Two Things

One, check out The Pomegranate Blog for a poem about Icarus.  It is translated and written in its original language.

Two, I just learned something today and wanted to pass it on.  I know that you, I'm sure, have already known this for some time, but, well, it is new to me.  I've always thought Pandora had a box.  You know, Pandora's box - right?  Well, the Greek poet Hesiodus said she had a pithos, this is (so I'm told since I don't speak Greek, maybe Ailia can help me since she can) a jar for storing grain.  Everyone went along for years saying Pandora's jar until Erasmus published Adagia, in which he translated it as box.  Since he was so widely read at the time, 

the use of box became more common than jar.

I don't know what is worse, the fact that I, while never claiming to be a scholar, didn't know this or from the fact that I learned it from a children's book 

my son checked out of his school library.

"Fields of Gold" Revisited

Before I go further into this, if you are reading this blog for the first time, you'll want to skim down and read the "Fields of Gold" entry first.

Sadly, I'm not a music fan. My wife is and neither of us understand the other's interest or lack thereof. However, I do like the Police and Sting. Knowing a little bit about his history also intrigues me. He was an English teacher and if you listen to his lyrics you often find allusions to literary classics, such as to Lolita in "Don't Stand so Close to Me," Canterbury Tales in the CD title Ten Summoner's Tales (I have read that is a double allusion - to his real name as well), and others. So the precedent has been set for allusions. Knowing this, I didn't think it was too far a reach that "Fields of Gold" might match the mythological image in my mind. I have found no conformation of this interpretation, but I hold to it anyway.

I'm going with the Rape of Persephone and look at it with a more compassionate Hades than is usually shown. Many try to portray him as a devil figure, but to me, he's just a guy who fell in love and was a bit too awkward in trying to ask her out. Come on, heroes were all the time kidnapping girls.

"You'll remember me when the west wind moves" Here we have west, which is an archetype for death, so the Hades connection and we have west wind, which is Zephyr in Greek mythology and used quite a bit in scenes of love, like Cupid and Psyche.

"You'll forget the sun in his jealous sky" The only way to forget the sun is if you can no longer see or feel it. Thus the underworld. The sky is jealous because it was Helios, the sun titan, that tattle-taled in Hades. Hades has the beautiful woman that Helios can no longer gaze upon.

"As we walk in the fields of gold" Hades/Pluto has another name - Dis. He was usually called this when he was referred to as the the god of wealth. Since gold and other precious metals as well as precious gems come from underground, they must be part of the underworld. Makes sense. Especially here, where they would walk in fields of (literally) gold.

"So she took her love /For to gaze awhile /... In his arms she fell as her hair came down" See, don't let the rape word fool you (it only means kidnapped here), she does love him back. She just didn't appreciate being taken without her consent.

"Will you stay with me, will you be my love" O.K., a bit tricky, but even though he was holding her against her will, he was hoping that she would want to stay with him. The saying, "If you love something let it go," had not been invented yet. We are talking ANCIENT Greece.

"We'll forget the sun in his jealous sky" Now it is "we." He's making his move.

"Feel her body rise when you kiss her mouth" I don't care what interpretation you take, this switch in point of view is odd.

"I never made promises lightly/And there have been some that I've broken/But I swear in the days still left/We'll walk in the fields of gold" Here Hades resolves to make sure she'll come back to him with the pomegranate seeds.

"Many years have passed since those summer days/Among the fields of barley/See the children run as the sun goes down/Among the fields of gold" In summer (when Persephone is home) she is in the barely - with her mom. When the sun goes down (archetype of death), she is in the underworld with Hades.

O.K., maybe a stretch, but I can't help feeling that way when I hear it. Ailia had a fantastic alternative by suggesting Demeter and Iasion and the Thrice Plowed Field. I guess the barley had us both thinking Demeter. If you are not familiar with that story, it is a good one and works in the jealous sky a bit better. Zeus, no happy that Demeter is with someone besides him (you know how those overprotective incestuous brothers can be) strikes down Iasion with a lightning bolt as they lay in a field. I like that possibility too. FYI - Iasion found immortality int he stars. The Gemini twin stars (visible tonight int he west), usually mean Castor and Pollux, but some references show that one of the stars in Iasion.

The Limerick Dictionary

I recently found a website that is making a dictionary with every entry having a limerick and then a brief definition. It is The Omnificent English Dictionary In Limerick Form (http://www.oedilf.com/db/Lim.php). It is written by volunteers and they have 42,000 entries (and they haven't gotten past C yet). For any mythology teachers out there, this is a lesson waiting to happen! If you just want to see the myth limericks, try this address: http://www.oedilf.com/db/Lim.php?Topic=42

Here are a few myth related entries (all poems and entries are taken directly from the source):

Cerberus by OxfordVictor (Victor Kandampully)

You can lull him with musical tricks,
Or put drugs in your honeycake mix.
But three heads (and six eyes)
Mean it wouldn't be wise
To pass Cerberus, guarding his Styx.

In Greek mythology, Cerberus (SIR-bur-us), the giant three-headed dog who guarded the Underworld, was a fearsome animal with a serpent for a tail. However, several mortals contrived to enter the Underworld by passing Cerberus and crossing the River Styx. Aeneas was accompanied by the Sibyl of Cunae. Book VI of The Aeneid describes how she fed Cerberus drugged tidbits, so that they could safely pass. Orpheus played music to Cerberus so that the dog would be lulled to sleep. Harry Potter fans will realise why this story makes it reasonably certain that the dog Fluffy in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone is J.K.Rowling's own tribute to Cerberus.


Achilles by Robert Holland (Robert Holland)

Brave Achilles delivered defeat
To Hector, whom no one could beat.
Then Paris, the archer,
Sealed Achilles' departure.
Now he's known for his heel, not his feat.

According to Greek myth, Achilles had only one weakness, his heel, which his mother held to dip him as a newborn into the River Styx. Achilles defeated Hector, Troy's champion, in face to face combat during the Trojan Wars. Then Paris, counseled by the goddess Aphrodite, shot Achilles in the heel. Achilles died from this wound, giving birth to the term "Achilles' heel", a fateful singular weakness or vulnerability, as well as the anatomical term "Achilles tendon", which is the largest tendon in the human body.

Argonauts by sigg (Ian Hartshorn)

The Argonauts rowed Jason's boat.
The Aegean is where they did float
As they sought the gold fleece,
Which was famed throughout Greece
'Cause it made for a premium coat.

One theory is that Jason sailed from the Aegean into the Black Sea. The inhabitants in the eastern end of the Black Sea traditionally used sheepskins to mine for gold. (They would pour stream mud/rock down a sluice lined with sheepskin and the gold fragments would get caught by the wool. After a day's mining, you might actually have golden fleece.)

and finally...

Asgard by speedysnail (Rory Ewins)

In Asgard, three Norse gods of war,
Namely Woden and Frigga and Thor,
Thought they'd all be unique,
And have days of the week
Named after them. Loki's still sore.

Asgard is the world of the Aesir, or warrior gods, in Norse mythology.

Achilles

Here is a poem I found by Jeffrey Hull, a pediatrician that writes poetry in a blog. He titles it, "Achilles: Reflections on, well Reflections"

Achilles would not see old age nor wife,

His sea-nymph mother Thetis had foretold;

The choice was storied glory or long life,

And fame was far more dear than growing old.

Undying life, to be forever free

Of earthly bonds of body, time and space:

To break those ties and live in memory,

A tale three thousand years could not efface.

But mortal I obediently stand

Before this cold-eyed mirror every day

And note how little worked out as I planned,

And idly note my body's slow decay.

But if Achilles lived, he lived not so—

And I've got this to do, and there to go.

© 2005 Jeffrey Hull

You can find more of his poems at: http://jwhull.blogspot.com/