Shedding Light on Helen

When the Greeks needed to appeal to an ultimate authority, it wasn't a sacred text but Homer that they went to. Greece was founded on the Iliad. The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony pg. 91. As those of you who have read chapter four know it is probably the longest chapter in the book, and for good reason. This chapter addresses the story of Helen and the god and goddesses that were in the background. Helen was the only daughter of Zeus and had two mothers. Zeus as always raped a women by the name of Nemesis and while Nemesis was sleeping Hermes took the egg and placed it in Leda's womb. Helen was pretty much the most beautiful women on the face of the earth and a bi-product of such beauty was an endless amount of suitors. Helen had five husbands including Achilles. They were however not married while still living but after both were spirits. These two met while the Greeks were attacking Troy to try and get Helen back form Paris. The ironic thing about this whole story that we have all heard before is that Helen was not even there it was only a specter of Helen. The real Helen was with an Egyptian king. This fact is commonly left out of the popular story because Homer thought that this fact would make his epic story not so epic.

Chapter 3 continued

Throughout the bloody night, torch signals were exchanged among the hills.The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony, page 66. As i have been reading this book i have been playing with the idea that the gods are not exactly entities but rather a way for humans to explain there feelings. I seem to recall this being discussed in class but i am not positive when. If the gods are indeed merely human feelings given a face then the second half of the third chapter is most definitely the feeling of lust. In fact sex is the main topic of this chapter ranging form rape to sacrificing yourself for a loved one. This feeling is shared by both gods and humans in some cases the gods literally forestall a humans death for love something that is unheard of. In addition to the gods loving humans this chapter tells us that it was the hero's that defined love by resisting the social norms and actually sharing love with their companions both female and male. 
 

Hugging a Mighty Big Tree

This picture was taken this summer in California were i encountered some of the oldest living trees in the world the mighty redwoods. I did huge a tree in Bozeman bu the picture did not really turn out so i grabbed this off my computer. I am on the the far right and the other two people are my sisters. at a combined arm span of roughly 18 feet we did not even come close to giving this ancient being a proper huge but none the less we tried.

Struggling through The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony

The twelve gods of Olympus agreed to appear as entirely human. It was the first time a group of divinities had renounced abstraction and animal heads. The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony, page 54. This quote reminded me of the overall theme of our class the origin of myth and in essence life. It is very rare that you can actually find an origin due to the general tendencies of things to be based on prior events. This quote tells of a monumental event in the role of gods in human life. the gods by taking the form of humans have put themselves on the same level as humans. This transformation to the human form also allows the gods to interact with human kind in a way previously not capable.  


While I struggle to read this book I find that The Magus is substantially easier to read. in fact when our professor told use that we would not be able to put the book down he was not kidding. I found my self reading till 2 this morning totally obliviious to the time. The main pull int the book at this point for me is the old man really physic or is he just crazy? Personally I would like to believe that he is and due to the thickness of the book I have a feeling that he is truly physic. 


In class on the 7th we discussed the different parts of a story beginning middle and end. In addition to this we were asked to find an origin myth and to discuss our reaction to learning that Santa is not real.


Unfortunately my story of learning that santa is not real is rather uneventful. when i was 8 years old i caught my parents putting the presents under the tree and to there surprise i asked if they needed any help. I can not really explain my reaction but I think that i never really believed in Santa. This was not my parents fault i have just always been a very logical thinker even at a young age.    


As an after thought in chapter three of the Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony Hercules is discussed and compared to Theseus. As i read this I realized that i really did not know anything about Hercules besides what Disney told me. I plan on filling this void in knowledge as soon as I can.