So I was reading some of Gilgamesh earlier today and I thought of the perfect topic to write about in my journal for the week. Many stories told long ago (especially oral stories) have a specific purpose and reason for being told. People who lived in ancient times had neither the means nor the time to write frivolous stories. The stories they told taught a lesson or conveyed an important message. As I was reading Gilgamesh today, I was thinking to myself, what was the lesson or message in this story? The first thing that came to mind was that this story was probably being told to young people, and perhaps the story was implying to trying to tell young men how they were supposed to behave deemed by the society at the time, or what kind of men they were supposed to be. From what I read, Gilgamesh is nowhere near perfect, but he has many good qualities. He develops a strong friendship with Enkidu that is almost a brotherhood, and this could show young boys that having strong friendships with other men or “brothers” is a very valuable thing. Acknowledging the strength and courage in other men is displayed as a positive thing in this story, so this is something else that young boys could draw from it. When Gilgamesh travels to the Cedar Forest to kill Humbaba, it shows his fearlessness and bravery, which could possibly show young men that these are noble traits to possess. While Gilgamesh does have good qualities about him, he displays some negative qualities at the beginning of the story. He wasn’t behaving appropriately, what with his stealing brides away on their wedding nights and all, and it was clear that the Gods were not pleased with this behavior, hence why they sent Enkidu to be Gilgamesh’s equal and show him the error of his ways. Even though Gilgamesh displays this unwanted behavior at the beginning, because the Gods were not pleased with it, this would show young people that this kind of behavior is not acceptable and it is a good way to lose brownie points with the Gods. These lessons are important ones in any culture and/or time period and I believe they are communicated very well in this story.
9/1/11 Odyssey Journal
So far, I have been enjoying The Odyssey much more than I enjoyed Gilgamesh. The writing style is easier to read and the characters are more relatable. As we discussed in class, the reason I believe The Odyssey is easier to read than Gilgamesh is because there are transitions. In Gilgamesh, the characters would sometimes be someplace and we had no idea how they got there. But in The Odyssey, it would say something to the effect of “they went to the boat” instead of “they were on the boat”. In Gilgamesh, I feel as though there was some character development, but it was difficult to relate to Gilgamesh, Enkidu, and the other characters because they seemed a little one-dimensional to me. Gilgamesh did change throughout the story, and that was the only real transformation I saw, though his transformation was by no means grand. In The Odyssey, I can already see the characters developing. Telemachos is making the transformation from man to boy because of his decision to take a boat out and try to find his father. Odysseus is trapped on an island with Kalypso and is tempted by her, but he still longs for his home. Eventually, he just seems depressed and completely homesick and he spends most of his time weeping. This is very relatable, especially for me personally, because I tend to get homesick very easily. I can feel Odysseus’s pain yet being away from home for 20 years seems unimaginable to me. As for Penelope, she is one of the strongest women that I have ever read about in ancient literature. She is apart from her husband for many, many years and has to deal with suitors that don’t actually like her, but just want to take advantage of her power. I have a lot of respect for her. As for the theme of heroism, because we just met Odysseus, he does not seem like a hero character yet. We have been told many stories of his bravery from other characters, such as Nestor, but we have seen no acts of heroism from him yet. Telemachos seems like a hero right now because he had the courage to stand up to the suitors and leave his home, even though he is still somewhat young, and go on a search for his father in uncharted waters.
9/6/11
At first, while reading The Odyssey, I did not think of Odysseus as a hero at all. The beginning of the story happens with Telemachos coming to grips with his manhood, and to me, his decision to go on a journey to find his father is much more heroic than anything I had seen Odysseus do. But as I kept reading, I found myself believing more and more in Odysseus as a hero. We first meet Odysseus on Kalypso’s island and he is crying because he is not satisfied with Kalypso and he just wants to go home to Ithaca. At fist glance, this is not the action of a hero. Readers do not usually picture heroes crying and pining for something; they usually picture heroes being brave and fighting monsters, saving damsels, etc. This shows that Odysseus has a weak side. Also, when he fights the Cyclops, he plays a trick on him and says his name is “Nohbody,” but as he and his men are escaping the Cyclops’s island, Odysseus shouts that his name is indeed Odysseus and he hails from Ithaca. He had too much pride and had to reveal his true name. This shows that Odysseus has flaws and faults, which I personally like better than a macho man. When a story has a hero with flaws, it shows how they overcome them in order to better themselves and make themselves a better hero. Because Odysseus called out his own name to the Cyclops, Poseidon, the Cyclops’s father, delayed Odysseus’s journey home. Odysseus works to overcome these trials and tribulations throughout the rest of the story. When Odysseus is “trapped” on the islands of Kalypso and Kirke, they tempt him because they are demi-goddesses. Even though they delay his travels home, he overcomes these temptations and keeps moving. The fact that he has temptations in the first place show that he is not too different than any other mortal man. Since The Odyssey was originally told orally, it was probably told to young men and they might have tried to model themselves after Odysseus because he is such a hero. Showing that he has flaws and temptations shows that anyone can be a hero, because we all have flaws and temptations, just as we all have qualities of a hero.
9/16/11
Yesterday I finished reading The Odyssey for the second time. I enjoyed it even more the second time, probably because the first time I read it was my freshmen year of high school, and I have grown intellectually since then. I think it is a wonderful epic tale with believable and relatable characters. I especially enjoy reading about Odysseus and Penelope’s relationship because the two of them are such a good match for each other, as we discussed in class today. First, when Odysseus meets Penelope disguised as the beggar, he “tests” her to see if she has been faithful to him while he has been gone these last twenty years. Then, in book 23, Penelope “tests” Odysseus by mentioning that she moved or will move their marriage bed, and this angers Odysseus because he built the bed out of an olive tree. This shows Penelope that Odysseus is whom he says he is and he is truly home. I thought that from about book 18 to the end of the story was very heartfelt and sweet. It is the homecoming that we have been anticipating for literally an epically long time, and it is so reassuring to see Odysseus finally return. First, his dog dies because he stayed alive just long enough to see his master return. Then Odysseus and Telemachos have their reunion and it is precious because they both cry and weep and it is a lovely father-son moment. But the reunion between Odysseus and Penelope takes the cake because they haven’t seen each other in twenty years and we have been waiting for a grand reuniting scene. Of course, Homer does not disappoint. Also, as for me, I personally did not care for book 24 because it seemed unnecessary. Book 23 ends so nicely and I wonder why book 24 was added. Perhaps it was to reaffirm the Gods as the true puppet masters of the characters’ lives, but I still thought it was a little unnecessary.
9/23/11
This week we have been looking closely at creation myths from around the world. Also, our group presented on Wednesday about creation myths too. As for me personally, I thought they were very interesting. The one I liked the most (after Genesis) was Ovid’s, because it was the most logical to my personal belief system and it seemed the most in tune with more modern ideas. I’m writing this right after our Friday class, so the discussion we had is still on my mind. I thought that debating the differences between having one God or many Gods was a very interesting discussion. Genesis is the only main story (I think) were there is one main God and I think the main difference between it and the other creation myths is that there is less quarreling. In all the other stories, the focus is on the Gods and their personal troubles and conflicts whereas in Genesis, it is focused on humans and how they came to be on the earth. Also, in most of the creation stories, your everyday life depended primarily on how the Gods were feeling on that particular day, whereas in Genesis, God is more methodical and stable. A common theme I found among these creation stories was the idea of going from chaos to order, or creating something out of nothing. I know in the Babylonian story, Metamorphoses, and in Hesiod, there was internal conflict among the Gods, which led one or two Gods trying to defeat another God or some sort of enemy. This definitely displayed the “chaos to order” theme because after all the chaos and conflict came order and stability. Also, like we mentioned in our presentation, this gave the Gods a fresh start to create a world of their choosing. In Ovid, Genesis, and somewhat in the Song of Purusha, God created something out of nothing. In Ovid, it says God (or nature) split the heavens and the earth, the air from the atmosphere, etc. and this reminds me a lot of Genesis where it starts off with, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth…”. The Song of Purusha is a little different because it goes with the idea of splitting up a cosmic body and creating the earth with it, in terms of the first sacrifice. I did enjoy these creation myths much more than I thought I would, and I really did enjoy doing a presentation on them.
9/29/11 Journal
This week we mostly read the Hebrew Scriptures and I found them very interesting. Of course, I had heard these stories before since I am a Christian, but it is always nice to read them again. My favorite was the excerpt from Exodus because I absolutely love the story of Moses leading the Hebrews out of Egypt. Also, every translation is a little different, so it was nice and refreshing to read a new translation that I had never personally experienced before. These stories were very much unlike any of the other stories we have read in class so far, because so many people today still find them extremely credible. The Odyssey and The Epic of Gilgamesh were two oral stories told in ancient times and include elements that are just not plausible. Granted, the term plausible is somewhat relative, because one could easily argue the plausibility of Moses splitting the Red Sea, but as a general rule, we more eagerly believe in the stories in the Hebrew Scriptures than we do in the two epics mentioned before. Genesis is the creation myth from the Hebrew Scriptures and it is the first book in the bible. It talks about the creation of the Earth and how and why God created man and animals. It also brings up Adam and Eve and how they destroyed the harmony of mankind by eating the fruit off the forbidden tree. This is very much unlike most of the other creation myths and it is somewhat similar to others, such as Ovid’s. It is different because there is only one God as opposed to many Gods, and this one God seems very much in control and sure of what is he doing, which is also unlike the other Gods from the other stories.
10/7/11 Journal
This week, we talked a lot about heroes and adventures. We had one presentation on Wednesday about heroes and another today. Each discussed the different types of heroes, different hero stories we read this week, and different examples of modern day heroes that exist in our world. I enjoyed both of them, and I especially enjoyed Sam and Emma’s presentation because they used a special program that enhanced their presentation. I also enjoyed the video clip they showed us about the hero myth where a man kills a monster to save his wife. Today, another group presented about heroes and the thing that stood out about their presentation was their modern day connections. I liked how they said they believed that soldiers, policemen, and firemen are considered to be regular heroes, but people like Martin Luther King Jr. and Gandhi are considered to be epic heroes. Epic heroes are defined as people that work towards a specific goal their entire lives and fight “monsters”, whether they are literal or metaphorical monsters. Odysseus was an ancient epic hero, and he fought monsters such as the Cyclops and the Sirens. But Martin Luther King Jr. and Gandhi are modern day heroes, and they did not show their courage by fighting mythical beasts, but by fighting for a cause they believed in. Their lifelong battles to stand up for people and causes and fight the modern day monsters showed that they are epic heroes. Soldiers, policemen, firemen, while they are certainly courageous and heroes in their own sense, fight little battles along the way and are paid to do it because it is their job, so they are not defined as epic heroes. Also, there was some debate over whether or not David from the “David and Goliath” story of the bible was an epic hero or not. I believe that he was a religious hero, but like soldiers and policemen, he did not fight his whole life for one specific goal.
10/14/11 Journal
This week in class we read Antigone. I have read this story before, but it was interesting to read in again with a fresh perspective. The main theme of this story was how Antigone wanted to bury one of her brothers with the ritualistic rites as her other brother was buried with, even though he had committed treason. Her uncle, however, did not want his nephew to be buried with the usual rites and said that he would kill anyone who buried him. Antigone, unfortunately, did not seem to care very much about this decree, and buried her brother anyway. When her uncle found out about this, he was conflicted at first, but decides to kill her anyway because she has disobeyed him. His son was supposed to marry Antigone (yeah, it’s her cousin…yeah, it’s pretty gross) but because she was supposed to be killed, this conflicted with the marriage plans. Haeman, Antigone’s betrothed, gets quite upset with Creon for trying to kill his fiancée, so he somewhat lashes out. We all know how the story ends, with the characters melodramatically killing themselves and Creon crying his eyes out about how much of a jerk he is. When we did the poll in class about the decisions of the characters, the question that stood out to me most was the one about how Antigone was or was not right in burying her brother and whether or not Creon was right in sentencing her to death. I decided that Antigone was right in burying her brother because it is her right as a citizen, but it was also Creon’s right to say that no one could bury the brother. This is because as a ruler, it was Creon’s civic responsibility to punish people who commit treason on his country.
10/20/11 Journal
So far in the class, I have enjoyed it very much. I like how we run discussions and how the syllabus is set up. I feel that we all get a lot out of the discussions because we all participate in them and are paying attention. In high school, whenever we would have discussions, only a few people would talk and everyone else would just sit there. I enjoy the dynamic of our class because everyone talks and adds their input to the conversation. When we did the parody assignment, I felt that it deepened our understanding of the ancient concepts and stories that we read because, of course, in order to poke fun at something, you must understand it first. The parody assignment really helped accomplish all of the course goals because they mostly have to do with synthesizing and reconstructing old or new information. We were able to further draw parallels between these ancient works when we read The Epic of Gilgamesh and The Odyssey. These two ancient works of literature were perfect to include in the syllabus because we could easily draw parallels between them. Also, The Odyssey was extremely relatable to modern day life. This is not because we fight giant monsters today, but because the emotions and mistakes that the characters make are similar to ours today. I feel like I am learning a lot in this class. I have read about ¾ of the material already, but the conversations and ideas we discuss in class are different from any that I have had in previous high school classes. It is like reading a familiar book years later and getting something different from it. I feel that my participation has improved from high school, and I believe this is because everyone else in the class likes participating as well. I really love the class and there’s nothing I would change about it.
10/27/11 Journal
This week, our main topic of discussion was the good life. I really enjoyed the presentation we had on Wednesday because it talked about the different definitions of the good life. We debated on what we thought was the good life and whether it was the amount of material possessions we have or the spiritual life we lead. We determined ultimately that the good life is hard to define because it is different for everyone and it is very subjective. For one person, the good life might be living it up in Vegas, gambling away all the money they have to their name, whereas another person might be living the good life making millions of dollars in a law firm, whereas yet another person might be living the good life living in a empty forest meditating and fasting for days on end. This shows us that it is difficult to decide what is truly the good life, and it is difficult to determine who is living it. My favorite good life passage we read in the text was Confucius’s because it made the most sense to me. Confucius talked about how living the good life is something very attainable. He also brought up the fact that in order to live the good life, one must give everything up in order to help others. This seems quite remote to us, because we are very focused within ourselves. I think it has something to do with the fact that Confucius is from China and we are from the United States. The United States is an individualistic culture and China is a collectivistic culture; therefore, United States citizens tend to think of themselves and Chinese citizens tend to think of the greater good.
Journal 11/4/11
We spent a lot of time this week discussing the Dao teachings on life, specifically the good life. First we read the poems, and then we read some prose. I found the prose much easier to understand personally and I enjoyed it more. The poetry was just a little hard to get through for me, partly because it was more cryptic that the prose and partly just because I don’t enjoy poetry very much in general. The Dao prose had many central themes: simplicity, the “flow”, the circle of life, and acceptance. I found that many of the mini stories in the prose contained the central theme of simplicity. Most people think of life as complex and overwhelming, but the Dao teachings argue otherwise. Life according to them is a simple matter, mostly because your life is essentially already planned out for you—all you have to do is live it. In class, we discussed the ying/yang and how it represents the “flow” and also how all the opposites in the world contain some of its counterpart. This idea applies to the Dao teachings because, especially in the poetry, it talked a lot about how man and woman each have a little of each other in one another. The prose contained this idea a little as well. Also, the idea of the “flow” or the circle of life is very important. The Dao prose had a mini story about a man whose wife died and instead of becoming depressed that she was gone, he simply said death was a part of life. He said first she was nothing, then she was a spirit, then she had a body, then she was born, then she lived, the she died. It is just part of the life cycle. This also ties into the central theme of acceptance because the Dao teachings place a big emphasis on accepting what life throws at you. Your life is already planned, so as a human being, you must accept that life is what it is, and you can be at peace with it. I found these Dao teachings to be very interesting, but they are hard to apply to life when you are high-maintenance and a slight control freak, like me!
I'm guessing there aren't very many Daoists in the Honors College. [MH]
Journal 11/11/11 (Make a wish!)
This week we have talked a lot about the Aeneid. I find this a very interesting story, sort of like Romeo and Juliet, except Aeneas is kind of a jerk and doesn’t end up killing himself too like Romeo. The story tells the adventures of Aeneas, who is trying to create his own kingdom. Of course, those meddlesome Gods won’t make it that easy for him, so they decide to make him fall in love with Queen Dido. She falls in love with him as well, but it was kind of fated to fail from the beginning, because we all know that Aeneas is supposed to be creating a kingdom. Unfortunately, Aeneas tries to sneak out of Queen Dido’s land and go off to find his kingdom. Of course, this doesn’t work and she finds out about it. She immediately begins to beg him not to leave, using every trick in the book, even wishing she could have his child in order to force him to stay, which is kind of a low blow. This doesn’t work, because Aeneas is on a mission, and he leaves anyway. Dido immediately falls into a severe depression and kills herself. Now. I know it must have been hard for Dido, being somewhat led on by Aeneas then having him run off to conquer his destiny and all, but was this really necessary? No. She is the most dramatic and attention-seeking character I have ever read about it, including Helena from A Midsummer Night’s Dream (and we all know how dramatic she was). Dido had a responsibility to lead her kingdom and people, but instead of doing that, she falls in love with a man in what seems like an hour and kills herself when he leaves. Not only does she kill herself, but it literally takes her about, oh I don’t know, a million pages to actually die, proving that she just wants attention. “Oh, look everyone, look! I’m going to kill myself! No one’s looking…well okay…I guess I’ll do it anyway…” That is Dido’s inner monologue in my head. So the moral of this story for me was excessive passion is bad, and being dramatic about things that you probably shouldn’t is very annoying.
Critical Essay Topic Ideas: I had two critical essay topic ideas and I like them both, so if you want to just give your opinion and say which one you like better or the pros and cons of them, that would be great. Thanks!
1.) What were the basics of ancient Greek mythology and how did the Greeks apply it to their lives?
2.) How did the ancient Greeks view the concept of the Underworld and what was this idea like for them?
EDIT: For both of these topics, I was planning on using The Odyssey. I tried to keep the first one vague because I was planning on discussing how Athena intervened in Odysseus's life and whether or not the ancient Greeks believed this happened a lot in their daily lives, or if it just happened because Odysseus was a demi-God or a hero. I was also going to talk about the ancient Greek concept of mythology and religion and the basis for it. For the second, I was going to discuss how ancient Greeks viewed the Underworld and talk a lot about how Odysseus and some other main characters in our class's readings were able to veture into the Underworld. Because this is typically not a belief today, it would be interesting to draw some parallels between how our culture views Hell and the Underworld and how the ancient Greeks viewed Hell and the Underworld.
11/17/11 Journal
This week was an interesting week. While I enjoyed sleeping in the extra hour this morning because we did not have class, I still missed our 9 AM discussions about ancient literature. We discussed different art museums on Monday in preparation for our visit to the art museum here on campus next Monday. I am excited to see the art museum and I visited it once since I’ve been here. I’m in an organization called College Mentors for Kids and we visited there with the children. I thought at first that the children wouldn’t be interested at all, but surprisingly, they did think it was a little fascinating. Of course they are still kids, and art museums are kind of like an acquired taste, so it wasn’t the coolest thing they’d ever seen. I particularly liked the discussion we had in class Monday about the different art museums. Although other people did not seem to like the art museum where there was a pool of water surrounding it, I liked it a lot. It happened to be my favorite art museum that we looked at. It was so tranquil and peaceful that I felt as though being there would be like having my own private experience looking at different works of art. On a slightly different note, I really enjoyed the presentation we watched on Wednesday. I felt like this group had done a really nice job on it and it was a hilarious presentation. I especially liked the music video they did and it seems as though they put a lot of work into it. As for the topic of death, they covered it very well, and in my opinion, hell and the underworld are two different concepts. The underworld to me is a place where all the ancient Greeks went after death and it was like a black/blue place with a sea of sulfur or whatever with the giant three-headed dog (Fluffy…sorry, Harry Potter reference). Also the underworld seems like a place that is readily accessible to humans on Earth still. Hell is a fiery place that people who do not live faithful and good lives go to be punished because they deserved it because of their sin. It was a very interesting topic and I hope we can continue a discussion later.
Journal 12/2/11
In our group today, we had Lauren, Sam, Sarah, and I. I edited Sam’s and Lauren’s papers in class today so I took home Sarah’s paper to edit and post comments about here on the wiki. First of all, I really liked the idea of this paper, because it is a thought I had frequently while reading The Odyssey. Odysseus seemed a little clueless about how to conduct a mission, but to his defense did have many obstacles. But his son Telemachus, while picked on by many of the suitors for being a “child”, showed true heroism in this story. The idea and organization of this paper is very good. I would like to hear more about the background of Joseph Campbell’s “heroic monomyth”. It was a very interesting concept and one that I had not heard of before. Also, a little more research to support this claim might be good too. Maybe if you could get classifications of heroes by different sources or something to that effect. Researching the ancient Greek ideas of heroism might help a little; I know I read something about that when I was doing research for my paper. I think that breaking up some of the larger paragraphs might help as well. I really liked this idea and the organization though, and you had a lot of good quotes and information pulled from research. Perhaps comparing Odysseus to Telemachus more in the paper could strengthen your argument too. I really didn’t find anything else wrong with this paper, and it was very well done!
12/9/11 Journal
This week was a very interesting week because we discussed different religious works of literature. Reading the Quran was especially interesting because I have never read it before and it is always good to compare works of your own religion to works of different religions. Since I am a Christian, I believe in everything the bible says and believe Jesus was the Son of God who died to save my sins. Some of these beliefs are consistent with Islam and the Quran but some are not. Of course, the obvious similarity between Islam and Christianity is the existence of one God. I really liked the point that was raised today about how there are many names used for God in the Quran but not once does it refer to God as Father, as the bible does. We thought it was because maybe Muslims think of God as a threatening, merciless figure that only seeks punishment for his people while Christians perceive him as an almighty, fair, and just creator that loves us and desires a relationship with us. Also, the Quran does not believe that Jesus was the Son of God, he did not rise from the dead, and he was not crucified. Of course, the bible states these things are true, so that is a clear difference between the two works. Also, the motives and desires of the two religions are very different. As Christians, we are called to encourage others to accept the love and grace of Jesus because we just hope everyone can feel loved and cared about in only a way God can. But it seemed, through the Quran, that Islam was more about abolishing corruption instead of trying to share the Gospel. Like if others wanted to follow Islam, that was fine, but it was not a main goal. It is always interesting to look at religious texts because it can both challenge and strengthen your own beliefs.
Jessica's Journal
8/25/11 Gilgamesh Journal
So I was reading some of Gilgamesh earlier today and I thought of the perfect topic to write about in my journal for the week. Many stories told long ago (especially oral stories) have a specific purpose and reason for being told. People who lived in ancient times had neither the means nor the time to write frivolous stories. The stories they told taught a lesson or conveyed an important message. As I was reading Gilgamesh today, I was thinking to myself, what was the lesson or message in this story? The first thing that came to mind was that this story was probably being told to young people, and perhaps the story was implying to trying to tell young men how they were supposed to behave deemed by the society at the time, or what kind of men they were supposed to be. From what I read, Gilgamesh is nowhere near perfect, but he has many good qualities. He develops a strong friendship with Enkidu that is almost a brotherhood, and this could show young boys that having strong friendships with other men or “brothers” is a very valuable thing. Acknowledging the strength and courage in other men is displayed as a positive thing in this story, so this is something else that young boys could draw from it. When Gilgamesh travels to the Cedar Forest to kill Humbaba, it shows his fearlessness and bravery, which could possibly show young men that these are noble traits to possess. While Gilgamesh does have good qualities about him, he displays some negative qualities at the beginning of the story. He wasn’t behaving appropriately, what with his stealing brides away on their wedding nights and all, and it was clear that the Gods were not pleased with this behavior, hence why they sent Enkidu to be Gilgamesh’s equal and show him the error of his ways. Even though Gilgamesh displays this unwanted behavior at the beginning, because the Gods were not pleased with it, this would show young people that this kind of behavior is not acceptable and it is a good way to lose brownie points with the Gods. These lessons are important ones in any culture and/or time period and I believe they are communicated very well in this story.
9/1/11 Odyssey Journal
So far, I have been enjoying The Odyssey much more than I enjoyed Gilgamesh. The writing style is easier to read and the characters are more relatable. As we discussed in class, the reason I believe The Odyssey is easier to read than Gilgamesh is because there are transitions. In Gilgamesh, the characters would sometimes be someplace and we had no idea how they got there. But in The Odyssey, it would say something to the effect of “they went to the boat” instead of “they were on the boat”. In Gilgamesh, I feel as though there was some character development, but it was difficult to relate to Gilgamesh, Enkidu, and the other characters because they seemed a little one-dimensional to me. Gilgamesh did change throughout the story, and that was the only real transformation I saw, though his transformation was by no means grand. In The Odyssey, I can already see the characters developing. Telemachos is making the transformation from man to boy because of his decision to take a boat out and try to find his father. Odysseus is trapped on an island with Kalypso and is tempted by her, but he still longs for his home. Eventually, he just seems depressed and completely homesick and he spends most of his time weeping. This is very relatable, especially for me personally, because I tend to get homesick very easily. I can feel Odysseus’s pain yet being away from home for 20 years seems unimaginable to me. As for Penelope, she is one of the strongest women that I have ever read about in ancient literature. She is apart from her husband for many, many years and has to deal with suitors that don’t actually like her, but just want to take advantage of her power. I have a lot of respect for her. As for the theme of heroism, because we just met Odysseus, he does not seem like a hero character yet. We have been told many stories of his bravery from other characters, such as Nestor, but we have seen no acts of heroism from him yet. Telemachos seems like a hero right now because he had the courage to stand up to the suitors and leave his home, even though he is still somewhat young, and go on a search for his father in uncharted waters.
9/6/11
At first, while reading The Odyssey, I did not think of Odysseus as a hero at all. The beginning of the story happens with Telemachos coming to grips with his manhood, and to me, his decision to go on a journey to find his father is much more heroic than anything I had seen Odysseus do. But as I kept reading, I found myself believing more and more in Odysseus as a hero. We first meet Odysseus on Kalypso’s island and he is crying because he is not satisfied with Kalypso and he just wants to go home to Ithaca. At fist glance, this is not the action of a hero. Readers do not usually picture heroes crying and pining for something; they usually picture heroes being brave and fighting monsters, saving damsels, etc. This shows that Odysseus has a weak side. Also, when he fights the Cyclops, he plays a trick on him and says his name is “Nohbody,” but as he and his men are escaping the Cyclops’s island, Odysseus shouts that his name is indeed Odysseus and he hails from Ithaca. He had too much pride and had to reveal his true name. This shows that Odysseus has flaws and faults, which I personally like better than a macho man. When a story has a hero with flaws, it shows how they overcome them in order to better themselves and make themselves a better hero. Because Odysseus called out his own name to the Cyclops, Poseidon, the Cyclops’s father, delayed Odysseus’s journey home. Odysseus works to overcome these trials and tribulations throughout the rest of the story. When Odysseus is “trapped” on the islands of Kalypso and Kirke, they tempt him because they are demi-goddesses. Even though they delay his travels home, he overcomes these temptations and keeps moving. The fact that he has temptations in the first place show that he is not too different than any other mortal man. Since The Odyssey was originally told orally, it was probably told to young men and they might have tried to model themselves after Odysseus because he is such a hero. Showing that he has flaws and temptations shows that anyone can be a hero, because we all have flaws and temptations, just as we all have qualities of a hero.
9/16/11
Yesterday I finished reading The Odyssey for the second time. I enjoyed it even more the second time, probably because the first time I read it was my freshmen year of high school, and I have grown intellectually since then. I think it is a wonderful epic tale with believable and relatable characters. I especially enjoy reading about Odysseus and Penelope’s relationship because the two of them are such a good match for each other, as we discussed in class today. First, when Odysseus meets Penelope disguised as the beggar, he “tests” her to see if she has been faithful to him while he has been gone these last twenty years. Then, in book 23, Penelope “tests” Odysseus by mentioning that she moved or will move their marriage bed, and this angers Odysseus because he built the bed out of an olive tree. This shows Penelope that Odysseus is whom he says he is and he is truly home. I thought that from about book 18 to the end of the story was very heartfelt and sweet. It is the homecoming that we have been anticipating for literally an epically long time, and it is so reassuring to see Odysseus finally return. First, his dog dies because he stayed alive just long enough to see his master return. Then Odysseus and Telemachos have their reunion and it is precious because they both cry and weep and it is a lovely father-son moment. But the reunion between Odysseus and Penelope takes the cake because they haven’t seen each other in twenty years and we have been waiting for a grand reuniting scene. Of course, Homer does not disappoint. Also, as for me, I personally did not care for book 24 because it seemed unnecessary. Book 23 ends so nicely and I wonder why book 24 was added. Perhaps it was to reaffirm the Gods as the true puppet masters of the characters’ lives, but I still thought it was a little unnecessary.
9/23/11
This week we have been looking closely at creation myths from around the world. Also, our group presented on Wednesday about creation myths too. As for me personally, I thought they were very interesting. The one I liked the most (after Genesis) was Ovid’s, because it was the most logical to my personal belief system and it seemed the most in tune with more modern ideas. I’m writing this right after our Friday class, so the discussion we had is still on my mind. I thought that debating the differences between having one God or many Gods was a very interesting discussion. Genesis is the only main story (I think) were there is one main God and I think the main difference between it and the other creation myths is that there is less quarreling. In all the other stories, the focus is on the Gods and their personal troubles and conflicts whereas in Genesis, it is focused on humans and how they came to be on the earth. Also, in most of the creation stories, your everyday life depended primarily on how the Gods were feeling on that particular day, whereas in Genesis, God is more methodical and stable. A common theme I found among these creation stories was the idea of going from chaos to order, or creating something out of nothing. I know in the Babylonian story, Metamorphoses, and in Hesiod, there was internal conflict among the Gods, which led one or two Gods trying to defeat another God or some sort of enemy. This definitely displayed the “chaos to order” theme because after all the chaos and conflict came order and stability. Also, like we mentioned in our presentation, this gave the Gods a fresh start to create a world of their choosing. In Ovid, Genesis, and somewhat in the Song of Purusha, God created something out of nothing. In Ovid, it says God (or nature) split the heavens and the earth, the air from the atmosphere, etc. and this reminds me a lot of Genesis where it starts off with, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth…”. The Song of Purusha is a little different because it goes with the idea of splitting up a cosmic body and creating the earth with it, in terms of the first sacrifice. I did enjoy these creation myths much more than I thought I would, and I really did enjoy doing a presentation on them.
9/29/11 Journal
This week we mostly read the Hebrew Scriptures and I found them very interesting. Of course, I had heard these stories before since I am a Christian, but it is always nice to read them again. My favorite was the excerpt from Exodus because I absolutely love the story of Moses leading the Hebrews out of Egypt. Also, every translation is a little different, so it was nice and refreshing to read a new translation that I had never personally experienced before. These stories were very much unlike any of the other stories we have read in class so far, because so many people today still find them extremely credible. The Odyssey and The Epic of Gilgamesh were two oral stories told in ancient times and include elements that are just not plausible. Granted, the term plausible is somewhat relative, because one could easily argue the plausibility of Moses splitting the Red Sea, but as a general rule, we more eagerly believe in the stories in the Hebrew Scriptures than we do in the two epics mentioned before. Genesis is the creation myth from the Hebrew Scriptures and it is the first book in the bible. It talks about the creation of the Earth and how and why God created man and animals. It also brings up Adam and Eve and how they destroyed the harmony of mankind by eating the fruit off the forbidden tree. This is very much unlike most of the other creation myths and it is somewhat similar to others, such as Ovid’s. It is different because there is only one God as opposed to many Gods, and this one God seems very much in control and sure of what is he doing, which is also unlike the other Gods from the other stories.
10/7/11 Journal
This week, we talked a lot about heroes and adventures. We had one presentation on Wednesday about heroes and another today. Each discussed the different types of heroes, different hero stories we read this week, and different examples of modern day heroes that exist in our world. I enjoyed both of them, and I especially enjoyed Sam and Emma’s presentation because they used a special program that enhanced their presentation. I also enjoyed the video clip they showed us about the hero myth where a man kills a monster to save his wife. Today, another group presented about heroes and the thing that stood out about their presentation was their modern day connections. I liked how they said they believed that soldiers, policemen, and firemen are considered to be regular heroes, but people like Martin Luther King Jr. and Gandhi are considered to be epic heroes. Epic heroes are defined as people that work towards a specific goal their entire lives and fight “monsters”, whether they are literal or metaphorical monsters. Odysseus was an ancient epic hero, and he fought monsters such as the Cyclops and the Sirens. But Martin Luther King Jr. and Gandhi are modern day heroes, and they did not show their courage by fighting mythical beasts, but by fighting for a cause they believed in. Their lifelong battles to stand up for people and causes and fight the modern day monsters showed that they are epic heroes. Soldiers, policemen, firemen, while they are certainly courageous and heroes in their own sense, fight little battles along the way and are paid to do it because it is their job, so they are not defined as epic heroes. Also, there was some debate over whether or not David from the “David and Goliath” story of the bible was an epic hero or not. I believe that he was a religious hero, but like soldiers and policemen, he did not fight his whole life for one specific goal.
10/14/11 Journal
This week in class we read Antigone. I have read this story before, but it was interesting to read in again with a fresh perspective. The main theme of this story was how Antigone wanted to bury one of her brothers with the ritualistic rites as her other brother was buried with, even though he had committed treason. Her uncle, however, did not want his nephew to be buried with the usual rites and said that he would kill anyone who buried him. Antigone, unfortunately, did not seem to care very much about this decree, and buried her brother anyway. When her uncle found out about this, he was conflicted at first, but decides to kill her anyway because she has disobeyed him. His son was supposed to marry Antigone (yeah, it’s her cousin…yeah, it’s pretty gross) but because she was supposed to be killed, this conflicted with the marriage plans. Haeman, Antigone’s betrothed, gets quite upset with Creon for trying to kill his fiancée, so he somewhat lashes out. We all know how the story ends, with the characters melodramatically killing themselves and Creon crying his eyes out about how much of a jerk he is. When we did the poll in class about the decisions of the characters, the question that stood out to me most was the one about how Antigone was or was not right in burying her brother and whether or not Creon was right in sentencing her to death. I decided that Antigone was right in burying her brother because it is her right as a citizen, but it was also Creon’s right to say that no one could bury the brother. This is because as a ruler, it was Creon’s civic responsibility to punish people who commit treason on his country.
10/20/11 Journal
So far in the class, I have enjoyed it very much. I like how we run discussions and how the syllabus is set up. I feel that we all get a lot out of the discussions because we all participate in them and are paying attention. In high school, whenever we would have discussions, only a few people would talk and everyone else would just sit there. I enjoy the dynamic of our class because everyone talks and adds their input to the conversation. When we did the parody assignment, I felt that it deepened our understanding of the ancient concepts and stories that we read because, of course, in order to poke fun at something, you must understand it first. The parody assignment really helped accomplish all of the course goals because they mostly have to do with synthesizing and reconstructing old or new information. We were able to further draw parallels between these ancient works when we read The Epic of Gilgamesh and The Odyssey. These two ancient works of literature were perfect to include in the syllabus because we could easily draw parallels between them. Also, The Odyssey was extremely relatable to modern day life. This is not because we fight giant monsters today, but because the emotions and mistakes that the characters make are similar to ours today. I feel like I am learning a lot in this class. I have read about ¾ of the material already, but the conversations and ideas we discuss in class are different from any that I have had in previous high school classes. It is like reading a familiar book years later and getting something different from it. I feel that my participation has improved from high school, and I believe this is because everyone else in the class likes participating as well. I really love the class and there’s nothing I would change about it.
10/27/11 Journal
This week, our main topic of discussion was the good life. I really enjoyed the presentation we had on Wednesday because it talked about the different definitions of the good life. We debated on what we thought was the good life and whether it was the amount of material possessions we have or the spiritual life we lead. We determined ultimately that the good life is hard to define because it is different for everyone and it is very subjective. For one person, the good life might be living it up in Vegas, gambling away all the money they have to their name, whereas another person might be living the good life making millions of dollars in a law firm, whereas yet another person might be living the good life living in a empty forest meditating and fasting for days on end. This shows us that it is difficult to decide what is truly the good life, and it is difficult to determine who is living it. My favorite good life passage we read in the text was Confucius’s because it made the most sense to me. Confucius talked about how living the good life is something very attainable. He also brought up the fact that in order to live the good life, one must give everything up in order to help others. This seems quite remote to us, because we are very focused within ourselves. I think it has something to do with the fact that Confucius is from China and we are from the United States. The United States is an individualistic culture and China is a collectivistic culture; therefore, United States citizens tend to think of themselves and Chinese citizens tend to think of the greater good.
Journal 11/4/11
We spent a lot of time this week discussing the Dao teachings on life, specifically the good life. First we read the poems, and then we read some prose. I found the prose much easier to understand personally and I enjoyed it more. The poetry was just a little hard to get through for me, partly because it was more cryptic that the prose and partly just because I don’t enjoy poetry very much in general. The Dao prose had many central themes: simplicity, the “flow”, the circle of life, and acceptance. I found that many of the mini stories in the prose contained the central theme of simplicity. Most people think of life as complex and overwhelming, but the Dao teachings argue otherwise. Life according to them is a simple matter, mostly because your life is essentially already planned out for you—all you have to do is live it. In class, we discussed the ying/yang and how it represents the “flow” and also how all the opposites in the world contain some of its counterpart. This idea applies to the Dao teachings because, especially in the poetry, it talked a lot about how man and woman each have a little of each other in one another. The prose contained this idea a little as well. Also, the idea of the “flow” or the circle of life is very important. The Dao prose had a mini story about a man whose wife died and instead of becoming depressed that she was gone, he simply said death was a part of life. He said first she was nothing, then she was a spirit, then she had a body, then she was born, then she lived, the she died. It is just part of the life cycle. This also ties into the central theme of acceptance because the Dao teachings place a big emphasis on accepting what life throws at you. Your life is already planned, so as a human being, you must accept that life is what it is, and you can be at peace with it. I found these Dao teachings to be very interesting, but they are hard to apply to life when you are high-maintenance and a slight control freak, like me!
I'm guessing there aren't very many Daoists in the Honors College. [MH]
Journal 11/11/11 (Make a wish!)
This week we have talked a lot about the Aeneid. I find this a very interesting story, sort of like Romeo and Juliet, except Aeneas is kind of a jerk and doesn’t end up killing himself too like Romeo. The story tells the adventures of Aeneas, who is trying to create his own kingdom. Of course, those meddlesome Gods won’t make it that easy for him, so they decide to make him fall in love with Queen Dido. She falls in love with him as well, but it was kind of fated to fail from the beginning, because we all know that Aeneas is supposed to be creating a kingdom. Unfortunately, Aeneas tries to sneak out of Queen Dido’s land and go off to find his kingdom. Of course, this doesn’t work and she finds out about it. She immediately begins to beg him not to leave, using every trick in the book, even wishing she could have his child in order to force him to stay, which is kind of a low blow. This doesn’t work, because Aeneas is on a mission, and he leaves anyway. Dido immediately falls into a severe depression and kills herself. Now. I know it must have been hard for Dido, being somewhat led on by Aeneas then having him run off to conquer his destiny and all, but was this really necessary? No. She is the most dramatic and attention-seeking character I have ever read about it, including Helena from A Midsummer Night’s Dream (and we all know how dramatic she was). Dido had a responsibility to lead her kingdom and people, but instead of doing that, she falls in love with a man in what seems like an hour and kills herself when he leaves. Not only does she kill herself, but it literally takes her about, oh I don’t know, a million pages to actually die, proving that she just wants attention. “Oh, look everyone, look! I’m going to kill myself! No one’s looking…well okay…I guess I’ll do it anyway…” That is Dido’s inner monologue in my head. So the moral of this story for me was excessive passion is bad, and being dramatic about things that you probably shouldn’t is very annoying.
Critical Essay Topic Ideas: I had two critical essay topic ideas and I like them both, so if you want to just give your opinion and say which one you like better or the pros and cons of them, that would be great. Thanks!
1.) What were the basics of ancient Greek mythology and how did the Greeks apply it to their lives?
2.) How did the ancient Greeks view the concept of the Underworld and what was this idea like for them?
EDIT: For both of these topics, I was planning on using The Odyssey. I tried to keep the first one vague because I was planning on discussing how Athena intervened in Odysseus's life and whether or not the ancient Greeks believed this happened a lot in their daily lives, or if it just happened because Odysseus was a demi-God or a hero. I was also going to talk about the ancient Greek concept of mythology and religion and the basis for it. For the second, I was going to discuss how ancient Greeks viewed the Underworld and talk a lot about how Odysseus and some other main characters in our class's readings were able to veture into the Underworld. Because this is typically not a belief today, it would be interesting to draw some parallels between how our culture views Hell and the Underworld and how the ancient Greeks viewed Hell and the Underworld.
11/17/11 Journal
This week was an interesting week. While I enjoyed sleeping in the extra hour this morning because we did not have class, I still missed our 9 AM discussions about ancient literature. We discussed different art museums on Monday in preparation for our visit to the art museum here on campus next Monday. I am excited to see the art museum and I visited it once since I’ve been here. I’m in an organization called College Mentors for Kids and we visited there with the children. I thought at first that the children wouldn’t be interested at all, but surprisingly, they did think it was a little fascinating. Of course they are still kids, and art museums are kind of like an acquired taste, so it wasn’t the coolest thing they’d ever seen. I particularly liked the discussion we had in class Monday about the different art museums. Although other people did not seem to like the art museum where there was a pool of water surrounding it, I liked it a lot. It happened to be my favorite art museum that we looked at. It was so tranquil and peaceful that I felt as though being there would be like having my own private experience looking at different works of art. On a slightly different note, I really enjoyed the presentation we watched on Wednesday. I felt like this group had done a really nice job on it and it was a hilarious presentation. I especially liked the music video they did and it seems as though they put a lot of work into it. As for the topic of death, they covered it very well, and in my opinion, hell and the underworld are two different concepts. The underworld to me is a place where all the ancient Greeks went after death and it was like a black/blue place with a sea of sulfur or whatever with the giant three-headed dog (Fluffy…sorry, Harry Potter reference). Also the underworld seems like a place that is readily accessible to humans on Earth still. Hell is a fiery place that people who do not live faithful and good lives go to be punished because they deserved it because of their sin. It was a very interesting topic and I hope we can continue a discussion later.
Journal 12/2/11
In our group today, we had Lauren, Sam, Sarah, and I. I edited Sam’s and Lauren’s papers in class today so I took home Sarah’s paper to edit and post comments about here on the wiki. First of all, I really liked the idea of this paper, because it is a thought I had frequently while reading The Odyssey. Odysseus seemed a little clueless about how to conduct a mission, but to his defense did have many obstacles. But his son Telemachus, while picked on by many of the suitors for being a “child”, showed true heroism in this story. The idea and organization of this paper is very good. I would like to hear more about the background of Joseph Campbell’s “heroic monomyth”. It was a very interesting concept and one that I had not heard of before. Also, a little more research to support this claim might be good too. Maybe if you could get classifications of heroes by different sources or something to that effect. Researching the ancient Greek ideas of heroism might help a little; I know I read something about that when I was doing research for my paper. I think that breaking up some of the larger paragraphs might help as well. I really liked this idea and the organization though, and you had a lot of good quotes and information pulled from research. Perhaps comparing Odysseus to Telemachus more in the paper could strengthen your argument too. I really didn’t find anything else wrong with this paper, and it was very well done!
12/9/11 Journal
This week was a very interesting week because we discussed different religious works of literature. Reading the Quran was especially interesting because I have never read it before and it is always good to compare works of your own religion to works of different religions. Since I am a Christian, I believe in everything the bible says and believe Jesus was the Son of God who died to save my sins. Some of these beliefs are consistent with Islam and the Quran but some are not. Of course, the obvious similarity between Islam and Christianity is the existence of one God. I really liked the point that was raised today about how there are many names used for God in the Quran but not once does it refer to God as Father, as the bible does. We thought it was because maybe Muslims think of God as a threatening, merciless figure that only seeks punishment for his people while Christians perceive him as an almighty, fair, and just creator that loves us and desires a relationship with us. Also, the Quran does not believe that Jesus was the Son of God, he did not rise from the dead, and he was not crucified. Of course, the bible states these things are true, so that is a clear difference between the two works. Also, the motives and desires of the two religions are very different. As Christians, we are called to encourage others to accept the love and grace of Jesus because we just hope everyone can feel loved and cared about in only a way God can. But it seemed, through the Quran, that Islam was more about abolishing corruption instead of trying to share the Gospel. Like if others wanted to follow Islam, that was fine, but it was not a main goal. It is always interesting to look at religious texts because it can both challenge and strengthen your own beliefs.