Aeolus, the unrelenting tormenter

I just got back from a 3 day backcountry ski trip in the Swan Mountains up by Kalispell. It was a great trip, except for the fact that Aeolus, the Greek god of winds, would not let us forget about him. It was so windy while we were up there. I think our tent might have lifted off the ground a couple time the first night. Aeolus was throwing all of his winds at us too so we couldn't get away from him. The winds just swirled through this basin and blew snow all around. Speaking of blowing snow around, Aeolus was just picking the snow up and carrying it everywhere, especially the backside of the ridge-tops, where the skiing would be the best. But, thanks to the great wind god, we couldn't ski the steep fun-looking slopes. He just threw too much snow around and increased the avalanche danger to uncomfortable levels. Also, he forced us to move camp over the the adjacent basin the second night because of a big storm that was suppose to hit us. If we had gotten the 16 inches of predicted snow, Aeolus would have thrown this around and around, and we could have easily gotten stranded back in the mountains. I don't think Aeolus knows just how troublesome he can be. He didn't ruin my trip, I still had an epic time on this adventure, but he certainly did not improve my trip either.

Humans, the Pawns of the Gods

As I was reading these myths and studying them for the quiz, I realized something, the gods seem to have total control over everything (obviously). But when you look into this more, it seems like the gods just have their way with the human race. Yes, the humans pray to the gods for favors, but when you step back and look at it, it seems like it ends up being one god against another, using the humans as pawns, like a chess game. This is especially apparent in times of war. One story where this really stood out to me was the Aeneid. In the Aeneid, Aeneas is trying to lead a group of Trojans to Italy after they were defeated in Troy by the Greeks. Juno doesn't like this and she sends many trials and troubles his way to make his Journey difficult. During these trials, Aeneas is praying to other gods, in particular, Jupiter. So when you step back and look at this, there is one god causing trouble and another god helping, basically retaliating against the other god through the human. And in the end of the story, Jupiter goes to Juno and says "Enough is enough, lets stop this already!", and boom, just like that, Aeneas' troubles are over. Why couldn't Jupiter just do that in the first place? Maybe its the fact that the gods are just enjoying a nice, semi-competitive game of chess where the humans are the pawns and the world is their chess board.

CERBERUS

Cerberus is the three headed dog that guards the gates to the underworld and keeps the living from entering the world of the dead. Psyche had to pass this dog on her journey to get the beauty lotion from Proserpina. Cerberus shows up in a couple places that are familiar to everybody. First of which would be in Hercules. Hercules had to capture the dog and bring him back to King Eurystheus.
Another place in modern culture where we see the three headed beast is in Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone. In this book, Harry, the hero, has to go through many trials to get to the Sorcerer's Stone, a stone that gives everlasting life. In a way, this is like going into the Underworld because he is going down below the castle. And wouldn't you know it, he has to get past a big three headed dog that just so happens to be blocking the trap door (gate) to the stone. The dog in Harry Potter is affectionately named Fluffy.

I thought it was interesting how Harry Potter incorporated the three headed dog on the journey to the underworld.

Here is a link to another blog that talks alot about Cerberus and his different forms if you are interested.

http://www.slice-o-life.com/creepbox/?startpos=5

Cupid And Psyche

The Golden Ass brings us into the story of Cupid and Psyche a little late. It starts off with Venus on an angry, desperate search for Psyche. So what happened before this, and why is Venus so mad?
Cupid is the son of Venus. He does her bidding of shooting people with his arrows and making people fall in love. As I blogged about earlier, Cupid has two kinds of arrows, a golden tipped one that makes people fall in love, and an arrow with a lead tip that brings about hatred in a person.
It turns out that Cupid was suppose to shoot Psyche with a golden arrow, and Venus was going to put a horrible creature in front of her so that Psyche fell in love with the creature. Why would Venus do such a mean thing? Well, Psyche happened to be one smokin' hottie with a slammin' body, and this made Venus jealous.
However, all did not go according to plan. Cupid, the clumsy little guy, got startled when psyche woke up and poked himself with the golden arrow. Who happened to be the first person he saw after getting poked? Psyche. Oh boy. Little Cupid caught by his own tricks started to fall madly in love with Psyche. Venus was not stoked on this. She cursed Psyche so that she could not meet a husband. Cupid revolts against Venus and quits his job of shooting people and creating love in the world. This means that no one is praising Venus, and Venus is not stoked on this either. She is so un-stoked that she lifts the curse from Psyche, allowing Cupid to go meet her. However, Cupid does not want her to know his identity, so he sleeps with her in the dark, and forbids Psyche to turn a light on and reveal who her lover is. As you may have guessed, sleeping together in the dark leads to one thing and another (if you don't know what I am getting at, ask your parents to give you the birds and the bees talk) and Psyche gets knocked up.
Well give it some time, and Psyche's evil sisters make her curious enough to shed a light on her lover one night and try to kill him, for he is suppose to be an evil serpent. When Psyche turns on the light, she gets stuck by one of the golden tipped arrows, and wouldn't you know it, falls madly in love with the guy laying next to her, her baby-daddy, Cupid. Bad news though, Cupid wakes up and scrams.
This is where the Golden Ass picks up, Psyche's search for her love.

New Zealand: shake and bake

I am sorry to say that Christchurch, New Zealand has been hit by yet another larger earthquake. I hold this place near and dear to my heart as I studied there last fall. There was one large earthquake while I was down there, a 7.1. However, Christchurch got lucky then and no one died, and there were only a few buildings with major major damage. This earthquake was only a 6.3, but much closer to the city center, and during lunch time. There are so far 75 reported deaths and still hundreds reported missing. Many buidings have been destroyed, including the iconic cathedral in the middle of the city.

The only explanation for these large earthquakes is that the god Ruaumoko is up and walking around the underworld. Ruaumoko is the son of Mother Papa and the god or earthquakes. For the sake of all of my friends and everyone else in New Zealand, I would appreciate it if Ruaumoko would stop walking around and just lay down for a long, long nap already!

Childhood hero

When I was a young whipper snapper, I idolized Aladdin.

That guy was definitely my hero growing up. Not only does he have a pet monkey, he gets to ride around on a flying carpet wherever he wants to go. He defeats Jafar and saves the girl. He goes on his adventure into the bowels of the sand tiger, takes the risk, and comes out with a deeper understanding of things, aka the Genie. I was trying to decide which type of hero this is according to Campbell. Campbell says there are two types of heroes. The first hero sets out responsibly and intentionally on an adventure, "the father quest"g. The second kind is where the adventure and deed are just thrown at the hero. Aladdin went into the cave intentionally to get the lamp for the crusty old man (secretly Jafar), but he ended up in a much bigger adventure than what he planned for.

Singles Awareness Day

Today is Valentine's day, in case you didn't know this already. Being the single guy that I am, meaning I am not out on a fancy date tonight, I decided to check out the mythologies behind Valentine's day. It started as a holiday to celebrate the Christian Martyr Saint Valentine in 496 AD and was created by Pope Gelasius I. Saint Valentine is not just one guy, apparently many martyrs back in the day were named Valentine. The original holiday was not even about love like it is today, it was simply to celebrate a martyr.
This is all very interesting, but I decided to get more mythological when researching it. The obvious choice here is Cupid.

Cupid is the son of Venus and Mars. He is perceived today as a cute, slightly chubby angel that shoots people with his magic arrows and makes them fall in love. However, I found out something new. In the stories, Cupid was said to carry two arrows, one with a gold tip and one with a lead tip. The gold tip made the recipient fall in love with the next person he or she laid eyes on. The lead tip invoked hatred in the recipient. Apparently, Cupid was a mischievous little bugger and he would shoot one person with the gold tip, and whoever they fell in love with received the lead tip arrow. The creates quite the conundrum. Doesn't it always seem like you go for the person who doesn't want anything to do with you, or the person you can't have? Or is that just me? At least Cupid is keeping love interesting. If you think about it, Cupid is just making sure business stays good. If everyone fell in love and the world was "perfect", he would have no one left to shoot.