Awe vs. Fear

Describe a situation or event during which you felt awe, and another where you felt real fear. What caused the difference between your reactions? What made one scary and the other awe-inspiring?

OBWAT, the Odyssey, the Bible

Since O Brother, Where Art Thou? is based on the Odyssey, there are many resemblances between the two. A few that I find important are:
1. If Odysseus was American, he would be just like Ulysses Everett. They are both clever and wordy; neither one is modest about this. Also, both are adventurous leaders. Even their wives share the same name, Penelope.
2. The main characters' followers are carefree and not very smart. For example, Pete and Delmar think that they are absolved from the law after they get baptised, much to Everett's chagrin. Odysseus' crew disobeyed him many times, like when they ate the Lotus flowers or when they opened the bag of winds intending to steal some of his loot.
3. They both go through the abyss of the hero's journey. Odysseus' abyss is the actual Underworld, while Everett's is when he finds the KKK lynch mob and when he has to tell Pete and Delmar that he lied about the treasure.
Although we already talked about the common themes of O Brother, Where Art Thou? and the Odyssey in class, we never discussed OBWAT's relationship with the Bible.

OBWAT seems to satirize the Bible at times, even to extremes. Dan Teague claimed he was a "Bible salesman", but he just turned out to be greedy and violent. He beat up Everett and Delmar and when he found out they had no money, he killed their frog and drove away in their car. Big Dan comes back even later in the film as a participant at the KKK meeting. This completely opposes the Christian worldview that everyone is equal and it is wrong to hate. At the KKK meeting, they had a burning cross, so they thought they were doing good in the name of their lord, but they were actually doing just the opposite.

My question is, did you find any other significant similarities between OBWAT and the Odyssey? How about the Bible? Also, just for fun, how do you think of the song "Man of Constant Sorrow" and how the people in the movie went crazy over it? I think it's pretty catchy myself.

panacea

Humans have a tendency to believe that they can fix anything. Fixing things seems to be a comfort to man. We cant always fix everything, but we can try to fix the things that we can. In some ways, fixing things is a way to keep ourselves busy or occupied in order to procrastinate or stray from our own problems. Metaphorically speaking, fixing things can refer to problems within ourselves that we struggle with, but it can also mean physically fixing an object. Both of these outlooks relate back to the idea that humans are always trying to be the solution to every question without an answer. We all know the story about Adam and Eve. They were seeking perfection by eating the forbidden fruit in order to become perfect and powerful just like God. Humans still do this today. We are constantly striving for perfection because we believe that what we have at the time isn't' good enough. We either have to get something better, or fix what we think is broken. Fixing things comes from our innate idea that everything needs to have structure and order because thats what we find comfort in. Jesus used to be a carpenter which means he was constantly fixing and building things. Men today are still doing jobs that are similar to this which means that some things haven't changed. Why do you think that men more often than not find themselves working laborious jobs while women do just the opposite? Why do humans try to fix everybody else's problems even though we have unsolved issues of our own? Do you think this tells us something about our society and the way we live today?

Xenia In Ancient Greece

The Greeks would commonly practice Xenia, the means having hospitality to your guests. So when any person showed up on their doorstep the person would let them in and treat them well. The three main parts of Xenia are respect from host to guest, the host must be nice and offer food and drink to a guest before asking questions. Secondly the guest must respect the host, the guest should be nice and courteous and not pester or annoy the host. Finally the host should give the stranger a parting gift. Zeus is the god of Xenia and those who mistreat their guests or mistreat their hosts will receive grief from him.

The Odyssey contains many examples of Xenia and many examples of bad fortune coming to those who treat their house guests with disrespect. For example when Eumaeus, the loyal swineheard, welcomes Odysseus into his house he offers him food and drink and gives him the better chair. The swineheard entertains him with talk while he eats and drinks. Then the guest asks him a few questions. After the host answered the questions the guest then asks him who he is, what is his story, where does he come from and how did he end up here? The guest answered all of the questions and told his life story.

A example of bad Xenia is when Ctesippus, a guest in the home of Telemachus, disrespected a beggar in Telemachus's home. When the beggar was getting food from everyone he came to Ctesippus and he threw a oxhoof from the floor and threw it at the beggar, but fortunatly he missed his target. In Greece at this time attacking a guest would be horrible, dangerous even. In tales the Gods disguise as beggars and visit people, often just to see if they would get any grief from this individual.

Now that you have seen Xenia and examples of it:

1. Do you think that Xenia was reasonalble? As in do you think it is resonable to give so much respect and gifts to a person you barely know?

2. Do you think that Odysseus was trying to get one of the suitors to be mean to him, like Ctesippus was? If so why, in your mind, would he do this?

3. Do you think Xenia is still alive? If so then describe the differences between modern Xenia and ancient Xenia. If not then say why you think it isn’t alive anymore.

Odysseus' Ego

What would have happened if Odysseus had not told his name to the cyclops Polyphemus? Would he have had to go against Poseidon? Could he have made home to see Telemachus and Penelope before the suitors started to eat him out of house and home? Would the rest of his men made it home? The reason that Poseidon learns of Odysseus's name is when he brags to Polyphemus that the the name of the who defeated you is Odysseus. The cyclops calls on his father and tells him to curse Odysseus for hurting him. The ocean would not have tried to sink him as often as it had. He might not have had to run into Circe, Calypso, Scylla, Charybdis, or the sirens. However on the other side of the argument there might not be mentors. If Odysseus had made it home the reason of Athena coming to Telemachus as Mentor would be nonexistent. Where would the term Mentor come from?

Narcissus: A Great Tragedy as well as a Great Lesson

The story of Narcissus is a great lesson embedded within a tragedy. We all know that Narcissus was a handsome young man with whom every girl he met fell in love with. One of these young women was Echo, a nymph named Echo. Echo had been doomed to forever repeat the words of others, and when trying to have a conversation with Narcissus, he thinks her to be mocking him and sends her away. She eventually deteriorates so that the only part of her that is left is her voice (fable for the creation of echo). Narcissus was so vain that when he saw his reflection in a pond, he fell in love with himself. He did not eat, sleep, or interact with any other people, he simply stayed at the side of the pond, staring at his own reflection. Finally, he died, and in his place there were some lovely yellow flowers (which can be seen on the left) which were called Narcissus after him. This story is a clear warning against vanity, which was not appreciated in the ancient Greek civilization.
One cannot help but wonder what might have happened had Narcissus not been so vain. Perhaps if he'd realized that he was mortal and had his faults, he might not have died in the tragic way that he did. Had he fallen in love for an ugly girl, he may have lived happily for the rest of his days, and the moral of the story would have been the old cliche 'do not judge a book by its cover', which again warns against vanity.
Do you think that Narcissus deserved the death he got? Do you think he 'had it coming'? Why or why not? What decides what is a fair death of certain people?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VW7OGGZpHbI

Telemachus is vital character in The Odyssey. Many people sustain different opinions about Telemachus. Such as whether he was a true warrior or if he had lived up to his father’s kleos, who knows? Telemachus starts off in the book at the age of fourteen and his father, Odysseus left him at the age of one. Which means Telemachus practically does not know his father. He matures with the help of a mentor named, Athena. But when he was about fifteen she stuck it to him and told him that he needed to grow up and rescue his father, and that she would help him along the way. Telemachus did just that and got his act together. He told his mom to continue stalling the suitors and went out on a quest to find Odysseus. However, in the end he goes on the quest to find his Odysseus and ends up running into him right back where he started, on the island of Ithaca. His name is said to come from thes Greek words distance and fighter. Which brings me back to the point, What did or did not Telemachus do to earn his name? And do you think he deserves a name such as he has?