Regarding The Tain

I found The Tain to be my favorite of the mythologies. Perhaps because I found it a quick read, or maybe the prevalence of Celtic influence in pop-culture; being the heavy metal geek I am one of the recent albums getting play on my morning commute is by a band Suidakra. Crógacht actually details Cuchulainn's travel to the Isle of Skye where he learned many of his warrior traits from a warrior woman named Scathach.

Consider that Cuchulainn learned much of his fighting craft from a female, then consider the prominent role that Queen Medb has in The Tain. Not only did she use womanly guile and blatant sexuality to achieve her ambitions, but is a fierce warrior in her own right and unafraid of combat.

It's obvious that women are given a powerful role in Celtic Society that far surpasses their roles in Greek and Hindu mythology. My question is why do you think this was? I'm curious as to why what theories there are about how a matriarch-driven society evolved during a time when so much of the world was dominated by men.

Mahabharata Question

I have to be honest, the movie was quite a load to have to take in a single setting. I found the book to be significantly easier to understand, though my western manner of thought still left me at times scratching my head. As someone who doesn't entirely accept that destiny is pre-determined, some of the attitudes about wealth kinda pertubed me a bit.

On page 101 of The Mahabharata (as translated by Chakravarthi Narasimhan), during the second paragraph of Udyoga Parva, Book XL, Yurdhisthira states the following:

"Wealth is said to be the best virtue. Everything is established on wealth; and rich men live in this world, while poor men are practically dead. Poverty is a greater danger to a man than death; for it destroys his prosperity, which is the source of his virtue as well as his pleasures. A man who is born poor does not suffer so much as one who, after having enjoyed great prosperity and a life of great happiness, is deprived of it."

I have trouble processing that this statement comes from the King of the Pandavas who is reknown for performing sacrifices.

My question to you, however, is this: do you agree with Yurdhisthira? Why or why not?

Blog Question for the class

One of the things I found interesting about watching the movie Troy verses reading the Illiad is the ways in which the two stories deviated from one another. For example, in the Illiad the gods had a very active physical role in the story, such as when Aphrodite rescues Paris from the field of battle during his duel with Menelaus. By contrast, when this scene takes place in the film Troy, Paris crawls to Hector's knees for protection, and there is an absence of direct intervention of the gods.

Frequently during Troy when presented with options for doing battle with the Acheans, King Priam cites favor of the gods before engaging in tactical decision that would be catastrophic for Troy, in spite of Hector's advice against doing so. It never seemed like the gods were truly involved in the film anywhere near the same level they were involved in Homer's epic.

My question is, why do you think the gods were absent from Troy (or do you believe they were?) and do you think it has a significant impact on the morals and lessons to be gleaned from the story itself?

Testing...one...two...three?

I've written and posted tons of nonsense on the web in the past, however this is the first blog created for academic purposes. Of course it will long outlive this course as any online posting tends to do. So thus it will be; perhaps someday this one surpasses my mostly music blog on myspace or the longforgotten livejournal account I had years ago. Certainly I hope it is more useful than the online shouting match that is Twitter...who the *&*^& "tweets" anyhow?

I suppose time will tell.

If nothing else, 100 pages into The Illiad and so far what I've taken from it is that Homer crafted a tale of intrigues among the dysfunctional, vain, and narcissistic gods of the Greek Pantheon and that both the Trojans and Aegeans are but pawns of their diabolical feuding.

More to come, surely.