October 21 lecture notes
How is mythology related to a religious text?
Ovid is a key to all classical mythology and classical literature.
It is the secular scripture connected with the Bible
Holiday=holy-day
Of course, every day could be a holy day and every moment can be or could become a holy moment
“The man-god must be killed as soon as he shows symptoms that his powers are beginning to fail, and his soul must be transferred to a vigorous successor before it has been seriously impaired by the threatening decay” –James G. Frazer pg. 309
Term Paper: MUST be related to Henderson the Rain King; the mythological importance, creation, separations, etc
1st State: Conviviality: your on good terms with someone; an atmosphere that’s friendly, lively, or enjoyable
2nd Stage: Rape: physical and psychic invasion
- The gods appear in very invasive and violent awakening
- Invasion of myth into your own world
3rd Stage: Indifference
Philomela-turned into a nightingale (makes a jug-jug-jug sound)
Tereas-hoopoe
Procne-swallow
The Stories of the Bulls
Flannery O’Connor: Green Leaf
About a farmer who has help that doesn’t do a lot, so she goes out to do the work by herself and she keeps seeing a bull in her yard. She asks for it to be removed and has a man “Green Leaf” to shoot him. Green Leaf scares him into the woods and the bull comes back and charges the woman, he pierces her through the heart
*Literature is a whole-lotta bull
Minos: one of the children of Europa
-Cretan stories
-Was supposed to sacrifice this beautiful, milky-white bull that comes from the sea but he was so beautiful he sacrifices another
-Pasiphae: was taken by the bull and she dressed up as a bull in order to mate with him
-Passes through the permeable layer between humans and animals that is allowed and permitted in mythology
-Pasiphae is impregnated by the bull and 9 mos. Later a half human-half bull was born
-The Minotaur was born
-Monstrous child who repeatedly requested virgins to eat
-Theseus: A hero must come and SAVE THE DAY
Daedalus: an artist, a craftsman, a carpenter
-Built a labyrinth
Pg. 253: “constructs this maze. He tricks the eye with many twisting paths that double back-one’s left without a point of reference.”
-Exactly like Ovid’s twisted stories
-Ended up trapping up the Minotaur
*Ovid describes more: The man behind the curtain, the artist, the craftsman rather than the ‘over-the-top’ hero
Nostos: Home; homecoming
-Wizard of Oz, sending Dorothy home
-nostalgia
- The artist alters nature so that we can see the world the way it truly is –Ovid
- The artists trains us to see things the way they are
Diadem-a jeweled crown or headband worn as a symbol of sovereignty
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