Eve Mooney, Period 2, Assigned-10/30/20 Due-11/4/20, Day A

Eve Mooney, Period 2, Assigned-10/30/20 Due-11/4/20, Day A, Modern Mythology 2021

Write about your thoughts regarding the most current reading.

    The most current reading, “The Royal House of Thebes - Oedipus and Antigone” was very interesting because it was a story that gave a lot of insight to greek culture/perspective, and had less deity involvement. The deities were still involved of course, mainly with Apollo and his oracles' advice, but they did not directly intervene in the main story, except for Oedipus after he left Thebes. This allows us to learn more about the Greek characters themselves, and how they act within a society without much outside influence. It shows us more about what Greeks thought about topics such as  rulers, sacrifice, the afterlife, and feminism. 
    In this story, we see the expectations society puts upon rulers to protect their people and the consequences rulers faced for their decisions. Oedipus becomes a ruler, and is expected to punish himself to stop a plague and famine, because he has the power to do so. He does, losing his sight and stepping down from his position, along with his eldest son, and eventually being banished. The people do not try to dissuade him from any of this, as was pointed out in class, and that ties into the Greeks and their views on sacrifices. They seem to believe that sacrifices are necessary, especially for people in power, who are expected to do whatever is necessary to protect their people at least in these myths. For example, in the dark flower myths when they sacrificed people so that crops would grow again and in these stories with Oedipus and Creon’s son. It is thought-provoking to see their perspective compared to what society thinks today. There was also some insight on their justice system, for example Oedipus did not have any sort of trial, he just decided on the punishment, though that may have been because he was a king. 
    These stories also told us more about the greek afterlife beliefs, ones that are rarely mentioned due to the Greeks focusing primarily on living. They believed that if they did not bury souls properly, they would be stuck wandering on the wrong side of the river forever, so Antigone risked her life to bury Polyneices properly.  It shows the importance of these practices to the Greeks.
    Feminism may also play into this, with the women being more expected to be dutiful to her family. Oedipus’s daughters are loyal to him, while his sons are expressly not. Antigone takes the biggest risk to help Polyneices, with Ismene seemingly wanting to do the same but too scared, while Eteocles was the reason she had to do so. Meanwhile, Eteocles and Polyneices fought each other to destruction for the throne after starting a war. In the end, they say they love each other, but it is not shown by their actions. So, being dutiful may be an expectation mainly for women. Feminism is also addressed in the dialogue between the sisters. Ismene does not feel like she has any power in Polyneices situation, telling Antigone they are women so they must obey and are not strong enough to defy the state. When Antigone said she was doing it anyway, she was not confident in her ability to do so, she said she would do what she could and then give up. This, along with the fact that they were not involved in the succession argument, demonstrates women having a lesser role in society, being expected to be weak and compliant, so much so that they believe it of themselves, even as nobility. How much space her story was given is also a red flag, there is a lot of focus on the battle, Eteocles and Polyneices, and Creon’s son, with Antigone’s deed itself not being described very in depth with the plan, suspense, or carrying out of it, and the consequences are also not really expanded upon.

Reflect on any new information you have learned in English class by considering how that learning influences your critical perception.

    Some of the new information I learned in this class this year that influenced my critical perception was learning more about how Greek mythology developed. From what we read, we can  see how mythology developed like current religions must have. It allows us to perceive the Greeks as real people instead of distant societies. For example, the story of how Zeus got involved with so many women. When new towns adopted Zeus as their primary deity, they gave him their previous deities wives. This is a giant character flaw for Zeus,  and raises many questions. I wonder if that's what was intended at the beginning of Zeus’ creation, or if this flaw developed as more towns added wives, consequently influencing his character and the character of others around him like Hera. This also raises the question about current belief systems we know of, and how they developed. It has made me view them in different perspectives. Now when I hear old stories like these myths, I wonder more about how they developed, and look at them more critically. It is also very interesting how they used mythology to explain nature. For example, leaves rustling in certain ways due to deities will, lightning happening from Zeus throwing lightning bolts, and Demeter causing winter and spring. It makes me view the world differently, seeing how they tried to explain  the mystery of nature in the past. For example the explanation for the beauty of flowers. They thought them so beautiful that they must have come into existence in a climactic way, with the tales of Hyacinth, Narcissus and Persephone. I now look more deeply at nature, seeing the way the Greeks viewed it and the deep meanings they gave to each part. This relates to what we talked about in class on 10/30 as well. In class we mainly spoke about the Greeks' view on the cycle of life in these stories. It was said that the cycle of life gives limited time so it drives people to do things and gives life more meaning. Nature is part of this cycle, and this statement made me think of it differently, and want to appreciate it more. Especially because it is becoming winter, and the flowers are leaving until next spring. We live in a city, so nature is not as abundant as in other places, but from discussing this I now would like to seek it out more often.

How is what you’re learning applied to any other classes/the world around you?

    Greek mythology's treatment of villains and heroes is relevant to modern society. The sphinx’s destruction was a footnote while the Eteocles and Polyneices' was lengthy and in depth. It shows that they painted things very differently for ‘villans’ and ‘heros’. The bad things that happened to villains were celebrated, and when they happened to heros it was tragic, as we discussed in class. In modern society we also paint these things in similar lights. For example, in media like movies and stories, though we are leaning more toward villains being developed and having audiences empathize with them to an extent, like the red lotus in avatar. Still, in modern society today we need to realize how we paint things with the other side losing people being shown as not very important. For example, in wars and other countries' issues along with our own issues, like the atomic bombs, the news does not take the other side into account and just focuses on the fact that we didn't lose, ignoring the excessive destruction. We need to be more aware of how we portray things, and the facts of each issue, not just how they are presented. 

    The self sacrificing part of the myths was also interesting in how it compares to today's society. In class we mentioned that today we would tell someone in Oedipus’s situation to not punish himself to fix the plague, but would we really? In a lot of our media, heros are generally self-sacrificing, and that is a quality that is praised and expected from leaders, or at least from good leaders in media. For example, in the Avengers Endgame Movie, Tony Stark sacrifices himself to save humanity from Thanos, and the Avengers, along with other heros, risk themselves to save common people often. They have power, so they are expected to use it to protect those who can't, just like Oedipus was expected by his people to fix the plague and famine because he was capable of doing so. Greek mythology may be more in tune with our current society than we may have expected, at least in our stories.