Kiss My Nether Yay Yah

Ah the Miller's Tale, how sweet is the quest of two people and their battle to share their love... not. A young girl marries an older guy. With the rules and regulations of fixed marriages in place back in this day and time, one cannot expect this child not to search out a younger companion. The carpenter is smart to keep his eye on her, but he should have been watching the astrologer living with him.

At first the carpenter's wife, Alison, refuses Nicholas, but it didn't take long for his advances to convince her. He grabs her between the legs and holds her by the hips, professing that if he doesn't have his way with her, he'll surely die (90-95). The tide turns in his favor. I'm not sure how. He doesn't say anything to savor.

A plan hatches from the mind of Nicholas. Alison knows the sly scheme, but it is Nicholas who pulls the blinders over the carpenter's eyes. John goes to work, thinking he's going to save his dear Alison from  a watery grave, and Nicholas and Alison commit adultery in the dark of night. Absolom, a musician from Oxford pines for Alison too, and he almost ruins the sexual encounter between the two lovers. Yet, he is tricked and kisses her backside, but he comes back and receives a fart to the face and brands Nicholas' ass, an exchange for the fragrant gift.

This piece is all about bodily functions and sexual excursions. The comedy that these things bring out is timeless. We still see these things today in literature and film. Will Ferrell comes to mind. His sexual comedy is funny to most Americans. My mother would disagree.

The Shield of Sir Gawain

A reading of the intro in Middle English.

There is a lot of information out there about the shield of Sir Gawain. Most of the sites I found say virtually the same, and mostly, it's adjacent to what we talked about in class. Go figure. Dr. H. can get a few things right every once in a while. 

Yeah, it's not red, but it's closer than some.

In lines 619-65 of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the author puts a lot of thought into the shield that Sir Gawain carries. Red or "gules" decorates the background and symbolizes valor and courage. Up holding virtues, the pentangle represents more meaning in the shield than any other symbol. Five prestigious points equate to his "faultless" five senses and five fingers. (Though, the rest of us have ten fingers, Sir Gawain must be superior with only his five.) The five points also correspond to Christ's death on the cross with the five puncture wounds he received, reminding us of the divine and linking Sir Gawain to the Messiah. Representing Mary, mother of Jesus, the five points expresses the five joys she found in her Son. "These were the annunciation to Mary that she was to bear the Son of God, Christ's Nativity, Resurrection, and Ascension into heaven, and the 'Assumption' or bodily taking up of Mary into heaven to join Him" (footnote 7, 1657). Chivalry (at the time) is defined with five virtues also embodying the five points: "Beneficence boundless and brotherly love/And pure mind and manners, that none might impeach,/And compassion most precious" (652-4).

The ring surrounding the pentangle likely signifies the binding oath between a man and a woman, reminding him of his oath as a knight to uphold the honor of that position and the expectation of faithfulness to his lord and master.

Seven

"Break one commandment, break them all," My pastor said. The Evangelical stance on sin is that "sin is sin." When Adam and Eve took the first bite of the forbidden fruit, they committed the first crime. Since then every human who has walked the face of the earth has died, for "The wages of sin is death." It is human nature to sin, so no one can avoid it. In the eyes of God, one cannot lie and it be counted as a lesser transgression than murder. All sin is the same, and all punishment is the same. This fundamental Bible rule is different than society's laws, and I'm wondering how much of Dante's descriptions of the different levels of Hell and different punishments for different sins help to define our societal rules for today. Dante expounds on the punishment for different sins in his fiction work, The Divine Comedy, but he wasn't the first to define mortal sin. 


The idea came from a monk, Evagrius of Pontus in 400 AD. He said that there were eight forms of self-love that separate us from God:



Gluttony and lust concern concupiscible appetites (the “body”). Sadness and anger, are associated with the irascible part of the soul; they concern things we don’t have, and finally there are temptations regarding ourselves (pride and vanity) or those which arise from the specifically human side (logistikon of ourselves (sadness, vain glory, and pride). Acedia arises from several parts of ourselves.

Gluttony. Anxiety about one’s health, leading to inordinate concern about food. When Evagrius’ own diet of uncooked foods made him sick, he switched to cooked food.

Fornication. Desire for imaginary bodies, as unreal as the sicknesses mentioned above. This vice like the preceding tries to seduce us from orderly moral regimen. •Greed. Futile planning for an unreal future.

Sadness, which often follows from indulging in foolish wants or not getting what we want.

Anger. Can ruin health and cause bad dreams. Rather than brooding on our wrongs, we should go out of our way to do good to the person who wronged us.

Acedia (melancholy; depression). Listlessness, weariness of heart, which tempts the monk to abandon his calling.

Vain glory: Vain glory is daydreaming about our greatness, holiness, etc. •Pride: supposing we can do anything without God.

According to the Skemmata (53) these eight all arise from self-love. They all involve the wrong notion about God. They trap us into an unreal world centered on ourselves and lead to a false God. Thus they make impossible the pure prayer which is our supreme goal.

John Cassian

John Cassian translated the Greek into Latin for Christian use, and it Pope Gregory I in the late sixth century who changed a few things around and came up with the list of the seven mortal sins we know of today: lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy, and pride. 


And I couldn't resist, but I had to put a link to the scene of "The Box" in the film Se7en just because Kevin Spacey is so awesomely creepy.

Similarities and Differences

I was excited about discovering the Koran. I have wanted to read it for some time now to try and understand our Muslim friends. I wanted to learn the differences and the similarities between our cultures, to search for solution to the problems that we face. (Yeah, I hold all the answers to the world's problems in the palm of my hand. I am that good.) After reading the excerpts that we had with us, I came to realize that those differences are far too great for any simple solution. After all, if it were simple, wouldn't we already be getting along? 

I was sort of angry when reading the "Women" excerpt. Slaves are permitted. Women aren't to inherit the same amount of a legacy as a man and are to be subservient (1151). Our western culture has grown to include women as equals and slavery has been abolished. We're not totally on track with equality yet, but we're making progress. Progress that is leading away from the way the Bible has been translated and interpreted. "But that's not a difference," I said. "That's a similarity! The very fact that our culture has in its history the oppression of women and other humans is a comparison."

I began to look for more coincidences. The Koran preaches that it is right. There is no other scripture out there that any man should live his life by ("The Table" 1153-62). Well, so does the Bible. There is no difference between how growing up in a Baptist community and following God's word through the Bible and how Muslim children grow up in their own religious communities, following the word of the Koran. We are congruous in that respect. We also liken in our fear God.

Sassy Satire

We were a little off the wall in class today. In fact, we were "satirical." I didn't quite get the deeper meaning of Menippean satire because of the hysterics, so I ventured on my own and searched it out.

One of the examples given today was T.C. Boyle's "Modern Love." Luckily, I found a link to the short story and was able to read it. I really enjoyed it, but I still didn't see the link to Menippean satire. To me, the story was plainly satire. So, what's the difference?

I took from several definitions that satire can be a whole piece (novel, short story, poem, play) or it can be only a small part of that piece. Menippean satire consists of the whole piece and is based on philosophical arguments and traditional culture.

A Journey into Hell

I don't think that "Sexy, Soulful Music and Dance" is what Dr. H. had in mind when he was talking about Nekyia, but it looked semi-interesting in a WTH is this sort of way. Upon further investigation, I found that the site explains that Nekyia is a ritual journey into darkness. Well, I thought. That sounds familiar.

"Nekyia's Pure Catnip" on the right is here for your entertainment.

Traveling around the internet, I happened on a book that should explain myth in simple linguistics: The Complete Idiot's Guide to World Mythology. Aha! A book that caters to my pea-sized mind.

Evans Lansing Smith and Nathan Robert Brown are eloquently simple in explaining Nekyia. The word is derived from the Greek word, necro, meaning dead.

"Nekia was a word used by the Greeks to refer to the eleventh book of Homer's Odyssey, in which Odysseus travels into Hades to consult the spirit of the blind prophet, Tiresia, so that he might find out how to get back home."

As we said in class, Odysseus isn't the only one to travel into the afterlife. Orpheus travels to the underworld to save his love Eurydice. In the near future, we'll discover Dante's journey through hell. Persephone is kidnapped by the god of the underworld, Hades, who tricks her into becoming his wife. However, the journey into hell for all the characters who dare venture there is always followed by a return to the land of the living.


So I learned a new Greek word, but that's not all. There's another word I picked up, necrotype. These fellows might have made it up because Merriam-Webster says a necrotype is "an extinct organism or group of organisms." But we're complete idiots after all.

Smith claims "universal structures and collective archetypes make up all heroic journeys/descents to the underworld. Necrotype is an integration of the Greek word necro (dead/death) with the word "archetype." this word refers to universal symbls of the human imagination catalyzed by the journey to the underworld (nekyia)."   

He has got to be making this up, but it sounds really good.

To Know No Evil

I hate it when I have an idea and I don't write it down. Somehow, I had connected both pieces that we had discussed today in a really cool way, but I lost it. It went right out of my head somewhere on the journey to take my youngest daughter to the pool. My kids tend to converse about stuff irrelevant to early western literature, and they fill my head full of middle school drama. I could care less, but it does tend to push my important thoughts into a dust covered box in the back of my brain in which great shit disappears and never sees the light of day again. Without kids I could have been some great scholar or the next Einstein. Like the death of Socrates, it's all sad, but true.


I do remember the first part of my premise, so I'll write. Maybe the rest of it will surface eventually, or maybe I'll think of something better. Here are some random ramblings.


Speaking to Meletus, Socrates says, "You know bad people do something bad to [whoever's] closest to them at the given moment, and good people something good?" (766). I believe that Socrates is saying that people don't intentionally do evil things to one another. If a person doesn't know he's doing something wrong, then how can he be blamed for the fault? So, it's that simple. Ignorance is bliss, and all is right with the world. 


However, two other assumptions need to be considered. There are many believers whose idea of evil stems from the biblical meaning of sin. There is a right and a wrong, and anyone with intelligence knows the difference. He chooses his own actions. And then there's justification: (an eye for an eye (Mattew 5:38)) a person commits a wrong and is legitimized in performing it.

In regarding the Bible, I went looking for an ally for Socrates in Aristotle. In Poetics, Aristotle defines the Tragedy, but using his definition of Character we help Socrates make his case."Character is that in virtue of which we say that the personages are of such and such a quality; and Thought is present in everything in their utterances that aims to prove a point or the expresses an opinion" (780). In class today, we discussed further on Aristotle's clarification of character. A weak character caves easily under pressure. This pressure can be anything to drive a character to do something he or she wouldn't normally do. A Strong character holds out till the bitter end. His suffering progresses up a figurative mountain to a precipice. To escape he gives in and jumps off; either he commits a crime, or he willingly receives any consequences (i.e. death) for not performing the crime. The Bible implies that we all have a choice. We choose between right and wrong. Aristotle suggests that a weak character has no choice, and if I understand correctly, a strong character still has a choice, which brings morality into the argument.


What Socrates says, is without instruction, then one cannot realize his fault. If we relate this reasoning to the Bible, then a person who has not read the Bible cannot be accountable for his actions. Yet, there is the whole social/moral code in which we all experience and learn while growing up and integrating into society. That accounts for something, even if one hasn't read the Bible.

So... we're all strong characters... The End.

Let's go to the movies!

Prometheus has nothing to do with the myth, unless you count the fact that the ship named after the Titan, who was in charge of creating man, carried the people who created a new life-sucking alien.

I'll revert back to the mythology for those who are not familiar. Prometheus creates man. He shapes him from mud and Athena gives man the breath of life.

In the film, the ship carrying 13 humans from Earth is named Prometheus. The usual sci-fi scenario involving humans leaping from the pot and into the fire encompasses the whole plot of the film. The humans' egos morph a bad situation into a complicated hell. They happen on some sort of metamorphic, DNA goo, and as all life will try and survive any way it can, it uses any organism surrounding it to reproduce. First to change are meal worms that squiggle into the black slime. They transform into a few nasty snake-looking-things, and attempt to converge with the two men who "unfortunately" got lost on the way back to the ship.

A few more attempts to create life brings into existence this prequel to Alien (1979). Quite some time has passed since then. I don't know that we actually needed a prequel; however, according to my good friend, who is an absolute fanatic of the series, we did.

The mythological legend,, Prometheus, was punished  for ticking off the father of the gods. Zeus tormented Prometheus with a giant eagle, who picked out his liver, ate it, and when it grew back, the eagle returned to consume it again. Before I watch the movie again, I'd like to try out that lighter torture, please.

-- Just kidding. It wasn't that bad.

You can watch the whole film here.

Subtitles! Yes, I said subtitles.  Electra (Ἠλέκτρα) is 1962 Greek film based on the play written by Euripides. Yes, I said Euripides. Aeschylus wasn't the only one to write about this Greek woman, but so far as we know he was the first.

Centuries ago, in 458 B.C.E., Aeschylus wrote The Libation Bearers. Electra only shows up to express her hatred for her mother Clytaemnestra, and her step-father, Aegisthus. She prays over her slain father's grave, and her brother appears. They plot the deaths of Clytaemnestra and Aegisthus. Orestes leaves to carry through the plan, but we hear no more from Electra. Her grand affection for her father draws her toward activating revenge for his death. She and her brother murder Aegisthus and Clytemnestra, out of a strong sense of justice; however, they mention nothing about acting revenge for their fallen sister, Iphigeneia, who died at their father's hand. "The Libation Bearers" is the middle play from the Oriesteia about a blood feud and fails to delve into Electra's character.


Between 415 and 413 B.C.E., Sophocles was the first playwright to expound on Electra’s tale.The play is recognized by the lead character's name.  Even though her father has committed crimes of his own by killing her little sister and bringing back a mistress from Troy, she sees her mother’s adulterous relationship with Aegisthus and their murder of Agamemnon as the ultimate betrayal. Electra is mistreated by her mother and is banished from the home. She lives with a farmer and bides her time until her little brother, Orestes, can grow up and help with her with her revenge.This Electra is filled with hate and rage, so much so that it almost consumes her, yet she triumphs over the emotional destruction.


Euripides also finds inspiration from Aeschylus work, but like Sophocles, he changes his play, Electra, to fit his own style. Euripides' play is similar to Sophocles' play in that rage and madness consume Electra. She falls under her emotions, yet they ultimately destroy her.

Marvel Comics

Jennifer Garner as Elektra

A newer version of the story of Electra came out in a modern film, Elektra (2005) starring Jennifer Garner. This version has very little to do with the antiquity plays and more to do with the comic by Marvel. Still tortured by the murders of her mother and her father (neither at her own hand) Elecktra travels through life choosing to live alone as an assassin. She journeys through an emotional katabasis which yanks her from her self-induced stupor.

I found another film made in 2010 called Elektra. Apparently, it is a psychological drama based on four adaptions of the myth. All three antiquity plays are included in the foundation along with the novel Mourning becomes Electra by Eugene O'Neill. The film also focuses on the Electra Complex, which according to Freud's psychosexual definition is just weird.

A Trunk of Surprises

In book 23 of the Odyssey, Penelope needs proof that it is her husband who has returned to her. I'm not sure why she feels the need to test him. A woman who loves her husband as much as she claims she does should only need her heart to convince her; nevertheless, Homer develops a way for Penelope to determine who the man is in front of her. Twenty years have passed. Maybe her eyes and her ears are bad.

 

The reunion between wife and husband is put off until the man of the house can prove his identity. Penelope sets up Odysseus' reprieve when she instructs servants to move the marriage bed. Knowing it cannot be moved, Odysseus responds with fury, "Not a man on earth, not even at peak strength, would find it easy to prise it up and shift it, no, a great sign, a hallmark lies in its construction" (210-2).

The bed, anchored to the floor, permanently bonds itself to the house, and those who sleep in it are permanently fettered together. Odysseus fashioned the bed from a live olive tree. In Greek myth, the tree is depicted as a plant of peace and a gift of the gods. Athena, goddess of wisdom and peace, stabs her spear into dirt and an olive tree springs forth. This godly significance informs us that the marriage bed of Odysseus and Penelope is free from strife. 

Odysseus describes how much time he put into building the bed, which explains his love for Penelope. The sweat he shed and the work he accomplished should be enough to prove his love to her.

An Assurance of Victory

In chapter 18 of Homer's The Iliad, the shield that Hephaestus forges for Achilles holds a little bit of everything. --of course, so does the Iliad.  Like any shield for any warrior, it is a tool for protection, but this masterpiece, made by a god, is prepared with supernatural prowess by including emotional stimuli to assist and drive our hero, Achilles, to victory.

The earth, the sky, and the sea accompany the sun, the moon, and the stars in the sky. Each make up our immediate universe and have something to benefit Achilles.The strength of the earth to house and give life to all things on the surface and the sun’s blinding heat are meant to give power. The stars and the constellations Orion and the Bear are always there, allowing Achilles consistency.

Hephaestus adds good things to the shield too. He harvests joy and celebration from the wedding. A new beginning of a couple and many happy people jubilate Achilles, yet just down the street, an argument is arising. Along with the festivity, the heat and excitement from a brawl is meant to fuel Achilles’ compulsion to fight.

On another part of the shield, another city sits waiting on war. The tension in the minds of the soldiers stimulates Achilles need for victory. Dressed in gold, Ares and Pallas Athena evacuate the citizens of the city, giving pride to Achilles with their wealth and beauty. The battle begins, and lust for victory streams from the soldiers as they battle ruthlessly shedding blood and carnage. Din sensitizes the air with chaos, and Hate spreads loathsome emotion as the Angel of Death stands to collect his prize. “And each side salvaged the bodies of their dead,”(581) creating sorrow for the lost lives of fellow comrades.

Men in the field compel to complete an honest day’s work. Steadily they plow and give to Achilles their strength and fortitude. The king stands at command with his leadership, and the men allow themselves to be lead by his “happy heart.”

The vineyard supplies natural beauty, and the Linos song flows gently to the ears, helping to bring peace of mind to Achilles. In its simplicity of everyday life, the farmyard supplies straightforwardness. The lions taking down an ox give Achilles their strength, while the dogs and boys hint a little at fear. The beautifully dressed dancers and acrobats act out splendor and grace, allowing Achilles to be quick and agile.

It is hard to imagine what evokes the mind of a warrior, but even harder to see it forged on a shield. How does it all fit? Do the characters on the shield move when a warrior looks at it? The past-tense verbs  in the battle scene suggests that the soldiers fluidly move in battle; the cattle and sheep die needlessly, and the water of the river turns blood red from the war."They  ran up, cut off the herds of cattle and fleecy/ Silver sheep, and killed the two herdsmen" (569-70)

“Among them a boy picked out on a lyre A beguiling tune and sang the Linos song” (612-3) Does the music ride on the wind to the warrior's ears? I think it does, for it has been constructed by a god to give the one who bears it power to defeat any enemy.

Modern Allusions to Noah and the Ark

One quick remark: since we talked about him today in class, I'd like to take a moment to mention the passing of Ray Bradbury. He was 91.

Today in class the assignment was to find pieces of art that were influenced by the Bible and more specifically in my group, Noah and the great flood. Everyone knows there is some things out there, but I was surprised as to how much there actually was until I started looking.

The first thing that I came across were paintings. There is a vast amount of oils out there painted in the Baroque period about God and with biblical themes. Schönfeld's The Flood is one example. The painting refers to Genesis 7:20 after it had been raining for quite some time. "Fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail; and the mountains were covered." In the foreground is chaos. Terror is off the scale as the people realize what is happening to them. Things are falling from the sky as they drown in midair, and there are already bodies on the ground. In the background, the ark floats peacefully.

Johann Heinrich Schönfeld-- The Flood
1634/35 oil on canvas
(137 x 2058 cm)

Firefly is one of the greatest television shows ever made, but it was cancelled in its prime because Fox can't recognize a good thing when it sees it. The company wastes time and money on trash like American Idol. In this clip, River Tam--Super Genius, is "fixing" Shepherd Book's Bible because it's broken. She's using math, her way of disproving everything in the Bible.

Fox (the jerks) took the video off of YouTube. I don't know if it was because I insulted them (probably not), but I'm going to give my ego a boost and think that anyway. I did find the same video at another link.

This clip from Family Guy just gives me the giggles.

A whole word has been created to descibe a time period.

Antedeluvian: Antedeluvian is Latin for “before the flood,” referring to the flood Noah rode out in Genesis. Something very old or outdated is sometimes exaggeratedly called antedeluvian. The professor's antedeluvian beliefs made him ill-suited for classroom teaching.

Read more: Biblical Allusions — Infoplease.com http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0934954.html#ixzz1x2lwXwJh

Bill Cosby has cashed in with his comic routine, "Noah."

We listened to some of it in class. Here is the whole joke.

There is a whole class on the subject of how film and television has been influenced by the Bible. If there wasn't such a drive from here to there, I might consider taking the course. --- that and the fact that the out of state tuition would put me further into the poor house.  The University of South Carolina Syllabus for REG491

 According to our wonderful professor, Atlantis by Donovan has some allusions. This is the first time I heard this little story. It's somewhat laughable to me, but you judge for yourself.

Lyrics for Atlantis by Donovan

In 1866, Doré was asked to illustrate the English Bible. This was his drawing of the great flood and those who were trying to save themselves any way they could. 

Gustave Doré-- The Great Deluge

Apparently, there are some Biblical references in Beowulf. For those of us who haven't read it yet, we have a preview. Grendel is referred to be a descendant of Cain.

In addition, there is a reference to the Great Flood that took place in Genesis: "the origin of ancient strife, when the flood, rushing water, slew the race of giants they suffered terribly: that was a people alien to the Everlasting Lord. The Ruler made them a last payment through waters welling" (3.2). In this reference to the biblical flood, the author of Beowulf is suggesting that the sword's creators were descendants of those that caused God to bring on the flood perhaps even suggesting that they were descendants of Cain. However, earlier in the passage these same giants are referred to with reverence: "There came into the possession of the prince of the Danes, after the fall of devils, the work of wonder-smiths" (2.2). Once again there is a contrast between the pagan and Christian cultures, as the same "giants" are referred to with honor and contempt in succeeding paragraphs.

In the beginning...

In the beginning, on our first day of class as we discussed Genesis, I was reminded of Sunday mornings at a mountain church and the little green room that smelled of mildew and old people as I learned the same stories as a child in Sunday School. It was a nice trip down memory lane between the yawns and wishing I was back in my warm, soft bed.

Sometime in the obscene hours of 8 AM to 10 AM on this summer morning in June the name Tiamat was mentioned by our esteemed professor. If I had heard this name before, I couldn't remember it, so I Googled it. Here's what I found:

Yes, that is a picture of Tiamat from Dungeons and Dragons.

Apparently, the legend of Tiamat has survived in order for modern cartoonists to use her image, but of course, this wasn't the Tiamat I was looking for. I don't' know a lot about Dungeons and Dragons, but I don't think that it has much to do with Babylonian legend. I asked a friend and he said it was based more on Tolkien. But whether it does or not, there are those allusions we talked about!

The real myth of Tiamat is explained here.

Tiamat

by Micha F. Lindemans

In Babylonian myths, Tiamat is a huge, bloated female dragon that personifies the saltwater ocean, the water of Chaos. She is also the primordial mother of all that exists, including the gods themselves. Her consort is Apsu, the personification of the freshwater abyss that lies beneath the Earth. From their union, saltwater with freshwater, the first pair of gods were born. They are Lachmu and Lachamu, parents of Ansar and Kisar, grandparents of Anu and Ea.
In the creation epic Enuma elish, written around 2000 BCE, their descendants started to irritate Tiamat and Apsu so they decided to kill their offspring. Ea discovered their plans and he managed to kill Apsu while the latter was asleep. Tiamat flew into a rage when she learned about Apsu's death and wanted to avenge her husband. She created an army of monstrous creatures, which was to be led by her new consort Kingu, who is also her son. Eventually, Tiamat was defeated by the young god Marduk, who was born in the deep freshwater sea.

Marduk cleaved her body in half, and from the upper half he created the sky and from the lower half he made the earth. From her water came forth the clouds and her tears became the source of the Tigris and the Euphratus. Kingu also perished, and from his blood Marduk created the first humans.

"The Deep" (Hebrew tehom) at the beginning of Genesis derives from Tiamat.

Tiamat and Marduk