Weekly Journal Update 9/6

Camara Kidd
Sep 6, 2018 · 6 min read

Monday, September 3rd, 9–10pm

Reading this week’s section on an airplane, leaving a pseudo-family reunion, made me think about the genealogy of the Greek gods. As far as I know, all of the main gods are related to each other in some shape or form, either by blood or marriage, and as someone who comes from a large family I understand too well, how difficult it is to navigate complex family dynamics. Labor day weekend with my family did not pass without our usual fights (accompanied by color commentary from the younger cousins). This weekend in particular and the major theme of the fight from it got me thinking about how… interesting (to say the least) this Thanksgiving will be, and how the absence or presence of certain family members will lead to an overall entertaining week. This all comes back to the idea of the large family dynamic of the Greek gods, I wondered what a family meal, a Thanksgiving if they were American, would be like at Mount Olympus. What kind of marital spats would Hera and Zeus get into, how would the appearance of Hades affect the table conversation. This is where my mind wandered as I looked out the window, on mytwo hour flight from Florida.

Questions on Classical Mythology In Context pg 3–35

  1. According to the Author, Lisa Maurizio, classical mythology is the study of myths, specifically the tales that the Greek’s themselves labeled Muthoi. Maurizio notes that while classical myths can come from any period in Ancient Greek and Rome, the ones that comprise most of the studies in classical mythology are those from the Archaic and Classical periods.
  2. I do agree with Maurizio’s reasoning for why we study classical myths in the twenty first century. I think it is important that we study these ancient texts to become more connected to one another. Studying these myths, as Maurizio points out, connects all people to each other, it gives us a chance to better understand the world we live in and our role in it.

Tuesday, September 4th 2–3pm

Today in class we discussed our modern participation in myths and stories, beyond just watching, reading or listening to them. As we discussed participation in the modern myth, Star Wars, we began to discuss how this differs from the other examples talked about (Easter, Thanksgiving). The class settled on the fact that the participation in the world of Star Wars by fans is different from people’s participation in holidays like Easter and Thanksgiving because those holidays, especially Easter are considered sacred, and associated with a religion and the worship of a divinity. However I’d like to play devil’s advocate and say that the same point can be made about super fans of such blockbuster series like Star Wars, Harry Potter and even Twilight. The fans who obsess over those series to the point of semi-worship may be in the minority but they definitely exist and contribute to my point that these modern myths and stories may be considered silly (especially Twilight) and fanciful by the masses, but they hold a special place in many people’s hearts. These fantasy worlds may even be considered on the same level as religion for some, their faith in the characters and the story could be compared to that of Christians to the Bible. There are definitely people out there who put Leia, Luke, Harry, Hermione, and Edward up on the same pedestal as God, even as many mock them.

Question on book 11 of The Odyssey

What happens after we die? If I remember correctly this or something similar was on the list as one of the biggest questions humans ask. I think we often ask this question because humans are natural planners, we wanna know what is coming next, what is after this life. As many different cultures and religions do, the Greek’s had a version of the afterlife waiting for them at death. We see a glimpse of this underworld in book 11 of Homer’s The Odyssey. The Greek’s underworld is where everyone, regardless of time spent while living, goes when they die. This is different from other religions such as Christianity, because those other religions typically separate their dead, the good go one way, up to heaven, and the bad go another, down to hell. However, while all the dead in Ancient Greece went to the underworld it was separated into different sections so that different type of people had different spaces to go to, there was Tartarus, the Asphodel meadows, Elysium, Isle of the Blessed, etc. I think that one of reasons that stories and myths of the underworld are passed down is to act as motivation for people to be helpful and useful people in society. It is easy to tell people not to do bad things such as steal and murder when there is a holy text that says if they do so they will spend eternity being punished and tortured for those sins. The Greek’s also had the various myths revolving around the god’s wrath and punishments to keep them on the straight and narrow. Many would want to stay out of trouble and give the god’s no trouble so that they didn’t end up eternally hungry with a pool of water and branch of fruit just out of their reach.

Like many before me I am afraid of death. I have been so since I was a very young child and I first learned what it meant. The thought of simply not existing, not thinking or feeling or using my brain at all terrifies me. Maybe this fear will lessen as I grow older, as it seems to have done for many of the elderly people in my life, but for now I’m still scared of the idea of death. As with many others who have thanatophobia, that fear derives from a lack of knowledge about what happens after we take our final breath. I think this is another reason why so many religions and cultures create some kind of version of an afterlife. Having and believing in some version of an afterlife is a great way to reduce the anxiety surround death and ceasing to ‘be’. It acts as a security blanket, comforting people over the big mystery of death and what happens after. However for the less faithful of us (me) it is hard to put all your eggs in one basket, and simply just believe that there is something waiting for me after death, I want proof. Unfortunately, the only people who 100% know what comes after death are those who have just died, and there is no fool proof way to get a definite answer from a dead person.

In book 11 of The Odyssey, Odysseus tells of his encounters with the dead to the Phoenicians. As he tells of all the different souls he encountered and their conversations, we learn about Elpenor. Elpenor, to me, represents a specific kind of soul. He was concerned with his burial and body back in the world of the living, to me he represents those people, who even after death, can’t let go. There must be some group of souls in the underworld who did nothing but question the newcomers on life back on Earth. They would be so consumed with the world they no longer lived in, obsessed with what was going on after their death. This was just a random observation I made as Elpenor was asking Odysseus for a proper burial, I wondered if other souls would have asked if given the chance. I wondered how many souls down there weren’t given a proper burial, how many had unfinished business back on Earth that they constantly dwelled on. I feel like if I died now (and there was an afterlife where I could think) I would constantly wonder about the life I left back on Earth. I would wanna know how my mom is, how my friend’s turned out, how the Throne of Glass series ended, if Daenerys ends up on the throne at the end, all of these questions would haunt me, and I too would probably ask every newcomer these questions and maybe more. But what about those who die old and content? What questions would my grandfather have asked after death? About his children and grandchildren? Probably. But what if someone dies and they have no one else in their family? Do they simply live their afterlife contentedly, happily knowing that they took care of all of their business?

So what does happen after we die? My answer is that we truly don’t know. The only people who can give us those answers are long gone. I do hope that there is something out there, waiting for us after our eyes close on this world, but I guess I won’t know until I die, so hopefully I won’t truly know what happens for a very long while.