Studying for Classical Mythology Week 2
Journal 2 | September 6

Last week notes: Totally forgot one of the questions I had pertaining to class discussion… We were discussing part of Teirsias’ life and how Hera took his sight and in turn Zeus gave him “sight” into the future. Why in the world did Zeus not just give him his sight back?
THURSDAY
11:00 am — is it a pop quiz if you were told about it and just forgot until you walked in class?
To start off class, I dropped my beloved seaweed all over the floor. Seems like a bad omen to me. And lo and behold, there’s a quiz. Dr. Sandridge definitely told us about it Tuesday, but it completely slipped my mind.
The quiz wasn’t bad at all. 10 questions and a bonus. The only thing I forgot was the Greek word for a recognition. Which just means I need to focus more on the translations we’re given, especially when they relate to the overall culture of storytelling in Ancient Greece. On the plus side, I’ll always remember that anagnoresis means recognition.
…
For class discussion, we talked about Xenophanes, Socrates, and the questions humans often ask about our purpose.
The Ethiops say that their gods are flat-nosed and black,
While the Thracians say that theirs have blue eyes and red hair.
Yet if cattle or horses or lions had hands and could draw,
And could sculpt like men, then the horses would draw their gods
Like horses, and cattle like cattle; and each they would shape
Bodies of gods in the likeness, each kind, of their own.
We got into this analysis that I believe can be summarized in the question, Why ask ‘why’? What is the purpose of asking questions about our purpose? To which Dr. Sandridge raised the point that there are underlying assumptions when we ask that question. To even discuss whether or not “Why were humans created?” and “What’s our purpose?” are the same question, we have to assume that there is a reason for our creation, that we have some purpose in life.
As a class, we concluded that humans are planners and in doing so we assign purpose to the things around us. This human agency has led us to believe that if everything has a purpose, then we must too have one. Our discussion, however, opens up the vault of human agency vs divine agency. Because if we assign purpose to all that is around us, is it our job to assign our own purpose? Or is there a higher being who has already designated our purpose? Could our purpose be simply to give other things a purpose? For example, Adam in the Garden of Eden was tasked with naming and purposing all of the other animals.
Or could there be a personal purpose and a collective function? Meaning, could there be a higher power who purposed humankind to do certain tasks, but gave us enough free will to find a purpose in life that fulfills each individual? It’s an interesting topic on which I feel an entire class could be taught. For even in our short class time each new answer brought a multitude of new questions.
For example, Dr. Sandridge proposed four ways of thinking about human ability to control their life narrative. In other words, he broke down how people come to explain their locus of control — why they have either an internal or external locus. Those categories are: faith/destiny, divine gifts/devilish temptations, free will, and determinism.

Of course, the class was split on which they found to be more accurate; but I find it difficult for myself to pick just one. As a psychology student, I believe that my answer will reveal more about my psyche than others may read into and that may be holding me back from being completely honest.
Fun Fact: oikos means house
12:30 pm — is reading on the bus really an invitation for you to talk to me?
On my long bus ride to work, I’ve decided to get some reading in. I pick a window seat and pull out my textbook to delve into Chapter 1. I love the way the author has set her paragraphs up to logically flow into one another and draw her audience deeper into the past, but it’s difficult to keep my headspace when some random man keeps asking me questions. I hate to be rude, but I feel as though my clipped responses, concentration on the text in front of me, and heavens know my body language is the exact opposite of an invitation to ask whether or not I have a boyfriend. 🙄
SUNDAY
7:30 pm — why is the tv only loud in the living room when you’re not trying to watch it?
I’m trying to study and everyone else is trying to reign supreme in this video game competition. Not exactly the best circumstances, but I’m making due. Going through my notebook and the text to write down my thoughts and notes on what I did get through on the bus.
It’s fascinating to me, and a bit funny, that people who practice major religions of today find mythology so unbelievable. I was raised in a Christian home and went to a Catholic school. I was brought up praying to a God unseen, crediting all that was good to pleasing Them* with my actions, and fretting over how my ‘bad’ actions would upset Them. This is much how the Greeks worshipped and treated the gods and goddesses of their time. Now, being raised Christian it is instilled that our religion is much different from others, but in reality it is a religion. A religion meant to explain the world as it is in human terms for human understanding.
*I use “Them” as gender inclusive language, not in reference to polytheism
MONDAY
9:30 am — why do people talk extremely loud on facetime in the apartment lobby?

According to to the author, what is Classical Mythology?
Lisa Maurizio presents various definitions and criteria for determining what exactly constitutes Classical Mythology. However, she lands upon the definition of William G. Doty. In this definition, a myth always exists in a context despite having numerous forms. Those forms will always have an underlying answer to the question of what the story is suppose to mean. These metaphors will function as guidelines for the society as whole to offer an understanding and integrating personal experiences with the world and the way it functions.
She focuses less on the religious aspects of mythology and more on the practical ways in which Ancient Greeks utilized mythology as a means for explanation. This is interesting to me because I have always seen mythology as an old religion, almost outdated. But Maurizio presents mythology in a manner that emphasizes the diverge of the Ancient Greeks from their own stories. At one point she mentions how the Greeks began to question their mythoi. However, I raise the argument that every religion forces its followers to question the points it raises. How long a religion lasts is based on how much people buy into faith and the stories presented.
Do you agree with her reasons for studying classical myths in the 21st century (pp.33 — 35)?
I agree with her reasoning and I see even more reason. History moves in an almost cyclical manner, so to study the past is to study the future in a sense. We must know what came in order to know where we are going and what steps to take and which to avoid. In that same vein, to study mythology is to understand the development of our own religion and beliefs about the way the world works. It is to analyze from what are society sprang.
Mythology is seen today, by the majority, as a silly way that people from the past tried to explain things. But are our own beliefs not based on faith and what we cannot see, what we cannot touch? The way we interpret and dissect mythology today as fascinating, but clearly false, stories of the past, may be exactly how our religions are seen in the distant future. Possibly worse because of the vast opportunities for corruption in mainstream religions.
TUESDAY
11:00 am — what’s the trojan cycle and why is this the only cold classroom in Locke?
How do we (or should we) experience/participate in stories and myths (beyond just hearing/reading/seeing them?
Our holidays, our movies, our lives have similarities with what we now consider myth. The manner in which we hold them in such high regard is undeniably similar, but the way in which we approach them with a degree of seriousness can vary. Will our seriousness about the subjects have an effect on how they will be regarded in the future? Is it because Greeks themselves moved away from mythoi that we now consider it less serious than our own religions?
The Trojan Cycle: The Wedding of Peleus (human) and Thetis (goddess) and the prophecy of Achilles, The Apple of Discord (Eris), The Judgement of Paris, The Trojan War (Iliad), The Fall of Troy, The Homecomings, Nosfoi (Odyssey)

Couple questions:
If there is a prophecy and the gods, surely, know there is no way around it, why try to find a way around it? And why not just make her barren? They were known for being over the top anyway…
How does a gift come to a wedding and not be for the bride and groom?
How is Paris so attractive and not already have a wife? And why not become “successful”? Surely you cannot expect that a woman will fall for you just because you say that you deserve her for giving an apple to a goddess?
WEDNESDAY
9:00 pm — how does one forget she has homework until she’s collapsing on the floor of her room after work?
First, I love the Odyssey. I have my own hardback collector’s edition. What I don’t love is that I failed to write down the reading in my planner and was just reminded of it because the GroupMe was blowing up. Gonna get started on that now, though!
THURSDAY
5:00 am — why do I keep getting up early to study in my bed?
What happens after you die?
A loaded question, if I’ve ever seen one. But the Odyssey attempts to answer it anyway.
Book 11 consists of Odysseus telling his story of his travels to the Underworld where he meets all types of people. He speaks with many, weeps for some, and even praises others. One of the most poignant scenes for me, however, is his discussion with Achilles.
Odysseus praises Achilles, speaking on how he was so loved in the world of the living and how he now must be praised in the Underworld. Odysseus thinks it must be so wonderful to be a ruler and revered in the afterlife, but Achilles corrects him. He insists that he would rather be a poor farmer for someone else than dead. And isn’t that something?
We tend to paint the afterlife as this wonderful place where all the injustices of the world will be righted. Good people who had bad lives will be praised and bad people who seemed to evade consequences will be punished tenfold. But Achilles makes it clear that living is much better than death. Nothing bad is happening to him, he is not particularly suffering, yet he yearns for a lowly life over the abundant afterlife. It’s an irony of sorts: that the living are so concerned with death and the dead long to be alive again.
So what happens after death? Is there nothingness? Is there a balancing of life? Or is it just a newness? I don’t know, but I find comfort in the fact that people have been pondering the same thing for ages.
