September 22nd

"The repetition of a mythological event, with its play of variations, tells us that something remote is beckoning to us. There is no such thing as the isolated mythical event, just as there is no such thing as the isolated word. Myth, like language, gives all of itself in each of its fragments." -Page 136

I found this section to be quite interesting. Here Calasso is comparing mythology with language. He is stating that like language, mythology is very broad. A single word can's describe something with much detail just as a single mythical event can't sum up the meaning of mythology. There is too much to know, no one will ever fully understand it and grasp it, it keeps on growing. We just have to try to understand what we do know. It goes with what we first learned in class that mythology is the precedence behind every action. Everything has already happened before. All of the footprints are already laid out before us, one just has to know where to place his foot. And most people look to the gods and see how it played out with them for the answer. In this quote Calasso is saying that all mythical events have been played out before, the only thing changing with them are the variables, for example the names and the places.

The Magus is just getting more interesting and more interesting. Nicholas can't get the idea out of his mind that everything is a big playwrite. He has the feeling that everything Conchis says and does, his grand gestures and all, are meant for a purpose. For example when he glimpses sight of a white blur going back into the house he mentions that he felt like he was meant to see her. He views Conchis as someone who has priviliged information. Some mysteries are the strange smell and music that he hears, the woman that he sees with Conchis and then vanishes whom he believes to be Lily.

In class we talked about how axis mundi meant the center of the world and how ompholos navel means belly button. We went into detail about the 3 regimes that mans relationship with the gods went through. Conviviality, rape, indifference. We brushed up on how Cadmus and Harmonys' wedding was the very last time the gods and men sat down for a feast. We also talked about how in every culture our gods are projections of ourselves.