Homeric Hymn to Apollo - analysis

Apollo - "Far Shooter", "Archer*", "Delian", "Pythian", "Delphian"... god of controlled tension (lyre, bow, human nature).
Also associated with: Loxias (logos, the speaker), Lycian/Lykian (wolf-god, flocks of sheep), Phoebus (bright one, or maybe phobos, fear), Paieon/Paion (healer).
Apollo represents a youthful, commanding, effortless divinity beyond our reach. His hymn provides a 'charter' for the operation of his two major shrines:
- one in barren island in the Aegean
- one in mountains of Phocis, in central Greece
"Delphic" half of poem explains why Apollo speaks at Delphi and provides mythic background for the oracle. This belongs to a certain category of myths: a god's arrival at his/her cult-site and explains the foundation of the cult.
Oracles of Gaea (Earth) are sometimes described as guarded by dragons, therefore the hymn may reflect tradition. Before Apollo's arrival, the oracle belonged to Earth.
Found in hymn: shift from an oracle that owes its powers to intimacy with the depths of earth (the Mother, a god who is sired by Father of Heaven) ----> transfers the power of communicating the gods' will from female to male.



*Anyone watch Fox's Archer? I sure do. He's youthful, commanding, effortless... Fun outside connection.

Basically, entire midterm paper

Journey of the Immigrant Hero

      Heracles is the Wetback of Greek mythology. This demigod is still held in high regard as the protector of Ancient Greece, but he cannot escape the fact he is an outsider, the product of Zeus’s infidelity, and thus controversial on Mount Olympus as well as earth. Heracles’ situation isn’t an uncommon one; a more modern version of this complex is found in DC Comic’s Superman. Both heroes are immigrants to their society. Their source of infamy is simultaneously their weakness: their origin, or where they came from.

      Being half god, half mortal, Heracles’ weakness and strength is Zeus’ genes that make him part-god. Although this strength might seem purely beneficial, when combined with his mortal half, it becomes an impairment as well. It is his strength that alienates him from society. Superman’s weakness is Kryptonite, the mineral debris from his planet Krypton, which was transformed into radioactive material by the forces that destroyed the planet. This association with his native land, the origin of his powers, is his strength for obvious reasons.

Despite being very different myths, both weaknesses come from the “atonement with father” stage in Joseph Campbell’s Seventeen Stages of the Monomyth. Heracles’ atonement-with-father stage occurs when his actual father, Jupiter, is pleased to see his fellow gods and goddesses show concern for his son and he formally announces Heracles’ origin from his seed. Seeing as Superman was not technically conceived by his home planet, the “father” may be a symbol of whatever holds the ultimate power in his life, rather than a physical man. One might see a planet as a more appropriate symbol for the maternal or feminine part to a hero. A planet is generally large and circular, related to a womb and to the earth or ground from whence things grow. However, this atonement stage has no reason to be strictly masculine. Superman’s genes came from his biological father, but his strength and supernatural powers originate from his planet’s evolution of its species.

Another example of a feminine atonement stage is found in the Mesopotamian epic of Gilgamesh: his god-like qualities come from his mother, the goddess Ninlil. King Gilgamesh’s strength, highlighted in the atonement stage, brings him fame and glory, but also brings him enemies and unwanted attention from certain gods.

Campbell’s “journey of the hero” is of a cyclical nature (in Heracles’ case) in that the hero returns to his origin. After a lifetime of labors, fame, and multiple lovers, Heracles’ immortal side is returned to his father, Zeus, and carried to Mount Olympus. Once a god, he marries Hebe, the goddess of youth, and a ceremony is enacted portraying his birth (his emergence from the bosom of the goddess). His lifetime has made a full cycle back to his youth. Before his mortal body is burned away on his pyre, Heracles asks his servants to ignite the kindling underneath him and end his suffering. None of his men agree to light his fire, save for Philoctetes, who is rewarded with Heracles’ bow and arrows. This act is symbolic for many cultures’ traditions that deal with the dead. One will find that every culture, though accepting different beliefs, all return their dead from where they believe the body first came. Christians have more concern with a body’s soul and its reunion with its creator, God. Others may find importance in specific rituals to reunite the dead with their maker, whether it is the earth or a divine ruler. No matter each society’s difference, everyone can agree with the necessity for respect for the dead or dying and local tradition. If Heracles is the immigrant in his story, those who refuse to torch his pyre represent a different culture’s misunderstanding of his needs. Philotetes’ deed is symbolic for acceptance and respect for a foreign culture’s traditions. The bow and arrows are symbols of the rewards of those who are respectful of tradition, much like good Karma in Hinduism.

Perhaps, because of their differences, these heroes have more to offer to their respective worlds than the average citizen. Why not apply this idea to modern immigrants on American soil? Perhaps, because of their differences, immigrants have much to offer and could aid in rising crime rates or, a less comic-book crisis like a solution to America’s depleting natural sources. There may not be an extra terrestrial super-being walking among us, but to be fair, our world isn’t wrought with mythical beasts to slaughter or underground super-villains to throw out of our orbit.

Note to self... and you as well

After extensively researching the Greek god, Morpheus, I couldn't remember his or his brothers' names for the life of me. Why was remembering these names important? Because our class was given a quiz on Monday. I figured if I write down everything I know about Morpheus, I'll never lose those 3 points on a quiz again. Thus, this blog post is created:

Morpheus - Greek mythology: the god of dreams; "shaper of dreams".
Morpheus is the son of Hypnos, the god of sleep, and nephew of Hades, god of the underworld. He already seems to have an interesting connection with death and sleep. His line of work falls somewhere between his two relatives. The drug morphine is named after Morpheus.
He has two brothers: Phobetor and Phantasos. Phobetor appears in dreams in the form of animals or monsters; he his, essentially, the god of nightmares. From his name, we get "phobos", or fear. Phantasos appears in dreams as inanimate objects. His mother is the goddess of hallucination. From his name, we can derive "fantasy". The three bros live in Morpheus' dream world. When Morpheus is off in the human world, he leaves Phantasos in charge. This leaves Morpheus with the more likely dreams. The three of them make up the Oneiroi.

But what about this guy:

Does Laurence Fishburne's Morpheus of The Matrix have any connection to the Greek Morpheus? YES
In a world where machines grow humans and keep them imprisoned in the Matrix, Morpheus is a pretty big deal. That is, he's popular in the last human city outside of the Matrix, Zion.
The Greek Morpheus lives with his family in a dream world protected by the Gates of Morpheus; beyond the gates are the River of Forgetfulness and the River of Oblivion. In the film, the Matrix Morpheus offers Neo a blue pill or a red pill: one to forget about his new knowledge of the Matrix and continue his life within in, and the other to enter the real world and be "unplugged".
hmmmm.....


Also, here's a short clip from the Chappelle Show. Seemingly unrelated? Not so. It's a parody of Neo's conversation with Morpheus and attempt to escape his office.
http://www.comedycentral.com/videos/index.jhtml?videoId=11886&title=real-movies-the-matrix

There's a good chance I'll never forget what I've written in this post and hopefully, won't lose points for lazy forgetfulness. Opportunity to relate this to Morpheus as well? Yes, but I'll let you make that connection.
Perhaps I'll just blog about things I don't think I'll remember so easily in the future. Or take less notes on aquatic life and miscellaneous...

DEJA VU!

After my latest post, I was interested in reading the entire story of Cupid and Psyche. So, naturally, I wikipedia-ed a synopsis of the plot. And what did I find? I already knew the story before I had finished a quarter of the summary. It was the strangest thing... It's either mythical powers I'm slowly retaining from lectures, or I've read a similar story.

Back in my home in Fairbanks, I have a picture book entitled East of the Sun West of the Moon, an adaption of the Norwegian fairytale (but for the sake of relevancy, I'm going to say fairytale is another word for myth). The book was definitely in my top ten when I was at a picture book reading level. It's a great story and the illustrations were amazing.

So maybe the cover looks slightly creepy for a six-year-old... but don't be intimidated. This is just a picture of one of the father winds. We'll get to him later.

The point of this post is to show the parallels between this story and the one of Cupid and Psyche. The best way I can do that is to tell you both tales:

East of the Sun, West of the Moon:

(mind you, this is a sloppy summary, but hopefully I'll get the main points across)

The White Bear comes to a poor man's house and tells him he'll make him rich if he lets him marry his youngest daughter. The daughter is hesitant, but the White Bear compromises, saying she can return to visit her family. Agreeing, the daughter is taken to a rich and enchanted castle. Every night, the Bear changes into a man. However, he doesn't allow any light in the castle at night, so she can never see him.

She becomes homesick and the Bear agrees to let her visit her home, so long as she doesn't talk to her mother alone. When she gets home, what does she do? She has a chit-chat with her mother, alone. When her mother hears about the Bear's enchantment, she convinces her to sneak a candle back to the castle to see him at night. She obeys and sees the man is a very handsome prince, but wakens him when she spills three drops of melted tallow (that's wax, for all you green horns) on his shirt. He tells her that if she had waited a year to see him, he would have been free. Now he must go back to his wicked stepmother who bestowed this curse upon him and marry her hideous daughter. Before he leaves, he tells her that the castle is east of the sun and west of the moon.

In the morning, the palace is gone and she goes out in search of him. At a mountain, she finds a woman playing with a golden apple. She asks for directions to a castle east of the sun and west of the moon. The woman refers her to her neighbor and gives her the golden apple. The neighbor is playing with a golden comb and doesn't have directions either, but refers her to another neighbor and gives her the golden comb. The third neighbor has a golden spinning wheel. She doesn't know the directions either, but gives her the spinning wheel and refers her to the East Wind. (Norwegians are an uber generous people... and apparently pretty strong too, carrying golden fruit, combs, and spinning wheels.)

The East Wind has never been to the castle, but takes her to his brother, the West Wind, for he is stronger. The West Wind takes her to the South Wind, who takes her to the North Wind. The North Wind recalls blowing an aspen leaf to the castle once, and remembers being exhausted after. He agrees to take her.

The next morning, she takes out her golden apple, which sparks the interest of the wicked stepmother's daughter. The girl lets her have the apple in return for a night with the prince. The evil daughter gives the prince a sleeping drink and the girl cannot wake him. The next day, the same thing happens, but with a trading of the golden comb. Again, the prince can't be woken. The third day, some of the imprisoned townspeople in the castle had heard of the girl and told the prince. The girl sat outside with her golden spinning wheel and traded it for a third night with the prince. This time, the prince does not drink what the evil princess brings him and tells the girls how she can save him. He will declare that he can only marry the woman who can clean the shirt stained with tallow drops. The next day, he makes his speech to the castle, insisting it's his wedding shirt. The stepmother and her daughter can't do it; in fact, they only make the shirt more dirty. When the princess tried, the shirt was made perfectly white and clean. The stepmother and her daughter, enraged, exploded on the spot (whaaaaaaat?) and the prince married the girl.

Cupid and Psyche:

Venus is jealous of the mortal Psyche's beauty and tells her son, Cupid, to shoot her with his golden arrows and make her fall in love with an ugly creature. Cupid agrees, but seeing her asleep, he takes pity on Psyche and accidentally scratches himself with his own arrow. He falls in love with Psyche and Venus is enraged. The goddess places a curse on Psyche that prevents her from finding a husband. Cupid strikes against Venus and refuses to use any of his arrows, causing Venus' temple to fall. Venus finally lets Cupid have his way and love is restored to the world.

However, Psyche's curse isn't lifted and her parents consult an oracle. They are told to leave Psyche on top of a mountain, for she is too beautiful for a mortal man. Zephyrus, the west wind, carries her to marry and sleep with Cupid. He visits her every night, but doesn't allow any light to identify him. Zephyrus takes Psyche back to her sisters; Psyche is warned not to listen to her sisters' argument that she should try to find out who he really is. Her jealous sisters tell Psyche that she is rumored to be married to a serpent who is going to eat her and her unborn baby (oh, forgot to mention she's pregnant at this point in the story). They convince her to light a lamp and kill her husband. When she lights the lamp, she sees her husband is the god Cupid and accidentally pricks herself on one of his arrows. Consumed with desire, she tries to kiss him, but drops oil on his shoulder and wakes him. He flies away and she falls from the window.

Psyche finds she's in the city where one of her jealous sisters lives. When she tells her what happened, the sister convinces her that Cupid has chosen another wife. Her other jealous sister tells her the same thing. Both sisters go to the top of the mountain and jump, awaiting Zephyrus, but fall to their deaths.

Searching for her lover, Psyche is approached by the god Demeter who tells her to call to Venus. Juno gives her the same advice. Psyche finds a temple to Venus. The goddess orders her to separate a huge basket of mixed grains before dark. An ant helps her separate the grains and Venus is outraged. The goddess then tells her to go to a sheep grazing field and retrieve some of their golden wool. The sheep are vicious and strong, but a river-god advises her to wait until mid-day when the sheep move to the shade; then, she can pick wool stuck to tree branches. Again, Venus is outraged and orders her to get water from a cleft guarded by serpents. An eagle helps her with this task. For a fourth task, Venus sends Psyche to the underworld to retrieve some of Persephone's beauty in a box. On her way back with the bit-o-beauty, she is curious and decides to sneak a peek. She finds there is nothing in the box, but is overcome by an infernal sleep. A forgiving Cupid flies to his love and wipes the sleep from her eyes back to the box. He then flies the two of them to Mount Olympus and asks Jupiter to help them. Jupiter gives Psyche a drink of ambrosia and she is made immortal.

Did you catch any similarities? This really seems too obvious to list them out.

Vladimir Kush blows my mind

Since visiting an art gallery in Hawaii over Christmas break, I've been obsessed with artist Vladimir Kush. He's like... a sober Dali. Also, his pieces have strong connections to mythology.

The above painting is titled "Narcissus". In Greek mythology, Narcissus, a hunter known for his beauty, looks into a clear pond and falls in love with his reflection. Every time he tries to lean over and kiss himself, the image is scattered in the ripples, so he resorts to sitting at the edge of the pond and staring into the water. Eventually, he turns into a beautiful flower (that can be found growing on the edges of small bodies of water, hmmmm). In Ovid's version, he commits suicide and the flower grows in his place. This is also where we get the term "narcissism".

This one is simply title "Pearl". According to Greek mythology, the titan Chronus cuts of Uranus' genitals and throws them to the sea. From the foam collected around the immortal flesh is born Aphrodite, goddess of love, beauty, and sexuality. In Roman mythology, the goddess is Venus and she is born in a clam shell.

"Horn of Babel": in the Bible's story of the Tower of Babel, the people attempt to construct a tower high enough to reach heaven. God punishes them, depriving them of their common language. With language barriers, they aren't inclined to come to an understanding. Vladimir, on the other hand, paints a "Babel horn of plenty". In this town, people live in a horizontal community, which is known to be much more disposed to communicate among themselves and understand each other than residents of the "vertical" (e.g. apartment towers).

"Icarus": the Greek myth tells of the builder, Daedalus, and his son, Icarus, who tried to escape King Minos. Daedalus made wings for the two of them out of feathers left on their cell window sill and wax from candles. They take off from their window and fly above the Aegean sea. Icarus, ignoring his father's warning, flies too close to the sun and the wax on his wings melts; he falls to his death. The feather on the ledge represents their wings.

"Departure of the Winged Ship" is by far my favorite Kush painting. I'm really not so interested in the mythology connections in this case, but seeing as this is for a mythology lit class, I feel obligated to make this relevant...

Apparently there's a lot of references to butterflies in myths. In Ancient Greece, butterflies were linked to the human soul and were considered the souls who had passed away. Also, the Greek word for butterfly is something like "psyche" (as in Cupid and Psyche). Psyche literally means spirit, breath, life, or animating force.

There's more where that came from.... just google Vladimir Kush.

Giants

Here's something that's been bugging me for at least a week: why are giants so prevalent in mythology? It seems, at least in Greek myths, that there are only a few non-human categories: the titans, their offspring (the Olympians), the children of the Olympians (a few gods and immortal hero people), and giants (the children of Uranus and Gaea).

After some research, I found that "giant" comes from the Greek "gigantes". I suppose this is somewhat irrelevant, but etymology knowledge seems to be one of those things that people like to have and store away, but rarely use in day-to-day happenings; like roller blades?

I also learned that giants were not always colossal, one-eyed monsters. In the Old Testament, Goliath was considered a giant. In Islam, God (Allah) created Adam to be 30 meters tall. Since then, his offspring have gotten shorter. The Prophet Mohamed said "so whoever will enter Paradise will be of the shape and form of Adam". In European tales, giants appear cruel and stupid. Heroes who kill the often did so more by wit than by strength.

I'd like to reach some general consensus about the main reason for giants in mythology. Unfortunately, there appears to be nothing consistent between all ancient cultures. In Hesiod's Theogony, (Greek mythology) Zeus releases three cyclops (giants) from the dark pit of Tartarus, where their father had banished them. They provide Zeus' thunderbolt, Hades' helmet of invisibility, and Poseidon's trident. Greeks believed some cyclops were buried under the earth and their tormented quivers resulted in earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. Giants might seem to consistently act as primeval creatures associated with chaos and wild nature. If it weren't for Islam, this would be true. Thanks a lot, Islam. You may have made incredible contributions to literature, architecture, art, and provide slightly over twenty percent of the world's population with a religion, but you sure do create annoying outliers in world mythology.

First blog post of my life...

Before attending my first mythology lit class, I thought mythology was "pretty wild". Ancient Greek and Roman culture and polytheism has always been fascinating to me. And why shouldn't it be? It's all around us. Countless films retell their stories: Danny DeVito and James Woods were an unforgettable riot (at least for me) in Disney's version of Hercules; Gerard Butler (memorable for different reasons) brought the Battle of Thermopylae to life in 300; The Clash of the Titans is loosely based on the story of Perseus. Greek mythology isn't solely found on your netflix account. The Olympic games (relevance need not be explained) are regularly held every two years, and have been since their revival in 1859. The famous Nike athletic brand was named after Nike, the goddess of victory. The term "democracy" first appeared in ancient Greek political and philosophical thought. whew...
To my surprise - I guess I should have been less surprised, seeing as I never actually read the course description - LIT 285D is not about Greek mythology. Actual course description: "The study of specific cultural mythologies to explore the nature, function, and theory of myth". The class examines the myths and cultures on every continent (save for Antarctica).
Honestly, I'm slightly disappointed I won't be learning about the Gods and heroes I've been reading about since elementary school. Nevertheless, my original belief about mythology will stay: it's still "pretty wild". Why is that? Because, to me, "wild" means to be untamed and mysterious. The world of Mythology has just exploded and my knowledge is little compared to the expansive universe ahead.