October 10th & 15th: Initiation Extravaganza!

  I. Jubilation, II. Mortification, III. Purgation, IV. Invigoration

"Twenty years from now, when someone asks you— 'How did you lose your pinkie?' 
You will say, 'Lit 285.'"

"What have we lost? What have we gained?

"What perhaps you have been noticing is that this class is an elaborate initiation ceremony."


INITIATIONS:
— Momote - Shiki, (archery ceremony)
—Menawta teeth-sharpening
—Krypteia (the hunting and killing of slaves by boys)
—Nacirema
—Mandan (Okipa)
—Festa de Mocas Nuevas (isolation in a hut to all but family)
—Heaven's Gate
—Boot camp
—Turning 21
—Scarification
—Wild horse races (Hippolytus)
—Getting a doctorate in physics
—Mardudjara ('Subcision', and the mutilation of the penis)
—Bullet-ant glove ("If you live your life without pain, it's not worth living.")
—Fulahi tatros (Facial tattoos, for the women)
—Whip match (Struggle against flinching, for men)
—Vision quests
—Wicca
—Walkabout ('Song lines')
—Camar cow-jumping
—Mafia
—Female circumcision 
- Aztec (The sacrificing of prisoners)
- Motorcycle club
- Sambia (Bloodletting and 'Tingu', or purification. Removal of all feminity)
- Tapas
- Matausa (bloodletting)
- Igonguin/Alonguin
- South Korean shamanism (dancing on a sword)
- Crossing-the-line (Sailor initiation)
- Land-diving (Naghol)
- Pederasty
- Iria Ceremony
- Sweet 16

October 8th: Gray pudding, winged lovers, rampion, &c.

"You introduce a male into the equation, and the whole world goes to hell."

FRONT MATTER:

Initiation Presentations, this Thursday, the 10th.

Remember to have 'The Storyteller' read by October 22nd.

Remember to post your one-page analysis of Calasso.


IMPORTANT TERMS/INTERESTING TIDBITS

Nostos - 'Home'. (Nostalgia, etc.)

The Story of Eros & Psyche

'Cupid and Psyche' by Bouguereaus,1889

A very good retelling can be found here. 

'The Institution of Marriage
- "All marriage is rape."

Kore - another name for Persephone, maiden daughter of Demeter.

Chthonic - Pertaining to the underworld.

Entropy - room temperature. "You cannot unstir the jam from the pudding. Such as it is with the universe."


ET CETERA

"That's Psyche's problem. She's a bimbo.
We're all bimbos."

"We're no longer in high school. We are initiated into something much larger, and things here are very dicey."

"What are coincidences? Syncronicities."

"When a meme has a bad day, it's a virus."

October 1st: Quiz #1, and the weekend's reading, in pages.

"Wherever you happen to be is the center of the world. Whatever tree you hug is the center of the world. You're in the right place, in other words. The question is, do you realize that?"

Jean, pg. 125, 'Nemesis'
Austin, pg. 270, 'Rhodopis'
Kelly, pg. 144, 'Delphic Oracle'
Parker, pg. 143, 'Herophite'
Annie, pg. 9, 'Gustave Moreau'
Kristy, pg. 145, 'Apollo & Dionysis'
Mac, pg. 245
Melissa, pg. 4
Kim, pg. 69, 'Women's Betrayal'
Elise, pg. 249, 'Repetition of History'
Megan, pg. 390 & 39, 'The end is the beginning'
Ian, pg. 59, 'Divine fire'
Cavin, pg. 127, 'Helen'
Michelle, pg 363
Jordyn, pg. 63, 'Hercules'
Mackenzie, pg. 74
Siri, pg. 197, 'Persephone's abduction'
Zach, pg. 109
Noah, pg. 79
Sebastian, pg. 49
Ben, pg. 209, 'The abduction of Persephone'
Victor, pg. 53

October 1st: Quiz #1 Review

#1 - When was Kelly born?
- July 25th, 1988, Mankato Hospital, Mankato MN.

#2 - The three important parts to this class:
- You, me, myth. Radical simplicity.

#3 - The three levels of relationships with the gods.
- 1) Convivialty
- 2) Rape (A sudden invasion)
- 3) Indifference

#4 - The three parts (of myth)
- 1) Seperation (from family/home)
- 2) Initiation (Pain)
- 3) Transformation/return (Ending up where you began)

#5 - Mnemosyne. The mother of nine muses.

#6 - The principle images behind all myth:
- The woman,
- and the Snake.
(And with neither one having a very good reputation)

#7 - Etiology:
- the study of origins.

#8 - Axis mundi:
'Axis' = 'center', 'Mundi' = 'world.
The center, navel, pillar, tree, etc. of the world.

#9 - Myth is the precedent...:
behind every action.

#10 - Zeus' impregnation of Leda led to:
- The Trojan War (through the birth of Helen)

#11 - The Story of Apollo and Daphne

#12 - The Story of Actaeon and Diana

#13 -  The Story of Arachne

#14 - 'Mythos' and 'Logos' = ...
'Truth' and 'Story'

#15 - 'In illo tempore'...
'In the big/great time..."

#16 -  'The Collective Unconscious':
- (by C.J. Jung) A zone of the mind which opens down into all of knowledge.

#17 - What did Io as a heifer stamp into the ground when she needed to catch her father's attention?
What else?
Io.

#18 - The most frequent elements in world cosmogony...
1) Creation ex nihilo.
(A high being creates the world from nothing, whether by thought, word, or heating himself in a steampot, etc.)
2) The earth-diver motif. 
(A being sends birds, amphibians, himself, etc., to the bottom of the ocean to retrieve a particle from which all the land is grown from)
3) Creation by diving in two a primordial unity. 
(Often either the separation of heaven and earth or the birth of those parts through the separation of an original, amorphous mass)
4) Creation by the voluntary or involuntary dismemberment of a primordial being. 

#19 - The earth-diver myth is the most common of all creation myths.

#20 - Europa. Know her. (See pg. 1)

#21 - The Greek Creation Story

#22 - Pasiphae and the bull led to...
What else? The Minotaur.

#23 - The Story of Asclepius, the Caduceus, and Divine Fire

#24 - The Story of the Abduction of Persephone

#25 - Unpack the word enthusiasm
En (or 'inside') + Theos ('the gods')
'The god is inside you.'

#26 - Maenads:
The female devotees of Dionysis. 

#27 - 'Sparagmos':
'To rip, to shred, to tear to bits.'

#28 - The Story of Nessus and Heracles' Death  

#29 - 'Uncle John':
Someone who has become obsessed with something 'meaningless' to give his or her life meaning.
("What's the dirty little secret? We're all Uncle John.")

#30 - 'When things were a nickel.'
- 'In the good old days', 'when the gods were convivial.'

#31 - Why do Greek men have small butts?
- Ask Theseus.

#32 - What happens to Semele when she sees Zeus in his full glory?
- She's toasted.

#33 - The Story of Tiresias
(When a god makes a promise, he cannot go back on it.)

#34 - The Origins of the word 'tragedy'.
- The Song of the Goat.

#35 - Raven, the bringer of light to the world.

September 26th: The perils of being mortal, divine fires, toast, &c.

"In the end, we're all toasted."


FRONT MATTER:

- Painful initiation rites: Know yours.

- Have a question ready for the October 1st review.

- Incoming quiz, October 3rd.

 IMPORTANT TERMS/INTERESTING TIDBITS:

The Story of Nessus and Heracles' Death

'Diana and Actaeon' (1603-1606) by Giuseppe Cesari

A story of poisoned arrows and poisoned blood...
Read more about Nessus' villainy here.

The Story of Actaeon
And his punishment for looking at Artemis as she bathed.
A succinct version of the story here.

The Story of Pentheus
And what happened when he insisted upon seeing the the Maenads' rituals.
Read more here.


    "The dove descending breaks the air
    With flame of incandescent terror
    Of which the tongues declare
    The one discharge from sin and error.
    The only hope, or else despair
    Lies in the choice of pyre or pyre —
    To be redeemed from fire by fire. (IV)

    Who then devised the torment? Love.
    Love is the unfamiliar Name
    Behind the hands that wove
    The intolerable shirt of flame
    Which human power cannot remove.
    We only live, only suspire
    Consumed by either fire or fire..."

—from 'Little Gidding' by T.S. Eliot.


ET CETERA:

"Ring around the rosy? Pocket full of posy? And you're singing about this in the third grade? My god."

"What would happen if old people didn't die? Don't old people sort of deserve to die?"

"(These are stories of) what happens to people when they commit the hubris of being born."

"You're going to get it in the end.
What does that mean? It might mean we're not going to make it out alive.
Or...
You're going to get it. You're going to understand."