I'm sorry to hear about your being poisoned by compost, Chris,
I hope it's just a headache and that you're still among the
living, though I know from experience that some headaches
make death seem the more painless or at least more honest
alternative. Though perhaps breathing mould spores is a bit
related to eating magic mushrooms given what you were
thinking of?! I don't know though as this would have astounded
the "Classicial worldview" by which I guess you mean the Greek/Roman
view, since it seems to me that all of those stories with a god
in the guise of an animal are probably whitewashed
retellings of similar blurrings between the animal and
the human. It's interesting, that most Native American tribes
had a name for themselves that meant something like "the human
beings" in their own language, while the other tribes were "those
who eat dog" or "those who bash one's head in with a stone", as
if human identity were the frailest of constructs. Isn't it Girard
who says that all "myths are persecution texts," that the myth
is a retelling of an act of violence, often retold in conjunction
with a ritual that en-enacts the violence but in more benign
terms, so the myth erases the violence within it? or perhaps
just _tries_ to since of course in contemplating the myths
of "those who eat dog" etc. "the human beings" fear and
exagerrate the violence in the myth of the other. I think,
scholarly tone and all, some of these accounts are exagerrated,
particularly since the Celts themselves didn't write them, but
were so reported to be by others, the Romans, Christians, etc.,
I mean it is difficult to believe the Ireland was so full of snakes
before St. Paddy got there!
Best,
Rebecca
Rebecca Seiferle
www.thedrunkenboat.com
-----Original Message-----
From: Chris Jones <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Oct 7, 2003 2:12 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Bj?lfskvi?a / Beowulf
I really can't remember where I read this but there is a Celtic myth
(for want of a better way to say it) where the most beautiful young man
in the tribe, village or whatever, was chosen to be King for a day and
at the end of this day he then got pulled limb from limb by drug crazed
maedads who were priestess of the goddess and who had been eating magic
mushrooms. It sounds like one of Graves little stories? After a while it
became a week and then he actually got to be king for a whole year
before being torn apart and then it was a bull that was slaughtered, or
something. Maiden is also etymologically linked to male youths not yet
old enough to grow a beard so this need not be gender specific. One of
the naughty things these Celts also did apart from tearing each other
apart in drug fuelled orgies was mess up gender distinctions.
Well, you know those stories about Welsh sheep f***ers and what the
Celtic Kings did to mares in full view of the whole village. This I got
from a scholarly source, Rankin _Celts and the Classical age_, ever so
polite in tone, too, scholarly politeness. So not only did gender get
mixed up but the subjectivity which defined humans was also impinged
upon. This may well have upset the Classical worldview of the ways
things ought to be.
Again, can't remember my other sources. I was heavily into reading wacky
Celtic mythologies, the wackier the better, a few years back now. Anyone
know of any good sources?
Got a stinking headache from making compost. apparently mould spores in
compost can make you sick, headache and nausea being the most common
symptoms and death from compost is not unheard of. This I am now
experiencing.... (although I don't think I am going to die, in all
honesty.) so must go....
best wishes
--
Chris Jones <[log in to unmask]
On Fri, 2003-10-03 at 01:32, Alison Croggon wrote:
> Thanks for that discussion, Rebecca - wasn't Actaeon also torn to
> pieces by Artemis, after surprising her when she was bathing, and
> torn to pieces by dogs? So many extreme punishments in these
> stories, for transgressions or intrusions into divine mysteries. And
> that switch again from gentle to murderous. Yes, part of Dionysus'
> beauty is his androgyneity, if there is such a word; beautiful young
> men often have that quality.
>
> Best
>
> A
|