10/8/19 Colleen Jiang PD 7

10/8/19 Colleen Jiang PD 7

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

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

Group Discussion 

How is morality evident in the story of Dionysus? What is the duality of his relationship

with humanity? 

Once we gathered to discuss, Mrs.Fusaro wrote the following bullets

on the board. Thoughts were contributed by Billy, Alan, Shannon, Cornelia, and Dejon.

The class went back and forth giving their thoughts on how Dionysus showed his

duality as wine can bring joy to many but too much brings out a negative and

destructive side. 

The main points learned from this discussion was that there is a balance

between indulgence and restriction. Open mindedness, acceptance, ability to

accept that greatness can be anywhere and destruction by denying others were also main points. 

Following the discussion, Mrs.Fusaro shared a humorous story that I won’t

share but led into giving us a thought that people were to always treat each other

as they were gods. 

Group Work:

After discussing amongst ourselves in our group, the class came together and

shared their responses. 

- Team 1(Me and the Boys) shared their thoughts that the violence associated with that relationship affected the story because it paints an even more negative  light. The word rape was a strong choice of vocabulary. Mrs.Fusaro explain that stories about rape at the time, women are taught to have patience and endure. It’s the type of attitude where yes your daughter was kidnapped but hey she gets to be the queen of the underworld but have patience and endure. 
- Team 2 (Troy Story) shared that they understood why Dionysus was angry with the way he was treated but also understood why Pentheus acted in the manner he did. A king of thieves would definitely not open his arms and gladly embrace someone coming in threatening his status. His punishment however was very severe because it was his own mother who tore him limb from limb unknowingly 
- Team 4 shared their response for the third question saying both had mortal mothers and immortal fathers. Jesus also created wine and water. Dionysus followed the same fate as Jesus Christ. However they are not equatable because they can’t be said they are each other. 

Reflection: 

We learned to analyze the connection between the mythology and humanity deeper

reading into Dionysus’ tale and his duality. The lesson from his story showed that

with indulgence comes balance. I think we learned this to see another flaw with

humans. From the first day of myth, we learned the word hamartia. I think as we continue

to read we see more and more examples. The story of Demeter and Persephone show

how love can drive someone to do crazy things like kidnapping or sending the world

into essentially an ice age. As for use of these lessons, it’s interesting to see “gods” act

this way. The general idea of gods is that they are superior but in Greek Mythology

they possess similar character traits. These stories merely provide a background to

explain the way we act. It’s easier to say we are selfish if we can say a god is too.

Particularly at this age and in our generation, teenagers are more about indulgence

and seem to have forgotten what the word balance means. I think I personally have

been taking this lesson to heart as it’s our senior year so we have a lot to juggle.

Since freshman year, I’ve learned to find balance for indulging in terms of free time

and useless ways of spending money. It’s something we need to learn at this age as

we are going off to live on our own where we won’t have the same support system

reminding us to do this or do that.