Humanities Is So Much Better Than Math

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) 

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.

• 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

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.