As a follow-up to DQ #3, please answer the following question: Have any of your strengths or skills mentioned in DQ#3 caused you to have excessive pride? Define pride. Also reference the Antaeus myth.
I define pride as the desire for fame, glory, or self-aggrandizement. The Homeric concept of hubris gives us insight into the dangers of pride. Dr. Rosenberg defines hubris as "excessive pride and arrogance" (122). Note the adjective excessive. Pride becomes a problem when it causes us to lose sight of our peers' humanity. This has been a problem for me in the past. As a fundamentally verbal person, I have sometimes used words to be excessively harsh. When others are less than tolerant with me it can lead to strained relationships. Antaeus never saw that his ability to draw strength from Gaea might leave him vulnerable. He was blind to the possibility of defeat. Like Antaeus, I sometimes forget that my greatest strength can also be my greatest weakness.
Saturday, October 17, 2009
Gilgamesh II: Antaeus and Heritability
Antaeus (from the Heracles myth) receives his great physical strength from Gaea, his mother. What strengths do you possess? What skills or ability? From whom did you receive them?
Like Anteaus, who received strength from his mother, I received many gifts from my own parents. My father is a professor at Iowa State in Veterinary Medicine. He is a very clear, careful, and logical thinker. He is a disciplined, hardworking person who has a wide range of interests. Despite a demanding career, my Dad always made time for his family. I inherited some of his habits of mind, as well as his sense of the importance of spending time with the ones you love. For a scientist, my Dad is unusually verbal, a trait that his son also exhibits. I find great satisfaction in teaching and spending time in community with other artists and intellectuals.
My mother was always very available, nurturing, and amiable. She was a homemaker for most of her life and, indeed, made a very good home for my sister and me. One of the greatest gifts my mother gave me was a love of reading. I can remember many an evening when the whole family would sit in the living room and listen to hear read. My Mom also instilled in me the idea that other people were important and worth treating well. My mother’s relentless kindness is a habit I seek to incorporate into my own life. Like Antaeus, who “immediately became much stronger” (103-104) at his mother’s touch, my mother’s presence has been a great source of strength for me.
Like Anteaus, who received strength from his mother, I received many gifts from my own parents. My father is a professor at Iowa State in Veterinary Medicine. He is a very clear, careful, and logical thinker. He is a disciplined, hardworking person who has a wide range of interests. Despite a demanding career, my Dad always made time for his family. I inherited some of his habits of mind, as well as his sense of the importance of spending time with the ones you love. For a scientist, my Dad is unusually verbal, a trait that his son also exhibits. I find great satisfaction in teaching and spending time in community with other artists and intellectuals.
My mother was always very available, nurturing, and amiable. She was a homemaker for most of her life and, indeed, made a very good home for my sister and me. One of the greatest gifts my mother gave me was a love of reading. I can remember many an evening when the whole family would sit in the living room and listen to hear read. My Mom also instilled in me the idea that other people were important and worth treating well. My mother’s relentless kindness is a habit I seek to incorporate into my own life. Like Antaeus, who “immediately became much stronger” (103-104) at his mother’s touch, my mother’s presence has been a great source of strength for me.
Gilgamesh I: Gilgamesh's Courage
Does Gilgamesh's journey in search of immortality make him appear cowardly because he fears death, or strong because he attempts to change his fate?
Gilgamesh displays great courage in his quest for immortality. The fear of death is a universal obstacle for human beings. Gilgamesh refuses to accept his own mortality. Many of the people he meets on the way try to discourage him. For example, Siduri tells him, "So, Gilgamesh, accept your fate" (47). Gilgamesh just keeps going. He faces many dangers as he searches for immortality. He faces the tunnel of Mount Mashu and crosses the Waters of Death. While true immortality is denied him by the gods, Gilgamesh's courage is rewarded with a lesser kind of immortality, fame.
Gilgamesh displays great courage in his quest for immortality. The fear of death is a universal obstacle for human beings. Gilgamesh refuses to accept his own mortality. Many of the people he meets on the way try to discourage him. For example, Siduri tells him, "So, Gilgamesh, accept your fate" (47). Gilgamesh just keeps going. He faces many dangers as he searches for immortality. He faces the tunnel of Mount Mashu and crosses the Waters of Death. While true immortality is denied him by the gods, Gilgamesh's courage is rewarded with a lesser kind of immortality, fame.
The Epic of Gilgamesh
The first great work we considered in Mythology was the Epic of Gilgamesh. The following summary is from SparkNotes.
The epic’s prelude offers a general introduction to Gilgamesh, king of Uruk, who was two-thirds god and one-third man. He built magnificent ziggurats, or temple towers, surrounded his city with high walls, and laid out its orchards and fields. He was physically beautiful, immensely strong, and very wise. Although Gilgamesh was godlike in body and mind, he began his kingship as a cruel despot. He lorded over his subjects, raping any woman who struck his fancy, whether she was the wife of one of his warriors or the daughter of a nobleman. He accomplished his building projects with forced labor, and his exhausted subjects groaned under his oppression. The gods heard his subjects’ pleas and decided to keep Gilgamesh in check by creating a wild man named Enkidu, who was as magnificent as Gilgamesh. Enkidu became Gilgamesh’s great friend, and Gilgamesh’s heart was shattered when Enkidu died of an illness inflicted by the gods. Gilgamesh then traveled to the edge of the world and learned about the days before the deluge and other secrets of the gods, and he recorded them on stone tablets.
The epic begins with Enkidu. He lives with the animals, grazing in the meadows, and drinking at their watering places. A hunter discovers him and sends a temple prostitute into the wilderness to tame him. In that time, people considered women and sex calming forces that could domesticate wild men like Enkidu and bring them into the civilized world. When Enkidu sleeps with the woman, the animals reject him since he is no longer one of them. Now, he is part of the human world. Then the harlot teaches him everything he needs to know to be a man. Enkidu is outraged by what he hears about Gilgamesh’s excesses, so he travels to Uruk to challenge him. When he arrives, Gilgamesh is about to force his way into a bride’s wedding chamber. Enkidu steps into the doorway and blocks his passage. The two men wrestle fiercely for a long time, and Gilgamesh finally prevails. After that, they become friends and set about looking for an adventure to share.
Gilgamesh and Enkidu decide to steal trees from a distant cedar forest forbidden to mortals. A terrifying demon named Humbaba, the devoted servant of Enlil, the god of earth, wind, and air, guards it. The two heroes make the perilous journey to the forest, and, standing side by side, fight with the monster. With assistance from Shamash the sun god, they kill him. Then they cut down the forbidden trees, fashion the tallest into an enormous gate, make the rest into a raft, and float on it back to Uruk. Upon their return, Ishtar, the goddess of love, is overcome with lust for Gilgamesh. Gilgamesh spurns her. Enraged, the goddess asks her father, Anu, the god of the sky, to send the Bull of Heaven to punish him. The bull comes down from the sky, bringing with him seven years of famine. Gilgamesh and Enkidu wrestle with the bull and kill it. The gods meet in council and agree that one of the two friends must be punished for their transgression, and they decide Enkidu is going to die. He takes ill, suffers immensely, and shares his visions of the underworld with Gilgamesh. When he finally dies, Gilgamesh is heartbroken.
Gilgamesh can’t stop grieving for Enkidu, and he can’t stop brooding about the prospect of his own death. Exchanging his kingly garments for animal skins as a way of mourning Enkidu, he sets off into the wilderness, determined to find Utnapishtim. After the flood, the gods had granted Utnapishtim eternal life, and Gilgamesh hopes that Utnapishtim can tell him how he might avoid death too. Gilgamesh’s journey takes him to the twin-peaked mountain called Mashu, where the sun sets into one side of the mountain at night and rises out of the other side in the morning. Utnapishtim lives beyond the mountain, but the two scorpion monsters that guard its entrance refuse to allow Gilgamesh into the tunnel that passes through it. Gilgamesh pleads with them, and they relent.
After a harrowing passage through total darkness, Gilgamesh emerges into a beautiful garden by the sea. There he meets Siduri, a veiled tavern keeper, and tells her about his quest. She warns him that seeking immortality is futile and that he should be satisfied with the pleasures of this world. However, when she can’t turn him away from his purpose, she directs him to Urshanabi, the ferryman. Urshanabi takes Gilgamesh on the boat journey across the sea and through the Waters of Death to Utnapishtim. Utnapishtim tells Gilgamesh the story of the flood—how the gods met in council and decided to destroy humankind. Ea, the god of wisdom, warned Utnapishtim about the gods’ plans and told him how to fashion a gigantic boat in which his family and the seed of every living creature might escape. When the waters finally receded, the gods regretted what they’d done and agreed that they would never try to destroy humankind again. Utnapishtim was rewarded with eternal life. Men would die, but humankind would continue.
When Gilgamesh insists that he be allowed to live forever, Utnapishtim gives him a test. If you think you can stay alive for eternity, he says, surely you can stay awake for a week. Gilgamesh tries and immediately fails. So Utnapishtim orders him to clean himself up, put on his royal garments again, and return to Uruk where he belongs. Just as Gilgamesh is departing, however, Utnapishtim’s wife convinces him to tell Gilgamesh about a miraculous plant that restores youth. Gilgamesh finds the plant and takes it with him, planning to share it with the elders of Uruk. But a snake steals the plant one night while they are camping. As the serpent slithers away, it sheds its skin and becomes young again.
When Gilgamesh returns to Uruk, he is empty-handed but reconciled at last to his mortality. He knows that he can’t live forever but that humankind will. Now he sees that the city he had repudiated in his grief and terror is a magnificent, enduring achievement—the closest thing to immortality to which a mortal can aspire.
Thursday, October 1, 2009
The Mayflower Compact: An Origin in American Literature
The Signing of the Mayflower Compact, Percy Morgan, 1900
The Mayflower Compact
In the name of God, Amen. We, whose names are underwritten, the loyal subjects of our dread Sovereigne Lord, King James, by the grace of God, of Great Britaine, France and Ireland king, defender of the faith, etc. having undertaken, for the glory of God, and advancement of the Christian faith, and honour of our king and country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the Northerne parts of Virginia, doe by these presents solemnly and mutually in the presence of God and one of another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a civill body politick, for our better ordering and preservation, and furtherance of the ends aforesaid; and by virtue hereof to enacte, constitute, and frame such just and equall laws, ordinances, acts, constitutions and offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most meete and convenient for the generall good of the Colonie unto which we promise all due submission and obedience. In witness whereof we have hereunder subscribed our names at Cape-Codd the 11. of November, in the year of the raigne of our sovereigne lord, King James, of England, France and Ireland, the eighteenth, and of Scotland the fiftie-fourth. Anno Dom. 1620.
The New Eden
Among the Sierra Nevada, Albert Bierstadt, 1868
The river of American literary history springs from the imagination of an intrepid group of spiritual pilgrims. They boarded their ships and braved the Atlantic in search of more than a New World; they were looking for a New Eden. The separatist Puritans aboard the Mayflower carried with them a utopian vision founded upon Calvinist theology. These Pilgrims considered themselves to be God’s elect, a chosen people who were the inheritors of Adam’s mission to harness the untamed wilderness. Under the guidance of divine Providence they would name everything in the New World, thereby imposing order on all Creation (Fritscher).
The Pilgrims also came in search of a place where they could prosecute their faith free from interference by the government or the Church of England. In an attempt to shield the Pilgrims from whatever tyrannical state might arise in the New World, William Bradford drafted the Mayflower Compact on board the Mayflower in 1620 (Bradford 58). This brief social contract had a significant impact on the subsequent literary and cultural development of America. A close reading of the Compact elucidates the nature of its influence.
Bradford introduces the theme of Christian utopia by stating his purpose in the New World: to glorify God and to advance the Christian faith (Bradford 66). A second group of Puritans who arrived aboard the Arbella in 1630 shared his vision. John Winthrop, governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, describes the Puritan experiment in America in “A Model of Christian Charity.” From the beginning, Winthrop recognized the precarious character of the enterprise: “For we must consider that we shall be as a City upon a hill. The eyes of all people are upon us. So that if we shall deal falsely with our God in this work we have undertaken, and so cause him to withdraw his present help from us, we shall be made a story and a by-word throughout the world” (Winthrop 86). The Massachusetts Bay colonists left England to “seek out a place of cohabitation and consortship under a due form of government both civil and ecclesiastical” (Winthrop 85). Winthrop’s Arbella Covenant (“A Model of Christian Charity”) suggests that the New Eden should also be a new theocracy.
Church and State
Bradford does not explicitly say that the church and state should be one, however. Instead, he suggests that the colonists “covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil body politic” (Bradford 66). Scholars suggest that the Mayflower Compact was designed to ensure religious freedom rather than to establish a theocracy (Reuben). Nevertheless, the members of the Plymouth Colony would be asked to make sacrifices. Bradford understood that the success of the Pilgrims depended upon giving up individual rights for the common good (Ross, The New Eden: Early Responses). The Mayflower Compact closes with a promise to submit to the “general good of the colony” (Bradford 66). The Pilgrims’ Utopia still depended upon allegiance to Puritan teachings.
The Dilemma of the Outsider
The tension between Christian doctrine and a pluralistic society is manifest in Colonial literature. The dilemma of the outsider is one example. Bradford records the story of Thomas Morton in Of Plymouth Plantation (Bradford 71). Morton immigrated to the New World sometime in the 1620s. He succeeded in convincing a group of indentured servants to rebel against their master in order to set up a slightly different sort of Utopia. Morton encouraged drinking, erected a maypole, and “maintained a school of Atheism” (Bradford 72). The Puritan authorities reacted to his nonconformity by returning him to England.
Maintaining loyalty to Puritanism became more difficult as the interests of the colonists became more diverse. Even aboard the Mayflower, certain “strangers” were present whose end was money, not Christian Utopia (Bradford 66). Over time, the colonists multiplied. They began to raise cattle and to spread out across an increasingly large area (Ross, The New Eden: Early Responses). Many became prosperous. Slowly, Puritan doctrine came into competition with the gospel of success (Ross, The Self-Made Man: Franklin and Crevecoeur). Much of the literature of the colonial period may be seen as an attempt by the Puritans to maintain their influence in society. Examples include Cotton Mather’s Wonders of the Invisible World (1693) and Jonathan Edwards’s “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” (1741).
In conclusion, it seems that Colonial literature is firmly rooted in the Mayflower Compact. It contains the seeds of many of its strongest themes: the quest for Eden, the tension between church and state, and the dilemma of the outsider. In working out the implications of the Compact, writers like Bradford, Winthrop, Mather, and Edwards embarked on a new voyage: the creation of an American literature.
Works Cited
Bradford, William. "Of Plymouth Plantation." The Norton Anthology of American Literature. Ed. Nina Baym. Shorter 7th Edition. Vol. I. New York: Norton, 2008.
Fritscher, John J. "The Sensibility and Conscious Style of William Bradford in Of Plymouth Plantation." Bucknell Review 17 (1969): 80-90.
Reuben, Paul P. Chapter 1: Early American Literature to 1700 - A Brief Introduction. 29 September 2009.
Ross, Dale. "The New Eden: Early Responses." American Literature to 1865. Ames: Des Moines Area Community College, 2 September 2009.
—. "The Self-Made Man: Franklin and Crevecoeur." American Literature to 1865. Ames: Des Moines Area Community College, 23 September 2009.
Winthrop, John. "A Model of Christian Charity." The Norton Anthology of American Literature. Shorter 7th Edition. Vol. I. New York: Norton, 2008.
Friday, September 18, 2009
The Beginning of Us
We've been studying texts from the Colonial period in American Lit. We have been studying the beginning of us. I wanted to capture my reaction to a few of these works before we steam on towards Enlightenment issues.
The City on a Hill
For we must consider that we shall be as a City upon a hill. The eyes of all people are upon us. So that if we shall deal falsely with our God in this work we have undertaken, and so cause him to withdraw his present help from us, we shall be made a story and a by-word throughout the world.
- John Winthrop, governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony, "A Model of Christian Charity," discourse written aboard the Arbella during the voyage to Massachusetts in 1630
The English colonists who ventured across the Atlantic in the early part of the 17th century came in search of more than a New World. They were looking for a New Eden. Separatist and Puritan alike sought a place where they could create a society in harmony with the Word of God. John Winthrop explored the ideal Christian community in "A Model of Christian Charity" (1630). Here are a few passages that stood out to me.
There are two rules whereby we are to walk one towards another: justice and mercy.
There is likewise a double law by which we are regulated in our conversation one towards another in both the former respects: the law of nature and the law of grace, or the moral law and the law of the Gospel ... By the first of these laws man as he was enabled so withal [is] commanded to love his neighbor as himself.
The definition which the Scripture gives us of love is this: "Love is the bond of perfection."
Nothing yields more pleasure and content to the soul than when it finds that which it may love fervently, for to love and live beloved is the soul's paradise...
Here, at the beginning of us, we find a sublime, reciprocal love - "To love and live beloved is the soul's paradise." Surely a society that understands the needs of people in this way must be built to last. A philosophy that encourages selflessness, charity, and simple goodness is so much to be admired. I marvel at both the strength and the innocence of the Puritan experiment in America.
Winthrop understood that this experiment could succeed only so long as each member of the group remained committed to God and one another.
Now the only way to avoid this shipwreck, and to provide for our posterity, is to follow the counsel of Micah, to do justly, to love mercy, to walk humbly with our God. For this end, we must be knit together in this work as one man.
Over time, the colonists multiplied. They began to raise cattle and to spread out across an increasingly large area. Many became prosperous. Soon, the unity of the body was broken by wealthy, independent minded merchants who were unwilling to make the same sacrifices as their forbears.
The City on a Hill
For we must consider that we shall be as a City upon a hill. The eyes of all people are upon us. So that if we shall deal falsely with our God in this work we have undertaken, and so cause him to withdraw his present help from us, we shall be made a story and a by-word throughout the world.
- John Winthrop, governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony, "A Model of Christian Charity," discourse written aboard the Arbella during the voyage to Massachusetts in 1630
The English colonists who ventured across the Atlantic in the early part of the 17th century came in search of more than a New World. They were looking for a New Eden. Separatist and Puritan alike sought a place where they could create a society in harmony with the Word of God. John Winthrop explored the ideal Christian community in "A Model of Christian Charity" (1630). Here are a few passages that stood out to me.
There are two rules whereby we are to walk one towards another: justice and mercy.
There is likewise a double law by which we are regulated in our conversation one towards another in both the former respects: the law of nature and the law of grace, or the moral law and the law of the Gospel ... By the first of these laws man as he was enabled so withal [is] commanded to love his neighbor as himself.
The definition which the Scripture gives us of love is this: "Love is the bond of perfection."
Nothing yields more pleasure and content to the soul than when it finds that which it may love fervently, for to love and live beloved is the soul's paradise...
Here, at the beginning of us, we find a sublime, reciprocal love - "To love and live beloved is the soul's paradise." Surely a society that understands the needs of people in this way must be built to last. A philosophy that encourages selflessness, charity, and simple goodness is so much to be admired. I marvel at both the strength and the innocence of the Puritan experiment in America.
Winthrop understood that this experiment could succeed only so long as each member of the group remained committed to God and one another.
Now the only way to avoid this shipwreck, and to provide for our posterity, is to follow the counsel of Micah, to do justly, to love mercy, to walk humbly with our God. For this end, we must be knit together in this work as one man.
Over time, the colonists multiplied. They began to raise cattle and to spread out across an increasingly large area. Many became prosperous. Soon, the unity of the body was broken by wealthy, independent minded merchants who were unwilling to make the same sacrifices as their forbears.
Friday, August 14, 2009
Home at last
This is just a quick note to let everybody know that I recently moved back to Ames from Cincinnati. I am absolutely thrilled to be home. After living in an urban area for almost two years, this college town feels like heaven. Just look at this place...
I'm reminded of what Billy Corgan said when he reformed Smashing Pumpkins: "I want my band back, and my songs, and my dreams." Now the trick is figuring out a way to stay...
I'm reminded of what Billy Corgan said when he reformed Smashing Pumpkins: "I want my band back, and my songs, and my dreams." Now the trick is figuring out a way to stay...
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