Summary of Classical Literature with Dr. Sexson

It has been an enlightening semester. Not at all unlike the other two classes that I had the pleasure of taking with Dr. Sexson, Oral Tradition and American Lit. We explored the everything from American Gothic to sparagmos and back to Hades and Heaven. My favorite part of the class would be a mixture of the transformations in Ovid's Metamorphosis and the Golden Ass. I know that the past possesses the present and that there is a one in three chance of everything. Thanks to this class even reading the newspaper has become a small adventure, looking for all of the connections and references to mythology and the past.

Today's Presentations

The two presentations today were fantastic as all of them have been. Who knew that there was so much talent sitting in our class room. It is still so interesting how each and everyone perceives the material that we have covered over the semester and applies it to situations in their own lives. Again, the separate poem writing in group 2 proved that while we have all read the same material throughout the semester, we will take our own understanding of it away with us.

Gay marriages:

In the Sunday, April 5, 2009 edition of the Bozeman Chronicle there was an article that reminded me of Deborah's presentation on misogeny. The state of Iowa plans to begin gay marriages on the 24th of this month. While this article would have been of little to no interest to before, I stopped and thought to myself: oh that's just great!It's hard enough to find dates in this wierd dy and age, now the men can just marry one another and never have to deal with us women. According to Deborah's presentation we'll probably end up discarded as the ugly "other" without...

Quick Chronicle note:

March 22, 2009: This article caught my eye while surfing through the paper, the title; "Two States consider ban on bestiality" for staters, I think it should "beastiality". Then why are they only "considering" it? I think it goes without saying that unless you're Zues in the form of a beautiful swan, you should not mix species!

Favorite passage in Cupid and Psyche:

There was so much to love about the Cupid and Psyche story in the "The Golden Ass". The lines that touched me most were started on page 117. The paragraph begins with:"Psyche was terrified". The breathtaking part begins with,Cupid's divine beauty: his golden hair, washed in nectar and still scented with it, thick curls straying over white neck and flushed cheeks...Then, the best part, his wings! "At his shoulders grew soft wings of the purest white, and though they were at rest, the tender down fringing the feathers quivered naughtily all the time." Naughtliy, what a fantastic word!

Mentor:

The American Heritage Dictionary term for mentor: A wise and trusted counselor or teacher. A tutor in Homer's "Odyssey". At the end of the "Odyssey" the term mentor is mentioned in the last sentence; "Then Athena assumed the form and voice of mentor, and presently made a covenant of peace between the two contending parties"

Catharsis:

It works. After blogging about the tragic suicide of my friend, Gail, last night I do feel less burdened by grief. I still don't understand the act but I feel better.