Month: July 2017

Although we did not talk about the Sirens much in this class, they have caught my attention.  I have taken other classes in which we have discussed modern interpretations of Greek and Roman myths including Ulysses by James Joyce and the films “Oh Brother Where Art Thou?” and “Sirens”.  In these other classes there was a much larger focus on the Sirens and the way they have been portrayed throughout history.  I would like to share some of these portrayals with you here.

In the original myth, the Sirens were ugly (or beautiful depending on the source) chicken women who lived alone on an island.  These chicken women would seduce sailors passing by their island with song and the sailors would crash their boats into the rocks surrounding the island.  The Sirens would then eat their flesh.  This myth is pretty grotesque in its origin.  In some versions of the myth the Sirens were handmaidens of Demeter that were turned into birds to look for Persephone, while others simply have them born as bird women to the river god Achelous with no clear consensus on who their mother was.

The most well known use of the Sirens myth is in Homer’s Odyssey.  In the Odyssey Odysseus’ boat passes the island of the Sirens and he is determined to be the only one to hear their song and live.  He has all of his men plug their ears with ear wax and ties himself to the ships mast.  He succeeds in hearing the Siren song and surviving.

When you move further through history the myth is used in many different ways.  The most common theme is that these women are not only beautiful singers, but are beautiful women in general.  In the films mentioned above the women are beautiful and eye-catching, which gets the men into trouble.  In Ulysses the barmaids in the Sirens chapter are beautiful and lusted after by the men that visit their tavern.  The thing about Sirens is that they know they are beautiful and they use their looks to seduce men (and women) into doing something for them.  Whether that thing is crashing into the rocks so they have a meal, or spending more money on drinks at their bar.

    The Sirens always bring trouble to the men that they seduce.  In “Oh Brother Where Art Thou” the trouble is simply that they are delayed in their journey.  This is the same in the Odyssey.  Odysseus goes out of his way and takes the time to sail past the Siren’s Island.  Other men that encounter the Sirens are not as lucky and often come to some type of danger or pain.  In the film “Sirens”  the male figure loses his wife to the Sirens when she becomes one herself.  In other adaptations however the outcome is much more dire.  This is most obvious in the original myth, where the Siren song led to death.

This myth is just one of the ways that society and men have portrayed feminine beauty (and women in general) as being dangerous to men.  The beautiful feminine voices of the Sirens draw the sailors in to their deaths.  There are many other myths that help perpetuate this idea that women are dangerous for men.  One of the most obvious ones being the myth of Pandora, whose existence was a punishment for mankind.  The story of the Trojan war also perpetuates this idea.  Helen of Troy is described as the most beautiful woman on Earth and that beauty brings about a 10 year war between the Greeks and Trojans.  The Siren myth is just one myth that contributes to this idea of women as dangerous, but it is one that has persisted throughout history.

 

Image:  Ulysses and the Sirens by Herbert James Draper (1909)

 

Image:  Sirens (1993)

 

Image:  Oh Brother Where Art Thou (2000)

 

 

Athena, goddess of Wisdom and War, at the Louvre. Roman copy from the 1st century BC/AD after a Greek original of the 4th century BC, attributed to Cephisodotos or Euphranor.

When I took this class of Gods and Heroes of Classical Mythology, we had discussed the importance of Athena throughout our semester.  I knew the myth and legends of her and how she provided aid to heroes for their journey to achieve victoriously.  I know she helped Hercules, Achilles, Hector, and Perseus as well as heroes from The Iliad and The Odyssey from both my high school literature classes and college classes.  But I did learn a lot about Athena in deeper detail from this class and how she helped humans in a complex way within the mythology tales.  My personal perspective about Athena changed because I can see her more as an important goddess to our modern world and how she shapes us and how she lives in each of us.  When we went to London, we had seen Athena artifacts, artwork and sculptures everywhere on important historical landmarks and basic life.  We started to learn more about her and how she herself was a personification of wisdom, peace, and prosperity to demonstrate each nation with balance.  The Goddess Athena became an important mythological being since she had major effects on the development of human civilization and the development of different human perspective.

Dr. Tony mentioned to us that Athena was a very important goddess from ancient times and became an important being.  She also signified the messages for women being powerful individuals and how she should be equal to the males she helps.  She was a view to help rulers to achieve greatness in military matters and government from ancient times until now.  She is one of the most important figures within women history to give them a boost to show the importance of how women are.  Her Roman name is Minerva, which is a counter partner to Athena.  She was the most active in the humans than another god from Mount Olympia.  Athena is the most famous and beloved deity from ancient times and still in modern times.  Her attributes are her shield, her helmet, her spear, her pet owl, and a gorgon’s head or Medusa’s Head on her chest.  She is one of the three holy virgin goddesses, a being of wisdom, a being of hand-man crafts and a being of warfare strategist.  She had helped many famous heroes, kings, and warriors in Ancient Greece and Rome.  Zeus had many children with many women, and his personal favorite child was Athena herself.  The birth of Athena was an interesting one; according to Mythencyclopdia.com, it discusses that Zeus had Metis pregnant and the oracle said to him that they will have a girl and if they had a son he will be overthrown.  So Zeus ate Metis to prevent this from happening.  One day Zeus had a headache and Hephaestus used his ax and split Zeus’s head and here come Athena fully dress in her armor and into womanhood (Advameg Inc, 2017).

In ancient times, Athena herself was able to influence the building of the city Athens and The Parthenon.  The goddess mythology helps the development of human civilization and how it came into being.  There was a famous myth of how Athens came into being, according to mythencyclopedia.com.  It states that there was a contest between Poseidon and Athena in which whoever won came have the city.  Poseidon used his trident and hit the ground and water came out.  The people seemed happy at first, but they realized that it was salt water.  Athena planted an olive tree and it won the people over.  She became the patron of the city and named the city after her, calling it Athens (Anon, Myths Encyclopedia).  Throughout Greece and Rome, she became the most used patron goddess of the ideal and was worshiped more than any other gods.  The reason is that she was down to earth and understood the mortals better than the other gods.  She wanted to help them achieve greatness and avoid endless war with each other nations, to work together to develop a harmony world.  She was a benevolent being and punished the harshness to whom deserved the punishment with justice and law.  The citizens put her images on coins, festivals, athletic games, armor and weapons, and she was a major protector of Sparta, Corinth and Thebes (Cartwright, 2012).

In modern times, Athena’s presences are still here with us.  She was used in important symbolism throughout our world.  People used her status as intelligence, logic, wisdom, reasoning, and creativity to help pursue a higher meaning of being human (The Goddess Path and The Goddess Gift).  The Goddess Athena and her influences over time made an impact with herself in modern pop culture as well.  Within the academic world, Minerva and Athena both symbolize intelligence and wisdom.  The scholars used them as the symbol of the educational world to express themselves and used her as the logo to honor the Warrior Goddess (A Voyage with the Gods Athena).  Another important aspect of Athena is that she is in a lot of classical art, literature, music, toys, sculptures, television shows, movies and much more.  In the classical arts, she appears in her famous armor and wears her royal Helmet, symbolizing war and power to the females.

In the 90s, Athena was played by Paris Jefferson from the popular show called Xena: Warrior Princess.  Athena does help us evoke us human into the higher consciousness of expressing the emotion and the imagination.  This had increased the inspiration of a new generation of artist, writers, musicians, historians and video game developers.  All the literature, history, arts and all resources I found so far do agree with the importance on how the arts and literature from Athena herself had a major influence on our evolution; she also had an influence on the advancement of modern fine arts and modern literature.  The goddess’s mythical tales help the increase of the high level of great creative thinkers, artist, and writers alike.  The Goddess Athena will continue to influences us and affect us with her tales and herself, and she will be with us on our journey into the bright future of humanity.

Athena play by Paris Jefferson from Xena: Warrior Princess 1995-2001
Barbie Version of Athena Designed by: Linda Kyaw Release Date: 2/18/2010 Product Code: R4492 Gold Label®

 

References:

Advameg, Inc (2017).  Encyclopedia of Myths. Athena Available at http://www.mythencyclopedia.com/Ar-Be/Athena.html   [Accessed June 29, 2017].

Cartwright, M. (2012). Ancient History Encyclopedia, Athena Definition Retrieved from http://www.ancient.eu/athena/

MediaWiki. New World Encyclopedia. (2016) Athena, Available at http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Athena [Accessed June 30, 2017].

The Goddess Path and The Goddess Gift (2014). Athena, Greek Goddess Greek Goddess of Wisdom and Craftsmanship, Available at http://www.goddessgift.com/goddess-myths/greek_goddess_athena.htm [Accessed June 29, 2017].

A Voyage with the Gods Athena. (2011) Athena and Minerva in today’s world, Available at http://151.12.58.141/virtualexhibition/today.html [Accessed June 29, 2017].

IMDb.com, Inc.(2017) Paris Jefferson Actress, Available at http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0420219/ [Accessed June 30, 2017].

Images References:

Athena, goddess of Wisdom and War, at the Louvre. Roman copy from the 1st century BC/AD after a Greek original of the 4th century BC, attributed to Cephisodotos or Euphranor.  https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athena

Athena play by Paris Jefferson from Xena: Warrior Princess 1995-2001 https://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/hercxena/images/3/38/S05E14_%E2%80%93_Athena.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20150126163520

Matte ‘s Barbie Pallas Athena Designed by: Linda Kyaw
Release Date: 2/18/2010 Product Code: R4492 Gold Label® http://151.12.58.141/virtualexhibition/today.html