(no subject)
Things that are appropriate when spending time in the library between classes: occasional web surfing; reading of books that were due last week; perusing of SparkNotes on political theory books you couldn't get through (see: Rosseau, "A Social Contract")
Things that ARE NOT appropriate: fic writing; fic writing that will eventually lead to porn
To redeem myself, I found a little tidbit in my research of Apollo/the Delphic oracle yesterday that relates to the events of "Kobol's Last Gleaming." (And I am once again reminded of smut_queen's fandom poll. I don't think about this stuff all the time, I SWEAR.)
I found an interesting essay from the late 60s, in which the author basically applied Freud to the myths of Dionysus and Apollo. I skipped the Dionysus part, of course, but the Apollo section ran with the idea that he hated women because of the treatment of his mother (Leto) by Hera (because Zeus was Hera's husband and Zeus knocked Leto knocked up and Hera? not too happy about that). Some of it, you have to take with a grain of salt (as is the case with anything that involves Freud), but I found it incredibly interesting because it really cast the Apollo myth in a totally new light. Instead of the refined, cultured, rational god one expects to find in the mythos, the author interpretted him as calculating and misogynistic and downright cruel in his treatment of women. (This applies to my own topic, for what it's worth, because in order to take over the Delphic oracle, he had to basically win it from Hera and Demeter [fertility goddess]. That's when the oracle passed from a maternal [Minoan] to a patriarchal structure.)
The part that relates to BSG is this: obviously, Apollo's twin sister is Artemis. I forget the exact context of this action, but there was one particular myth in which Apollo punished someone by having his sister execute him with her bow and arrows. There was then a paranthetical note that Artemis' arrows were often used in conjunction with Apollo's wrath - ie. she was the executioner to his judge. Which made me suddenly think... uh, THE ARROW OF APOLLO. Which means the Arrow of Apollo in BSG-verse might not be Apollo's at all. (I did have some misgivings about that phrase when they first said it, because I couldn't recall the imagery of arrows ever being associated with Apollo. But now it MAKES SENSE.)
The important question is, if you run with the premise that certain characters in the BSG-verse represent gods of the Olympic Pantheon, and Lee is Apollo, who is supposed to be Artemis? Kara? Artemis was the goddess of the hunt, after all, and not only is Kara a top-notch fighter pilot ("going hunting?") but it is SHE that ultimately jumps back to Caprica to retrieve the arrow. Laura tells her that this is HER PART. It's HER mission, HER arrow.
One more thing. This esssay also claimed that while Apollo bore hatred toward nearly all women, the only one that he actually considered his equal (besides his sister, but she doesn't count because they're twins and thus complement on another and must be thought of as a single unit)... was Athena. This is because Athena was born parthenogenically (without the assistant of another person) - instead of Zeus having sex with a woman and her givin birth, Athena simply is born fully grown from Zeus' skull. That she was born from a man gives her a unique advantage over the other goddesses because she relates directly to men. And because there is no mother involved (or, rather, she is - Metis - by she's swallowed by Zeus very soon after conception), Apollo does not hate her, and thus becomes her singular ally.
...which could relate to why the Arrow of Apollo needs to be taken to THE TEMPLE OF ATHENA.
A Psychoanalytic Study of the Myth of Dioynsus and Apollo: Two Variatants of the Son-Mother Relationship [Helene Deutsch]
Things that ARE NOT appropriate: fic writing; fic writing that will eventually lead to porn
To redeem myself, I found a little tidbit in my research of Apollo/the Delphic oracle yesterday that relates to the events of "Kobol's Last Gleaming." (And I am once again reminded of smut_queen's fandom poll. I don't think about this stuff all the time, I SWEAR.)
I found an interesting essay from the late 60s, in which the author basically applied Freud to the myths of Dionysus and Apollo. I skipped the Dionysus part, of course, but the Apollo section ran with the idea that he hated women because of the treatment of his mother (Leto) by Hera (because Zeus was Hera's husband and Zeus knocked Leto knocked up and Hera? not too happy about that). Some of it, you have to take with a grain of salt (as is the case with anything that involves Freud), but I found it incredibly interesting because it really cast the Apollo myth in a totally new light. Instead of the refined, cultured, rational god one expects to find in the mythos, the author interpretted him as calculating and misogynistic and downright cruel in his treatment of women. (This applies to my own topic, for what it's worth, because in order to take over the Delphic oracle, he had to basically win it from Hera and Demeter [fertility goddess]. That's when the oracle passed from a maternal [Minoan] to a patriarchal structure.)
The part that relates to BSG is this: obviously, Apollo's twin sister is Artemis. I forget the exact context of this action, but there was one particular myth in which Apollo punished someone by having his sister execute him with her bow and arrows. There was then a paranthetical note that Artemis' arrows were often used in conjunction with Apollo's wrath - ie. she was the executioner to his judge. Which made me suddenly think... uh, THE ARROW OF APOLLO. Which means the Arrow of Apollo in BSG-verse might not be Apollo's at all. (I did have some misgivings about that phrase when they first said it, because I couldn't recall the imagery of arrows ever being associated with Apollo. But now it MAKES SENSE.)
The important question is, if you run with the premise that certain characters in the BSG-verse represent gods of the Olympic Pantheon, and Lee is Apollo, who is supposed to be Artemis? Kara? Artemis was the goddess of the hunt, after all, and not only is Kara a top-notch fighter pilot ("going hunting?") but it is SHE that ultimately jumps back to Caprica to retrieve the arrow. Laura tells her that this is HER PART. It's HER mission, HER arrow.
One more thing. This esssay also claimed that while Apollo bore hatred toward nearly all women, the only one that he actually considered his equal (besides his sister, but she doesn't count because they're twins and thus complement on another and must be thought of as a single unit)... was Athena. This is because Athena was born parthenogenically (without the assistant of another person) - instead of Zeus having sex with a woman and her givin birth, Athena simply is born fully grown from Zeus' skull. That she was born from a man gives her a unique advantage over the other goddesses because she relates directly to men. And because there is no mother involved (or, rather, she is - Metis - by she's swallowed by Zeus very soon after conception), Apollo does not hate her, and thus becomes her singular ally.
...which could relate to why the Arrow of Apollo needs to be taken to THE TEMPLE OF ATHENA.
A Psychoanalytic Study of the Myth of Dioynsus and Apollo: Two Variatants of the Son-Mother Relationship [Helene Deutsch]