Presentations

The presentations have been great so far. I think that it is interesting that even though we have all read the same material, everyone has found something different to discuss and explore. There are so many opportunities to find profound conclusions from the literature that we have read.

Class Discussion

"The final belief is to believe in a fiction you know to be a fiction."



This quote seems to have extensive implications. It says that the only truth that exists is the one that each individual sees. It says that perceptions are all that matter--there is nothing else. There is no one way in which to see the world, in which to experience the world. The only "good" and "bad" that exist in the world are the ones that are determined by each individual. It seems to say that "the world does not control me, I control the world." Reality is not something that stands alone, but something that is invented constantly by each individual.

This statement continues with the adage that the most knowledgeable thing someone could say is to admit that they know nothing. Just as Socrates jokes in the Symposium. It seems that knowledge is everything and nothing at the same time. The world is a paradox that cannot be solved. This dichotomy seems to be at the heart of reality.



This quote can also be used to discuss beauty. There was some questions raised about how something like Ovid's Metamorphoses can be considered beautiful when it is comprised of violence and horror. Using the quote is could be argued that beauty and ugliness are not two separate entities. The world is too entangled with both beauty and ugliness to rationally be called by either name. It takes a fiction to see the true beauty. This fiction is, of course, recognized as a fiction, for this is much ugliness in the world. Yet, with this fiction, a person may now call the world beautiful and be able to believe it. Maybe truth is not all that we are searching for. Maybe truth is fiction. Maybe the only way to see complete beauty, even in the presence of morbid ugliness, is to pretend that it is there and believe in it with all your heart.

Cupid and Psyche

Cupid and Psyche is a story about love, mystery, and consequence. This story has great influence in literature throughout the ages. Milton speaks of the story in one of his poems:

"Celestial Cupid, her famed son, advanced,
Holds his dear Psyche sweet entranced,
After her wandering labours long,
Till free consent the gods among
Make her his eternal bride;
And from her fair unspotted side
Two blissful twins are to be born,
Youth and Joy; so Jove hath sworn."



And then Milton carries on the tradition of influence by inspiring many artists later on.











His work has influenced many, including Keats and Mary Shelly.

This is another example of how the past lives in the present. Artists, writers are always finding inspiration in the works of the past and then they transport that inspiration into their own art. It seems that there is a continuous flow of creative energy from modern day that travels back to the stories of the Greeks. It seems that in artwork--and maybe everything--that there is not a distinct past and present, but one source of inspiration and creativity that is always present in every work of art.

5 Lines

For class we chose five lines to present from Ovid's Metamorphoses. I chose lines on p. 374. My lines say:
"No one could catch him; keen to kill himself, he raced up to Parnassus' peak--and leaped down from a cliff. Apollo, pitying my brother, made of him a bird with wings that sprouted suddenly"



transforms to



These five lines seemed to condense the theme of the Metamorphoses. In this short passage, there is a physical metamorphosis--a human is changed into a bird. But there is also another central theme that appears in the book and in these lines. Beside the physical change there is also another change. A suicidal man is now a bird that has the freedom of the sky. At the beginning there is misery and distress, yet, now, there is change and things may or may not be better, they are just different. I think that Ovid shows this a lot. There is not clear good and bad in all of the stories. There is change. Ovid seems to say that the black-and-white of "good" and "bad" may not actually be very prominent in day-to-day life. What is always present is change. Good changes to bad, bad changes to good, the only constant is change.

5 lines from Ovid

The professor pointed out five lines from the story of Jove and Europa

"Europa is now terrified; she clasps one horn with her right hand; meanwhile the left rests on the bull's great coup. She turns to glance back at the shore, so distant now. Her robes are fluttering--they swell in the sea breeze."



These lines represent the loss of innocence, the loss of precious past. Europa is being carried away. She is no longer in control of what is happening to her. She is no longer able to control her life. We talked about how this horrible event transformed Europa into a status of immortality. She had to go through something terrible, yet we will now never forget her and her story. It seems there is a price for immortality. The question is the raised: "How much is immortality worth?"

These images of the sea and a woman bring to mind the poem by Wallace Stevens.

The Idea of Order at Key West
by Wallace Stevens

Here is the first stanza, which is filled with beautiful words and beautiful imagery.

"She sang beyond the genius of the sea.
The water never formed to mind or voice,
Like a body wholly body, fluttering
Its empty sleeves; and yet its mimic motion
Made constant cry, caused constantly a cry,
That was not ours although we understood,
Inhuman, of the veritable ocean."


This poem has similar imagery to the story of Europa.

George Bernard Shaw

"The man who writes about himself and his own time is the only man who writes about all people and all time."

George Bernard Shaw

Shaw's words echo the message of this class. With this view, not only does the past possess the present, but it seems to go a little further and say that there is only one present that is forever and unceasing. With this view, there is no tangible difference between the past and the present--there is simply a present that is occupied by echoes of the past.



Shaw also wrote a play, Pygmalion, that was eventually turned into a movie, which Shaw was awarded an Oscar for. The play is, or course, about Pygmalion from Ovid's tale. Pygmalion was the character that crafted a statue so beautiful that he actually fell in love with it. He is so infatuated with the statue that he prays to Venus and she feels pity and turns the statue into a real woman.



This is an artistic interpretation of Pygmalion and his statue that has now become a real woman. This was painted by Jean-Léon Gérôme

Symposium

The term "symposium" is a term that originally had to do with a drinking party that often included rigorous discussion. The Greek verb sympotein means "to drink together." Today, the term usually refers to an academic discussion, the presence of alcohol is now optional.

Here is a picture of an ancient symposium:


While a present-day symposium would look something like this:


Even though the look of the event has changed it has the same purpose. A symposium focuses on sharing ones views and also to experience the different knowledge that others can offer.

Antigone/Steiner

"So long as I am alive, no woman shall rule over me."

This is what Creon proclaims, full of arrogance. The conflict between Creon and Antigone seems to be based on pride most of all. Creon is so full of pride--hubris--that he will not even take the wise advice of Tiresias. When he confronts Antigone, he does not really ever consider if she is right. He will not stray from a prideful view. He thinks that Antigone is wrong simply because a woman cannot be better than a man. His pride also keeps him away from considering another point of view because he is king. The king is the ruler and he believe that this puts him in a position that cannot be challenged by anyone else.



It is this overwhelming pride that destroys Creon. He isn't a terrible leader, father, husband, he simply has too much pride. He cannot admit mistakes and must continue on, even when he is wrong, lest his pride will be damaged.

"Creon advocates obedience to man-made laws while Antigone stresses the higher laws of duty to the gods and one's family. Creon, the dramatic hero, only realizes his mistake after he loses the lives of all his family" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antigone_%28Sophocles%29).



Antigone insists that the gods' laws are the only ones that really matter and the only ones that should be followed to the end. There is line in Steiner's book that says "The gods speak to us only through our hearts." This describes a god-man communication that is a bit different than most are though to be. This line seems to say that it is a person's true passion that is a god's will. It is the love that a sister has for a brother, this is what a god's will actually looks like. Communication with a god is not an melodramatic procedure, it is as simple as someone following their heart to the end, even if that end is death. This line shows that passion is the most important thing a person could ever have--it is the direct result of a god's communication.

Steiner

Steiner at one point in his book describes conflicts as "non-negotiable." This seems to say that confrontations must exist, that tragedy is the only part of life that is sure and constant. It seems that this tragedy is only natural and must occur. If this
is true, then it seems that it will be perpetuated eternally. There is something in the fabric of humanity that propels, forces men and women to be in constant struggle with one another. There is something that forces ruled to rebel from ruler, from authority. Reading this, it appears that conflict may be the only substance from which the world is made.



This relates to the Four Noble Truths. The 1st truth states that life is suffering, or "life means suffering." It speaks of the physical and mental suffering that every person must go through. It also says that the root of this suffering is caused, at its root, by the incompleteness of life. This is the same as the five different conflicts mentioned in class--in this case, living vs. dead. This conflict is, of course, at the center of Antigone. Ultimately, Antigone's suffering is cause by death--the death of her brother. And this death perpetuates itself. In the end, Antigone's lover and his mother are dead, not to mention Antigone. It seems that death is the greatest of conflicts that life throws in one's path. It is the ultimate conflict, which no one can conquer.

Plato also describes this thought of unavoidable conflict when he speaks of knowledge fighting against ignorance.



Plato speaks, in his allegory of the cave, about the painful process through which a person must gain knowledge. He uses metaphor to describe this battle that occurs between truth and lies in the heads of every person.

Conflict, it seems, may be the only notion that is true in this world. It seems that conflict is unavoidable and unchangeable. Conflicts of the past fill the reality of the present.

Shakespeare

In thinking about Antigone, Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet comes to mind in the way that it deals with similar themes, and some of the events resemble those from Antigone. In both plays a girlfriend/wife commits suicide and then the grieving lover commits suicide as well. In Sophocles' play, Antigone is shut inside a cave and takes her own life. When Haemon, her lover, discovers that she has died, he is so taken with grief that he commits suicide. In Shakespeare, Juliet finds that Romeo has died and commits suicide as well. The role of Antigone can be found in both Romeo and Juliet in the love they share that is forbidden by authority--each of their parents. Creon is represented by the unrelenting force that is held by both the Capulets and the Montagues in their war against each other. This war is unreasonable, but will not stop until it is too late, as Creon's decision to free Antigone comes too late. In both plays it is the old pitted against the young. The young have the freedom to see through these rules and conflicts and they choose what they feel is right, despite the impending consequences. In both plays, it is only after tragedy that the authority figures realize the mistake that they have made. Creon loses his son and his wife, and the Capulets and Montagues lose many lives on both sides.

Homeric Hymns

Homeric Hymns - To Demeter

This hymn describes how Hades stole Persephone and how Demeter grieved, punishing the earth, eventually making Zeus send Hermes to retrieve Persephone--but not before Hades tricked her into eating pomegranate seeds. Now Persephone must spend four months in the underworld every year.

This story seems fundamentally similar to the Christian/Jewish account of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. In this story, Eve (like Persephone) is tricked by the devil (Hades) into eating a fruit (like the pomegranate) and this action comes with horrible consequences. However, the pomegranate is seen in a positive light from a Jewish perspective: "Jewish tradition teaches that the pomegranate is a symbol for righteousness, because it is said to have 613 seeds which corresponds with the 613 mitzvot or commandments of the Torah" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pomegranate#Pomegranates_and_symbolism).

On the surface, this myth seems to be a simple way of explaining why there are seasons, why winters are so harsh, and could even explain the reason for a famine (Demeter is angry). This myth has deeper levels that correspond with Antigone. Demeter is cheated by Zeus (a man and someone with more power) but she does not accept this fate. Like Antigone, she fights for what she wants, for what she thinks is right. It is clearly a man vs. woman conflict and could even be a individual vs. society--Zeus representing society because of the great amount of power he wields. It could also be living vs. dead because it is Demeter, who has power over living things like crops, against Hades, who is king of the underworld.

With this story, the pomegranate turns into a symbol of the cunning of man, the power of man, which woman could not stop. It represents that even though Demeter won, she did not win completely and will forever have to submit to Hades for a time each year. The pomegranate ultimately becomes woman's inherint frailty and man's brutish force in taking advantage of it.

Notes From January 22 and From 1st Week

Most important lines of Antigone are from 441 through 581

The professor pointed out that on the cover is a portrait of Simone Weil.
She interestingly learned ancient Greek at the age of only 12. She was a philosopher, a mystic, and also was very active in politics, in later life joining the French Resistance. She was passionate and has obvious similarities to Antigone in the way she dedicated her life fighting for what is right instead of submitting to authority.

Agon - a contest, an adversarial relationship

The passage in Antigone (441-581) illustrates several different types of conflict:
1. man vs. woman
2. old vs. young
3. society vs. individual
4. dead vs. living
5. men vs. gods

On a side note, I was noticing how similar the Greek culture was to our present day society. I skimmed through some of the other texts and found a few interesting things. The Greeks had a high regard for religion as we do, but most notably they had an affinity for drinking and sexual intercourse. The play Lysistrata is comprised of almost nothing except crude sex jokes. Also in the beginning of the Symposium, the conversation is about how "hungover" they all are and deciding how much to drink that evening. Their discussion is interrupted by a group of drunk men, one of whom admits that he is "smashed." I thought it was interesting how similar some of the things the ancient Greeks did to those we continue to do today.