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