Belle and Neo Hereos?

I want to start off by throwing my own viewpoint out there. Beauty and the Beast is an amazing movie, a great classic that never gets old! The Matrix is also a very good movie, both of these films I could watch countless times. When reading these questions I immediately thought of Neo as being a hero but I had to think about Belle for awhile, but I did come to conclude that she too to me is a hero. 

“According to Campbell’s The Hero with a Thousand Faces, heroes from every culture typically undertake a journey to a far-off land. In their travels, they encounter villains, other heroes, and temptresses and often have the opportunity to bring back magical elixirs” (Myth 183). Belle maybe doesn’t end up in a far-off land but she does end up in a place that is unfamiliar to her. A place where there are characters, creatures, and things she doesn’t understand. She visits a giant mansion that is inhabited by a giant beast that was once a man, there are also other strange characters such as a candlestick that is alive. She does encounter villains, other heroes, and yes magic. Belle doesn’t back down from this terrifying journey, she instead helps characters out and falls in love with the beast. I think Joseph Campbell would consider Belle to be a hero in this story.

The same goes for Neo, except maybe more so. Neo to me is easily considered to be a hero. He too takes a journey to a unfamiliar place, this time though it is in a far off land. He battles many villains and fights alongside with other heroes. As he battles through this journey he grows and becomes even more of a genuine hero. “The hero must ‘retreat from the world’ to the realm of the unconscious. It is here that he will find the resolution of his conflicts and fears” (Myth 187), It is almost as if Campbell made these ideas strictly for The Matrix because this is almost exactly what happens to Neo. Neo may be the perfect match for Joseph Campbell’s dream hero, he seems to define that specific character in his ideas.

The Reciprocity of Giving

I have always thought of mythology, religion, and ritual to all be very closely related things. Most of the myths that exist in all cultures worldwide seem to be largely based on religion. Divine entity’s and powers always seem to be showing up in these stories, gods and goddesses frequently pop up as characters in myths. Many myths also deal with a cultures traditions or rituals as well. From gatherings where these myths were told and passed down, to feasts and celebrations created from characters in myths. The men and women that populate the mythological worlds are sometimes even offspring of gods. 

To me myths are an important part of our culture and world. They’ve been passed down for thousands and thousands of years, from culture to culture, and to me it’s because they teach valuable lessons to mankind. These myths are filled with lessons about individual values and warnings about certain situations. Every culture that has had any experience with mythology, then has also had an experience with religion and ritual. I most certainly believe that these three things do contribute positively to human health in an individual way and in a communal way. We have two huge rituals every year where giving is the whole idea, obviously these are Thanksgiving and Christmas (for some, most religions have a celebration where gifts are a center point). “The Hebrew Bible stresses again and again that Jaweh is the giver of all good things, giving food to all living beings, and giving progeny in particular” (Burkert 7). Thanksgiving is not really a religious event but it is about giving to others. Food drives for the poor always take place that time of year, the ritual of food giving still thrives today.

Having mythology, religion, and ritual in your life can really give you meaning in life, it can give you something to live for. These three things do contribute to a positive and healthy life. It can give people a peace of mind and a sense of understanding that perhaps we would not have otherwise.

Wizard Of Oz

The Wizard of Oz has been one of my favorite movies since I was five years old! I remember being very excited when my mom told me that it was coming on TV, we always made sure we watched it. Still to this day I believe the Wizard of Oz is one of the most popular films ever created, and still one of the most entertaining.

The world of Oz has always been one of my favorite fantasy worlds, and even when I was young I thought about this movie as being a fairy tale. Now that I’m older and have studies myths, I can easily make the connection from this film to being a myth. “Although a film is not, in the strict sense, a fairy tale, The Wizard of Oz can be treated as such because it was created communally by many writers, directors, actors, all whom shaped the story” (Myth 543). I’m not exactly sure if a fairy tale and myth are the same thing or if they are technically different, but I view them as being one in the same. This film is easily considerable to being a fairy tale because the whole world of Oz is a different universe. The creatures, buildings, scenery, and characters are like nothing in our world, all this makes me thing myth.

What attracted me to this movie when I was young was the amazing colors and the creepy characters. I loved the sense of strange that it gave me. Then I was not capable of analyzing specific characters, I simply viewed Dorothy as a scared girl trying to just get home. Today I can look at this character and believe her to be a hero. “If we consider The Wizard of Oz from the point of view of Dorothy, we can see a process of growth that occurs in the main character as she moves through the story” (Myth 544). A hero in a story has to overcome something and learn from it. Dorothy overcomes many things in this story, for example she defeats the wicked witch, faces many scary events, she goes out of her way to help other characters, and she even helps the divine wizard in the end. She is very much so a hero.

A Nightmare On Elm Street

The horror film that I chose to watch was A Nightmare On Elm Street which was made in 1984, and remade again in 2010. I chose to watch the old school original version because I grew up watching the whole series of these films. I was excited to see that the book actually mentioned it a little bit! I’ve seen this movie about 20 times throughout my life so Freddy Krueger and myself are very familiar with each other.

I remember the first time I saw this movie, I was about 6 and lets just say that I couldn’t sleep for weeks after viewing it. I’m not sure why a 6 year old saw this movie in the first place but it happened and besides the terrible nightmares it was fun! I obviously grew immune to the scariness of Freddy after awhile, but every time I watch this movie it reminds me how terrified I used to get from it. The chapter mostly dealt with vampire myths and stories so it’s kind of hard for me to tie this in, but I’ll try!

Freddy Krueger is second on the list for well known horror characters and for good reason. He is a dream stalking, disfigured, claw wielding, teen killer, who is bent on revenge. “He is principally highlighted as ‘pure evil’, but a close second is that he is ‘realistically horrifying’ (myth 677). I’ve always thought of this character as being “pure evil” because even when he was alive he was not a nice man, but in fact just a screwed up scary man. The reason this character is “realistically” scary could be because when alive he was a child molester who liked to hurt kids as well. The disturbing realness to this, is that out there in the world, there are actual people who do those messed up things. That’s what gives the real scare, Freddy ultimately reminds people of someone who stalks, hunts, or intends to harm young people. “The character represents neglect, particularly that which is suffered by children” (myth 677). 

Medea

This week’s question was a little difficult for me. After reading Medea and the question, I’ve sat here and pondered whether Medea is human or divine. My mind jumped to multiple answers and possible explanations to what I think. After all the thinking and reading, I still find myself not too sure on what I think about Medea. Obviously what she did to her children was absolutely horrible and unspeakable, but was there any justification in it at all? Maybe some would say yes, all i know is it gives me the creeps to think about her. 

My personal opinion of Medea is that she is human. Throughout the play she makes many mistakes that are driven by emotional and perhaps mental madness, which is why I must say she is human. “What do I gain by being alive? Oh, god. How I long for the comfort of death. I hate this life. How I wish I could leave it.” (Euripides 148-150). Would this be a question or statement spoken by a divine being? I would think not because I just can’t picture a divine being wanting to escape life and just hating it so much, here Medea to me is purely human. It sounds like the girl is depressed and just wants to end everything, I mean she just did slaughter her two children so she is also raging with madness at that moment. It’s terrible to think about but it’s quite common to hear about a parent taking the lives of their children, they all have their excuses and reasons for it, and Medea certainly has hers. These are just another example of human traits.

At the end of the play Medea says, “My father’s father, Helios, gives me safety from hostile hands. This chariot protects me” (1367-1368). Medea is exclaiming that her grandfather is the god of the sun Helios, and that he would protect her form harm. Does this make her divine after all? I’m not really sure, but knowing how crazy this woman is makes it hard to imagine her divine in any way.

 

 

Gods and Humans

I have never really thought about whether the gods, or any god for that matter, are like human beings. Honestly I never really imagined that they could be. When Cadmus claims, “gods should not be like human beings.” (Euripides) I think that I have to agree with him.

In ancient Greek myths the gods are similarity described to humans with their looks and features so in that aspect I have to say they are like humans. Another feature that could make the argument of gods being like humans is their lust and fiery emotions, “Zeus fell in love with her, and slept with her in secret from Hera” (Myth 513). Countless times a god (most of the time Zeus) cheats on his wife because he is filled with lust and desire for a mortal woman. This part of Zeus is very human because we see this all the time, partners cheating on each other. When it comes to love and lust some gods are very human, but this is where it ends for me.

Heracles who was half god and half human is as close as a god could get to being like a human. “Heracles was a benefactor of human beings. As such, it was his task to free Prometheus the great champion of humans (myth 498). Heracles being half human felt that it was his duty to help out his fellow humans and free Prometheus, who made it possible for human survival.

Gods should not be like human beings because they had so much power over the people who worshiped them. If they were like human beings they would just be interested in having the power for themselves, which we do see some gods having these thoughts. The ancient people relied on having their gods with them for protection and to just make their lives seem more meaningful. The Greeks felt that their gods needed to be served and worshiped, “men came to know that he was a god and paid due honour to him” (Myth 514).

Navajo Creation With Genesis

I have a very little Native American ancestry in me so I have chosen to imagine I grew up in the Navajo tribe. I am going to compare it to what I know best, Genesis from the bible.

Many Native American tribes share similar creation stories with each other and I found the ones I read about fascinating! “In Navajo myth as in the other Native American stories, the primary movement of creation is upward from beneath the earth. Each world has a sky that is represented as a hard shell” (Myth 99). Already the Navajo creation story is fairly different from the one many of us are familiar with in Genesis. The sky being viewed as a shell could symbolize that there is nothing past it, obviously in the Bible there are the heavens above, but here nothing can go above. Everything started from the ground and went up, in Genesis nothing is really mentioned about below the ground, except hell which is a place that is looked at as being bad.

I found mostly differences between the Navajo and Hebrew view of creation, but there were a few striking similiarities that surprised me. After reading the Navajo myth I would really like to know more about Native American myths!

The air-spirit people were the first inhabitants in the Navajo world and they were nothing like the humans of today. “They are people who travel the air and fly swiftly like the wind and dwell nowhere else but here” (myth 100). Compared to Genesis this  is again is very different. There was nothing before man was created, just a few days where everything else was created. These air-spirit people slightly resemble angels and that could be a slight similarity. Like a part of Genesis the inhabitants of the world at the time were pretty much just doing their own thing, at times this meant not being kind to each other. Adam and Eve were fine until the whole apple ordeal, which angered God. The air-spirit people also angered someone and because of this a giant wave and flood happened, sound familiar? “They saw it on all sides. It surrounded them and they noticed that it was closing in on them rapidly. It was a high, insurmountable wall of water! (101). We all know about the great flood from the bible, I was surprised to read that the Navajo have a similar idea of a flood.

Floods

Many parts of the world have stories and myths that tell of great floods that wiped out almost the entire human race. The one most known in our part of the world comes from Genesis in the Old Testament, but there are others that are lesser known. One comes from Ovid and relates to Rome.

Ovid’s flood story seems to be more related to Middle Eastern accounts, which involve the character we all know Prometheus. Here Prometheus represents the trickster figure Enki. Ovid tells of the gods, especially Jupiter, wanting to end the race of men. “A council meeting of the gods presided over by a blustering Jupiter outraged at the behavior of human beings” (myth pg. 156). Jupiter believes that man needs to be eliminated so he musters up what he thinks is the right thing to do, the flood. Jupiter was hesitant to make this choice but he eventually believed he had no choice, “I swear on the infernal streams that glide beneath the woods of Styx, that I have tried all other means” (157). Jupiter visited earth in disguise and evaluated the humans in Ovid’s story, so he knew from a first hand experience what needed to be done.

The great flood described in Genesis shares many characteristics with other flood stories, for example it shares a lot with the Epic of Gilgamesh, including the building of the arc. The Bible version of the flood is meant to show God’s love for the humans through the covenant. The important aspect of this flood story is that “it portrays the elimination of the old world as an opportunity for the fashioning of a new one that more closely approximates our own” (myth pg. 167). God created the great flood not to destroy the human race but to kind of fix or tweak it. This flood is seen as God preparing mankind for a new stage of life, “which can be seen as the completion of his creation” (167).

Obviously both these stories originate from different parts of the world and they each have their own unique differences that relate to their respective cultures. The western part of the world through Genesis believe that God just needed to complete his creation by cleansing his work and fixing some things. Ovid’s version has Jupiter being extremely disgusted with humans and he just wants to eliminate what he believes was a mistake. This could show the brutality of the Roman culture because there was no warning to any humans, Jupiter just wanted to destroy.

Tricksters

Every myth or story that exists in any part of the world has a character that could be considered a “trickster”. The title alone could make you think of a character who goofs around or who plays pranks on people. This is not always the case in classical mythology stories, in these stories tricksters are much more. “The trickster is a kind of hero, but he often does not seem very heroic…Typically, the trickster forges a contract with a dupe and then betrays him” (381).

The trickster character plays a huge role in most of these myths, and is a vast part of creation myths. I believe this is the case because these characters always seem to be placed into the stories in order to teach a lesson to another character. That lesson is thought up by whomever created the myth and it is designed to teach people in real life.

Every story that deals with creation always has something to do with good and evil. You cannot have the good without the evil, or without a character who has negative intentions. The tricksters are needed to make the myths teach people and to get across values. In Prometheus Bound a lot of characters could be considered tricksters. Zeus turns out to be one of those characters because he has it out for Prometheus, even after Prometheus helped him out in his war. “As for Zeus, His heart’s stubborn. But take my word for it, He’ll be humbled yet” (1393-1395, pg. 74). Aeschylus could be showing his fellow Greeks that being stubborn and acting like this will never turn out good, it always crashes down in the end.