We were put into the groups with which the group project will be done(my, that's a bit redundant). I've never been partial to group projects, but this will probably end up being interesting, especially in comparison to the Biblical lit class last semester; in that class we were assinged a particular book of the Bible to focus on. The topic for this class is very broad, with interesting possibilties offered by this broadness: "how the past possesses the present".
Speaking of the Biblical lit class, there were a few re-visitations from that class today. Among them, the Eleusian mysteries(which were probably a competition/influence on early Christianity) and the notion of marriage as institutionalized abduction. I'm a bit suprised that we didn't touch on the manifestations of the universal White Goddess(the Crone, the Mother and the Maiden, touched on in the Hymn to Demeter in the personages of Hecate, Demeter and Persephone) in that class. The thought occured to me of the Holy Trinity(Father, Son, Holy Spirit) as being a bastardization of this, which could be totally off but I don't know--and apologies to any Catholics who may be reading this--.
I was vaguely puzzled when reading the Hymn to Demeter why Demeter's other name was Doso; now I know that it means "sorrow", and that the modern name "Dolores" is derived from it. All this adds up with why Vladimir Nabokov had the eponymous nymphet in Lolita named Dolores... I also wonder at the added signifigance to the last name, Haze. Very good stuff any way you stretch it.
I think that's enough for now. I don't feel like talking anymore.

Once again, there is a great deal of information to put down and which will be by me in the least organized or gracious way possible.
We opened with the altrenative name of the Muses, which is the Nine Daughters of Memory. This is so because their mother Mnemosyne mated with Zeus. Vladimir Nabokov wished to call his autobiography Speak Mnemosyne, but ended up going with the English translation instead. I think it flows off the tongue a bit more smoothly.
The four most prolific of ancient Greek dramatists are widely held to be Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripedes and Aristophones. The majority of the works by a great number of their contempories were lost when the great library in Alexandria was burned down. By anti-intellectuals as it were.
But even before the dramatists there was Homer and his contemporary Thesiod, composer of the theogony* of Zeus(and henceforth all the other Gods). A basic idea carried from here, as well as in the hymn to Demeter and in a great deal of erstwhile(sp?) myth is this, which is something my mother has been telling me for quite a long time: men are useful but not necessary(not to mention dangerous). Things are going along fine with the Mom and her daughter, when suddenly this dark, predatory male comes along and takes the daughter away. What is a mother to do? Well when she's a goddess of plants and agriculture, she suspends all the growth of flora on the earth, which puts the insignifigant mortals in hard straights. After all, "cereal", which we eat for breakfast, derives from Ceres, the Roman name for Demeter.

* This etiology goes interestingly with the name Antigone. Since gony means "birth" or "womb", then it means "against birth". What could this mean? Perhaps because she appeals for divine rights to the gods of the dead? So this prohibits her from being for life? More on this shall probably followat some point in time.

Today marked the return of a kernal of knowledge which struck me from the Biblical Foundations of Literature class: the idea of making something happen by singing about it. For as Rilke said Gesang ist disein, or "Song is existence." Only of course in the Classical sense, it is not the singer of the song that brings the thing about; it is the Muse, who is evoked at the beginning of whatever the work will be. In fact, music is derived from muse as is amuse, museum and on and on.
I also know now that Odysseus was polytropes, turning many ways, which was necessary being as he was constantly in danger.
I used to think that the nasty stiffness in my shoulders was due to my unfortunate lack of substantial excercise, but apparently no. It is Anamnesis, the soul within struggling to remember what was lost, which is to say complete and utter wisdom. Just like Plato said, and like Wordsworth was pensive at the passing of.
I shall stop now. Thank thee, heavenly Muse, for supplying my ramble.

Well if today wasn't a flurry of information. The first ten minutes or so of class(or maybe more, I'm not particularly good at judging time)were spent discussing blog preparation and execution, a stage I admit to being grateful at being passed--don't worry those who are still there, you will pass as well--.
Then begun a dissertation on the Bozeman Daily Chronicle as an example of the validity of Thoureau's assertion "Don't read the Times, read the Eternities." The Chronicle and the Eternities, it turns out, are one in the same. The reason for this is that stories repeat themselves(or rather versions of themselves) endlessly. George Bush, while capable of being classified with Britney Spears as detritus(sp) of the ephemeral, at the same time is Creon(who felt he could never act wrongly and ended up getting bit on the ass because of it). Mr.Sexson went on to demonstrate this thoroughly with his essay/story about the man in the car who is enshrined to the Daily Newspaper. I couldn't help but be reminded of a short story by Virginia Woolf called The String Quartet, in which a woman sees another woman sitting across from her on the bus, and in the interim between seeing her and when she gets off the bus, manages to invent her entire life story.
Damn, stories just do repeat endlessly(now doesn't that just sound like a lyric from some sort of jazz/blues ballad?)
I also have to contend now with added pressure of the possiblity of Rhodes scholarship consideration. That is enough now.

Okay, first blog for Classical Foundations of literature...

What do I know now that I didn't know before? I know know that George Steiner believes that only a handful of figures, along with Antigone, have shaped Western conciousness. These are Orpheus, Perseus, Prometheus, Agamemnon, Heracles(I coulda sworn it was Hercules), Odysseus, and Oedipus.

I also know the origins of the words "Agony" and "Obscene". Agony comes from the Greek agon, for contest, or battle. Obscene comes from Latin, Ob meaning off; as in off the scene of the stage. Interesting.

Speaking of interesting, this Simone Wiel woman. Leader of the French Resistance, religous mystic, and Classical scholar(author of a book on the Illiad called Poem of Force)? Impressive resume. There could totally be a movie made about her, if there isn't one already. I'll have to check that out and see if that's the case or not.

And the question must be what's old, instead of what's new, because everything is new and old at the same time, being that history repeats itself endlessly(my older sister is into history, and she concurs with this). Or something like that.