Pygmalion, Dryope, and Venus

These three stories are actually not very similar. This time, I would like to right a summary of each and give a short opinion about it.
Pygmalion is the story of a man that blamed too much suffering on women and thus decided he would never marry. Still, being a sculptor, he created a beautiful ivory statue of a woman. He soon fell in love with the statue and treated it as a real woman. Then, on the festival of Venus, Pygmalion asked her to make her statue become alive, and she conceived him his wish. She let herself take form as the statues and from the unification of Venus and Pygmalion, Paphos, their son was born.
I believe that this story shows how many times we end up loving what we originally hated or vise versa. There is a saying in Spanish that goes as following, “Del odio al amor hay solo un paso” this shows that many times we end up loving things that were never expected to be loved. Just like Pygmalion hated women and eventually fell in love with his own creation.

Dryope is the story of a woman that went with her child and sister to the river banks. When she went she ripped of some flowers to give to her baby but she soon realized that the flowers she had ripped belonged to the nymph Lotis. This one outraged punished Dryope by making her become a plant as well. When Dryopes husband and father found out what had occurred, they begun to kiss that had once been Dryope and she gave her last words before becoming completely stiff. She asked for her kid to receive good care, she claimed herself innocent and asked her father, husband and sister to never forget her.
Even though this is not very realistic, I believe this myth was created to explain where it was that trees came from and why they were formed.

Venus and Adonis is a myth that explains the creation of the wind flower. It is about Venus and her lover Adonis. Even though Venus warns Adonis about the dangerous creature in the wild, Adonis decides to ignore her advice and gats himself attacked by a beast and killed. Since Venus was just leaving Adonis when this occurred, she was able to rapidly go back to him and discover what had occurred. From the body of Adonis, Venus created the wind flowers that would “consol but not envy Venus”.
This story shows that many times humans ignore advice for one reason or the other but at the end, the same conclusion can be expressed, there are reasons for which why the people actually give the advice. Many time humans are too proud to accept comments and follow advice that people with knowledge or experience have given. It is also many times ignored by rebels that don’t mind about other people’s attention that the consequences really are taken to discuss.

"Logos", "Ethos", and "Pathos"

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/12/opinion/12wed3.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

“Not only do America’s businesses need better-educated workers, the country needs better-educated citizens as well.”

This article talks about how many people in the United States do not have proper education and this affects their jobs and the companies or people they work for. This is a “Logos” argument because it talks about how people use the mind to go on with their lives. Whatever you work for is mostly influenced by the knowledge on that subject. For your job to be successful you have to have a big part of your intelligence focused on that kind of actions and works.

My opinion towards this article is that this is not a problem that occurs just in the United States, it is actually a problem that imposes obstacles through out the whole world. Illiteracy is a problem that is not very easy to fix and the need for more education is also a strong demand in every country. Just as said in the article, successful men usually come from good students (once more “Logos”) since they have begun to adapt that way of thinking and processing information.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/12/opinion/12wed4.html

"But to say whether Alex loved the human who taught him, we’d have to know if he had a separate conceptual grasp of what love is, which is different from understanding the context in which the word occurs."

This story talks about a parrot that could have learned how to “think”. This passage shows two kinds of rhetoric argument because it has both “Logos” and “Pathos”. It shows “Logos” when it discusses the fact that animals might have the possibility to actually understand what humans speak and actually get the message being expressed. It also questions if humans could actually learn a lot from animals and their behavior and if we could actually learn as Alex, the parrot did with humans. The article shows “Pathos” when the man shows the affection the parrot had toward him and how he probably had the same loving feeling towards the parrot. This could affect the argument of the writer because he has affection towards the bird and a part of him wants to believe that the bird IS able to understand what he says, or at least a small part. It could also be that the parrot does understand the context of the word but not the actual feeling, but as said before, the owner of the parrot has had him for 31 years and he wishes, even if it is unconsciously, for the parrot to understand and share what he is saying.

http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/s/sept_11_2001/index.html?8qa

"A numbed country with red-rimmed eyes came to understand the ugly menace of terrorism."

This article is about the event of 2001´s 9/11 when the world trade center was burnt down by a plane crash an how there was a later attack on the pentagon. It reminds people of how it was that the United States finally became aware of what problem terrorism is.
This is a “pathos” way of rhetoric writing since it is showing sympathy towards what occurred on 9/11 through a personification by saying that the US realized the horror of terrorism with red eyes from crying and showing sympathy for those who died and their relatives. It is making a stronger argument by saying that the whole country of the US suffered for the actions of a few terrorist groups. It shows how people are affected by each others actions and how our emotions may be mixed and messed up by facing problems, as the one that occurred six years ago, constantly. It show how the heart of the United States is now beating with pain as its feelings have been hurt as way too many of its innocent citizens have died and nothing can be done to change the events. This is why the US then invaded Iraq and Afghanistan, because the “Pathos” rhetoric of the United States won over their “Logos” and “Ethos” point of views and the feelings and emotions lead to revenge.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/13/business/13toys.html?ref=business

"But senators at the hearing said the safety measures promised by Mr. Eckert and others in the toy industry were inadequate."

In this case “Ethos” is actually what acts against the credibility of Mr. Eckert. The others senators know Mr. Eckert and know that he is not to trust because in the past when he had seemed trustworthy, he hadn’t kept his word and then this opposite of “Ethos” is actually what is making Mr. Eckert loose his argument and making the other team win since he hasn’t proven his “Ethos” side a strong and convincing one.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/09/fashion/shows/09INTRO.html?ref=style

“Designers are, of necessity, the public face of the business, the big wizardly auras blowing puffs of important fashion. Stylists are the handsomely paid but largely unheralded behind-the-curtain personnel.”

This article talks about how the stylist do much of the designers work but only the designer gets the credit for it. This could be considered the “Ethos” rhetoric form of writing since the designers are getting a trustworthy image of being able to design everything and control all that revolves around them when what actually occurs is that they have a very important person, a stylist, which helps and gives assistance. The image given to the designers is unfair since they don’t completely deserve it and should accept the fact that they get help from the Stylists. This way the Stylists could also be known worldwide for their works as the designers, and receive the recognition they deserve.

Love in Vain

The myths of Nisus and Scylla, Echo and Narcissus, Clyte, and Hero and Leander all talk about love. In three of the four myths love is felt by just one party of the relationship and the other doesn’t feel love in return. Looking forward to achieve love, Scylla betrays her father trying to make king Minos fall for her but even after her sacrifice, Minos doesn’t accept her. She is turned into an animosity and her father into a sea-eagle and that’s why the sea-eagle is always attacking the animosity, it is looking for revenge after the betrayal of her own daughter that cost him his kingdom. In Echo and Narcissus, Echo is punished by giving her the last words of a conversation and no more. This is why even though she is in love with Narcissus, she is never able to tell him, and after he rejects her she ends up killing her. Clyte is the last myth that has no corresponded love involved. As Clyte falls in love with Apollo and he ignores her, she becomes a sun flower that follows the sun, Apollo everywhere. The only pair that had love from both of the persons in the relationship where Hero and Leander but the myth still has a tragic ending, since Hero dies.
Humans now days are exactly the same way they were many years ago. They still look for love, corresponded love in which they will be able to live happily ever after. But we are also easily offended if we discover we live in vain since the other person doesn’t loves us back. That when the human mind sometimes looses control and there are humans that end up committing crimes. We all have desperate thoughts and actions every once in a while and this leads to many misfortunes in the human race.

Punishments to Humans by the Gods

The three myths I have now read are Prometheus and Pandora, Minerva, and Niobe. These three myths compare in the fact that in the story of Prometheus and Pandora, the gods actually help the human race while in the other two stories the humans are being punished for having challenged the power of the gods. Still Pandora is also “punished”, but not directly, by the gods in the way that when she opens Jupiter’s jar she lets out all the bad things in earth with hope being the only good thing that will be exposed to human race. Still in the other two myths, the main characters are being directly punished by gods because they challenged them. Minerva turns Arachne into a spider because she challenged Minerva on a weaving contest, believing she was better than the very god. They both weave a different scene, Minerva choosing the one of her victory over Athens in which she shows her greatness and she tries to warn Arachne of the mistake she had committed by challenging her. Still Arachne, being a very stubborn woman, continued her web in which she weaved times in which the gods had committed errors trying to prove the fact that they aren’t perfect and that she could beat Minerva. At last Arachne was turned into a spider in which she weaves all day long. And in Niobe, Latona punishes her for considering herself better than the gods and saying that she deserved to be a god due to her surroundings. Still these statements weren’t the reason why Latona punished Niobe, she punished her because she claimed her sons better than Latonas kids and she claimed to be a prouder mother and having more than what Latona would ever get. Angered, the punishment from the goddess was to kill all eight of Niobes kids and her husband also died from sadness and alteration. So in this case the punishment given to Niobe was to live on her own in loneliness. Every action done has its consequences and in these three myths the gods affect the humans and punish them in different ways. They either experience loneliness, they are turned into a spider or a box that contains all the bad and evil things on earth is open by you.

Partnership gives Support and Strength

The myths of Theseus, Daedalus and Castor and Pollux have some similarities and differences between them. They all share the fact that they share their adventures with a partner and receive their support to accomplish things. For example Theseus was able to kill king Mino’s Minotaur thanks to her daughter, Ariadne who helped him find a way to get back out of the maze after he had killed the Minotaur. But after he abandoned Ariadne, he finds a new partner that he doesn’t leave behind by his will at any moment. He is Pirithous and they stand together even when they go looking for Erebus, the wife Pirithous aspired, and they end up trapped in the underworld. Later on Theseus is once more liberated after Hercules rescues him and leaves Pirithous behind. He later on has some more partners but doesn’t remain as loyal to any of them as he did to Pirithous. We could say that Daedalus as well had a partner, his son, Icarus. They go out together flying and trying to escape Crete and during the way, Icarus dies. Icarus’s death comes from the fact that he disobeyed his fathers councils and goes to high up in the sky and the wax of the wings created by his father melt, and he falls to the ocean and dies. And in the story of Castor and Pollux, they are not just brothers but companions as well. They have a bond that maintains them always together and when Castor is killed in war, Pollux asks Jupiter to take his life also. In all of the three stories one or both of the companions die and when they do the other suffers for the loss of his friendship and support.

Anger Controls Human Will

The first four myths that I have read are Juno and her rivals, Io and Callisto, Diana and Actaeon, and Latona and the Rustics. These myths show the different ways anger can be managed. In Juno and her rivals, Juno turns both of the nymphs that his husband admires into ugly creatures that are not longed to love. In both stories, though, Jupiter is able to save his lovers from becoming a complete chaos, even though Juno does complicate their lives. In Diana and Actaeon, Diana is seen naked by Actaeon and turns him into a hairy, horned, creature that is later defeated and eaten by his own dogs under the orders of his own friends. Diana does this because she is a goddess with much pride and is outraged by the fact that she has been seen naked by a man she did not choose. She seeks revenge and finds it when Actaeon is killed by his own troops. And on the story of Latona and the Rustics, anger also changes the way things were currently arranged. Unhappy with the Rustics because they didn’t allow her or her child to drink, Latona wishes for them to never come out of the water again, and this occurred. Then after some time the Rustics become frogs from spending so much time in the water.
These stories remind me of many of the daily occurrences in life. For example the fact that Juno acted against Io and Callisto is because of jealousy. There are currently many couples that distrust one another because betrayal occurs and then the wife or husband that has been cheated to is hurt and longs revenge. Such as Juno made the mistresses suffer the consequences of having gotten involved with her husband, humans also make people suffer and regret their actions. Pride is also a common trait in humans as they work hard on keeping it high and suffer when it is taken to limits. All humans have a certain amount some more than others but I, for example am a very proud person and this is sometimes good and sometimes bad. As in the story of Diana and Actaeon, many people take their pride way too far and make people suffer and suffer themselves when they have been insulted or something has happened to them that they did not like or wanted to accept. Anger is always a strong weapon against the own human mind and it will make humans do things at desperate acts.

The Creation of the World

Every single person in life has a different idea of how life was created. Some are known worldwide and have influenced the thoughts of others but each person had an original idea of the begginning of the world. In the piece of writing published by "cosmicomics" the world was crated by a series of events that occurred by different bets made by one man or the other and the events would be the events created long before the world was even there. It describes how the world begun from small particles and then each time it was predicted, things occurred. Te beginning of this creation story reminds me to the theory of the big bang since it uses scientific support to how the atoms compacted and how then many atoms begun to create larger and larger forms of matter. Then the molecules in the earth begun to evolve and so did the creatures they eventually formed, until humans were inhabitants in earth and begun to take control.
both of these theories answer a very important question that we have been discussing in class, "how we got here", in the "cosmicomic" piece we are brought to present day and described the position in which Dean is found, while the big bang theory also tell us why we are right now in the places we are but through the explanation of how earth evolutes.
I believe that every single person has a personal creation myth different from anybody else's, even though it might have similarities to other myths, it will always have a detail that will make it unique.