ARCHAEOLOGY - A
ARCHAEOLGY LAB - A
MYTH IN GREEK ART - A
MEDIEVAL LITERATURE - A
HUMANITIES: HOMER TO GOTHIC - A
HUMANITIES: RENAIS/ELIGHTMT - A
LATIN II (Pass/Fail) - P

(Posted by Moco because Maize doesn't want to brag. Who will join Moco in a superhappy dance?)

No time to post a full entry here. I may edit and backdate later.

Mircea Eliade, in The Forge and the Crucible, writes about the way the widespread "cosmological" myth that underlies the integration of iron into many ancient cultures, especially in India, Africa, Mesopotamia, and China. A central theme is the link between human sacrifice and metallurgy, in which the soul of the sacrifice was said to be transformed into the metal. Hence, the newly forged object would be *alive* with the soul of the person. This was treated alternately with horror and with honor by the populations around the smith, and underlies many of the strange myths regarding magic weapons and evil smiths.

It occurred to me, as I read it, that this same basic myth underlies a huge part of modern science fiction which discusses the idea of human (or pseudo-human) intelligence being integrated into machines.

The link between this ancient mythological concept and our modern approach to AI and the coming Singularity and so forth seems worth further enquiry.

To ensure the 'marriage of metals' in the smelting process, a living being must 'animate' the operation and the best means of achieving this is by the sacrifice, the transfer of life. The soul of the victim changes its fleshly envelope: it changes its human body for a new 'body' -- a building, an object, even an operation -- which it makes alive, or animates." (Eliade, 64)

The evidence is in. Tolkien's fictional beasts have most certainly crossed the line from being specific literary characters to being common cultural material.

I submit in evidence the following quote, found in a book on scientific history released by Harvard University Press:

In thinking about the history of science, most of us are accustomed to believing in the authority of a 'grand narrative,' the story of the triumph of human reason over mysticism, magic, and the occult. The major battle in this exalted conflict, one in which the brotherhood of reason finally dispelled the orcs of intellectual darkness, took place, according to the story line, during the Scientific Revolution

When "orcs" can be used casually to describe any monster of "mysticism, magic, and the occult" -- and in this case to refer to the embodiment both of alchemical reasoning and the Catholic dogma! -- then Tolkien's beasts have incontrivertible moved off the page and into the universal subconscious.

I have long thought that orcs and all the other Tolkienesque beasts pre-dated Tolkien (they appear in Beowulf and other mythology, for example)... but even if they did not, quotes like this show that they have escaped the confines of his fiction.

Not consciously in honor of Good Friday and Easter, but nonetheless coinciding with them, I have been working on a long paper on the "Dream of the Rood."

In this paper, I discussed the ancient northern tree cults, in which the sacred trees . . .as embodiments of the World Tree. . . were used as executionary gallows in which living human sacrifices were made of criminals (and possibly of prisoners of war), and also used a charnal gallows in which the bodies of those most esteemed in society were hung to rot after their death. The trees were also adorned with other sacrifices of gold and of cloth, of wine, of milk... the tree was seen as the sacred center of the universe, ever providing rebirth and regeneration, and yet also requiring a death toll.

At the same time, I have been working on a paper on alchemy, which was inspired partly by my second teacher's refusal to accept a second paper on tree cults and partly by my fondness for the show FullMetal Alchemist:

"Teachings that do not speak of pain have no meaning, because humankind cannot gain anything without first giving something in return. That is alchemy's First Law of Equivalent Exchange."

Which I suppose is what brought me to my thoughts tonight. Instead of sleeping, I carried on a long discussion with [insert secret name of the voice in my head], regarding suffering and joy. ( Read more... )

Words of the last several days: Effluvent Ooze.

As in: "I feel like myself becoming an effluvent oozing mass..." (and if you haven't yet seen Howl's Moving Castle, it was the best film of 2004).

I am depressed. A lot is bothering me, all tied up to a basic inability to communicate with others. Predictably, I can't figure out how to wrap it up in a nice little package to post here, and so I am not going to.

So.... today I got in another discussion regarding whether or not such a thing as "big boned" exist. Apparently, there's a theory that all men and women have *identical* bone structures relative to height. I can now provide evidence to the contrary from my archeology class.

"The world's population vary in how robust or how gracile male and female skulls are." (Thomas & Kelly, Archeology, pg 300) The text also links this to the rest of skeletons. My archeology teacher has gone further to discuss dramatic differences in the weight and size of bones based on individual genetic heritage and muscle use.

Need visual proof: http://www.mandemic.com/bigboned.jpg <-- this is a slide directly from my archeology class.


Maize-

Word of the day: Palimpset

as in: my brain is a palimpset and I am no longer sure I can read the text.

I have a major test today.... a major presentation on Thursday . . . three large research papers due in the next three weeks . . . and then finals . . . It's that final stretch of the semester, but I just can't seem to focus enough.

In other news, does anyone have any sources about Greco-Roman paganism in the middle ages (500 AD - 1300 AD) that might come in helpful for me? I'd take any primary sources that mention the old "classical" gods, even in a fictional context (e.g. like Dante).


M-

Unclarified.


I had the rather worrisome realization, yesterday, that in about twelve month I will need to make a final decision about where I want to go with my entire future. That's when I'll be choosing betwee graduate schools, etc. To make matters more complicated, in less than nine months I will have needed to make all my final decisions about where to apply, and so forth. The problem here is that I'm not really sure what departments I want to be going into.... Classics? English? Folklore? Humanities? My focus of interest actually falls through the cracks between them.

So far, the best candidates are:

*Pursuing a PhD in the Folklore or English program at Indiana State University

*Pursuing a Classics MA here at FSU and then attempting to transfer to a tier 1 school for a classics PHd after I have more languages under my belt.

*Teach For America in New Mexico on the Navajo or Hopi reservations for two years, THEN try to transfer to the Folklore program or get a teaching job elsewhere.


However, there are also some programs that I'm looking rather dreamfully at:

* Brown University -- either their religion department or archeology in the ancient world
* Cornell University Medieval Program
* Princeton Religion department, which has links to the "program in the ancient world."

---

I'm very enflutterated by all this. I can't quite figure out what I need to be doing to keep my options open and at the same time to present a solid face to these programs. I think that's what is attractive to me about going and teaching for two years or so while I work on applications and preparing myself for them. But two years more delay doesn't seem like it will necessarily speak in my favor getting in.

grrr.... the whole thing is made even more stressful by having to take into account where I will be able to get housing that will be acceptable to Moco and Dar.

M-

Mustang (Mechanical Saint)

to wheels he turns his hooves,
the plunderer of grass abandonning
flesh and jutting bone (his pride of mane and mare)
His last breath: already the white bones
glint invitations to the sun and circling shamans.
The air eater carries him skyward and high
above the smoke signalling factory,
and so once more to earth.

He longs for his hills (fence-poached they
yielded to bulldozers and mines,
carving the bones of silver beasts
from the long birthing rocksides), turns
wheels and glass towards them,
chrome and paint he round-pounds,
throbs like heart beats in oil and blood
the sacrifice of roadways returning his fury.

A sharp curve, silver-hooved leaping
unreigned on slick asphalt he slides
and flips (as on grass in the sunlight,
belly exposed to the sky and wheels spinning)
he falls with the sound of waterfalls and far
above the wings gather again, a reunion
welcomed in blood and steel
plain-chanting he restarts.

http://mandemic.com/kudzu/mustang_color.jpg

Apotheosis.


http://www.mandemic.com/OfHell_complete.doc

Cusp.

http://www.mandemic.com/deathdoc.doc

I have been so sick and fallen so behind in school. But in better news, it is now Spring Break, which means I should have plenty of time to catch up.

In my archeology class yesterday, there was a lecture on phytoliths and fauno-archeology that I found truly inspiring. The following was writen on the back of my notes:


Osiris sings to the future:

my leaves are stone		storing the rock I devoured
phytoliths of my pasts		leave footprints in the sand
silica memories of roots		remain long after I go
into the river,		it unrecallable and relentless
is sweeping the pollen		of my sex out, into the ocean...
Digger in the Dirt,		do you discover me?
can your shovelers		unshroud these memories?
I need them no longer;		leaving my leaves to blow
deeply across the desert		(still deserted by man)
bits of sand I once bled out,		my sap-soaking grief now
released to the wind		I fare well into sunlight.

---

Not horrible good, by any stretch, but an amusing product of archeology mixed with an overdose of caffeine.

I'm trying to catch up on my post-reading, btw.

M-

He's so lovely and shiney, but I can't use him for much of anything until Zak takes the hard drive out of my other one. I'm ecstatically happy about him, though.

I other news, I'm thinking of changing my first name to Maize. I've been wanting a gender-non-specific name very badly, and from the time I was very little I detested my parental name with a passion (particularly since it was always accompanied by lectures about how I wasn't living up to the ideals embodied in that name by being such a somber sort) .... but I also wanted to keep my first initial the same. So Maize is currently my favorite option.

Opinions?

Would I be able to convince you fine fellows all to think of me by a different name?


M-

Once my computer arrives in the mail, I'll probably be better.... especially about responding to other people's posts.


So... In the meantime, what's up with me? First off, I'm frustrated in my Medieval Literature class because my teacher continuously insists that things that are not at all factual are true. The worst example has been with our reading of Boethius. For those of you who do not know who Boethius is:

Boethius wrote a book called "The Consolation of Philosophy"
in which he described the way in which Lady Philosophy
comforted him in jail by explaining the ways of Fortune.

Now, my teacher continually insists that Boethius wrote this book while being tortured to death. This is not the case. He was under house arrest in a Roman slum, but he was certainly not being continuously flogged or brutally tortured. He was, after all, still a Roman citizen. In the end he would be killed in an unpleasant fashion, certainly, being throttled violently while his brains were bashed out with a club. But in the meantime, he was sound in body and soul -- something that Lady Philosophy continually points to while reminding him that there are more important things than mere wealth. My teacher, whoever, keeps speaking about his unearthly torture. So finally I raise my hand and ask, "exactly what kind of torture are we talking about here -- isn't he just on house arrest?" She says: "Oh no! The Romans had all sorts of terrible tortures... have you ever seen The Passion?... they weren't making that up..." and proceeds to detail how Nero crucified people all along the highway to Rome. Now, Boethius wasn't in the time of Nero or of the great gladiator circuses. This was well after the time of Constantine. That flaw aside -- she's actually suggesting that this piece of philosophical literature, composed in a comic form, was written while he was being flogged like in The Passion? Even that movie wasn't accurate to the original texts -- let along to general Roman treatment of their own citizens. Alas.

In other news, I am writing the poetic version of my trip into hell. (Aka Marianna) Stay tuned.

M-

On campus there is a beautiful little lily pond along a back trail. It's a small, man-made thing, constructed of gray slate, with a fountain at the head. Usually there are a few lotus flowers and a school of brightly colored carp. The whole affair is overshadowed by a polished granite monument on which are carved the words: "your lost friends are not dead, but gone before, advanced a stage or two upon that road which you must travel in the steps they trod. -Aristophanes-"
(  more )

....why I over-reacted.

My astronomy thing is being worked out. The 1% was for something else (being there on Thanksgiving eve when no one else was) . . . and I'm going to get an *additional* 5% for the website. Which, all things considered, makes me feel much better.

I think I should sleep.

I am indescribably upset.

( click for unreasonable rant )

This is a summary of the first part of a paper I'm turning into my Greece and Egypt class. If for some reason you find it inspiring and want to read the whole thing, write to me and I'll send it out.

---

"...You can't kill what's already dead..."

The common repetition of the Egyptian Osiris myth states that he was a vegetation god who was killed by his jealous brother Seth, embalmed by Isis and Anubis (and/or possible Thoth), and resurrected in the underworld as lord of the dead. This is the myth as we have inherited it from the Roman writer Plutarch.

However, contrary to popular belief, it is not the myth as we have inherited it from the Egyptian primary texts. ( click for the *rest of the story* )
My next Mythunderstanding post will deal with that remaining question: What did Seth do to Osiris' body... and why?...and why didn't anyone stop him?

---

So there's this poem in Old English, Deor. It's supposed to be very serious. In it, a poet sings about all the terrible things that have happened to people in his songs, and at the end laments that he himself has now had terrible things happen to him -- he's lost his job.

Ok, actually, it's pretty funny. You can read the Old English and a literal translation here.

So I decided in translating it to (A) try to keep as much of the poetic rhythm and alliteration as possible, and (B) to point out how funny it was. As you can see, it starts out very serious and then just keep getting odder... Hope you enjoy:

( Click for DEOR )


Ok-- last day for my Myth E&W class... I'd better skeedadle.

First... I have managed to translate my first stanza of Old English Poetry! I'm so glad we moved into the poetry... I prefer it to the prose.

This is from "the Dream of the Rood", in which the poet dreams he sees the cross, gilded with gold and stretched across the sky... (and, of course, talking to him).

The original:

Hwæt! Ic swefna cyst		secgan wylle,
hwæt me gemætte		to midre nihte,
syðþan reordberend		reste wunedon!
þuhte me þæt ic gesawe		syllicre treow
on lyft lædan,		leohte bewunden,
beama beorhtost.		Eall þæt beacen wæs
begoten mid golde.		Gimmas stodon
fægere æt foldan sceatum,		swylce þær fife wæron
uppe on þam eaxlegespanne.		Beheoldon þær engel dryhtnes ealle,
fægere þurh forðgesceaft.		.......(etc)....

My translation so far:

Behold! I will chant		the chosen dream
What I dreamed		at darkest night
When the bearers of voices		had bedded down
it seemed to me I saw		a stunning tree
skyward lifted		by light wrapped round
in brightest beams		All that beacon was
drenched with gold		Gems appeared
beautiful at the earth's corners		and above the crossbeams
there were five besides		All beheld that angel of the Lord
beautiful by divine decree		.....(etc)....

Now, I'm very happy with this so far. It sticks much closer to the meaning and meter that most of the translations of this poem that I've read. (compare here) The problem is that I'm not sure if I should continue to translate it like this. I *think* the teacher intends for us to give him a literal translation. Which would be: What! I the choicest dream will tell / what dreamed to me at most-middle night / when the voice-bearers occupied their resting places / [it] seemed to me that I saw a most wonderous tree / borne up into the sky with light wrapped round / of beams brightest. All that beacon was / drenched with gold. Gems appeared / at the surfaces of the earth (alt. the corners...) : likewise there were five / above on the shoulder-link (alt. cross-beam). Beheld the angel of the Lord all / beautiful by preordination (alt. eternal decree)

So the question is -- which way do I translate it? The poetic way is MUCH more satisfying, but takes MUCH longer and is not 100% accurate to the text. And this is just to be read in class when called on... and the whole poem is 155 lines long. I've only done 10 lines here, and it took me about 45 minutes poetically and maybe 15 otherwise. So I'm thinking... do I want to spend 12 hours on this, or four? But if I spend the 12, then I come out of it with something I'm really proud of ... a good translation of one of the greatest Anglo-Saxon poems. hmmmm... To make matters worse, the next half line is literally "[this] was not the criminal's gallows / but the holy spirits behold Him there / men across the earth and all god's glorious creation. / wonderful was the victory-tree and I by sins stained, badly wounded with faults." And I just am not sure how to get the last line "Beautiful by divine decree" to mesh alliteratively and naturally with "This was not the criminal's cross"

do you all think that CRiminal alliterates sufficiently with deCRee? (I could say "beautiful by divine decree.... no criminal's gallows now..." )

it still seems increasingly hard from here.