'Gate to Hell'

I stumbled upon this article last night and thought it quite interesting because of what we are about to embark on in our mythologies class, the end, the apocalypse.

A “gate to hell” has emerged from ruins in southwestern Turkey, Italian archaeologists have announced.
Known as Pluto's Gate -- Ploutonion in Greek, Plutonium in Latin -- the cave was celebrated as the portal to the underworld in Greco-Roman mythology and tradition.
Historic sources located the site in the ancient Phrygian city of Hierapolis, now called Pamukkale, and described the opening as filled with lethal mephitic vapors.

“This space is full of a vapor so misty and dense that one can scarcely see the ground. Any animal that passes inside meets instant death,” the Greek geographer Strabo (64/63 BC -- about 24 AD) wrote.
“I threw in sparrows and they immediately breathed their last and fell,” he added.
Announced this month at a conference on Italian archaeology in Istanbul, Turkey, the finding was made by a team led by Francesco D'Andria, professor of classic archaeology at the University of Salento.

The Hellenistic city grew into a flourishing Roman city, with temples, a theater and popular sacred hot springs, believed to have healing properties.
“We found the Plutonium by reconstructing the route of a thermal spring. Indeed, Pamukkale' springs, which produce the famous white travertine terraces originate from this cave,” D'Andria told Discovery News.
Featuring a vast array of abandoned broken ruins, possibly the result of earthquakes, the site revealed more ruins once it was excavated. The archaeologists found Ionic semi columns and, on top of them, an inscription with a dedication to the deities of the underworld -- Pluto and Kore.
D'Andria also found the remains of a temple, a pool and a series of steps placed above the cave -- all matching the descriptions of the site in ancient sources.
“People could watch the sacred rites from these steps, but they could not get to the area near the opening. Only the priests could stand in front of the portal,” D'Andria said.
According to the archaeologist, there was a sort of touristic organization at the site. Small birds were given to pilgrims to test the deadly effects of the cave, while hallucinated priests sacrificed bulls to Pluto.
The ceremony included leading the animals into the cave, and dragging them out dead.

“We could see the cave's lethal properties during the excavation. Several birds died as they tried to get close to the warm opening, instantly killed by the carbon dioxide fumes,” D'Andria said.
Only the eunuchs of Cybele, an ancient fertility goddess, were able to enter the hell gate without any apparent damage.
“They hold their breath as much as they can,” Strabo wrote, adding that their immunity could have been due to their "menomation," “divine providence” or “certain physical powers that are antidotes against the vapor.”
According to D'Andria, the site was a famous destination for rites of incubation. Pilgrims took the waters in the pool near the temple, slept not too far from the cave and received visions and prophecies, in a sort of oracle of Delphi effect. Indeed, the fumes coming from the depths of Hierapoli's phreatic groundwater produced hallucinations.
“This is an exceptional discovery as it confirms and clarifies the information we have from the ancient literary and historic sources,” Alister Filippini, a researcher in Roman history at the Universities of Palermo, Italy, and Cologne, Germany, told Discovery News.
Fully functional until the 4th century AD, and occasionally visited during the following two centuries, the site represented “an important pilgrimage destination for the last pagan intellectuals of the Late Antiquity,” Filippini said.
During the 6th century AD, the Plutonium was obliterated by the Christians. Earthquakes may have then completed the destruction.

Displacement Story

           This Wednesday started out like any other day, my friends and I were walking down the sidewalk along the fenced park on the right of me. School had been like every other day, nothing out of the ordinary. But I keep telling myself that since I am a senior, I am almost done with my school career. Anyway, back to my story, we were walking along the sidewalk. It was barely big enough for me and my three friends to walk side by side. This person on a bike came barreling by and we scattered. I jumped out of the way and backed up into the fence. There were a couple of wires hanging out of the fence that jabbed me in the back and the leg. I didn’t think anything of it because it felt like a pinch. So after we cursed the man on a bike a while, I went on my way home. The minute I was in my bedroom, I hit the bed and was asleep.

 Sophie was the girl next door. She was a fair girl, with white skin, long, flowing dark hair, big almond eyes. She was quiet and kept to herself in her mother’s garden in the back yard. She was a senior in high school, about to graduate. She had no real plans after high school except to work in her mother’s florist shop and in the garden.

 The next day, after I woke up from my twelve hour slumber, I stumbled out of bed in my pajamas and looked out the window. Blinking a couple of time, I saw her, the girl next door, Sophie I think her name was. She was in the garden, picking flowers, what a surprise. I didn’t understand what her damn fascination was with the garden. He always saw her in the garden, no matter what time of day. He had not really talked to her much at all, even though they had been neighbors since elementary school. After leaving the window, he went to take a shower. The entire time he was getting ready for school, his mind was filled with Sophie. Simple little questions like what else she does, what else do she like, why is she so quiet, etc.  He didn’t think anything of it for the rest of the day, or the rest of the week.

 When Monday came around, he got up this feeling that he needed to talk to her. So he gathered up so courage and went to talk to her.  She was still pretty shy but gradually she started to warm up to him and him to her. This started out to be a common thing; he would walk with her to and from school, they would talk about everything, almost no subject was off limits. This occurred for about three weeks, until he gathered up some more courage to ask her to dinner. That coming Friday night, they went to a nice restaurant. They order a three course meal, appetizer, main, and a dessert. The dessert was the best dish of all, which they both agreed. It was the beginning of summer and the fruit was just beginning to ripen. After he escorted Sophie home from the dinner, he quickly kissed her on the lips. As he started to walk away, this feeling hit him and he could not have but one kiss. So he started back up the stairs where she was watching him. He started to kiss her more and then suddenly, he pushed her through the door, and led them both to her room, with the help of her directions.

 After that night, they had become a couple, with neither of them being able to escape the other and having no idea why. Sophie’s mother did everything in her power to split them up but nothing worked. She had given up hope to split those two children up. After graduation, I took Sophie down to Texas with me because I got a job offer to work on an oil drill and it was pretty good money. Sophie did not like it much because I was not home for four to five months at a time. So we discussed it and she returned home to her mother during those times in which I would be gone. This happened for years after, I would work on the drill and she would go home to her mother and tend to the garden. But she would always return to me no matter how much she did not want to.

Deciding between Goddesses

 

 

This is the judging of three fair goddesses, Aphrodite, Athena, and Hera. Paris is the lucky one to be judging them.

Some back story:

Zeus threw a wedding celebration for Peleus and Thetis (parents of Achilles) but he did not invite Eris, the goddess of discord, to the party for she would have not been a happy party goer. So, the story goes that she created a golden apple with an inscription on it reading "for the fairest one."

Aphrodite, Athena, and Hera each claimed the golden apple for themselves. They asked Zeus to decide for them who got it but Zeus, being smart in this, decided to shove the decision on to Paris. The goddesses, trying to persuade Paris, offered him each something that was in their skill level. Aphrodite offered him the most beautiful girl in all the land. Athena offered him wisdom and to be a skillful warrior. Hera offered him wealth, power, and to be king.

Paris, being a man, took Aphrodite up on her offer. The most beautiful woman was Helen of Troy.

This is said to be the reason for the Trojan War.  

 

Disney's Dionysus

In class, we have talked about Dionysus and his rituals. Every time Dionysus' name is brought up, this picture pops into my head. This is Disney's version of Dionysus in the movie Fantasia. He is having a jolly good time with his followers and drinking his wine. This helps show how much Dionysus loved to play around and have a good time.

Francis Goya

 

Listening to Professor Sexson talking about painters painting myths reminded me of this painting above. It is by Francis Goya. This is Kronos eating one of his children. As we know, Kronos was told that one of his children was going to overthrow him so he decided to eat them all until Zeus comes along and defeats Kronos. This is one of my favorite paintings by this artist because Francis Goya does not portray the gods as nice and kind. It is very dark, gloomy, and grotesque in a way. Creepy is an understatement. Just the way Kronos' eyes look is enough to make anyone cringe, and the look of the mangled, eaten body in his hands is gruesome. It makes me wonder if Goya had an idea of which god/goddess he was making Kronos eat in this painting.

Diego Velazquez

 

 

One of the first things that I noticed was how there seems to be two different atmospheres in the painting. One is in the foreground with Athena and her helpers. The other is in the background where Arachne is showing off her tapestry to her helpers. It seems to me that the logical reason to put Athena in the foreground and make her known is to show the outcome of this challenge. All of Athena's workers seem to be involved in helping Athena probably because they knew or at least had a sense of who she was. Arachne's helpers are probably all about lavishing attention and admiration on to hers, since Arachne perceived herself as the best weaver.

 

Also I noticed how Athena's head is not turned towards Arachne's tapestry and looking at what she produced. Athena looks completely at ease with creating her tapestry. She is doing it at a leisurely pace all the while talking to that girl on the left. She doesn't need to hurry because she knows that she is the best.

Story Telling in Real Life

This semester I am in writ 201 with Professor Jill Davis. It is pretty much a pay it forward class. We work on creating something that will help the community or world. We have this opportunity to join an organization that is already created and work on it for the semester. I jumped at the chance to join one because, honestly, it sounded better than creating a brand new one. The one that I joined is call Tuesdays with Morrie. Inspired by the book by Mitch Albom, Mitch is talking to one of his old college professors, Morrie, who is dying from ALS. They talk about everything, from how they are doing in their life now, and the main theme is dying.

I am doing essentially the same thing, but the person I am talking to is not dying soon from a disease. I get to talk to a senior citizen named Jack Staples. I get to listen to all the stories he is willing to tell me, from the time when he was a little boy to the present, where he is living alone, just a few months after his wife's passing. I take as many notes as I can, and write an 'essay' about their life. I pick a common theme, one direction I choose to discover more about. I then present my story to Jack and show him the care I took to create it. This takes the entire semester and I am only in two out of six meetings with Jack so far but it is exciting to listen to him just telling me stories.

  Morrie doing his all time favorite thing, dancing, before he was diagnosed.