skin

You know what I’m very okay with? This picture. This is a statue of Aphrodite in the British Museum in London. Has she been spending all her spare time at the gym? Um, no. Is she freakin’ sexy? Um, very.

Another reason I like this picture is because it’s modest. “Yes, I’m a babe, but no, you can’t look – get out of here.”

It’s not even like that pseudo modesty, like Jennifer Aniston in GQ (or any given female celebrity in any given magazine). You know the kind. “Oh…look at me and my strategically placed limbs and props. I’m naked but you can’t see anything, haha! I’m so sexy!”

And then everything is photoshopped anyways, it pretty much doesn’t count as being naked because the image you end up with is hardly your real body anymore. I guess celebrities are secure enough with their body image to take their clothes off, but not secure enough to let people see what they  actually look like without clothes. Hm.

Anyways, I’m gonna finish this ice cream because it’s delicious. Mmm….

wonder woman gets a makeover…again

Is it just me or does nobody really like Wonder Woman the way she is? I mean, they’re always trying to change her. I remember reading an article back in the early 2000′s that said DC was contemplating making her black with an afro. Nobody seems to dig her story either, they’re always trying to mess with her origins.

That said, while I don’t think this new Wonder Woman looks so bad, I don’t think this should be her official costume.

“What woman only wears only one outfit for 60-plus years?” Michael Straczynski, who is writing the new Wonder Woman series, told the New York Times.

Well, female superheroes do, for one. It’s just how it is. It provides continuity and identity.

I do think Wonder Woman should have more than one outfit though. This could be one of them. Nite Owl from Watchmen had a lot of variations of the same costume. I think he had a winter one, an underwater one and a few others. They all looked similar but were modified for different conditions.

So that’s what I think Wonder Woman should have – an extensive wardrobe of similar looking but different outfits. This could be her outfit for cold nights or something.  Anyways, that’s my two cents.

I love Wonder Woman.

Medea by Euripedes

image: Hanged-man on DeviantArt

I’m not really reading these Greek myths in order at all.

After Medea helped Jason retrieve the Golden Fleece by killing her brother (haven’t read that myth yet, don’t know why he needed a fleece, but he needed it. he was cold?) she fell in love with Jason and left her home country to marry him. She had two of his children, then he decide to have a second marriage.

And, as they say, hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.

Nurse:
Jason deserts my mistress and his children
And seeks royal alliance, marrying
The daughter of Creon, ruler of this land,
While poor Medea is left wretched and dishonored
To cry, “You promised,” and remind him of the hand
He pledged in faith… (17-22)

Medea:
My father, my country, how shamefully
I left you, and killed my own brother. (152-153)

At other times a woman is timid,
Afraid to defend herself, frightened at the sight
Of weapons; but when her marriage is in danger
There is no mind bloodthirstier than hers. (240-243)

So Medea, also a sorceress, decides to kill Jason’s new wife by giving her poisoned gifts – a golden robe and crown.

Messenger:
The golden circlet twining round her hair
Poured forth a strange stream of devouring fire (1120-1121)

The flesh dropped from her bones like pine-tears, torn
By the unseen power of devouring poison, (1134-1135)

She then kills her two sons in order to hurt Jason, but only after much deliberation. She loves her sons, but she hates Jason more.

Medea:
Did you think you could desert my marriage bed,
Make me your laughingstock, and still live happy?
I tore your heart from you, and you deserved it. (1286-1287, 1292)

And so she leaves Corinth on a chariot drawn by snakes. The end.

Bacchae by Euripedes

image: Classic Stage Ireland

Alright, so Dionysus is the god of wine and crazyness. His father was Zeus and his mother a mortal woman named Semele, who was from a city called Thebes. Semele died because Zeus revealed himself as a god to her, and being mortal she could not live in the presence of a god. Anyways, so Semele’s sisters gossiped, saying that Semele was lying and that Dionysus wasn’t really the son of Zeus.

So Dionysus disguises himself as a mortal and returns to Thebes, demanding that the Thebians worship Dionysus (also known as Bacchus), but they refuse. So he makes the women of the city go mad and worship him anyways.

Dionysus:
This town must learn,
even against its will, how much it costs
to scorn God’s mysteries and to be purged.
So shall I vindicate my virgin mother
and reveal myself to mortals as a God,
the son of God. (48-53)

Chorus:
Bacchus will lead the dancing throngs to the mountain,
the mountain, which is home to that mob of women,
who rebelled against the shuttle and loom
answering the urge of Dionysus. (136-141)

So the former king of Thebes, Cadmus, and a blind seer, Tiresias, believe that they should also answer the call of Dionysus and partake in revels, so they help each other dance even though they are very old. But Pentheus, Cadmus’ grandson and present King of Thebes is outraged at all the revelry going on and demands that the stranger encouraging the worship of Dionysus be brought to him.

So the guards capture Dionysus, who comes without struggle, and bring him to Pentheus. Also, a herdsman reports that the women, including Pentheus’ mothers and sisters, tore apart his cattle limb from limb.

Herdsman:
Everywhere you looked,
ribs and cloven hooves
were flying through the air.
And from the pine branches
dangled lumps of flesh that dripped with blood. Majestic bulls,
one minute aiming their horns with all their furious pride,
the next were stumbling to the ground,
overwhelmed by the swarming hands of girls,
their bones stripped clean of all their flesh,
faster than you could blink your royal eyes. (901-910)

The herdsman then reported the matter to PETA. I’m kidding.

Anyways, Pentheus and Dionysus talk for awhile, and somehow Dionysus convinces Pentheus to spy on the women dressed as a woman. If he is dressed as a man they will surely tear him to bits. So Dionysus leads him to the women, but instead of helping to bring them back, he delivers Pentheus into the hands of the women, who promptly rip him to shreds. Pentheus’ mother puts his head on a stake and parades him into town, where Cadmus looks on in horror. The spell is lifted and the women realize what they have done. Dionysus then banishes them all from Thebes and they leave.

Dionysus:
Hear me all! I speak to you now as Dionysus,
a God revealed to mortal eyes.
I came back to this land of my virgin birth,
to suffer the indignities that only human folly can invent.
I was mocked at, chained, thrown in prison. Men like Pentheus
who abuse their power in defiance of the Gods
shall ever rediscover the inexorable terror of divine justice.
Now you, his kin, were made to kill a tyrant that you gloried in.
You are unclean. And you shall go your separate ways,
leaving Thebes forever, to rid it from the curse of your pollution.
Had you been willing to be wise when you had all,
today, instead of losing all, you would be thriving allies
of the son of Zeus, your friend. (1800-1812)

The end.

Prince Caspian by C.S Lewis

I’m seeing the movie tomorrow, so I figured I would read the book beforehand so I would readily be able to complain.

I’m sorry, it’s how I roll. I really don’t know what to expect…

Anyways, I’ve read the Narnia series twice before, the last time being about three years ago. Prince Caspian never quite made it onto my favorites…and now that I read it again, some things just seem odd. Maybe because I’m older and am reading too much into things I shouldn’t? Most likely.

I would mainly like to know what’s up with everyone gallivanting around with Bacchus and Silenus all the time. Edmund says something like, “That Bacchus seems like a chap who might do anything. I wouldn’t want to run into him and his girls without Aslan around.” Hmm.

Bacchus is the Roman god of wine and Silenus is one of his followers, and one of them is usually riding a donkey, I think (Fantasia, anyone?). And then some “wild girls” are with them, frolicking about.

I don’t quite understand…I think Lewis might saying that if we drink wine while God is far from our hearts or minds, anything could happen. But wine is also a reminder of Jesus’ sacrifice, and a gift for celebration – so if enjoyed within these bounds then it’s all good? Basically what Edmund said: don’t meet Bacchus without Aslan?

It just seems strange to be referenced at all in a children’s book.

Anyways, these are my favorite parts…I doubt half of them will show up on film. I remember the main thing I disliked about The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe movie was all the little lines they changed and left out – the “deep magic” and “emperor’s magic” completely disappeared! And they replaced it with something retarded like “true sacrifice.” Uh huh.

Yeah. Anyways – here’s what I hope doesn’t end up on the cutting room floor:

“And we beasts remember, even if dwarfs forget, that Narnia was never right except when a son of Adam was king.”
-Trufflehunter, the badger

“I don’t like the idea of running away.” said Caspian.
“Hear him! Hear him!” said the Bulgy Bears. “Whatever we do, don’t let’s have any running. Especially not before supper; and not too soon after it either.”

Ovid: Selected Poems = Fin.

I’m confused though. Is this all Roman mythology? Or Greek mythology? Or Romanized Greek mythology? Or all of the above? Ovid was a Roman after all. Ummm…whatever.

Anyways, a lot of the coolest excerpts came from the poem Metamorphosis. I read about the origins of the myrrh tree (a girl named Myrrha was turned into a tree, and her tears became drops of myrrh) and the river Lethe than ran through the Cave of Sleep (which is where we get the word “lethargy” from. Lethe also ran through the underworld, I believe.) and a brief look at Pythagoras’ (of trignometry fame) philosophy of the “transmigration of the souls,” or reincarnation.

 And Jupiter = worst. king of the gods. ever.

The poetry itself is pretty good too. I want to read the entire Metamorphosis poem now.

Metamorphosis by Ovid

Ovid has definitely got a lot cooler once I got past Amores, which was all about sex. Now I’m into Metamorphosis which is about all the Greek and Roman gods and jazz, which is totally awesome. It includes the story of Jupiter sending a flood to destroy man, but for the two survivors, Decalion and Pyrrhus, Narcissus falling in love with his own reflection (which is where we get the term “narcissistic”), the origin of echos, Pyramus and Thisbe (which Shakespeare used in A Midsummer Night’s Dream), and Arachne being turned into a spider by the jealous Athene (which I assume is where we get the word “arachnid”). Totally neat, though I must say a great many of the gods are so flippin’ immature and temperamental. Honestly.

Anyways, so that’s pretty neat. And the book is tiny so I can put it in my purse for riding on the train. Before I used to lug around Anna Karenina, but that was just far too cumbersome. It’s nice having a smaller book for traveling.

And I bought Paradise Lost today, because it had been on sale for the past month and I knew I would be kicking myself if I didn’t once they all sold out or the sale ended because I had wanted it for such a long time. So it’s this huge thing, illustrated and everything, but I’m pretty stoked for it.