Blog Assignment #3 -The Journey of King Leonidas-

   

   The journey of King Leonidas in the movie 300, like many of the other journeys of the heroes of our time, follows the criteria of the heroic monomyth that was first introduced in a  1949 Joseph Campbell novel, titled the Hero With A Thousand Faces.  Campbell’s monomyth is composed of three phases each containing separate criteria. The three phases in order are the Departure, the Initiation, and the Return.

   The first criteria in the departure stage is the hero's call to adventure, and it is the stage in which the hero is first subjected to trouble in the outside world.  In 300, King Leonidas receives his call to adventure when a group of Persian messengers come to his town to inform him that the Persian Empire would like to claim some of his people’s land and water. The next piece of criteria within the departure stage is the refusal of the call, and in 300 takes place when King Leonidas decides to kick the Persian messengers into a water well at the center of his town rather than giving him a message to return to his leader.  King Leonidas then seeks the aid of the supernatural when he seeks the approval from the oracles to go to war.  He then “crosses the first threshold” when he seeks the approval of the senate in his Spartan community.  The final criteria of the departure stage is the “Belly of the Whale”.  This criteria takes place when the hero has clearly stepped into the darkness of his new adventure.  King Leonidas enters the “Belly of the Whale” when he and his army of 300 spartans march passed a town of Greek that was slaughtered by the Persians.

   Stage two of the monomyth is the Hero’s Initiation.  The first two criteria are the hero’s “Road of Trials”, and “Meeting with the Goddess”.  King Leonidas has many trials along his journey including fighting an entire empire with an army of just 300 spartans, and he meets with the Goddess in the beginning of the movie when his  wife Gorgo revealed.  King Leonidas illustrates the apotheosis of him and his men when his faithful companion Stelios says “Arcadian, I've fought countless times, yet I've never met an adversary who could offer me what we Spartans call "A Beautiful Death." I can only hope, with all the world's warriors gathered against us, there might be one down there who's up to the task.”  Leonidas and his army would consider dying for Sparta to be honorable.  This attitude was passed from Leonidas to his men, and thats why it is also the “Ultimate Boon” of the Initiation stage.

The final stage of the heroic monomyth is the return stage.  However, in the case of King Leonidas, it can be argued that his return took place in a non physical sense, as he passed down his thinking and courage to the warriors that stood by for his honorable death.

   

Blog Assignment # 2 -Demeter-

   Demeter, the Greek goddess of agriculture, grain and fertility was a daughter of the Titans, Cronus and Rhea, sibling of the goddesses, Hestia and Hera and to the gods Poseidon, Hades and Zeus.  Demeter was also a mate to Zeus (and others) and together Demeter and Zeus had a much beloved “white armed” daughter names Persephone, who was also very beautiful.  She loved to play on Mount Aetna with the other young goddesses and collect and smell the beautiful flowers.

   Suddenly, at the moment that she picked a beautiful narcissus from the ground, Persephone disappeared. Demeter could not understand how it could happen when Aphrodite, Artemis, Athena and Demeter only took their eyes off of Persephone momentarily.  Demeter was grief stricken and left Mount Olympus while she wandered searching for her daughter for 9 days and 9 nights, desperate to know if she was dead or alive.  Demeter took out her anger and frustration by sporadically setting fire to the earth.  Hekate, the 3-faced goddess revealed to her that she heard Persephone’s cries at the time of her disappearance, but was not able to see what had happened to her.  Demeter decided to ask the sun god, Helios, as surely he would know what happened to her beloved daughter as he sees everything that occurs on the earth during daylight.  Helios did have an explanation for Demeter and that was that Zeus had given over Persephone to Hades in the underworld.  It was incredulous to Demeter that Zeus would betray her in that way!  Her extreme anger eventually turned to depression.

   She was insulted by Ascalabus, who she turned into a gecko as punishment.  Demeter continued her travels as an old woman for an additional 15 miles when she arrived in Eleusis and sat down at a well and cried her eyes out in extreme frustration.  She was introduced to the mother of a local chieftain, Metaneira, who in her pity gave her a job as a nurse maid to care for her baby son.  Demeter was so grateful for her new job that she set out to make the baby immortal by immersing him in ambrosia and fire.  One night Metaneira discovered Demeter in the midst of raising her son over fire and was alarmed.   Demeter stopped what she was doing and then demanded they make a temple in the town in her honor.

   Once the temple was built, Demeter continued to grieve over the loss of her daughter and still refused to grow grains or to feed the earth.  Zeus seeing this decided it was time for him to arrange for Persephone to be returned to her mother, at least part of the time, by sending Hermes to Hades.  Persephone knew that if she ate while in the underworld that she would not be able to leave the darkness and return to her mother.  Hades arranged a last farewell meal and momentarily, Persephone lost her presence of mind because of Hades’ kindness and accidentally ate a pomegranate seed.

This food consumption while in the underworld doomed her to have to return to Hades and live in the underworld.  It was arranged that Persephone would be able to live in the light with her mother for two thirds of her life and then return to the underworld to live the remaining months with her husband.  Demeter accepted this arrangement with great happiness and in her joy; she then allowed seeds to grow on the earth for all but three months out of each year.  This became the season of winter and was the time that Persephone went back to live with her husband, Hades, in the underworld.  Furthermore, spring came back to the earth every year while Persephone with her mother.  Demeter showed her gratitude to man by teaching Triptolemus lessons in growing crops, plowing and harvesting and gave him the first seed of corn.  Triptolemus shared this gift of knowledge by traveling the world and sharing 

that knowledge of agriculture with mankind.  I love this myth because Demeter never gave up on looking for her daughter and left the comfort of Mount Olympus to do so.  She endured great tribulation and eventually Zeus took pity on her pain and arranged for Persephone to return to her mother.  This compromise that was finally arranged by Zeus, gave us the beauty and diversity of four seasons as well as agriculture which was essential to the progress of the world.

Persephone - Daughter of Demeter

Favorite god or goddess

I don't have a very in depth knowledge on the topic of mythology but it does interest me which is why I've chosen to take this class. If I had to choose a favorite god or goddess of mine, I would choose the goddess Artemis, goddess of the hunt. I chose her because she is a very strong goddess. She is known as the protectress of childbirth and protector of young women and men. I admire her personality which is strong, and tough and she isn't afraid to defend herself and her people.