I found this quote interesting because it is something that i've heard popped up in class before, it begins with a bull and it ends with a bull. I found myself confused when hearing this , but always made the conncection Europa being abducted by a bull, Zeus, was the beginning. I was confused with the ending with a bull part though. However, in this quote Calasso is simply saying that in the beginning, Zeus, a bull, mates with Demeter to generate a woman, Persephone. When he finds out that he has generated a woman instead of a man, he transforms himself back into a snake and mates with his own daughter to generate Zagreus, a bull. Hence one could say it begins with a bull and ends with a bull.
I've continued my reading in the Magus and have gotten to the point where myth brings itself right to Nicholas' door. He's eating and discussing with Lily and Conchis when all of a sudden a whole scene pulled right out of mytholgy is played out before his eyes. Nicholas can't make any sense of it and declares that it is all a big act with a playwrite. He says that he might appreciate it more if he knew what it meant. He also makes the connection that his relationship with Conchis is eerily similiar to that of Conchis and De Deukans.
Today in class we began our discussion with the middles. The first thing I took note of was that in the middle we are no longer dealing with gods/godesses but human beings. Also, the hero must die in the middle (sadness), and in the middle you don't know who you are or what's going on. We also talked about the hero pattern and its 22 points, and how we seem to be stuck on the overcoming of the monster as a society. We want to see the action. We also talked about rituals/initiations and were given an assignment to come up with either a ritual of our own, or a mythologicl one, and present it to the class.
No comments:
Post a Comment