(no subject)
I am reading Ariadne's letter to Theseus, from Ovid's Heroides right now for my directed reading. It says nothing about her finding Dionysus when she's abandoned on the island...it only speaks of her anger and rage and loneliness. She "wanders like a Bacchant", but finds no consolation. It is the voice of the woman scorned and betrayed, yes, the voice so frequently silenced, but it the voice of warning, of caution, of This Is What Happens When Daddy's Girl Betrays Daddy. Of Love as a destroyer of women, of lives...this love that becomes religion in the Middle Ages.
And all I can think of is this:
"Dance With You"
Sittin’ on the beach
The island king of love
Deep in fijian seas
Deep in some blissful dream
Where the goddess finally sleeps
In the lap of her lover
Subdued in all her rage
And I’m aglow with the taste of the demons driven out
And happily replaced with the presence of real love
The only one who saves
I wanna dance with you
I see a world where people live and die with grace
The karmic ocean dried up and leave no trace
I wanna dance with you
I see a sky full of the stars that change our minds
And lead us back to a world we would not face
The stillness in your eyes
Convinces me that i
I don’t know a thing
And I been around the world and I’ve tasted all the wines
A half a billion times came sickened to your shores
You show me what this life is for
I wanna dance with you
I see a world where people live and die with grace
The karmic ocean dried up and leave no trace
I wanna dance with you
I see a sky full of the stars that change our minds
And lead us back to a world we would not face
In this altered state
Full of so much pain and rage
You know we got to find a way to let it go
Sittin’ on the beach
The island king of love
Deep in fijian seas
Deep in the heart of it all where the goddess finally sleeps
After eons of war and lifetimes
She smilin’ and free, nothin’ left
But a cracking voice and a song, oh lord
I wanna dance with you
I see a world where people live and die with grace
The karmic ocean dried up and leave no trace
I wanna dance with you
I see a sky full of the stars that change our minds
And lead us back to a world we would not face
We would not face
We would not face
We would not face
We would not face
We would not face
EDIT:
So. Ariadne's letter to Theseus. The very first thing I noticed was that Ovid's Ariadne has not encountered Bacchus/Dionysus. In all versions ofthe Theseus/Ariadne story I've heard, after Ariadne is abandoned on the island, she comes upon Dionysus and his maenads, and he takes her as his queen, when she dies, placing her in the stars as Corona, the crown. So, I'm wondering - is Ovid ignoring this part of the story? Is the letter merely written in the time between Ariadne's arrival to the island and her discovery of the god? Or, is Ovid using her meeting with Dionysus in a more metaphorical sense? Ariadne says that she "roamed about, like to a Bacchant roused by the Ogygian god" - is this Ovid's nod to Dionysus, including him not as a bodily deity, but as the force of Ariadne's love-induced madness?
For, the state in which we find Ariadne in her letter is one of madness,of the frenzy of love. Again, I am reminded of what Lewis says in the _Allegory of Love_ about love in the classical period - it was nearly always destructive, leading people (normally women) to dishonor, grief, and madness. It was something one prayed to be spared from. The intensity is the same - same agony, same frenzy - but there is not the sublimity present in the medieval conceptions of the suffering lover. Ariadne is merely wild with grief and pain.
Even so, Ovid is still giving her a voice. To me, that's the really remarkable thing about the Heroides - he is giving all these essentially silent women voices. It would be more fascinating if, in giving them voices, they said something a little more unexpected than lamenting lost love. As it is, Ariadne's voice reinforces the status quo - it shows the dangers of such overpowering love, of betraying the established order and especially one's own father. Ariadne does not appear as the crafty woman who conspires against her father and succeeds. Rather, she is the victim, lamenting her bad decisions in the face of her betrayal. She is angry, yes, but she berates not only Theseus, but also her own sleep, as though by constant wakefulness she could have kept by her a man determined to go. She is overly willing to forgive, to place blame elsewhere - even if she dies, she wants her unfaithful lover to return and carry off her bones.
I've started on Sappho and Phaon...and it looks like more of the same, the woman lamenting her lost love. Here, it's interesting that the taboo affections of Sappho for the "maids I have loved to my reproach" seem to cause her less pain - but also less satisfaction - than this now-unrequited love for Phaon. It feels a little bit like an enacting of the misogynistic sentiment that "She's only a lesbian because she hasn't found the right MAN yet." Which...doesn't make a great deal of sense to me, considering the divine tradition of homoerotic relationships, both male (as with Apollo and his boys) and female (as with Artemis and her girls). Of course, there are always different rules for gods' sexual conduct than for that of mortals', but even so. I find it interesting that this heterosexual relationship can cause more tragedy, because it inspires deeper feelings, than the homosexual relationships.
And all I can think of is this:
"Dance With You"
Sittin’ on the beach
The island king of love
Deep in fijian seas
Deep in some blissful dream
Where the goddess finally sleeps
In the lap of her lover
Subdued in all her rage
And I’m aglow with the taste of the demons driven out
And happily replaced with the presence of real love
The only one who saves
I wanna dance with you
I see a world where people live and die with grace
The karmic ocean dried up and leave no trace
I wanna dance with you
I see a sky full of the stars that change our minds
And lead us back to a world we would not face
The stillness in your eyes
Convinces me that i
I don’t know a thing
And I been around the world and I’ve tasted all the wines
A half a billion times came sickened to your shores
You show me what this life is for
I wanna dance with you
I see a world where people live and die with grace
The karmic ocean dried up and leave no trace
I wanna dance with you
I see a sky full of the stars that change our minds
And lead us back to a world we would not face
In this altered state
Full of so much pain and rage
You know we got to find a way to let it go
Sittin’ on the beach
The island king of love
Deep in fijian seas
Deep in the heart of it all where the goddess finally sleeps
After eons of war and lifetimes
She smilin’ and free, nothin’ left
But a cracking voice and a song, oh lord
I wanna dance with you
I see a world where people live and die with grace
The karmic ocean dried up and leave no trace
I wanna dance with you
I see a sky full of the stars that change our minds
And lead us back to a world we would not face
We would not face
We would not face
We would not face
We would not face
We would not face
EDIT:
So. Ariadne's letter to Theseus. The very first thing I noticed was that Ovid's Ariadne has not encountered Bacchus/Dionysus. In all versions ofthe Theseus/Ariadne story I've heard, after Ariadne is abandoned on the island, she comes upon Dionysus and his maenads, and he takes her as his queen, when she dies, placing her in the stars as Corona, the crown. So, I'm wondering - is Ovid ignoring this part of the story? Is the letter merely written in the time between Ariadne's arrival to the island and her discovery of the god? Or, is Ovid using her meeting with Dionysus in a more metaphorical sense? Ariadne says that she "roamed about, like to a Bacchant roused by the Ogygian god" - is this Ovid's nod to Dionysus, including him not as a bodily deity, but as the force of Ariadne's love-induced madness?
For, the state in which we find Ariadne in her letter is one of madness,of the frenzy of love. Again, I am reminded of what Lewis says in the _Allegory of Love_ about love in the classical period - it was nearly always destructive, leading people (normally women) to dishonor, grief, and madness. It was something one prayed to be spared from. The intensity is the same - same agony, same frenzy - but there is not the sublimity present in the medieval conceptions of the suffering lover. Ariadne is merely wild with grief and pain.
Even so, Ovid is still giving her a voice. To me, that's the really remarkable thing about the Heroides - he is giving all these essentially silent women voices. It would be more fascinating if, in giving them voices, they said something a little more unexpected than lamenting lost love. As it is, Ariadne's voice reinforces the status quo - it shows the dangers of such overpowering love, of betraying the established order and especially one's own father. Ariadne does not appear as the crafty woman who conspires against her father and succeeds. Rather, she is the victim, lamenting her bad decisions in the face of her betrayal. She is angry, yes, but she berates not only Theseus, but also her own sleep, as though by constant wakefulness she could have kept by her a man determined to go. She is overly willing to forgive, to place blame elsewhere - even if she dies, she wants her unfaithful lover to return and carry off her bones.
I've started on Sappho and Phaon...and it looks like more of the same, the woman lamenting her lost love. Here, it's interesting that the taboo affections of Sappho for the "maids I have loved to my reproach" seem to cause her less pain - but also less satisfaction - than this now-unrequited love for Phaon. It feels a little bit like an enacting of the misogynistic sentiment that "She's only a lesbian because she hasn't found the right MAN yet." Which...doesn't make a great deal of sense to me, considering the divine tradition of homoerotic relationships, both male (as with Apollo and his boys) and female (as with Artemis and her girls). Of course, there are always different rules for gods' sexual conduct than for that of mortals', but even so. I find it interesting that this heterosexual relationship can cause more tragedy, because it inspires deeper feelings, than the homosexual relationships.