One Helluva Night

I was not a good kid. In fact, I was shipped around during my high school years and eventually wound up living in Madison, Wisconsin after (barely) graduating. It was at that (drug induced, hazy) time when I decided to begin working in the health care industry at an Alzheimer's (crazy old folks) home. The outfit didn't pay well so I began to pad my income (selling drugs) slightly.

The graveyard shift was quiet and I was working (watching television) one night when I heard a strange noise. To my utter surprise, my (fat) managers had crawled through the window of one of the rooms in order to bust me for sleeping (selling weed). Now I have to backtrack a ways. Earlier in the evening, at shift change, I had given a couple of my co-worker friends a couple nuggets. Apparently, my (obese, overfed) overseers had been waiting for hours in an empty room waiting to bust me for my illicit money making schemes. They told me to ("get the fuck out") leave and that the police were on their way to arrest me.

So all in the same (shitty) night I was betrayed by my "friends", fired from my job, and arrested for possession of marijuana and paraphernalia. That instance sticks out in my mind as being an especially (self-induced) bad day.

   
On an entirely separate occasion, I was arrested on State Street on Halloween while dressed as "your fat, intoxicated grandma" and forced to sit in the drunk tank until morning. I remember repeatedly telling police "you can't arrest your fat gramma!". If I can find the pictures I'll post them.

Group Presentation Ideas

I found the notes that were missing during class.

Some sort of melding myths, a common thread
Options:  - A/V-type presentation: myth in modern cinema, Netflix anyone?
               - act out a myth(s), costumes?
               - some sort of silent presentation where we mime out a story or stories, Io/stones representation
               - the metamorphosis of a mythical character historically in lit/cinema/art (Dracula, Gaia, any of the gods, etc.), arranged chronologically or represented otherwise

Let me know what you all think in regards to these. If we can pick one sort of topic then I can begin to research and work on it. Just let me know if there is a particular direction you all want to go.

Mythic Clues

I've been pondering where exactly I would find mythic clues. It seems that I was trying a bit too hard because they popped up more when allowing time to look for them.

1) The first one sort of hit me like a rock, no pun intended. I realized the mountains which surround us are in fact giants who have met some untimely demise just as Atlas did when Perseus pointed Medusa's decapitated head at him.

2)  There is a large mound of dirt by my house. It is the excavated beginnings of some new structure. Or is it? Rather, it is the remains of a proposed tower aimed at the heavens, struck down by the god(s) of finance or perhaps Zeus himself (untold god of finance?).

3)  I work in a nursing home. In particular, one of the residents, we'll call her Hazel, has been hitting the river of Lethe especially hard. She asks me, on average, 3-5 times an hour for "a couple of aspirin" for a varying degree of ailments. The usual culprits are "a terrrrrible headache" or the unlikely "I've been vomiting all day." Ironically, she came to our facility after overdosing on nearly an entire bottle of aspirin.

Apparently I just had to look more closely in order to find these mythic clues.

Images of Metamorphoses IV

Pyramus and Thisbe Mosaic, Carranque, Spain

Pyramus and Thisbe Mosaic (though the Pyramos here is the wrong guy!)

Thisbe, John William Waterhouse

Mars and Venus Surprised by Vulcan, Jacopo Tintoretto 1555

Mars and Venus United by Love, Paolo Veronese 1570-80

Metamorphoses III

A. Cadmus:
     - Apollo instructs him to follow a heifer that "has never worn the yoke"
     - Cadmus does and his men are killed by Viper while getting water
     - Cadmus spears the head of Viper to an oak tree
     - Minerva/Athena instructs him to plant Viper's teeth and warriors spring up
     - these warriors kill each other, save 5
     - Thebes founded
B. Actaeon:
     - Cadmus' grandson
     - after hunting chances upon Diana/Artemis bathing
     - nymphs try to hide her naked body but she is too tall
     - nymphs beat their breasts
     - Actaeon turned into a stag, killed by his own hounds in front of his hunting companions
C. Semele:
     - Semele is pregnant with Jove's son, Juno finds out
     - Juno disguised as Semele's old maid tells her to ask Jove to reveal himself to prove his identity
     - Jove grants her a wish and she asks to see his true form
     - Semele reduced to a pile of ash, Jove places offspring in his thigh (Bacchus/Dionysus)
D. Tiresias:
     - Jove and Juno argue whether men or women have more pleasure
     - Tiresias was both man and woman for a time, so they decide to ask him
     - he sides with Jove and Juno makes him blind, Jove reduces punishment by giving him prophetic power
E. Narcissus and Echo:
     - handsome Narcissus finds nymph Echo, she falls in love with him but he scorns her
     - he falls in love with his reflection per Echo's curse, while trying to drink
     - finally wastes away and becomes transformed into a flower in the pond
     - Echo can only utter last part of what people say due to a curse from Juno
F. Pentheus:
     - scorns the worship of gods, insults blind Tiresias, Tiresias warns of death at Bacchus' hands
     - Pentheus sends his slaves to capture Bacchus during festival, return with priest of Bacchus - Acoetes
     - Acoetes tells of finding Bacchus and his shipmates trying to trick the god while at sea
     - all sailors turned into fish save Acoetes
     - Pentheus torn apart by his mother Agave, and aunts Autonoe and Ino during festival

Metamorphoses II

Metamorphoses II


A. Phaethon:
     - Phoebus grants son Phaethon 1 wish to prove he is Phaethon's father
     - Apollo tries to dissuade Phaethon, no one else can drive the sun's chariot, no other gods, many perils
     - Phaethon insists and ends up setting the earth on fire by crashing sun's chariot
     - Ethiopians are turned black when the blood rushing to the skin burns
     - gods council and intervene to save earth, Jove strikes Phaethon with thunderbolt, knocks off chariot
B. Callisto:
     - favorite nymph of Diana/Artemis
     - Jove disguises himself as Diana and tricks Callisto into trusting him, rapes her
     - when Callisto disrobes at the pond and Diana sees her naked, she is banished
     - Arcas born of Callisto and Jove, Juno turns Callisto into a bear
     - Arcas is about to shoot his mother with an arrow
     - Jove intervenes and makes them into constellations (Callisto: Ursa Major, Arcas: Ursa Minor)
C. Coronis:
     - Coronis is lover of Apollo, crow (raven?) informs Apollo of Coronis and another lover
     - kills Coronis with an arrow, banishes raven from rank of white birds
D. Europa and Jove:
     - daughter of king Agenor
     - Jove turns into a white bull, takes Europa out to sea, rapes her there
     - Agenor instructs his son Cadmus to find Europa

Metamorphoses I

I thought I would post my outline that I had sketched in my notes while (re)reading Metamorphoses. Perhaps someone may find portions of it useful.

Metamorphoses I

A. The Four Ages:
    1) Gold- mankind toil-free, earth provided nourishment
    2) Silver- beginning of Jove/Jupiter/Zeus's rule, people dwell in houses instead of caves
    3) Bronze- marked by human cruelty
    4) Iron- mankind impious, rape of the earth, unrest between neighbors
B. The Giants:
     - built towers attempting to reach Jove, struck down by lightning, the blood of Giants became humankind
C. Lycaon:
     - tries to murder Jove while Jove is disguised as a human
     - house is destroyed by lightning, Lycaon is turned into a wolf
     - Jove decrees to decimate mankind, populate the earth with a new race
D. The Flood:
     - Jove decides fire may ignite the universal fabric and destroy everything
     - He floods the earth with Neptune/Poseidon's help
E. Deucalion and Pyrrha:
     - couple survives on Mt. Parnassus after their boat lands there
     - Jove spares them from deluge because they are pious
     - they pray to Themis and she instructs them to throw stones ("bones of the great mother") as they go
     - the stones become human (metamorphosis), Deucalion's are men, Pyrrha's are women
F. Python:
     - created and terrified all people, killed by Phoebus/Apollo
     - Olympic games created by gods to commemorate the slaying
G. Apollo and Daphne:
     - Apollo jeers Cupid/Eros and is scorned
     - Cupid shoots Apollo with golden arrow (attraction) and Daphne with leaded arrow (rejection)
     - while fleeing Apollo, Daphne pleads with father and river gods to to change her form
     - transformed into a tree
H. Io and Jove:
     - Jove rapes Io in a fog and turns her into a white heifer, Io's father (Inachus, river god) weeps
     - Juno/Hera senses foul play and goes looking for Jove, Jove gives her the heifer
     - Juno entrusts Argus to watch over Io, Io reveals her identity to Inachus by marking name in dirt
     - Mercury/Hermes puts Argus to sleep with Pan's flute and stories, chops off head
     - Juno places Argus' eyes in peacock tail, torments Io until she begs for mercy
     - Io turned back into nymph, becomes Isis
I. Syrinx:
     - vowed to chastity like Diana/Artemis, pursued by Pan
     - Pan creates reed pipe instrument to converse with her

Images of Metamorphoses III

Some unrelated bullshit...

Justin Bieber Found To Be Cleverly Disguised 51-Year-Old Pedophile

Anamnesis

Anamnesis in America. It seems that this process is convoluted and complicated purposefully by contemporary culture. From an early age we internalize societal values and strive to identify with peers and elders. This unnaturally tears us from our mythological roots and forces people to intrinsically trust values which often rend myth from reality. Is this recollection simply a vivid awakening to the world in which we live? Something like being unplugged from "The Matrix"? The choice must certainly be more complex than either taking the blue or red pill in order to receive enlightenment. I think the decision rather involves a rethinking of all the norms and values imbued in us from the start. A sort of donning of tinted sunglasses to perceive the world in an entirely different, and for many, new vantage.

"In one way or another recollecting implies having forgotten, and...is equivalent to ignorance, slavery (captivity), and death." (Myth and Reality, 119) For many of the ancient cultures, remembering oneself was not the extent of self-actualization. The memory was required to be strong enough to persist through periods of amnesia and even death. This notion seems especially important in our society where there are numerous artificial designs to cause people to lose sight of themselves. Examples might include excessive alcohol consumption or drug abuse to forget or anesthetize. Others might be as simple as the persuasive television commercials or advertisements in magazines and newspapers. 99% of all people who used Hair-X reported a perceived growth in hair.

How then, is a person to balance their personal identity and anamnesis, with socialization in the prescribed framework of our culture? This is perhaps a question that cannot be answered readily.