Blog #18

10/17/19

Modern Mythology 2020

Anling Chen

PD1

Aim: How can we explicate the flower-myths to derive morals?

Today in class, we covered the pages that were assigned for reading that was about flower myths in Greek mythology. I thought the reading was very interesting because I wouldn't normally associate flowers with having to do with human-like Gods contributing to its existence. Of course, mythology is just that, mythological stories, but I really liked creating a human creative element to go with natural beauty.

For the do now, we shared in our groups what we thought were major morals EXPLicated (or EXPLained) in a few flower myths. Then we all came together and a representative from each table went up to write a moral on the board. They were:

Persephone: Beauty can be deceiving; don't be too safe in an unfamiliar place.

These morals meant that Persephone was so tempted to touch something beautiful that it triggered Hades and his chariot to come flying from the underworld and take her into his home to be his queen. In addition, Persephone thought that she was safe next to her mother, Demeter, and in her role as a Goddess of spring that when she ate the pomegranate seeds, she did not think of the consequences or who could've been trying to trick her.

Narcissus: Be careful in indulging; never place your ego above others.

A classic Greek myth! Narcissus was so in love with himself and thought about nothing or anybody else that all he did was sit by the waterside and gaze at his own reflection lovingly. However, as in many Greek tragedies, his own ego killed himself and he died by the water, never looking away even to eat or drink, and wasted away before. His remains turned into Narcissus flowers decorating meadows today.

Echo: Don't focus on things you can't obtain.

Echo admired Narcissus almost to an obsessive level. She was also beautiful, a lovely nymph who unfortunately caught the eye of Zeus. Hera, Zeus' neglected wife, saw her husband fall into a lustful pursuit after Echo and condemned the poor nymph to a lifetime of only speaking the last words of others. Echo's voice left her, but she still watched Narcissus until her own death, a slow fade into a shell of a previously beautiful maiden. The moral in here is that Narcissus never would've even paid her attention, but Echo was so fixated on him that she neglected to protect what was most important: herself. Thus, she was the one who paid the price for her own neglect.

Hyacinthus: Cherish the time you have with friends.

A tragic story, Hyacinthus died in the hands of his friend, Apollo, because of an accident during playtime with Apollo. Apollo was devastated. Therefore, Apollo made his body turn into a lovely flower, the hyacinth. This was my favorite moral because it was the most positive one. We oftentimes forget who is there for us and instead focus on what else is there to do. But when our loved ones are gone, the loss is too great to even consider moving on at the moment.

Adonis: Be wary of what you are capable of; be careful of ruining delicate things for your own gain.

Adonis was the muse of both Aphrodite. and Persephone. One day, Adonis was killed by a boar charging at him and Aphrodite, in despair and wanting to share intimacy, kissed him. This was a fatal kiss by a God. Therefore, that last kiss sealed his fate into death. The moral of being careful of your own abilities correlate with Aphrodite's response to Adonis slipping away, as if she had not interfered, perhaps Adonis would've died on his own body's accord.

Reflection:

Today's lesson was one of my favorites because it covered such a wide range of stories that followed a commonality: beauty in the face of tragedy. When the whole table comes together to discuss how we interpret the tragedy and its aftershocks on the Gods, it feels like it's a whole group philosophical debate that makes you think. Especially when we created our own flower creation story about how the poppy flower came to be after Hera condemned the Poppy God to sleep forever after catching the eyes of Zeus, the whole family tree of Gods and personalities came to life. These stories feel like living, breathing records of something tangible and beautiful, like a flower.