FEBRUARY
Lecture 4: 2/1/05
Paradise is like a circle...ok...meaning it is in a unified constant revolution.
Then there was the fall: the circle broken in two. Transformation occurs and Paradise is regained. EX: Birth process; Everything
is great until we fall from the womb.
THE FALL: Many stories have the "fall" (connected to birth)
Life is recapitualed through our own individual experiences.
Adam and Eve story-associated with our first memories or stories when we got
into trouble.
Pain in childbirth-punishment for eating the fruit. Did God set them up
for failure?
Snakes are cursed to crawl on its belly. Death came into the world and
it wasn't there before the snake.
VOCAB- None Today
Lecture 5-2/3/05
Euhemerism-
Myth is truth in disguise. Step back from blind devotion.
Frazer- The Golden Bough
"Show them to us so we can overcome them."
Friedrich Nietzsche said, "God is dead."
Can we get along without religon? I don't Know.
Myth is synomynous with religon...says Dr. Sexon (Im not sure about that one)
People need myths for a sense of continuety.
Dionysus- God of wine-deconstructing character (libertating).
All creation stories are connection: Joseph Campbell-monomyth: separation to
initiation, and return.
Hero with a thousand faces- All heros go through pain (separation, initiation,
return) Many myths include the hero saying "Don't tell"
Simple etiology- ex: How the leopard got its spots
Complex etiology- ex: "To be or not to be"
Ontology-Study of how things are. Nature of being.
MYTHICAL FUNCTIONS
1. Mystical- reconciles our own consciousness with the preconditions
of its own existence.
2. Cosmological- Provides an image of the cosmos acceptable to the science of
the time.
3. Sociological- Who we are in the social scheme.
4. Psychological- Helps us through various crises in life.
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Lecture 2/8/2005
WHAT DO YOU KNOW THAT YOU DID NOT KNOW BEFORE.
Anamnesis- The theory that we all suffer from forgetfulness, but we can begin
to remember.
*If things are difficult, the rewards are greater.
Myth is the precedent behind every action P.383
Diversity takes into consideration that we are not the only ones here.
Image of Rape: synonymous with abduction; Relationship with the world after the
fall.
Relationship with the Gods
1. Harmony-shared meals with the Gods
2. Rape
Conviviology to rape: Entheos (possessed by the Gods)
3. Indifference-Thinking that the Gods don't exist.
Hebrew
Creation & Greek Creation
P. 32 and 33 in M&K
4. Creation by word (Logos)-latest creation story
3. Corpse of Female goddess (dismembered goddess forms earth)
2. Female and consort (her lover) inthe form of a snake
1. Female goddess forming earth by herself.
JOSEPH CAMPBELL
There is a complete reversal of creation methods
Greek creation begins with Chaos and Gaia
2/10/2005
Mythologies presentations: see Deb and David's blog
Lecture 2/15/2005
ORPHEUS: Greek musician and was the personification of music. Orpheus goes into
the underworld to save his love. He played music so beautifully that Hades gave her back to him. He was not to look at her
until they were out of the underworld but when they were a few steps from the door he turned to look at her at she disappeared.
Music is very mythological.
Muses are the root of music, the daughters of Mnemosyne.
Dionysos: Calls women out to the mountains to drink and be merry.
4 Types of Myths (Creation)
1. creation ex nihilo (something from nothing)
2. Earth-Diver creation (creature brings earth to surface)
3. Creation by dividing a primordial unity "cosmic egg"
4. creation by dismemberment of a being, ripping apart of body parts (ex: Sky
woman)
ALICE IN WONDERLAND: the originating God is frequently awakened or eternally
existing in this abyss.
Feminist view of creation:
1. p. 34 Depict the birth order as resulting from the mingling or layering of
the primal elements.
(All creation stories are that that bring order to chaos)
p. 35 Secretion stories
p.36 Sacrifice stories
p. 37 Division of consummation stories
p. 38 Earth Diver stories
p. 39 Emergence stories-Demiurge
Earth is evil because it was created by the evil demiurge.
p. 102 The Great Goddess: Venus of Willendorf- 22 to 24,000 years old. Doesn't
have a face or feet. Stable & silent.
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Female Divine
THIS WAS ALL ON THE EXAM
-Archetype: common image, primordial being that can be traced back to the beginning.
Male Archetype: Hero- Positive and Negative.
Female Archetype: Four Categories
Elementary Transformitive
*General cosmic sense *When
the Earth
* postitive and negative mother
is good she
*Mother-Nurturer
is very good, but
*Earth mother
when she is bad she is horrible *Platonic
ideal
*Physically
attractive
*Intellectually stimulating
Negative Transformation: The temptress-The spider-the black widow.
Vocab: Archetype, Negative Transformative
February 22, 2005
QUIZ DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
24 February 2005
Female Divine Part III
Check on Notes in Mythology Link: February 10-28.
