Imagination

On Friday in class we were talking about the Eleusinian mysteries and Dr. Sexson said that the mysteries were “made sacred through the imagination.” I started thinking about what this really meant. In this particular context the imagination was used to induce awe and used a tool in religion. In religion imagination always plays a part. In Greek mythology imagination is what allowed the creation of all the Greek gods and the numerous stories about them. Also Christianity uses the imagination to create Christ, God and the stories that go along with them.

The human imagination is what sets us apart from other animals. It is one of the first tools we develop as children. Almost every child has an imaginary friend at one time or another. It allows us to get travel to other worlds in novels and allows us to imagine rock concerts we weren’t actually at. The imagination is an extremely powerful human ability.

We also talked about how the Greeks used to celebrate their defiance to their gods rather than their obedience. I am a christian and much of our time and worship is spent trying to model our lives after Christ and to be obedient in what he wants us to do. This new take on religion was intriguing to me. Why had the Greeks celebrated this other side of religion? I started to think about it and I decided that the gods often meddled directly in human affairs, and could pretty much make humans do their bidding. So, when a human was able to go against the gods and survive the wraith that probably followed it was a chance for celebration. The Greek gods were often doing things without regard to the humans themselves and instead caught up in their own battles with each other. This caused humans to get stuck in the cross fire and any resistance to this force that took away free will was good and a reason to celebrate.

Mothers and Daughters and Sisters

Today in class we were talking about the relationship of a mother and a daughter. It is a mystery to many men and something that is sacred to those of us women involved. I, of course, participate in this sacred relationship. Before we starting talking about the mother-daughter relationship in class I never really saw it as sacred or special. However, after reading the story of Demeter and Persephone I started to examine my own relationship with my mother. Our relationship has never been through anything like what Demeter went through, but I realized that my mother would do anything for me and it is sacred. None of the men in my life really understand that special connection we have.

After thinking about my mother I turned my thoughts another relationship that I think men just can't possibly understand. That is the relationship between sisters. Its not that sisters don't fight just as much as brothers, but I think its that we share different childhood activities as children that bond us in a very special way. When boys are punching each other and shooting each other with toy guns, as boys will do, girls are playing tea party and barbies. They support each other in everything and some day when they have both grown up they become best friends. Most men don't understand the unique relationships between women and very often are annoyed and most times baffled by them, but they've been around since human kind has been around so men: just get used to it, its not going anywhere.

Love

At the beginning of the third stasimon the chorus says something that just really caught my eye. They have this to say about love:

In battle the victory goes to Love;
Prizes and prosperities fall to Love.
Love dallies the night
On a girl’s soft cheeks,
Ranges across the sea,
Lodges in wild meadows.
O Love , no one can hide from you:
You take gods who live forever,
You take humans who die in a day,
And they take you and go mad.

Destroyer Love, you seize a good mind,
And pervert it to wickedness:
This fight is your doing,
This uproar in the family.
And the winner will be desire,
Shining in the eyes of a bride,
An invitation to bed,
A power to sweep across the bounds of what is Right.
For we are only toys in your hands,
Divine, unbeatable Aphrodite!

The way that love is personified in this selection really spoke to me. Giving love human characteristics speaks to the power love often has in life and especially literature. Often in stories love has more influence over people than anything else in the whole story. The story of Antigone is no different. It is her love for her brother that drives Antigone to go against her uncle and ultimately causes her death. Also, the death of Haemon is caused by his love for Antigone and Eurydice’s demise caused by the loss and love of Haemon.

Love has a lot of power over people. We don’t have the saying “Love makes you do funny things” for no reason. Even in modern culture love is known to have almost “magical” powers. Many people will do almost anything for love and in North American culture it is what everyone seeks in life and if/when it’s found people are essentially fulfilled in many aspects of their life.

My favorite part of this quotation is when they say “For we are only toys in your hands.” This is something that really speaks to me. I believe that we as humans are at love’s mercy. We have no control over it and it is a crazy, wild, experience. Whether you’ve fallen for a boy, a girl or have only experienced familial love you know its power. As the selection says it affects us all at some point, I believe in many aspects it is inescapable, but as love has the power to give happiness it also has the power to cause indescribable pain. People we love die or we break up with a girlfriend/boyfriend and we think that life will never go on. Love always comes again and if one love fades another is there to ease the hurt. This quote speaks to the power, fickleness and the universal aspects of love.

Anitgone vs. Creon

Reading the Introduction to Antigone I really didn’t know what to expect. There were long descriptions about the arguments of various disciplines about what exactly should be taken from this play and long character descriptions including motives, flaws and criticisms of each speaking character in the play. It talked a lot about how a Greek audience could’ve responded to the play, but what about a modern audience?

In Greek culture women submitted to men, as with many ancient cultures. There is nothing surprising about that or the fact that many Ancient Greeks might not have liked Antigone for her fiercely independent nature. In modern culture, though, times have changed. Women have fought hard and at least in many cultures have won a place equal to men. Our novels today are filled with stories of fiercely strong women who fight alongside and against men. I have always personally enjoyed the strong female characters and so I find Antigone intriguing and of course root for her. However, there are a few things in the way she expresses her feelings for her brother. Considering her background is it possible that her love for her brother goes beyond the love of one sibling for another? If it had been Eteocles who had been the traitor would she have felt so strongly about his proper burial? Also, she never denies her crime or tries to make it seem less severe making it seem like she has a death wish or is she just slightly unhinged? What bearing does her birth have on her actions?

On the flip side I, so far, find Creon extremely frustrating. He seems very full of himself as a ruler. He listens to no one and seems to think that if he changes his rules or makes exceptions his people will view him as a weak ruler. One thing I find very interesting is that both Antigone and Haemon know, and point out Creon’s one major flaw: that he won’t listen and his people fear him too much to speak out against him. When Antigone points it out Creon simply ignores it and when Haemon points it out Creon accuses him of being a slave to women and taking Antigone’s side over his. Is Creon so insecure and pompous that he can’t listen to what anyone else says? How has remained ruler for so long with such a strict refusal to listen? He appears to love himself and his place as ruler more than he loves his city and its people.

Homeric Hyms Intro

I opened my Homeric Hymns and proceeded to read the introduction. I was re-introduced to many characters I already knew from Greek mythology such as Zeus Hera, Apollo and Athena. I don't have anymore that the basic knowledge of Greek Mythology and the most time I've ever spent on it is the approximately 90 minutes it takes to watch the Disney animated version of Hercules. However the idea and "practice of Greek mythology has always fascinated me. The effort that the Greek people put into creating stories about their gods is some what mind blowing to me. The took the story telling way beyond the simple creation story and seemed to have written some stories just for the fun of it.

The introduction was pretty easy to understand, but with my limited knowledge of mythology I didn't realize just how many children Zeus had. I soon got bogged down in trying to connect and keep track of all the relations between the gods and mostly which ones Zeus had spawned. He was very promiscuous, something looked down upon today. However, the Greeks were notoriously promiscuous as a culture, having few of the lines concerning sexuality that we draw today. So I made a small leap and began to ask how these two ideas of promiscuity among the Greeks and their gods were connected. Obviously the Greeks wrote the stories so were the stories written to excuse or explain the Greek behavior? The idea that if the gods did it then it was OK for mortals to practice it was well? Or are the behaviors of the god/s of a culture inexplicably linked the culture that "worships" it? We can also see humans modeling their behavior after God in the example of Christians who model their behavior after Christ. Or perhaps the promiscuity of the Greek gods was simply of reflection of an already established Greek culture.