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99/7/7--HW/STUDY QUESTIONS --Book of Enoch, Eliade, St. Theresa. Reader #2.

READ

1) Book of Enoch (ch 1-37),

2) Eliade section (3 pp. beginning with"epiphany of mystery god,"

3) first section from the life of St. Theresa of Avilla.
 

* compare and contrast the ecstatic experiences contained herein with any elated material from earlier in course. --Oresteia, Psycho, etc.

* Anyone care to relate the experiences with love and divinity of St Theresa to those of Sappho?

* Handout for next time will include brief segments of Exodus 3 & Acts 26--epiphanies of God to Moses & St. Paul. Those with Bibles may want a head start. Those without who want a head start can go to the online bible on the links page.
        Any comparisons of these epiphanies and material from Eliade
handout or elsewhere in readings?

*READER #2*  (Enuma Elish, Vergil, Book of Enoch,  Shamanism, Varieties of Religious Experience, etc.) as well as *BIBLE READER* (Genesis and Book of Revelation—for those who don’t have bibles) now available at Metro Copy. Metro is closing at 4 pm this friday & will not be open Monday July 5.

Read Genesis 1-11, Enuma Elish, Vergil 118-160.
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 * Reply to anyone's homework on any subject.

* Find parallels between accounts of creation in Genesis and Enuma Elish.

** Find parallels between Hitchcock's Psycho and the Oresteia.

* Find parallels  and differences in the relations between gods and mortals among any or all of the works which we've read to date.

* How are gods/sacred events similar to humans/ ordinary events.  How are they utterly different?

* Find parallels among maternal metaphors  and birth imagery among "Physicists Debate Time Travel," piece on Gaia Hypothesis, and Greek, Hebrew and Babylonian mythology.

*Vergil, Bible, Enuma Elish--compare notions of paradise, first age, Eden and its loss.
 

6/30/99--HW Wedn: Read Aeschylus' Eumenides

*READER #2*  (Enuma Elish, Vergil, Book of Enoch,  Shamanism, Varieties of Religious Experience, etc.) as well as *BIBLE READER* (Genesis and Book of Revelation—for those who don’t have bibles) now available at Metro Copy. Metro is closing at 4 pm this week & will not be open Monday July 5. Buy these readers as soon as possible.  Metro has a few editions of Reader #2 already printed, but be aware that if you don’t get one of these, it may take up to an hour for them to prepare a reader for you.  Therefore, you should buy your reader by 3:00 PM  by Friday—OR SOONER.

HITCHCOCK’S PSYCHO to be screened thurday  7/1 in 117 dwinelle hall, 9-11.  Don’t go to Evans.

STUDY QUESTIONS/ HW  6/30. Read Eumenides.

* Eumenides.  Do you find convincing the conversion of the Furies to divinities of a less ambivalent benevolence? Remember, the Furies are a necessary force of order in a society that has not evolved law courts and the like as a means of settling disputes, homicides etc.

* Consider once more the rights of mothers/ matriarchy against those of fathers/ patriarchy?  Do Apollo and Athena make a convincing case for patriarchy?  Are there arguments that we could make on behalf of the Furies? What are we not told about the origin of Athena?

* Consider how Aeschylus’ myth  of the origins of the Areopagus court might constitute a founding or charter myth that validates a certain Athenian civic institution.  Compare this to the narratives and discourses that have evolved about other central figures in the formation of  other cities, laws and nations. Any thoughts about founding father mythology, framers of constitutions, bringers of laws?

6/29/99 Libation Bearers, NYT articles on cosmology and Gaia Hypothesis.

READ Aeschylus, Libation Bearers. Reader # 1,  NYT “Gaia Hypothesis,”  “Physicists Debate Time Travel”

 Compare the old and the new. Make a case for each.
--Older gods v. Olympians.
--Animism & mythological thinking v. rational, scientific thinking.
--Matriarchy, the rights of mothers v. patriarchy and the rights of fathers.  Positions and/or fates of men and women generally.

HW, finish Agamemnon. Reader #1, Sappho, “To Anactoria” , “A Prayer to Aphrodite,” “Siezure,”  “blast of love.

Compare Sappho’s Aphrodite to various Aeschylean gods and daimones—Apollo, the Furies, etc. you might look for ecstasy, possession and learning through pain and suffering. How rational do you find these daimones?

For those interested, here’s a selection from second reader.

lamblichus was born in Syria and lived from ca. 250 to 325 A.D. His book On the Mysteries is in the form of a reply by a certain Abammon to a letter by Porphyry addressed 'To Anebo' and is a defence of ritualistic magic or theurgy. Iamblichus' presentation of Neoplatonism fell far below the high teaching of Plotintis and incorporated much popular superstition.

(4) Among the signs by which those who are truly possessed by the gods may be known, the greatest is the fact that many [of those who experience ecstasy] are not burned, though fire is applied to them, since the deity breathing within them does not permit the fire to touch them; many, though burned, are unaware of it, since at that moment they are not dwelling in the body [literally, not living an animal life]. Many have daggers thrust through their bodies without feeling it; others have their backs cut [open] with hatchets, or cut their arms with knives, without taking any notice. The activities in which they are engaged are not of a human kind, and since they are borne by God they can reach places which are inaccessible to men; they pass through fire unharmed; they tread upon fire and cross over streams, like the priestess in Castabala [who walked barefoot on snow and hot coals]. This proves that in their enthusiasm [i.e., their state of inspiration] they are not aware of what they are doing and are not living a human or bodily existence as far as sensation and volition are concerned, but live instead another and diviner kind, which fills them and takes complete possession of them.

(5) There are many different kinds of divine possession, and there are different ways of awakening the divine spirit; consequently there are many different indications of this state. For one thing, there are different gods from whom we receive the spirit [i.e., are inspired], and this results in a variety of forms in which the inspiration manifests itself, further, the kinds of influence exerted are different, and so there are various ways in which the divine seizure takes place. For either the god takes possession of us, or else we are entirely absorbed in him, or else [thirdly] we co-operate with him. At times we partake of the lowest power of God, at others of the middle [power], at still others of the highest [i.e., first]. Sometimes it is a mere participation, again it is a communion [fellowship or sharing], or again it becomes a union of these [two] kinds. Now the soul enjoys complete separation; again it is still involved in the body, or [else] the whole nature is laid hold of (and controlled].

6/23/99 Agamemnon. Read 1st half. (Oresteia, Fagles translation, is available at Ned's & ASUC)

* Look for themes of revenge, supernatural forces, daimones and the like.
* Look for evidence of pity, fear, wonder, etc.