Individual Presentations

Ross did his presentation on Socrates and his immortal presence. His goal was to gain greater knowledge and virtue, and he proved that there is more than one way to gain immortality. And, there is a bit of Socrates present in the psyche of every modern person.
Ross's Recipe for Socrates:
1 c. Plato
1 T. ARistotle
1 t. Xenophon
a pinch of Aristophanes
and everything taken with a grain of salt

Sarah talked about women being carried away, which included Persephone, Europa, Psyche, Agave, and herself.

Doug's presentation was on Pythagoras. The transformation that occurs is with the reader. Pythagoras' section is the capstone of what the Metamorposes is all about and what man could hope to be. Doug doesn't consider himself a religious guy, but the idea of reincarnation has made him think a little. Now he won't be able to eat his chickens. And, PETA is kind of a modern Pythagoras - both have the same higher goal.

Katey related her life to "All that is past possesses the present." She is able to connect to more with the more stories she hears and people she meets. She is an advocate of love and peace; she's a daddy's girl like Athena; she deals with skeptics like Bacchus; her mom is Demeter, she is Persephone, and Montana is Hell (her mom doesn't get to see her much); she'll be a storyteller when she's a teacher; and she'll inspire people with her work when she is a journalist, and furthermore become immortal.

Tyler's paper is entitled "Love Will Tear Us Apart." He talked about two becoming one through love and how it destroys boundaries, as in Lysistrata. Egoism destroys love, and rape turns love upside down. There is love that is noble (true love) and love that is ugly (desire - treating someone as a possession). Lucius sow us how to properly love, which is a homecoming for humans. And through love, we become part of something bigger.

Carly presented on the collective unconscious - that which exists prior to experience. She was relieved to find out that there is an explanation for why it seems like whatever she is reading or listening to at the time coincides with what is happening in her life. We all share a common history and experience. "All things change but never die." - Ovid
synchronicity - Jung's term

Dustin also connected his own experiences last Saturday to "All that is past..." He wrote a story about everything he did and how it related to stories that we've read, which included Lysistrata - his roommate and his girlfriend, Dionysus, imbibing and becoming the Golden Ass - doing things in front of people he normally wouldn't do, and the Symposium where he had a deep, drunken conversation about love with his friend.

Cassie talked about the many rapes of Zeus. Just to name a few: Alcimene, Danae, Europa, Io, Leta, Leto, Maia, Ganymede, and Calisto. Supposedly there are 150 total escapades.

The Doors and Classical Literature

Jim Morrison was a well-read guy, which was why he suggested the name The Doors to his fellow band members when they were just forming. The band's name is derived from Aldous Huxley’s book The Doors of Perception, which Huxley titled after a line from William Blake’s The Marriage of Heaven and Hell: “If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear to man as it is: infinite.” (This reminded me of Ovid and Pythagoras' statement that “no thing ever dies” (523).) Manzarek, Krieger, and Densmore agreed with Morrison that "The Doors" conveyed that which they stood for: open-mindedness, debauchery, and experiencing life fully and uninhibitedly.

Huxley's The Doors of Perception is about his mescaline experience, which he volunteered for in order that he might obtain a different perception of the world while on the drug. He says, “How can the sane get to know what it actually feels like to be mad? Or, short of being born again as a visionary, a medium, or a musical genius, how can we ever visit the worlds which to Blake, to Swedenborg, to Johann Sebastian Bach, were home?” I thought that this was quite Dionysian. The Doors suggest that through their music, like a door, one can enter in and take part in the experience, too. Their music is a gateway to an alternative perception of the world. Huxley says in The Doors of Perception, “The man who comes back through the Door in the Wall will never be quite the same as the man who went out.” And, of course there is the drug connection. By using alcohol and drugs, people experience the world in different ways than those who do not, and Morrison definitely indulged in both.

In fact, Morrison himself was nicknamed Dionysus by those who knew him because of his love of wine, poetry, and song that he shared with the god. Also like Dionysus, he created a sort of frenzy with his “followers,” especially the girls. But, this was all short lived. In the summer of 1971, Jim Morrison died of a heart attack in Paris. By dying young and wasting so much talent and potential, he became a tragic character. However, it cannnot be said that Morrison did not get a chance to experience life before he died. In fact, this was his demise.

And, in The Doors’ song entitled “The End,” there is a spoken part in the middle where he says, “Father/ Yes son?/ I want to kill you/ Mother, I want to...fuck you” (http://www.oldielyrics.com/lyrics/the_doors/the_end.html), which is of course a slightly modified rendition of Sophocles’ drama Oedipus the King. He explains that “‘kill the father’ means destroying everything hierarchical, controlling, and restrictive in one's psyche, while ‘fuck the mother’ means embracing everything that is expansive, flowing, and alive in the psyche” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_End). In this way, Morrison is like Dionysus Liber, because he was dedicated to and espoused the idea of freedom.

Like Ovid and others with immortal offspring, Morrison and The Doors also “shall have life” (Ovid 549). Their music has only continued to grow in popularity since Morrison’s death and shortly after when they disbanded. And, they prove that the way to becoming a classic is to invoke the classics that came first. Indeed, classical literature has influenced everything that has been written subsequently, and it is certainly true that “all that is past possesses our present.”

Individual Presentations

Luke's presentation was on Lysistrata, men, and sex. Women need men for security, which they usually deny (and men usually deny that they need women.) He works as a bank teller, because he likes people. "I will have life." He was once told a story/given advice by a man older than he, and he hopes that he will be able to pass stories on to someone someday, too.

Ashley read the book The Homeric Hymn to Demeter and presented on it. The Eleusinian Mysteries are women's initiation. Death marks the female quest; but, both male and female quests are lacking in today's culture. Individuation is different for girls, because their relationship with their mothers is more fluid. And, she read her poem "Tiger Lily."

Melissa gave her presentation on scapegoats and gave the five ways to escape being a scapegoat. The book The Scapegoat by Rene Girard is the authority on the subject.

Brian also presented on the scapegoat, focusing on the Bacchae and Pentheus and Jesus' crucifixion. He pointed out that the scapegoat doesn't necessarily have to be a bad person either.

Alex connected the five conflicts of Antigone to the five of the American Film Institute's Top 100 movies, which were One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest ( individual v. society), Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (old v. young), Raiders of the Lost Ark (men v. gods), My Fair Lady (men v. women), and Frankenstein (living v. dead).

Danielle talked about the Triple Goddess - the maiden, the mother, and the crone (which she compared to herself, mother, and grandmother). She also mentioned Robert Graves' book called White Goddess.

John made connections between science fiction and mythology. The only real difference is that sci fi deals with the future. He talked especially about Dune, and said that if one knows the future, he locks himself into it, which is not a good thing. But, sci fi extends the dialogue of mythology.

And I presented on The Doors and their connections to classical literature, which I will discuss in another blog.

Individual Presentations

Emily's presentation was on the muses, especially Terpsichore, the muse of dance. She was a dancer with the Dance Syndicate in Lewistown, and Janet Luciano is her Terpsichore. She showed slides of dancers (including my little sister!)

Dan's favorite mythological character is Daedalus, so he talked about him and Icarus. He compared the redemptive power of art to finding a twenty dollar bill in your pocket - more valuable when you rediscover it. He also made the connection between Daedalus and Icarus and the song "Carry on My Wayward Son" by Kansas, as well as between the labyrinth and war.

Jared used Calvin from the cartoon Calvin and Hobbes to illustrate and elaborate on the five conflicts in Antigone.

Jon talked about Perseus, Atlas, and Andromeda. His point was that love conquers war.

John used J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye to talk about the five main conflicts in Antigone. Individual (Holden) v. Society, Living v. Dead (Allie), Young v. Old (being the "catcher in the rye," protecting the kids and the adult world), Men v. Women (Sally), Men v. Gods (his loss of faith).

William is a storyteller, so he has a chance at immortality, because stories can make one immortal. Ponce de Leon searched for the fountain of youth in Florida (which is why old people go there). Actually, the story is what is immortal and the author rides on the coattails. But, people don't cease to exist, they just stop having new stories.

Mick's car broke down, and through a series of events, he ended up with the "wrong" book, which actually turned out to be the right one. The book was Walkabout by James Vance Marshall, and it is about the Aborigines' rite of passage in Australia. Apparently there are many references to classical literature in the book. Coincidence is Providence. And, walking gives one time to think, so you are more likely to have more epiphanies.

Interjection from Dr. Sexson: read Songlines by Bruce Chatwin, journalist in Australia. One doesn't have to wait for something to happen - the land has been demarcated. It is a musical score. So, we should not only walk around, but walk around singing.

Individual Presentations

Alison talked about Lysistrata, and asked the question whether the situation of women withholding sex could be reversed. Back in the caveman days, essentially women needed iron, and they knew that that men provided it through hunting. So, they had sex with the men, which they came to associate with babies and then with death. She also talked about the modern day non-violent movement the Lysistrata Project.

Chase's presentation was on Dionysus and his similarities with Jesus. Both have mortal mothers and Gods for fathers. Their worships contain aspects of omophagia (but in Christianity, the Eucharist is more symbolic) and the idea of rebirth. The symbol of the phallus in Dionysian worship is not so much present in Christianity, but both Gods give life.

Hannah also talked about Lysistrata and gave examples of recent similar protests like the ones in Columbia and Turkey. And, she read a poem by Simonides - her favorite part is about the sea.

Brittany showed a picture of herself metamorphosed into Minnie Mouse at the age of four. Then she called her grandma to have her tell a story about when Brittany was little, which happened to be about her misbehaving - and Bob the rat. She pointed out that most of the stories we read were about people or gods misbehaving and how we have a fascination with them. But, they are immortalized this way.

Megan talked about how individuals react to love differently and gave examples from Antigone, Demeter and Persephone, and Lysistrata. But, she mainly focused on Cupid and Psyche, which is a great love story. Love is confusion as well as eternal.

Jesse gave a very interesting interpretation of his paper. What I got out of it was that moms can make everything better. I suppose this had to do with Cupid and Psyche...maybe Demeter, too?

Jann also discussed Dionysus, but she presented a different view of him. She compared him to Seung-Hui Cho, the shooter in the Virginia Tech massacre. There are very disturbing sentiments in both, and she pointed out that history repeats itself - sometimes not for the better.

Brittini compared women from classical literature to more contemporary ones, for example Lysistrata to Rosie the Riveter.

Barbara's story was about going to feed the ducks and chatting and reminiscing with an old woman. And, the one little boy told the other one not to eat the Rice Chex because they were duck food, which I thought was cute. But, she included and compared experiences in her life to many of the characters that we studied, including Europa, Demeter and Persephone, Niobe, Antigone, Dionysus, Lucius, and trees.

Group Four's Presentation

The stichomythias performed by Group Four included:

the Rape of Europa
Iphis and Ianthe
Acis and Galatea
Daedalus and Icarus
and Phaethon

Group Three's Presentation

Some important highlights from Group Three's presentation include:

Antigone's secret of her soul is joy.
The truth can't be told; it has to be shown, which was symbolized by the sign.
And, Tiresias is a symbol of timeless wisdom.