Journal 2
09/03/18
Mondays are usually my least favorite day of the week followed by Wednesday. my aversion to Mondays stem from the fact that it begins the work week and I know that gives one the impression that I am slothful and lazy, but in reality who really enjoys working without wishing they could reap the same benefits while relaxing or training their energies toward another thing they would like to do. Ok, I agree that does make me sound like a sloth but I really have considered what life would be like if I was ‘the creator’ and honestly I always say this everytime, ”Thank God that I am not God”.
My world would honestly be ‘mine’ in every sense of the word. My word would be final and honestly, free will may not be a concept that would exist. I know you’d probably say, ‘heavens child, who hurt you as a child?’ and my answer would be no one. It’s probably a faulty character trait that I want things my way but it’s one that I am very hesitant to part with. The world of the gods that we study depicts that to a large extent the gods were entwined with the world of man in so many ways and that led to a lot of the dissent and chaos that we read about (funny how there is a goddess of chaos and one of discord; also funny how they are women or depicted as female). My world, the one I’ve created many times over in my head is really boring, conservative and safe. these words in our dictionary today would be considered bad but in my world those are compliments. The pain and suffering make for a colorful and bright world, but why does man’s nature have to go through suffering in order to appreciate the beauty of life?
09/04/18
experiencing myths and stories beyond the usual…
I think one’s imagination really is the most unusual outlet for the experiencing of a story. I noticed when I was younger that I had a powerful imagination. every time I would watch a movie or read a book, I would continue it even beyond the writer’s imagined end I could and still can stretch a story to last generations. This is partly what fascinated me about myths and how they relate to life. My way of experiencing a story really is my imagination. I see each character, can feel their thoughts, their successes, and their emotions.
The Trojan war cycle
this is one myth that I struggled with differentiating from reality as a child. My first contact with this was as a twelve-year-old child and honestly, I was enraptured by the concept of ‘the face that launched a thousand ships’ and the ‘love to withstand the ages’. the younger me appreciated the concept I guess of a love so strong that it withstood war, ten devastating years of it. however, the me now shudders at the concept of such self-centeredness. and I don’t mean that Paris and Helen were self-centered (i mean sure they were) but the gods so to speak played the main part in this struggle too. The patron gods of the greeks and the patron gods of the trojans facilitated what I would call a most unnecessary endeavor and the reasons were not more than jealousy and vanity. It’s no wonder why my answer to your question professor sandridge was success over power and love or maybe I shouldn’t actually choose but then won’t that still anger the gods and in that scenario, I get nothing for my turmoil.
09/06/18
I found something else strangely interesting as I re-read the story of the Trojan war. the likeness between the gods and man is very tricky at what point does a man resembling god turn into a man being a god. I mean myths and stories of deities and how they came to be are passed on in cultures but they were first transcribed or created by man, so is man in the right in the analysis of the gods being exactly like man, with a few perks or are we as men only similar in certain senses to the divine that we seek and worship. This is one particular question that I have pondered on and at times I get confused. I like to think, however, that since man is made in the image of God, then that means in every way we are similar, but we must remain subject to God, for a time being so that in the event that our earthly time ends we may join God.
The stories that we read in this class point in a somewhat opposing direction from my thoughts. I mean if you analyze it slowly each mortal tried to live life to his best knowledge. they were subject to the whim of the gods and many passed through time without any heralding as to who they were. Only men who were results of the gods' indiscretion were idolized and made into gods on earth in some cases as it was with Hercules or Heracles they attained god status too. Now I know that my belief is more in line with the Judeo-Christian belief, and it is somewhat different from the beliefs of the Greeks and Romans before the common era, but it is incredibly fascinating to me.
So why then were these gods so worshipped? was it because of the need we possess as humans to want to believe that we are a part of a greater force than we can see, or is it something more? I mean looking back on the story of the Trojan war, the people of Troy kept their faith in Apollo their patron god despite all that they faced. they lost thousands if not all the men but only a few can be named in the course of the ten-year battle. ACHILLES, HECTOR, PARIS, HELEN of Sparta or of Troy to name a few these are names that are recorded, but what about the others? Will their names be forgotten? and then again where does fact become fiction and fiction take on the signs of life….