31January2007

Discovering the Oz in Bozeman:

• Dr. Sexon is Dr. Seuss's alter ego.


• The class broke up into our groups for our final presentations today.


• The title of the presentation is, of course, how the past possesses the present.
  - Anything goes


• Read the first hymn to Dionysus to prepare for Bacchae.

The Triple Goddess - Maiden, Mother, and Crone.

• The triple goddess has regained worship throughout the increasingly popular Wicca faith.

Kore - Persephone

Mysteries of Eleusis

Doso from Dolorous - sorrow

Iambi -

• Iambic pentameter - used in poetry dedicated to Demeter.

Archetypal - Daughter and Mother (Demeter & Persephone).

29 January 2007

NOTES AND THOUGHTS FOR 29JAN2007

Epi-phany (from phanos)from phaino; a lightener, i.e. light; lantern:--lantern.

Showing forth of something higher.

Zeus and Mnemosyne(memory) = Muses

In illo tempore - "At that time", found often in the Gospel lecture during the Mass. It is used to mark a time in an indeterminate past.

Epic - Odyssey, Iliad (Homer), & Aeneid (Virgil)

Drama - Shorter and more focused than an epic. Sophocles, Euripides, Aristophanes, Aeschylus. (dramatic tragedy is THE perfect form)

Canonical - ca·non·i·cal·ly, adverb

Theogony - (Homer) Hymns and bith of God

• gon = birth
• theo = god
• Anti-gone - against birth

Homeric Hymns - 8th to 5th century B.C.E.

• Picard says that the Homeric hymns are root metaphors of western civilization.

(Gilgamesh may be first record of such writing.)

Demeter - Root metaphor for:

• Creation (pregnancy) - Terms of Endearment (Men are useful but not necessary)
  Etiology - explains the way things are.
• Agriculture
• Marriage
• The path to the underworld
• And More...

Rapunzel - entire Grimm version as discussed in class.

Cereal from Ceres a.k.a. Demeter

This print of Melpomene shows the muse of tragedy with the poet Hesiod. Hesiod was an early Greek poet and rhapsode, who presumably lived around 700 BC.

Follow this link to an example of how classical mythology is reintroduced into present fiction. Just click on wizard of the month.

26January2007

I am in awe of the forgiveness that Demeter shows toward both Zeus and Hades. For a mother, losing your only child is horrendous, but for an immortal goddess it must be worse. As humans, we understand the vulnerability of our children, yet Demeter must have expected Persephone to live out all of her days on Olympus. This link is to Alfred Lord Tennyson's poem about Demeter and Persephone. I have always loved the way that Tennyson expresses himself.

_________________

After reading lines 441 to 581 in Antigone, I once again find myself glad of being born into a society where women have rights, transgressions can be forgiven, and where one person does not control the fate of all people.

While the American government may have flaws, or not always be properly enforced, at least I can freely express my ideas without being arrested. I am thankful that I am allowed to attend a University that does not have the desire only to prepare me to be a good wife. I am also grateful to live in a society where single mothers are not ostracized.

I look at the dilemma of Antigone with deep sympathy. How could she be kept from giving her brother a proper burial? Life's transgressions should not keep her brother from Elysia. Being on the "wrong side" of a war is all from the perspective of the waring parties. When I look back at the Trojan war, I do not take sides, but look at it from a historical perspective instead. Emotions could the goings on of the present and create many false senses of truth. Someday, our great-grandchildren will be able to look back at our life time and see it with some clarity, until then, we must draw on the path to infer anything about the present.

Notes from 26 January 2007

Notes:

26 January 2007

1. Politics derived from Polis(or city)


2. B.C.E. - Before the Common Era


3. Chthonic - of the underworld.


4. "Read throught the times into the eternities." ~Dr. Sexson


5. Homeric Hymns - wiki, google, other info.


6. Hermes - one of the first peices of comedy.


7. Demeter - one hidden laugh.


8. There are nine Muses of inspiration.


9. Trope - a word used in a figurative sense (turning around or away).


10. Poly Tropes - skilled at getting out of a jam.


11. Music is an invocation of the Muse herself.


12. "Gesang ist ryhe desein." - Song is existence.


13. Anamnesis - recollection of what we have forgotten. We must see the beautiful in the world to get back our wings.

The Muses Clio, Euterpe, and Thalia, by Eustache Le Sueur

24January2007

Just a comment about why the boaters were smiling: They were smiling because we must smile. Living in a world where catastrophe and misfortune are rampant means that we must take every moment of life as a blessing, for it truly is. My philosophy is better a flat tire than death. Do not worry over what you cannot control. This lesson was a hard one to learn, but with motherhood it became necessary.

• http://www.mississippireview.com/1996/msexson.html

“I just wanted to write books I wanted to write, ... There's no writer who has not had enough ego to hope something he or she wrote would be seized on by the public -- that something they write will last beyond them. But hoping and expecting are two different things. Expecting would be beyond ego.”

~Robert Jordan

22January2007

What's Old:

Assignments:

• -Antigone: Pg.121 and lines 231 to 277 *test*

Notes:

• -Why is Western society only based on a "fist full" of myths? Why are there so many Antigones? Why can present day authors not come up with any new ideas?
  
• -Tragedians could not refer to anything taking place in the present.
  
• -Comedians had free reign.
  
• -We can use myths to decipher the truths of the present.
  
• -This class focuses on women and the obscene or off stage.
  
• -Antigones contains these conflicts

1. Man vs. Woman

2. Young vs. Old

3. Society vs. the Individual

4. The Living vs. the Dead

5. Man (Humankind) vs. God(s)

Thoughts:

• While it might be better to have things go over your head than under, the latter sound worse to me because if something were to go under my head, it may result in decapitation. My point being, the material going under your head may make all of the difference as to how devastating having it under your head truly is. Also, no one has ever been hurt by something going over their head. :0)

19January2007

What's Old:

~Assignments:

• Create E-journal


• Obtain a copy of the Bozeman Chronical


• Research the French Resistance leader, Simone Weil http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simone_Weil


• Read the Homeric Hymns of Hermes and Demeter


• Read Antigone lines 441-581 *test*

Notes:

• What goes around comes around, or history repeats itself.

Thoughts:

• While we cannot say clueless, the actual movie Clueless was loosely based on classical literature. It was a derivative of Emma by Jane Austen. Many other of today's wonderful movies are founded in classical literature. This revelation only proves the lack of original content in modern day entertainment.