Horror Show

"The suitors' bodies made a carpet of flesh, blood, gore, and dust.  Outside the palace hall, in the court yard, the twelve unfaithful serving maids swung in the wind, hanged.  Everything else was still, save for the jaws  of the dogs fighting over Melanthius's testicles and penis (373)."

I really loved Cadmus and Harmony. I know I will read it again, it has it all. Beauty, celebration, love, betrayal, murder, suicide, blood and guts--the list goes on and on.  I love horror movies especially the really gory slasher flicks.  Most slasher movies, if not all of them, are based on the crimes of serial killers and, more often than not, the crimes of Ed Gein.  When Gein's Wisconsin farm house of horrors was discovered authorities found, among other things, masks made from human skin, bowls made from human skulls, and a belt made of nipples.  Ed Gein had a darkness that the religious age has many explanations for, but in mythology this darkness simply exists.  It is not the result of demons or some great evil.  It is a part of humans, just another tale to be told.  The violence and gore of Calasso is very casual because it is merely a fact.  It wasn't caused by evil spirits or demons spawned from uncontrollable woman. It is the shadow, our shadow. 

Myth and 'The Magus'

The Monster in the Maze

          “Asterius has a bull’s head, because his father was the big white bull Pasiphae fell in love with.  Asterius has been shut up in a building designed by an Athenian inventor…the moment had come for them to cover up their secrets, and ultimately to be ashamed of them (Calasso, 11).” Asterius is the Minotaur, the monster that Daedalus designed the labyrinth to conceal.  The concept of the maze is a prevalent theme in John Fowles novel The Magus. It is nearly impossible to separate the monster and the maze since the maze was designed for the monster.  But who is the monster in Nicholas’ maze?  Throughout Fowles novel Nicholas is struggling with a monster.  It is unclear who that monster may be but nonetheless there is a beast stalking Nicholas through his labyrinth. 

            Could Joe be the monster?  He first appears to Nicholas dressed as Anubis, a beastly creature with the head of a jackal and the body of a man. Joe is a shadowy figure that is always silently watching, stalking. He is always guarding, a person or a secret, similar to the monsters in mythology.  Perhaps, Conchis is the fiend?  There are many times is the narrative when Nicholas suspects Conchis of being more than the magician.  Nicholas suspects that there is something sinister about Conchis, something beastly, he wonders if Conchis is a pervert.  The depths to which Conchis’ maze takes Nicholas, the seemingly boundless manipulation, support that Conchis could be more the magician.   Conceivably any of the female leads could be the monster.   Allison is possibly the monster for having selfishly killed herself and haunted Nicholas’ thoughts.  Perhaps it is Julie and her flirtatious character or Lily with her monstrous manipulation of Nicholas.  All the players look the part; feasibly there could be more than one monster in Nicholas’ maze. 

            At the trial, the aforementioned participants and a few others from behind the scenes appear to Nicholas dressed in a monstrous fashion.  The figures marched in front of Nicholas, in elaborate and ghastly costume, at the trial are an illustration of the link between the monster and the maze.  “The long line of black-carnival puppets stared at me from the floor.  I stared down the line: the stag-devil, the crocodile-devil, the vampire, the succubus, the bird-woman, the magician, the coffin-sedan, the pierrot-skeleton, the corn-doll, the Aztec, the witch (Fowels, 503).”  All of the people inside the costumes were involved in the construction of Nicholas’ maze, all of the people appear in the garb of monsters and no doubt Nicholas thinks of them as beastly; even more so without their costumes.  Unfortunately for Nicholas they set him free from their constructed maze and Nicholas is left to search for his still unidentified monster; for identifying the monster brings about a conclusion, an answer and “an answer is always a form of death (Fowles, 626).”

            Still obsessed with finding his monster, so that he may slay it, Nicholas continues the investigation that leads him to Mrs. De Seitas; the mother of Lily and Julie.  Since the neither of the twins is the monster maybe the woman that raised them to be so deceitful is the true fiend.  Although disgusted by her, she is clearly not the monster he seeks. However, he does view her and her daughters as devilish. Nicholas remarks, “now I understand why you grow so many flowers.’ She shifted her head, not understanding. I said, ‘To cover the stink of sulphur’ (Fowles, 602).”  The secrets, lies, manipulations, and betrayals keep Nicholas always on the hunt for identifying the ogre in the shadows. 

When he learns that Allison is alive and all the correspondence concerning her unfortunate suicide is a sham his rage leads him to believe that undoubtedly Allison must be the monster that has been pushing him through the labyrinth; the being that had been both leading him and stalking him through the maze.   She had been there since the beginning, it was her fault--it was all her fault.  She had somehow been responsible for getting him mix up in this experiment in which “monstrous liberties where taken with my [Nicholas] liberties (Fowles).”  She was the only creature evil enough to do this to him.  Yes, she had to be his monster and he must go slay her, metaphorically, but where does one find the dead or rather falsely dead. 

            Even though Allison is very much alive she might as well exist only in a spirit realm that Nicholas could not enter; for despite his best efforts he had no way to find her.  When Allison finally reveals herself to Nicholas he accuses her of being his ever present monster.  She in turn makes the same accusation of him.  In that pivotal moment, in the park, when Nicholas slaps Allison it is unclear if the truth becomes apparent to Nicholas.  But to the reader it is right there just as it has been all along.  The creature that knows his secrets, the being that both propels him forward while stalking him, the ultimate evil, the monster; is Nicholas himself.  “A creature who would never be able to go back to being either beast or man.  He would be a hybrid (Calasso, 11).”    

  

A Religious Experience Rooted In Mythology

 Art from Tool's Aenima album

"With the music of his lyre, Cadmus said, he would be able to stop the planets in their courses and enchant wild beasts (381)."
Earlier in the semester I was reading one of Jason's blogs entitled The Story of Nachiketa in in his conclusion he was discussing sacrifice. Which got me thinking about a paper I had written for Dr. Lansverk's Biblical Lit class about Cain and Abel.  In this paper I argued that this story was an example of confusion during the transition between the pagan age and the monotheism.  At the time I really couldn't see why the monotheism came about. I mean polytheism is perfection right?  There is a god of the hunt, the hearth, of love, and so on; there are gods and goddess'. What possible reason would the ancients have for turning to monotheism?  This question remained largely unanswered until I read Calasso's book.  Rape, abduction, jealousy, and the sodomizing of children are all aspects of mythology i was unaware of.  The gods were not perfect and they could not judge humans because they possessed the same flaws.  The ancients needed perfection; they needed perfection to guide them and judge them.  The gods of mythology, with their excesses, had set the stage for the religious age. It all makes sense now.
Discussing the relationship between mythology and religion reminds me of a mythological religious experience I had once (or was it a religious mythological experience?).  In 1998, I saw Tool live for the first time.  They were touring in support of their album Aenima.  Even though I'd been concert going for several years this was to be the biggest rock band I had seen and in one of the largest venues I'd been in at that point.  I love Tool.  I will swear til my dying day that they are my generations Pink Floyd.  I was all of sixteen years old and Tool was just starting to make it big; we grew up together.  Memorial Coliseum in Portland, Oregon was sold out that night and I felt an excitement that to this day I only feel before a Tool show.
The crowd was electric, the entire venue was on fire with energy as we all paid our respects to the Melvins and eagerly awaited Tool.  When the band hit the stage the shit hit the fan.  I was never so glad to be in the balcony instead of out on the floor. Music surrounded me not only in sound but in color.  I'd never felt more alive yet was completely paralyzed by the ferocity of the bands performance and Maynard's vocals--there are no words, he must be an Angel sent from Hell.  Then I felt a pounding and heard an indescribable roar, the crowd was moved by their performance in their own way.  A situation had developed on the floor and three songs into the set security completely lost control.  In addition to the gatecrashers on the ground floor, the pounding and roar was the feeling of hordes of people sitting at the top of the balcony rushing past us in the lower balcony and jumping to the floor.  In the middle of extreme chaos I felt the most peace I had ever known.  I saw music, I felt music, and tens of thousands of people danced in the spirit realm that night.
Since then I have seen Tool on tour for Lateralus and 10,000 Days and I always tell people I'm going to church when I'm heading to a Tool show.  From these experiences I've come to the conclusion that it's not the crowd or even the band, it's the music. Pure and strong. Like the band is channeling the gods themselves.
  

Lessons

"From that moment on, every event, every encounter occurred in parallel, in two places. To tell a story meant to weave those two series of parallel events together, to make both worlds visible (95)."
Telling stories is teaching lessons, recounting the past is education for the future.  We all remember being told stories that taught  morals as children. There are so many lessons contained in mythology. I interpret myths like Eros and Psyche or Orpheus and Eurydice as cautionary tales about the woes of impatience.  In both of these myths they already had what they wanted most but they became impatient and lost faith.  As a result, the  object of their affection was taken as punishment for impatience.  The myth of Zeus and Semele is also a tale faith and of not asking for proof of love; for it is Zeus' love for Semele that causes him to destroy her.  There are multitudes of of lessons contained within mythology but I find the love stories and tragedies concerning patience, as well as faith in love and faith in a lover to be the most interesting.  I believe that if you believe in love the impossible is possible.  I like the myths that illustrate all the bad things that can happen when we lose faith in love and faith in our lovers. It is faith that connects us to whatever spirits, God, or gods we believe in; it is our faith in each other that connects us all.

thank you

"Everything repeats itself, everything comes back again, but always with some slight twist in its meaning. (249)"
I would like to thank everyone for their interesting and entertaining group presentations. And special thanks to my group (Group 4): Megan, Stephanie, Rosemary, Darrell, and Jeremy. I normally hate group projects but this was a positive experience for once. My group was very creative, hard working, intelligent, and respectful of each others ideas. Everyone contributed and few people even went the extra mile trying to figure out the tech stuff. Thanks guys it was was a pleasure to have learned with you and from you.

"Bleeding White Butterflies"

The Image of the Soul

"In the maximum pointlessness lies maximum splendor. And the real never shines so brightly as when its reality is duplicated (340)"
We suffer so that it may be written about and sung about. Since life is suffering then music, art, and literature are the reason we exist. Of course life is not always suffering and we celebrate that in the arts as well. One of my favorite artists once wrote: "making an album is like anything else. it's like living and dying, like bleeding white butterflies."  I mentioned in an earlier blog that I do not remember when i stopped believing in Santa Claus. The day I finished The Magus, I realized that I never really stopped believing in Santa Claus because I believe in the importance of the myth. When I realized that Santa wasn't real I started perpetuating the myth to the next generation.  Even though I knew he wasn't 'really real', for whatever reason I felt the need to continue the myth that had brought me so much joy and excitement as a child. Our continuing to perpetuate myths like Santa Claus only speaks to their importance as part of our identity.  When I look at my youngest nephew or my friend's children I believe in Santa Claus, even though I sometimes am Santa Claus. It's the myth and the importance of that myth that both unites and defines.  This realization came only after my initial disappointment with the end of The Magus. 
At first I was a little irritated with the way the book ends, on its surface, with little to no resolution. Then, while watching a preview for a Christmas movie and thinking about Santa, I realized that the only way The Magus could have a definite ending is if Nicholas would have died.  I can't remember if it was Conchis or one of the twins who informed Nicholas that the 'rat' had control over the parameters of the maze. Even though Nicholas' labyrinth was constructed for him, it was to give him an appreciation of life. Not only his own life but how he interacted with other people and how those actions effected the lives of those around him. Nicholas was so arrogant and jaded that even though he was living he was not alive. His belief that he was above the maze that led him right into the heart of it.  Life is a labyrinth.

Ritual De Lo Habitual

"But such is Zeus: any old oak tree. Only Zeus can sustain the wonder of normality (319)."
"covered now by three days, we saw shadows of the morning light, the shadows of the evening sun, til the shadows and the light were one" Eh what's a blog without some Jane's Addiction, Ritual De Lo Habitual (funny, I know someone who thinks Perry Farrell is a satyr). Three days, three days in an ordinary mythology. Cyclical and ritual, forever paying homage to Order. I wake up at 5:30 in the morning. Feed the cats. Smoke. Clean litter box. Get ready for work and school. Brush my cat. Make sure all doors and widows are locked. Upon exiting I check 5 times to see if the garage door is shut, once in each mirror and twice over the shoulder.
Once I get in my car the all day music worship begins. At work, we all have various morning rituals for the purposes of cleanliness and order (music is worshipped faithfully all day, by all present). Work. Class. Shower. Dinner. Homework. Cartoons, dessert, and vitamins. Bed.  Three days go by without variation.  All other days the variation is slight. What is the point of all this repetition? Why carry on the same tasks in the same order day after day, faithfully and continually? Order. Ritual is a way of bringing order to the chaos that is life. Performing rituals is a way of exercising control over our lives and actively participating in our existence.
Rituals are performed often at or soon after birth in the form of naming ceremonies or christenings. Rituals are performed to restore or renew the land. Rituals are performed at death, but from birth until death rituals are a part of our lives. Rituals can bring us closer to our environment, our families, our communities, and even ourselves.  
The reasons why rituals are performed and how they are performed is very complex. Inspired by this complexity I chose the Japanese ritual of Seppuku to present in class. Seppuku was a form of ritual suicide reserved for the Samurai class in ancient Japan.  Seppuku is currently illegal in Japan and the last Seppuku was committed in 1970 as a protest.  Seppuku, also know as Hara-kiri or Hari-kari, literally means "stomach cutting" and was an key part of the Bushido or warrior code. Seppuku was used by warriors to keep from falling into enemy hands or to rid oneself of shame. Warriors could be ordered to commit Seppuku by their feudal lords or could use Seppuku as the ultimate protest when their morals stood in the way of executing a master's order. Seppuku is very complex, has many forms, and is of course different for women. 
I decided to focus on the most formal performance of Seppuku.  Dressed ceremonially with his sword in front of him the participant writes his death poem. After completing the poem, with his selected attendant or his second standing behind him, he wraps a cloth around the base of his sword then opens his kimono and plunges the sword into his abdomen. First he cuts right to left, then slightly upward. After the upward cut he lowers his head and his second, usually a trusted warrior and friend, then cuts off his head. In battle or other less formal settings the second may or my not be a part of the ritual. Like most rituals Seppuku produces more questions, for those outside of its practice, than answers.
Rituals are not only something that is done, but something that is done to exercise power over our lives and ourselves. Through the practice of rituals we are active participants in our existence and not mere bystanders witnessing the drama of the gods played out in an endless cyclical narrative.   

"love, disfigure, amputate"

"He is Risen" by Jack Kevorkian

"For it was in that eye, as he carried her off, that Kore saw herself reflected. It was then that this girl within the eye became the pupil for us all. As if the eye only now stormed out on a raid from the kingdom of the dead. Vision was a prey. And the eye pounced from the shadows to capture a girl and shut her away in the underworld palace of the mind. The meaning of Kore in Hades' eye is twofold: on the one hand, insofar as Kore sees herself in her abductor's eye, she discovers reflection, duplication the moment in which conciousness observes itself: and paradoxically that duplicated gaze is also the ultimate of visions; it can't be divided up anymore, for every further division would merely be a confirmation of the first. (210)"
My thoughts after class Thursday September 29:  listening to acid bath on the way home, music swirling in and out of myth and dreams. thoughts of bozeman, my home. is it oz? and ozzy well he is relevant because his wife sharon is the man behind the curtain. i had a dream when i was 8yrs old that has never left me. it was before school and i was on the north playground at longfellow elementary when armed men dressed in black swat apparel and ski masks invaded the playground, ordering all of us to line up in front of the building.. i reach for my back pack and find that my milk has has spilled all over inside of it. while all of the other children lined up as instructed, i was shaking the milk out of my back pack by the seesaws. suddenly the leader of the armed masked men approached me it was bill cosby. our eyes met briefly then he stabbed me in the thigh and i exploded into a fountain of blood. oz does not change or does it? is bozeman...dax screams "her chin is wet with some one's hate, love, disfigure, amputate"...wait a minute wasn't there a nordic creation story about hate, jealousy, and dismemberment? isn't rape a vehicle of both separation and initiation? all systems shut down and i become possessed by this lyric. it is origin stories about dismemberment and monsters. it is the separation of the egg or amorphous blob. it is a painting by jack kevorkian. it is apollo and his lyre, it is the "unending gifts the gods enjoy and the sufferings of men". it is separation, initiation, and transformation hitting me all at once, making perfect sense, and like all things mythological absolutely true and absolutely everywhere. love is separation, initiation is pain and pain disfigures, transformation involves amputation of sorts and often a return to the amputated. it is the marriage of cadmus and harmony, the last time the gods celebrated alongside humans. the gods loved us and we loved them, this love separated us and our relationship with the gods disfigured, in order to achieve transformation we amputated ourselves from the gods (or did they amputate themselves from us?) i get the oz thing but i don't like it. people move here because they love it. their presence and what it brings disfigures the valley and then they leave (others replace them) and amputate themselves from the valley. the valley itself is transformed. bozeman is enchanted though we even used to have our very own leprechaun, tommy. what was it that tommy used to say..phantasm....that's it phantasmagorical! a sequence of real or imaginary images like that seen in a dream. phantasmagorical.

So those are my thoughts on our last class meeting and Dr. Sexson that is the paiting I was telling you about, now to read some of my classmates blogs, which to be honest i haven't done at all yet. I'm currently closing out Cadmus and Harmony, starting The Magus, and reading Eliade.

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Class notes 9/29
Sacrifice= to make sacred
Dionysus- destroys order
Hero's solve the problems of the beginnings. ex. the slaying of the Minotaur born of an unnatural union
Creation:  4. male god creates by voice
                3. created from the body of a goddess
                2. created by female with male counterpart usually a snake
                1. created by female alone

Beginnings

"The first crown was a gift from Zeus to Prometheus. It thus came from the gods as homage to a man whose relationship with them was anything but clear, at once a threat and a means of salvation (109)"
For my presentation, I chose a Melanasian myth about the origins of death called The Cast Skin. I read several myths concerning the origins of death and most of them treated death as a punishment. I chose this particular myth because it treats the orgins of death as a self-less act of love; a testament to the importance and depth of the mother-child relationship.  In class many of the presentations, although unique, contained many common elements; the concept of the 'earth diver', creation from thought or speech, creation through division, or creation by dismemberment were often repeated.
The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony begins with a girl being carried of by a bull. But this girl wasn't the first to be carried off by a bull, in the beginning bulls were forever abducting beautiful young girls. When they weren't carrying off women, women were going through great lengths to copulate with them. Obviously these were some very handsome bulls. The image of the bull, the turtle, the duck, and various other animals are ever present in origin myths.  I think this suggests that many cultures acknowledge that animals came before humans.  Which is interesting because modern science agrees with this concept. i also find the creation myths that i read having to do with the concept of an egg to be terribly interesting since many life forms DO come from an egg. What does this prove? That it is ALL TRUE!
 Mythos Logos

Origins

Merkin Vineyards, Arizona. Makers of Caduceus wine



  "No other god, let alone Athena with her sober olive oil, or Demeter with her nourishing bread, had ever had anything that could vie with that liquor.  It was exactly what had been missing from life, what life had been waiting for:  intoxication (36)."

Dionysus the god of wine, vegetation, pleasure, and festivity; "revealed the secret of wine to man (37)."  Dionysus like most of the gods exhibits a duality that is ever present in humans and in life.  Although he gives humans the secrets of wine and pleasure, as well as the uniting practice of festivity, he was also murderous and a rapist. Dionysus longs to posses the unattainable, but once he has it he becomes easily bored and often casts women aside like a spoiled child that has tired of his toy. Grapes and the wine that is produced from them are an important part of our origins.  Wheat and grapes are central to origins of agriculture and civilized life. Wine is familiar to most of us for its role in celebration and ritual.  Wine is recurrent theme throughout several cultural mythologies including Christian mythology. The documentary "Blood Into Wine" explores the origins of Merkin Vineyards in Arizona.  Winemaker Eric Glomski describes the wine making process as one that is complex and brings humans back to nature.  His passion for wine has led him to develop his sense of smell as ninety percent of tasting wine is smelling wine.  For Eric and his partner Maynard Keenan wine is a connection to the Earth and to our collective origins.  Wine making is a hugely complex process where everything is a factor the soil, the slopes, the rain fall; all of these wonderful elements come together to create a divine beverage that is used in celebration and deception. Wine both enhances and dulls the senses.  A dualistic drink, from a dualistic god, for dualistic beings.
 "Dionysus decided that only one of his weapons could work: wine (31)."  Wine produces great merriment, occasional sorrow, or can be used as a weapon of revenge.  Dionysus rapes Aura by drugging her with wine so that Artemis can have her revenge.  Why would such a good time party guy do such a thing? Because Artemis had delivered death to many of Dionysus' women at his request. Dionysus has a dark side and by revealing wine to mortals he revealed pleasure and pain, by combining the two into an intoxicating drink that is capable of producing both of these primal sensations.
The origins of a vineyard, the origins of wine, the origins of pleasure, of pain, of the gods themselves; all this talk of origins has me thinking of my own origins.  My mother has always insisted that i was found under a rock.  All my father has ever said was that the night I was born the radio played nothing but great songs.  Zeppelin, Skynard, Sabbath, and Cream poured out of his speakers as if Orpheus himself had seized the airwaves to announce my birth.  The wine flowed freely and Dionysus nodded his approval.  For it was he, with his wine and festivity, that led my parents to each other in the first place.  My youth was filled with barbecues, holiday feasts, and always always music. I don't remember when I stopped believing in Santa Claus, but i do remember that at 8 years old I was given to Orpheus body and soul through a ritual know as ones first concert.

I know I believed in Santa Claus, but I honestly don't remember when or why i stopped. My grandfather had a beard of ZZ Top proportions and when i was little the other little kids would walk up to my grandfather and accuse him of being Santa Claus. I always thought this was silly surely my grandfather couldn't be THE Santa Claus.  The REAL Santa Claus lived in the North Pole not in Wyoming.

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I'm a little over half done with "Cadmus and Harmony". Calasso is intoxicating, this book is amazing, a real page turner. It's poetic, beautiful; full of life, death, perversion, and revenge.  It truly does explain why we are the way we are and answers questions we dare not ask.

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Class Notes 9/6:

Origins of music start when Hermes gives the lyre to Apollo

Homeric Greeks- believed that 'only the gods can be the causes' of desire, suffering, & reflection

Diamon = Demon

Ate = infatuation, you are no longer in control of the situation

Enthusiasm- comes from Theos, means possessed by the gods

Alchemy- perfection of the human spirit

9/8:

Etiology- explanation of how something came to be- 2 levels simple and complex- etiological myth explains origins of practice, natural phenomena, and proper names

Mythology is a system of total explanation that answers all questions

Myth- is the model for imitation

Anamnesis- innate knowledge, you already know everything you need to know you just forgot the role of the teacher is to awaken our recollection and help us remember

Test:  Homeric hymns, Classic dramas, Hesiod, Trojan War, Exodus

everyday mythology

"No sooner have you grabbed hold of it than myth opens out into a fan of a thousand segments.  Here the variant is the origin (147)."
Myth is around us everyday. It gets stuck in our heads and sung in our cars. Music is in myth and myths are in the music we hear everyday.  In Led Zeppelin's "Achilles Last Stand, Robert Plant sings "Wandering and wandering, What place to rest the search, The mighty arms of Atlas, Hold the Heavens from the Earth." the mythologies of several different cultures are a central theme in Classic Rock and modern Metal music.  Robert Plant sings of Valhalla, Odin's Hall of the Slain, in their classic "Immigrant Song." Valhalla proves to be recurring theme in Metal music. Manowar's "Gates Of Valhalla," is a great example; "Sworn by the sacred blood of Odin onward ride,Valhalla thy gods await me, Open wide thy gates embrace me, Great hall of the battle slain." 3 Inches of Blood use myth in their lyrics, "Onward to Valhalla" and the "The Hydra's Teeth" just to name a few. Iron Maiden often references Egyptian mythology in their lyrics and even Marilyn Manson gets a little mythological from time to time. Folk, Indie, Tribal music, and I'm not well versed on the subject but i would imagine there are a few symphonies/operas that are myth related. "Myth opens out into a fan of a thousand segments," Maynard James Keenan of Tool started a vineyard in Arizona which produces Caduceus brand wine..from music to wine and then back to the gods.
 Myth is in movies, advertising, company logos, cartoons, art, many tattoos are of mythic creatures and symbols. Myth is in the music that fills our ears and the wine that passes over our lips. I am surrounded by myth i hear it, i sing it, i feel it, and i have ingested it. The Bacchus Pub in downtown Bozeman is the sort of eatery Dionysus himself would frequent.  Orpheus would approve of our talented local musicians that make every genre of music imaginable in our beautiful tree filled town.  When I look at my hometown, my friends, and myself I see myth twisting its way through every aspect of life; similar to the way i have always seen music twisting its way through every moment of my own life.
There used to be a show on HBO fifteen years ago that retold many familiar myths.  In this T.V. version of Orpheus and Eurydice; the beautiful Eurydice was born from a tree.  Trees are central to myth, central to life, and to origin (the concept on ancestry is symbolized by the tree).  Trees, myth, music, and art flow in and out of one another and often times blend. The image above is of a girl motionless amongst the isolation of the trees and the night. She herself turns into roots at the bottom of the piece and is surrounded by several trees not pictured;this tattoo inspired by a song, a work of art, a book of trees, and a myth of sorts.  Of course all this talk of trees only reminds me of another song: "firelight was an offering to the god that runs through the bark of the trees I believe, that by gods above us we wont live to see it end, let us not pretend that it could have been any other way" written by Dax Riggs the so-called Orpheus of the underground. i think in many of the myths i 've read so far the abductors of these young girls are silently repeating: My dear, "lets us not pretend that it could have been any other way."
Cultural myths are like genres of music, varied and complex.  Our personal experience and understanding of myths are also varied and complex. While looking for myth in everyday, I discovered myth in overwhelming abundance in music, art, poetry, food/drink, even in my own community.  These are the things i am most passionate about in life so i can't help but think that i have discovered an unconcious passion for myth within myself.
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I love Cadmus & Harmony. Although i find it a little confusing and at times overwhelming. I'm making a list of names, places, and relationships to try to keep it all straight.
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CLASS NOTES 9-1-11

Mnemosynein = memory
     -mother of the 9 muses: Clio, Euterpe, Thalia, Melpomeni, Terpsichore, Erato, Polymnia, Ourania, and Calliope.

-abduction of women is a repeating theme