10/7/19 Diego Coello PD 7

10/7/19

Diego Coello Period 7

Aim: How do the stories of Demeter, Persephone, and Dionysus demonstrate the human

qualities of coming-of-age, sexuality, and indulgence?

Do Now: After reading the stories of Demeter & Persephone - what do you believe would

make an ideal "AIM" question for today?

After taking our first vocabulary quiz, we began answering the Do Now question. Billy started

us off by sharing with us the aim he came up with:

“How does the Greeks use mythology as a way to explain the natural phenomenons in nature

that they don’t understand?”

He explained to us how the Greeks explained winter and the other seasons with a myth

of the goddess Demeter who had her daughter, Persephone, stolen by the king of the underworld

and caused winter to happen when she griefed for her lost daughter. However, once Zeus saw

that the situation was getting out of hand, he ordered for Persephone to be brought up to Earth.

A deal was where Persephone would be in the underworld for four month (winter) and would

then be brought up to her mom for the next eight months (the other seasons). When Kelly

presented her aim,

“How do we analyze humanity in Demeter and Persephone?”,

Kelly decided to focus more on the aspect of the suffering and grief that Demeter

went through and how it shows the similarity with the lives of humans, which is the

basis for many Greek myths, humanity.

Next, we discussed how the seasons were implemented in this myth and we talked

about who was the bad in the story. Since the first part of the question was pretty much

already answered, we mostly talked about who was the bad guy in the story. Most of the

people who answered said it was Hades, since he basically kidnapped Persephone. The

point was brought up that Demeter was making humans suffer because of her grief, but

William said that he thinks we really cannot blame her since it is understandable that Demeter

would feel that way, like any mother would, if they lost their child.

After this, Mrs. Fusaro gave us a question that really got us thinking. She asked us:

At what point does your new home become your “home” and you parents home your

parents home?

Steven started off the discussion by saying that there is not really a specific time when it

happens; it just does. He said it is one of those things that “you don’t know until you know”,

giving the idea that it is a smooth transition that happens in one’s life. Billy agreed with Steven,

and built upon his ideas by saying that one usually starts thinking of their new home as “home”

once they are independent of their parents. He says that starting from childhood, we depend

on our parents, who try their hardest to give us everything we need, and that is the reason

why we call the house we grew up in “home”. But once we grow up and can fend for

ourselves, perhaps buying our own apartment or house, a new chapter has opened up in our

lives where we are independent, therefore we have replaced our old home with a new one.

It was mentioned that it was not necessary to feel comfortable in your home, which

eventually happens over time, but just the fact that it is the new place where you sleep,

eat, and come back to after a long day just takes the new title of “home”.

This conversation paved the road for Mrs. Fusaro’s own personal story, which helped us

expand our train of thought even more. She told about when she had her own apartment

with her fiance at the time and how when she decided to have some coffee at her mother’s

house and arrived earlier than her mother, she waited outside instead of entering the house

despite having the keys for it. Even though it had been her home and her mother would not

mind, she did not feel it was right to just enter her mother’s house before she was there.

In addition, she told us how she did not really feel that her apartment was her new “home”

until she had her own dog, Lucy. She said that having a being that depended on her to live,

and that would always wait for her at that “home” made her feel that her apartment was truly

“home”. Mrs. Fusaro made the connection to parents, saying that children are not the only

purpose of parents, but once they do have kids, it becomes part of their purpose and ties the meaning of “home” to their home. In Mrs. Fusaro’s case, the bond between her and her new home was Lucy.

Finally, Mrs. Fusaro asked us to connect this to the story of Demeter and Persephone,

which William nailed it right on the spot earning 30 points for his team! He said that when

children leave their parents to live on their own, the parents feel sad that they have to let go,

but that this is necessary for the next generation to happen. If the child never leaves his home

to make a new one, how will life continue? It is this same concept that is applied to the myth

of Demeter and Persephone. Even though Persephone now has a new home she must go back

to for four months every year, life must go on, which is shown by the changes in the seasons.

This is how we described the meaning of the seasons to human life:

Spring - renewal/birth

Summer - time for growth and maturity

Fall - the conclusion of the Harvest

Winter -solitude, contemplation, introversion

The seasons serve as a timeline for humans:

Spring - Childhood

Summer - Young Adult

Fall - Adult

Winter - Elder

To conclude, we talked about how once we leave our parents, they are left alone for the rest of

their lives, represented by winter. William (he was on a roll today) connected the pomegranate

seed that Persephone consumed as her literally consuming the seeds of life from Hades,

which means that she had lost her virginity and was going to have new lives to care home in

her new home.

Student Reflection:

I personally thought today’s lesson was very interesting. We saw today yet another example

of how the Greeks have shaped the gods and goddesses in their myths according to

their observations of nature and their own lives. We really put our minds to work by analyzing

even the smallest aspects of the story and connecting it with human lives, learning how to apply

real life examples to our inspection of literary works that describes the lives of people at a

totally different time. Ultimately, we discovered that in order for life to go on, we must move

out of our home, and that we will naturally form one when it is our turn to take the role of our

parents and support the beings we love. This lesson will definitely resonate in my mind, and I

will probably think about it again when it is my time to leave the house, perhaps for college or f

or another reason.