Humanities Is So Much Better Than Math

"Man is the measure of all things" ~Protagoras~

I think my favorite slide show so far is the medieval medicine slide show. It was interesting and gruesome all at the same time. I think It was well put together and well thought out. 

Kate and I are going to do our presentation today, I am a little nervous but excited at the same time. We are doing our presentation on Dionysus and the thing I find interesting about him is they way he was born. Well, one of the myths anyways is that he was re-born from Zeus' leg. Some times I wish the things we read in books were real, they always seem way more interesting then the real world. I guess thats why movies are so entertaining.

Today we talked about the second level of hell and I thought it was quite interesting. It makes me think of if there really is a hell and what it really is about. Because the people that were in that level of hell were in there because of lust. And their punishment was being in a tornado in the middle of a hurricane and since they gave into the sins of flesh they were in the tornado not allowed to ever tough each other but they had to feel that desire and that in itself is hell. I must agree, I don't know if I could bare that, but I suppose that is what it was part of hell.

We watched a documentary about knights in class today that I thought was a little interesting. The thing that I thought was interesting was Chivalry and how it came about. The fact that when knights first came to be there really was no such thing as Chivalry. As a matter of fact there was one time that knights barged into a city and killed about 5000 unarmed innocent people. Chivalry came to be because some guy decided that is how he thought knights should be. But it still wasn't up to the way it is betrayed in movies today. Knights were just knights, they did not rescue damsels in distress or fight off dragons. They were like all other types of people and weren't way better either. They were just higher up in the roles of feudalism.  

So I haven't written in a long time so here is a book we read awhile back that I found quite interesting.

Oedipus Tyrannus
This book was a greek tragedy and to me was very ironic and interesting. This style of reading was so much easier to read than the older stuff that we were reading like The Iliad. At the beginning of this story Oedipus ( the main character) Explains that there was something terrible that was going on in the city. A plague was going on and that plague was that nothing could reproduce. This meant that that plants could not grow, people and animals could not have babies, and other things like that. No one knew this was happening so they sent a man named Creon to ask Apollo what was happening. When he returned he came with the news that someone in the City had created a horrible murder. The murder of their old king Laius.

Later someone that people had considered a visionary had come to tell him who it was that committed the murder. The funny thing is that he was blind. (He was blind but could see everything) He told Oedipus that it was him that created the murder. Oedipus did not believe him because he didn't remember killing the king and didn't even know the king.

As the story went on things started to reveal and it turns out that he did kill the king. He was a bastard child and was on his way to the city from the city that he lived in to find his dad. On his way he killed an old man. That just so happened to be the king and....get this....his father. (What kind of fucked up shit is that!?!?!) So he showed up in the city and seemed like a hero so he inherited the thrown. He married the queen and she bore his children. (wait there is more irony) She was his mother. So he commited two horrible sins. Murder and Incest. Wow his life was pretty fucked if you ask me.

This whole story was just a huge twist of irony, and probably my favorite thing that we've read. I really enjoyed it.

For the past couple of days in class we have been talking about the book "The Trial and Death of Socrates" and I find Socrates to be quite interesting. I mean he was going around pissing people off and got put on trial for it. I love that he can pretty much convince everyone that they don't really know what they're talking about even though they thought they did. When he was in jail waiting to be put on death row a friend came to bust him out and Socrates said that he couldn't go because of a few reasons. (Those of which I will have to get back to you)

We are finally done with The Iliad, and I am kind of sad that we didn't read the whole thing. But I shall do that In my own time. We didn't have class on Monday because my professor was sick, which is sad becuase I enjoy the class very much. The end of The Iliad was a battle between Hector and Achilles, and Hector lost. Achilles was mad about him killing his cousin so for 12 days in the morning Achilles would drag Hectors body around in front of Troy. I love the change that Achilles goes through. Its really touching that he acutally showed empathy towards the end.

I can't wait to read the next book.

There was a lot of interesting things that we talked about in class and one I'm sure everyone will remember is when we were talking about metaphors.The example in the book was


"As a garden poppy, burst into red bloom, bends,
drooping its head to one side, weighed down
by its full seeds and a sudden spring shower,
so Gorgythion's head fell limp over one shoulder.
Weighed down by his helmet."

It is saying that in his death there is life just like with the garden poppy. When it dies it spreads its seed. Hid death was glorious and he sacrificed himself for the better.

The example that the teacher gave for metaphor's started off by a famous quote from Romeo and Juliet that said was said by Romeo "Julia is my sun"Obviously that means that Julia is the center of his universe, and yadda yadda yadda.
There is also another quote that is "The sun is a huge anus" and the earth is sun shit. It was so funny. The main this was that everything is pretty  much an excretion of something else. More examples included.

  • Honey=Bee vomit
  • Oxygen=Tree shit
  • Carbon Dioxide=People shit (you shit it out of your mouth) 
and so on, it was pretty funny and I couldn't help from laughing. 

So today we went over book one and I found out some pretty interesting things that I didn't really know.

  • People back then, feared ghosts because a ghost was someone that wasn't properly buried. 
  • Also Hades wasn't hell, it was just a place that people go when their dead. 
  • All of the Gods were metaphores for things...
    • Thetis is a metaphor for the inner conflict
    • Athena is a metaphor for wisdom
  • Also Zeus is an abusive wife-beater
  • At the end of the book when Zeus got mad and told Hera to shut up and she was sad. Her son was comforting her and offered her wine.
Then in book six
  • When Hector returned home he saw
    • Mom
    • Brother
    • Wife
    • Son
  • When Hector went home Hectors mom offered HIM wine. 
  • Hector is actually fighting for something real.
  • His brother is a lover not a fighter
I love the fact that the gods are no better then the humans!

So I am currently in the middle of reading book IV I know what you're thinking, Man you really skip around but that is exactly what I am thinking too. Its kind of hard to figure out what is going on when you do that but I think I can manage. I think the hardest part of reading this text is trying to figure out how to pronounce the names in it. And when you are thinking about what the names are it is kind of hard to keep your mind on what is actually going on in the story....But what I think I have retained so far is that.....

The Acheans and the Trojans are in the middle of a war. Well at least that is who I think is at war. Tons of people killing each other.Well kind of, because it will say someone died but then they killed someone too, so its just a huge confusing circle. One part that was pretty intensely interesting to me was when Menelaus caught Adrestus and Adrestus started begging for his life. He went on to say that his father would give him everything that he can, and he almost let him go but Agamemnon came rushing up and pretty much told him that he was being weak and killed the guy right there. It was pretty much a "YOU GOT OWNED" moment.

The next "story" in the book that stuck out to me was the story about a man named Bellerophon. A really good man who was also good looking that lived in Corinth of Argos. The king at the time was named Proetus, and his wife lusted for Bellerophon, so the king sent Bellerophon on a mission that would "Surely get him killed". His mission was to bring a note to Antea (Proetus' Wife)'s father a note with murderous signs on it. This way he would get killed and the king wouldn't acutally have to do it himself. So he sent Bellerophon on his way when he got there he dined with Xanthus (the father) for 9 days, and killed 9 ox. On the tenth day the king asked why he was there so he gave him the note. Xanthus was angry so he set up all these things that Bellerophon was supposed to do. Like kill this weird  lion snake goat thing, and he did. Then he had to some tribesmen and won, and some Amazons and won. Since he won all these things the king knew he was powerful and offered him his daughter as a wife. He took her and she had 3 kids. But one day all the gods hated him so he was cast out to wander alone.

The Trojans were almost giving up hope....
Hector returned and told his mother with other noble to pray to the gods and offer them heifers if they will have pitty on Troy.

So, you probably read before I was going to try to read all of the Iliad, which I will, but not for this class....We get through the chapters that we are supposed to pretty rapidly so I don't think I can read the whole book in two and a half weeks. Maybe if I wasn't a music major and had 7 classes a day, I could do it, but its just not possible with my schedule.

Today was one Tucker's (the teacher) only lectures but I think it was a really good one. It was about what the class should be about but I learned some pretty interesting stuff. Like....

  • Humanities comes from the latin word "human nature" 
    • which refers to a quality that distinguishes humans from animal.
The interesting thing about that is that there have been so many people that fight over if animals have feelings or souls. I love to watch people argue about something that can not be proven. I guess when you look at it from that perspective there are a lot of things that can't be proven. I guess I like seeing people defend things with all that they believe.

  • Discourse is...
    • A social language created by certain conditions to a specific time and place 
    • expresses a particular way of understanding human experience 
(I took notes, just in case you were wondering I didn't come up with this all by myself :p )
Looks like I learned a new word today because I had never even heard of "Discourse" before.... He talked about how culture is marked by rapid change in dicourse like changes in ideas.

The example he gave was about how before the 4th century when Constantine converted into Christianity, there was no bible so Constantine gathered people from the Latin church to create the bible. The first person to take all the books of the bible and put it all together in Latin was a guy named JEROME and it was called the VULGATE (this word makes me think about 2 things, 1. SUPER AWESOME NAME!! and 2. Harry Potter). When he was reading all the old books he came across a word that he did not recognize "Manoia" and he translated it into Pennants which means to do things that forgive you for your sins. Awhile later a guy named Erasmus and translated the Vulgate into a "new testimate". And he went back to the beginning books to translate everything himself and he too came across the word "Manoia" but he translated it into repent which means to think/believe and ask for forgiveness. Then Martin Luther came along and translated the Vulgate into German but did not go back to the sources. He just stayed with Erasmus' definition of the word. He believed that your faith is between God and you. This lead to THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION.

I just think that it is amazing that one word can change history like that, just that one idea can make the difference.

I know I am getting somewhat of a head start on this whole blogging thing, considering I am posting two blogs in one night when I don't actually have to have anything posted yet. But that is completely okay.


I just got done reading the first book of The Iliad, and so far I find it quite interesting. Besides the fact that the names of people and places are hard to pronounce I think I like it so far.

It starts of by asking a question....Why is the god Apollo killing so many people? Well apparently a priest had traveled to ask Agamemnon to free his daughter  and in return they would get safe passage home. But Agamemnon refused and sent him away pretty much telling the priest that his daughter was going to die getting old, laying in HIS bed. So the priest went home and prayed to the god Apollo to help him by spreading "Vengence" on the people that were keeping his daughter. After about ten days of this Achilles had called for a meeting of his Achaean fighters and the people and talked about why Apollo raged on. Someone named Calchas (who I can't for the life of me figure out if he is a god or a mortal) stood up and told Achilles that if he told him the reason only if Achilles will protect him and fight for him because he was going to make someone really mad. Achilles agreed and the (thing) explained the reason Apollo was laying his Arrows down was because Agamemnon refused to release a priests daughter, and refused ransom, and that he would not stop until they gave the girl back.

After he told his story Agamemnon got all offended and started bitching about the woman that he refused to give back. He said that she was much better than his wife, even though they were both pretty much the same in health. But if he must give her back then he will because he did not like seeing his people in harms way he did not like it though and was almost against it. Then Achilles stood up and told him that he shouldn't expect anything, and that he needs to give back the girl. That they plundered towns and that it would be a disgrace to ask for anything in return.
Anyways they bantered on back and forth and eventually Achilles got really pissy and pulled his sword on Agamemnon and Athena (the goddess) was sent by the goddess Hera (Zeus' Wife) to tell them both to stop, that she hated seeing them fight because she loved  both men equally and that they needed to stop this madness. So they agreed and the goddess when back up into the heavens. As soon as she left Achilles decided that he was going to leave and urged Agamemnon to give back the girl. As he was leaving Agamemnon stood up and declared that he would give back the girl but would soon be at Achilles camp to take his prize (girl).
Just like he promised he gave back the girl and the priest prayed to Apollo to stop what he had started, and it came to be. As soon as the girl was given back he sent two men that liked Achilles, to fetch the girl that he promised he would take. They showed up to the camp and said nothing, looking sad and sorry, Achilles knew what they were there for so he let them take her.
After they left with the girl Achilles started whining to his mom, a goddess of the sea to ask Zeus to fight for him cause it wasn't fair that the man stole his girlfriend. His mom comforted him and told him that she would talk to the gods as soon as they were back from playing golf. (Ha ha, I don't really remember what they were doing but that sounded like a good idea) and that they would be back in like twelve days or something.
Like she said she would, she talked to Zeus and said that he should help her son because he was doomed to a short life anyways and that it wasn't fair that he had to live in agony of missing a woman too. So he shook his head and it was done.
When Zeus stepped out of his room? Ugh I don't know what it was....but all the Gods were sitting around and Hera, his wife got mad at him for granting the goddess of the sea her wishes. He pretty much told her to be quite and left. After he left the god of all crafts (I can't remember his name, I'm kind of bad with them) told her that she shouldn't tempt him because one time he tempted Zeus and was thrown down the mountain for a long time and finally landed on a town only to be nursed back to life by mortals. She listened, and at the end of the night she layed next to Zeus in bed and they fell asleep.

THE END OF BOOK 1

I personally think this story is pretty interesting so far. I really enjoyed reading it, and I think my roommate fell asleep a little quicker from me reading aloud :p I kind of think Achilles is a whinny brat that gets anything that he wants...At least thats what it seems like so far, we'll see how the next book goes.

As I said before, wish me luck on the reading...

Today was my first day of Humanities class and I found it quite enjoyable. Of course we didn't really do much besides go over the syllabus but, we did discover that we do NOT have to learn and memorize dates! Which made me jump for joy. That is one reason why history and I do not get along....Dates, just can't remember them. The first book that we are going to read is called The Iliad. I'm sure millions of people have read it, but I am not one of them. I am a little excited since I haven't read any of the "classics". But then again I've heard from many people that these can be really dry and boring. I'm hoping this isn't the case. I guess it won't be so bad since we don't have to read the whole thing, but I think that I am going to attempt to read it, I want to like it....

Interesting fact of the day the main thing that society got from the Romans.....architecture and they invented cement!

Wish me luck on the reading!

About this blog

Over the course of the semester I will be writing, and keeping up with what we discuss in class. I'm already interested, but lets hope it keeps going.

About Me

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I am currently a college student studying music education, and maybe family consumer science. I am pretty quiet but when you know me it's kind of hard to get me to shut up. I have an amazing family, and an even more amazing boyfriend. They support me in pretty much anything that I decide to do. I like to read, but haven't been reading much my first semester of college. I love movies, and I pretty much watch them all the time. I also love music. I play the alto saxophone and am learning the guitar. I can be really crafty and like to make things.

Quotes

"A t his best, man is the noblest of all animals; separated from law and justice he is the worst." ~Aristotle~

"Any man may easily do harm, but not every man can do good to another" ~Plato~

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