enjoyed reading the poems by Sappho. I had never realized that there was a female poet from ancient Greek times. I had just always assumed that there would have been some, but like other female poets and authoresses before a specific time period, that they would have just used a pseudonym. However, it would seem that ancient Greek society valued women on a higher level than most ancient societies and even modern societies. Even though no one knows exactly who she was it is still intriguing that she was a women in a mans world and made such an impact. Her works were banned, and even though people did not read them she made an impact by stirring up people’s emotions and making them think. Her poems are simple and easily relatable. Even though most of her poems revolve around lesbian themes, I felt like I could reverse her poems to reflect my own emotions towards a boy I like. She simply evokes emotion and even with her "different" topics they can be relatable to many people.
9/16/11 Journal #4
The Anticipated Ending: Satisfaction, Disappointment and Respect
Pools of blood and dead bodies littered the great hall after Odysseus and his three finally succeed in their murder plot. I did not exactly expect Odysseus to give a war cry and do a happy dance after he killed them all, but yet I thought he would show some sign of triumph or pride. I found it interesting that Odysseus did not rejoice at all after the suitors were finally dead. He said to the nurse, “To glory over slain men is no piety. Destiny and the gods’ will vanquished these, and their own hardness. They respected no one, good or bad, who came their way. For this, and folly, a bad end befell them.” I believe that after his “epic adventures” he no longer takes death lightly. He saw so many of his comrades die, and often he felt at fault. He knew most times because of various prophesies that his men would die, and really he could do nothing about it, and could not help them when they needed him most. However, he justifies the suitors dying because they were awful people and led disrespectful lives. They did court his wife and take advantage of his home and forced hospitality, but deep down they were awful human beings anyway. They deserved to die regardless if he murdered them or not, the gods’ and their own faults brought about their piteous end. Therefore Odysseus neither feels joy or remorse at killing them, they deserved death, that’s that, dispose of their bodies and stench and go on with life. This lack of joy after their deaths, only makes me respect Odysseus more as a character. He knows they deserved to die, but glorying over the dead shows no virtue, and Odysseus is a man of virtue. He has had his fair share of transgressions but deep down, he is a good person in my eyes. (Very different from how he acts after defeating the cyclops. MH)Overall, I really enjoyed reading The Odyssey. Even though some parts drug on, overall I thought it was a good read. I was actually really surprised that I had never read the epic in any of my previous English classes. I always knew the title and generally what the story was about, but I had never read even a small part. Even though I generally have praise for The Odyssey, I was heartily disappointed by the ending. To me it seemed that the books before Odysseus killed the suitors were long and overly drawn out. I understand that Homer needed to thoroughly develop Odysseus’ murderous plans to the reader, and Odysseus had to get a feel for what went on at home during his twenty-year absence. However, plot development aside the story just seemed to move very slowly and finally climax with the murder scene in the great hall. Then after the epic murder scene the story progressed too quickly for my taste, and the ending seemed abrupt and left things incomplete. I know authors often leave the ending of stories ambiguous so the reader can decide for themselves what happens, but this time the ending just really annoyed me. After all that built up to Odysseus revealing his identity and killing the suitors it simply ends with a peace treaty among the Ithikans. The ending really took my by surprise and I felt that the whole scene with Athena wanting peace came out of left field. It seemed out of place. I for one am a romantic to the core and I wanted that happy ending where Odysseus, Penelope and Tekemachus are finally reunited as a family. You would leave the book with a feeling that even though death and mourning filled the book everything was going to be okay in the end. I did not get the vibe I had longed for for the whole 24 books, and I was very disappointed. Also I found it annoying that after 20 years the nurse Eurykleia ended up revealing Odysseus’ return to Penelope rather than Odysseus himself. There was to much build up for me to simply watch the nurse spill the beans.
9/9/11 Journal # 3
Male vs. Female Roles
At a very young age society teaches children that girls and boys are different. Obviously they are biologically different, but also in a sense they are mentally different with their differing stereotypical characteristics. No matter how much we would like to deny it, there are underlying gender-defined roles in every society. Many learn to ignore or overcome these typecasts, but some simply get stuck in a role they do not want to play. The societies of Ancient Greece and Homer’s epic The Odyssey are no different. However I get a sense that there is a universal stereotypical male role, but two contrasting female roles.Every man past and present at one time wanted to be the hero. That one guy who can outsmart anyone, has the strength of 1,000 men, has scores of war and adventure stories where they always come out on top, and is overflowing with pride and an ego to boot. Odysseus in my opinion is forever stuck in a cyclical loop of this hero role. He is victorious at Troy then begins to head home, but craves one more adventure and plunders and pillages at the city of Kicones. With that he embarks on a seemingly unending journey of trials and tasks, at some points you get the sense that he is proud of all these trials along the way and relishes in them with a heroic salute. While at others you get a feel for his human flaws with his indecisiveness, inability to follow directions, and guilt about not being at home. To me Odysseus’ journeys home from the Trojan War are synonymous to a coming of age. I believe that he matures over the course of his epic journey, and gains wisdom and a realization for what is really important in life; home, family and love. However, one would think he would learn from his mistakes, and avoid some of the story’s pitfalls, yet he keeps right on making those same mistakes. May I point out Kirke and Kalypso….you can fill in the rest. At first it was all fun and games, but now he is stuck and the thing he wants most, his home, the thing he always had is constantly just out of reach. His journey is always one step forward and two steps back. What I think Odysseus’ biggest life question is, “Can the life of a hero ever really be enough? Will one ever be completely satisfied and want and reach for nothing?” Maybe a little deep and vague, but it’s the feeling I get from him.
I just want to touch on the female roles in The Odyssey. As discussed in class I get a sense that women were both seen as manipulative and scheming, but also cunning and wise to Homer. One can only speculate as to how Homer viewed women, but I do get the overwhelming sense that he respected them. There are a lot of strong female characters in the story, Athena, Penelope, and even perhaps Kirke and Kalypso. These woman are headstrong in a man’s world. Athena being a god, is Odysseus’ voice of reason and guidance. When he has no idea which way is up she is there offering him direction. Penelope has been sitting at home for 20 years worrying about her husband, and most likely going through worst-case scenarios in her head at every given moment. He could be dead, he could be with another woman (or a few), he could be lost, or not even trying to come home at all. I respect Penelope for her faith in her husband. She loves him so much, and it takes a lot of wisdom and cunning to stave off power hungry suitors day in and day out. She is compassionate, strong willed and as I mentioned previously Odysseus’ intelligent female equal in my eyes. As discussed in class Friday, men are these stereotypical brutes, while woman are put on a higher pedestal. There exists that double standard. Men can get away with inadequacies easier then women can. Men can have mistresses, and it will be written off. Woman can have other lovers, and they are forever labeled adulterers, or they just go and off their husband as in Klytemenstra’s case. There will always be a rift between gender roles.
9/1/11 Journal # 2
Initial Thoughts on the Odyssey
I find myself enjoying the Odyssey much more than I did the Epic of Gilgamesh. It is ultimately a lot easier to understand and follow, because it has transitions and is more detailed. This enables me to become more drawn into the story, I don’t feel like an outsider looking in as I did while reading Gilgamesh. During Gilgamesh I was always confused and couldn’t exactly follow the plot line of the story, I found myself reading sections over and over again trying to make sense of them, and get a better feel for this so called “hero”. I never really understood what Gilgamesh was seeking, and in my honest opinion I wouldn’t regard him as a hero at all. To me a hero needs more than just strength, cunning, bravery, and an ultimate destiny. A hero is a very complex enigma, and in my eyes Gilgamesh never seemed to measure up.
A marriage for love is hard to come by in ancient times, and it would seem that Odysseus and Penelope have something special. After 20 years apart Penelope still remains loyal to him. Even with suitors literally sitting on her doorstep and eating her out of house and home she refuses to move on from her love, her Odysseus. Some may say that she is leading them on by weaving her tapestry by day and unweaving it by night, or that she is simply keeping them around as a sort of “plan B” if Odysseus winds up dead. However, I believe that her love and her character are deeper than that. She is in an awkward position being a “widowed” queen, but she refuses to let societies’ ideas about marriage push her into something she doesn’t want. She is the female equal of Odysseus’ cunning, strength and strategy and I highly respect her character. I also find myself drawn to the character of Odysseus, because of who I believe he is. I know very little about him besides the fact that he has been exiled on Kalypso’s island for years, and spent half of that time “consorting” in caves with the divine Kalypso herself. That is not the best reputation for any married man to have, yet for some odd reason I find myself defending him and his honor. Maybe I am just too positive or think too highly of people, but I believe that despite those years and revels with Kalypso he is still deeply in love with his dear Penelope, and that can be shown by his days of lamentation and aimlessly staring off into the distance. Speaking of his mourning, I have found it very interesting that both heroes in the ancient literature we have read have been very open with their emotions. Usually when you picture a hero you picture someone who does not cry, someone who is forever the strong, brave figure people can lean on. I think that this display of emotion just makes me like Odysseus more. It makes him more relatable as a character, more than a perfect hero who never bothers with paltry human emotions would. I also strongly agree with what Kate said in class on Friday, that these emotions make him more human, and therefore more of a hero. In this sense of human emotion and compassion I find myself overlooking Odyseuss' transgressions, and I am rooting for his homecoming and reunion with Penelope.
One little detail I noticed while reading the text is that Hermes is the only character that has spoken in rhyme. During his dialogue with Kalypso he speaks in couplets, “Now the command is: send him back in haste. His life may not in exile go to waste." This may have very little to do with the story, but it is just something little I picked up on. It somehow reminded me of characters from Shakespeare's plays. Also I still do not understand the question that I posed at the very end of class, "Why do the suiters all the sudden want to kill Telemuchas?" Maybe I am missing some key detail.
8/25/11 Journal #1
Gilgamesh Response
I am the kind of person who does not like to feel lost when reading a book, and I constantly ask myself “What, Where, Why, How” so I can make sure I understand and pick up on even the most intricate of details. However, while reading Gilgamesh I felt a little lost and sometimes could not decipher who was speaking or being spoken to. Granted, the text is over 2,000 years old and has gaps lost from time, damage, and translation, I still could not get a definitive feel for where I was in the story. The text jumps from what I consider the “real world” that Gilgamesh and Enkidu inhabit, to the “other world” of the gods. I could never fully grasp the switch between the worlds in the text, perhaps I was simply just missing something or the two worlds intertwine and are actually one in the same. Yet this story pulled me in and grabbed my attention from the beginning. It has so many themes that apply to the modern world, loss, love, friendship, dreams, and death. It is hard not to make a connection. Another aspect of Gilgamesh that really stuck out to me was the themes of destiny and fate. Gilgamesh always claims he hasn’t lived out his destiny, “I have not established my name stamped on bricks as my destiny degreed.” Like any hero in literature and history Gilgamesh wishes to make a name for himself, have a legend attached to his name, forever imprint himself in the memory of people past present and future. Despite his fervent desire to fulfill his destiny and make a name for himself, I still get the feeling that he does not quite fully understand who he is, where he belongs or even what his destiny entails. He is two thirds god and one third mortal, trapped between two worlds, and the yearning for two different lives entirely. He wants to conquer, wield power, obtain wisdom and live forever like a god, yet he wants to enjoy earthly pleasures, and explore and walk the earth with his friend and beloved brother Enkidu. In my opinion Gilgamesh is not only afraid of dying, but he is also afraid of living. He is afraid to make connections because his beloved Enkidu is now dead, and everything living must die. He asks how can he live when Enkidu is dead, yet he wants to live forever. He wants to be a hero, yet I believe he is as innocent and fragile as poor Enkidu. Gilgamesh is trapped between life and death, and destiny and fate, and I am not sure if he will ever find what he is looking for. As stated by Urshanabi the ferryman in the text, “You will never find the life for which you are searching.” Another thought that came to mind while reading Gilgamesh was whether or not he is actually a hero, perhaps only by reading the rest of the story can