9/22/11

"For all the variegated multiplicity of its forms, the practice of sacrifice can be reduced to just two gestures: expulsion (purification) and assimilation (communion). These two gestures have only one element in common: destruction. In each case the victim is killed or devoured, or abandoned to a certain death." (Calasso 292)

Bozeman, is actually a mythological place! It has Oz in it, from the Wizard of Oz.

Axis mundi - center of the world.
One way or another we have lost contact with Gods
Man's relationship had gone through two regimes and currently in the third regime(You can find this at the bottom of pg. 52 and first sentence of pg. 53)
1)Convivality - or friendly relationships
2) Rape
3) Indifference - "Gods have already withdrawn, and, hence, if they are indifferent in our regard, we can be indifferent as to their existence or otherwise."
Rape addressed! Rape - sudden, obsessive invasion that plucks away the flower of thought.
Beginning- nostalgia about beginning. Example, Old people talking about old times and how they were better. Nostalgia comes from nostos, meaning separation.
Polytropos- "men of many turns"
Creation of the world according to Greeks:
1) Has to do with creative murder
2) Eros - divine force

9/20/2011

"The woman;s face gazed steadily at the god's while with her other arm, behind which trembled an imense wing, she stretched out toward the farthest extremity of everything: and where the tips of her fingernails reached, there Everthing ended. They were a royal and motionless couple: they were Time-Without Age and Anake." (Calasso 200)

Here's the url for the Origin of Medicine Myth:
http://www.indigenoutspeoplenet/origmedi.htm
If anyone wants to read the whole thing.

Jason had presented his creation myth today and it was on the creation of the world.
Even though that particular creation myth was told several times, everybody has their own way of telling it. A change of style is a change of subject.
Etiology- To be.
Ontology- Study of being.
We were given a list of myths to read from Primitive to Zen that was sent to our email.
Started talking about creation of music, The word music comes from the muses.
Separation- first phase, life is good.
Initiation- second phase, full of pain and suffering.
Transformation- third phase, "The end".
Everything in mythology can be drawn by three figures.

5th and 6th class

"We live in a warehouse of casts that have lost their molds. In the beginning was the mold"(Calasso 175)

Went over the reading and important dates schedule. Read 2 chapters every week.

We presented the creation myths. Plenty of earth diver and native american myths.

All creation myths can be channeled into a certain myths.
Myth of creation and origin:
Cosmogenic myth(creation of everything)
1) Exnihilo- from nothing, creation story from beginning of the Bible.
2) Thought- creation by thought.
3) Earth diver motive- God sends amphibians/himself to being up particles of earth from which earth is created.
4) Creation by separation
a. Heaven and earth
b. Separation of things out and in(chaos)
c. Cutting into a cosmogenic egg
5) Creation of dismemberment of primordial being
(not sure if I wrote down the right thing for b.)

4th class

"The power of the abstract begins as a rejection of that epic encyclopedism where every element, whether it be a comment on the power of the gods or instructions on how to fix the axles to a cart, has the same importance, the same impact on the mosaic surface of the narrative."(Calasso 153)

Etiology- explanation of how something came to be.

Mythology- system of total explanation.

People do things the way we do them because, that's the way it was done in the beginning and why people do the same thing. That's what was taught.

Went over what we need to know for the test:
1200 BCE Homeric-Iliad and The Odyssey
                  Hesiod-Gods and Godesses and how they became that way.
                  Homeric Hymns
                  Classic Dramas-Euripides, Aesclulous, and Sophocles
                  Trojan War-Big deal with the Greeks
                  Exodus-Big deal for Hebrews
                  Orestes

3rd class

"And the ambiguity of that crown is the constant, never articulated heart of tragedy: the misunderstandings, recognitions, and double meanings that tense the tragic nerve all derive from the primordial double meaning contained within the crown."(Calasso 107)

Learned how to bookmark on blogspot.

ate- infatuation, no longer able to control actions because God is inside you. The word ate gradually became the meaning of ruin because the invisible incursion often brought ruin.

Talked about Aphrodite/Venus- The Gods of Love

Story of arachne:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arachne

2nd day of class

"The divine fire devours those venturing outside the human sphere, whether they be betraying a good, bringing a man back to life, or seeing a god bereft of the cloaking veil of epiphany."(Calasso 59)

Mythology of hearing, seeing, doing are rituals we do everyday.

Talked about Elusinian about the abduction of Persephone.

Started talking about fairly tales and how they coincide with myth and are very similar.

Christmas break: Read Where are you going and where have you been?
By Joyce Carol

We were given an assignment to hug a tree, because it could be a spirit or being that that was turned into a tree. I had never thought of a tree that way. It's not to say that I don't appreciate trees, trees produce oxygen so we can breathe and I couldn't imagine the world with out trees...

Mythologies 285

"As she walked down toward the flowery meadows near the sea, what Europa was carrying, embossed in precious metals, was her destiny" pg. 6 in Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony by Robert Calasso. What I think of this quote is that she has all the pieces put together and it will tell her or show her what her destiny is. What did I think of the first day of class, well I found out Michael Sexson is the professor; who clearly is very passionate about mythologies and isn't afraid to make a class challenging...

As far as the book goes, I was very confused reading the first chapter I wasn't sure what was going on. It was like trying to solve a puzzle and figure out the right order of everything. The second chapter, there was plenty in there about love, lust, anger, and violence. When I think of Gods, my first thought is that they get everything they want, because they're supposed to be controlling everything. There's obviously multiple Gods and their specialty is in different areas. I quickly found out that the Gods don't always get what they want and they don't have perfect lives.