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Okay so I read Beowulf and it was an interesting story filled of testosterone and males fighting and monsters. Looking at the movie gave me better imagery for the thrilling adventure of Beowulf. However I couldn’t help but notice a slight difference between the movie and the story. One of the many differences could be seen when Beowulf goes to kill Grendel’s mother.

In the story when Beowulf goes down to the murky waters to fight Grendels mother.  Grendels mother lunges as him and brings him down to her court and other sea creatures attack him as well. Of course Beowulf  being who he is grabs a sword and slices the mothers neck. He goes back to land a hero.

What I thought was interesting was in the movie Beowulf, he is captured by Grendel’s mothers beauty.  She comes out and promises him so much and then they have a love scene. Which then leads to him having a son by her.  This redirects the whole story because later on in the movie the king commits suicide, when in the book he dies in battle.  The change of that one scene changes the whole story.  There is still a dragon that comes for the land however in the movie the dragon is portrayed as the son of Beowulf and Grendels mother. This takes the whole book out of content but I guess makes it seem a bit more interesting.

               The story of Gilgamesh displays the importance of friendship. Although he was man who was two-thirds of a God, he demonstrated weakness in his feelings for Enkidu. Gilgamesh went from being a man who challenged everyone, and slept with their wives, to a man who felt incomplete at the loss of his beloved Enkidu. This not only demonstrated a love amongst men (homosexual connotation) during a period in which such practices had never existed, but it also paved the way for a different idea of companionship, one that is not solely a typical male and female bond. The story of Gilgamesh also shows the corruption of man. They conquered their enemies simply to receive the title of most powerful; when in the end they proved two things to be true one, they (Gilgamesh and Enkidu) are not Gods, and two, they are subject to the same treatment as their foes death.

The story of Giglamesh doesn’t seem to have a particular female love interest as most of the other stories read in class however; one can tell the idea of a female’s love plays a key part in the epic. After all in the beginning Enkidu becomes civilized after laying with a harlot.  And then Giglamesh and Enkidus troubles begin with Ishtar the goddess of love.

In he story of Gilgamesh I found one part extremely interesting.  That part in particular is when Gilgamesh returns from the cedar forest with Humbabas head.  Looking at this great victory Ishtar the goddess of love seems to find an instant attraction to him. She then asks to be his bride. Something I thought was quite interesting seeing she is a goddess. In return Gilgamesh replies

“…your lovers have found you like a brazier which smoulders in the cold, a backdoor which keeps out neither squall of wind nor storm…and if I you and I should be lovers, should not I be served in the same fashion as all these others whom you loved once?”

I think this part intrigued me the most because although Ishtar is a goddess Gilgamesh is not only rejecting her but talking down to her.  Even though she is the goddess of love. Rejecting Ishtar’s love then becomes the turning point for the story ending in Enkidus death.  Denying Ishtar love ends with Enkidu life and yet laying with a woman is what really brought him to a civilized life.  That was just one thing I noticed in the story that captured my interest.

Another interesting story read in class was The Ramayana which was a epic poem which was much like a tragic love story at least for the Sita the main character. Story takes place in  the 14 century  starts off with a king who has four sons one of which is Rama. Rama who is portrayed something like the best man on earth was next to be on the throne however one of the king owed his wife kaikeyi a vow. She then asked for Rama to be sent away for 14 years. Although it pains the king he does it and Rama like a noble man does as his mother wishes.  Sita being the good wife she is goes with Rama .

Eventually King Ravana ends up kidnapping her for a long time, and Rama goes to rescue her. Throughout the whole time Sita only concern is Rama. Eventually she is rescued but Rama no longer thinks of her as pure so then sends her away. Even though she was totally devoted to Rama. She goes away and actually has his kids and teaches them that Rama is the best . Throughout the whole story I was just amazed on how much patience she had with Rama. Twice he makes her undergo test of her purity and she passes. Sita was not one of my favorite characters. She proves to be faithful and pure but I couldn’t help just feeling pity for her. A total opposite of Medea ( main character of another story read in class) . Made me wonder what would Medea do in  Sitas situation.

The story of Medea is one of my favorites that we read in class. Tale of a woman whose world comes to pieces when the man she has done everything for leaves her for a princess. Not only that but she is to be exiled from the country she lives in with her two children.  Reading other stories in class I defiantly expected her to fall apart into pieces, due to time frame and how women are usually portrayed. Sadly this story has a sick twist, which is why its still one of my favorites.

Medea is granted one day before she has to leave in exile and she takes that time to seek revenge. A plan of vengeance, which not only includes the murder of the princess but her children as well.  Although the loss of her children would be a heavy pain to her, she seems to be more satisfied with the fact that Jason would suffer the most.

One thing that I liked about this story was I couldn’t tell if Medea was a hero, or a villain.  In the beginning of the story one can sympathize with her.  She seeks revenge, which is quite understandable considering the amount of pain she is in because of her husbands betrayal. However, she ends up taking the life of her two innocent children in the process. However when reading and even seeing it in my school you have no choice but to admire her. She wont compromise herself, which gives her, I think a trait of a hero.  So one might say that she is a tragic hero. There is a balance of punishment and crime when it comes to her character. Medea own destruction of loosing her children is for the idea that the one who betrayed her would suffer the most, shows that a tragic hero would be the title that defines her the most.

A part of the story of Beowulf involved Beowulf fighting Grendel.  The picture in the above link shows Beowulf tearing off Grendel’s arm and shoulder, which occurs in “The Fight With Grendel” section of this story.  Beowulf’s action is a sign of victory.  Beowulf defeating Grendel is a sign of victory because Beowulf rips Grendel’s arm completely out of its socket and holds it up as a trophy high on Heorot’s wall.  Grendel is therefore fatally wounded.  All of this is shown by two quotes in the story.  The quote “Everyone felt it who heard that cry as it echoed off the wall, a God-cursed scream and strain on catastrophe, the howl of the loser, the lament of the hell-serf keening his wound”(pg 1649, lines 783-787) shows that Grendel was severely wounded right after Beowulf tore off his arm.  The quote “Clear proof of this could be seen in the hand the hero displayed high up near the roof: the whole of Grendel’s shoulder and arm, his awesome grasp”(pg 1650, lines 832-835) shows that Beowulf is showing his proof of victory.

My response to Beowulf’s victorious action is that his action assumes that he possesses many positive qualities.  Some of these qualities may include courage, perseverance, heroism, strength, and most of all glory.  Beowulf is like any other hero like Hercules and some of the Roman emperors based on his assumed qualities I came up with.  Beowulf’s action leads to a holding of a feast and a showering of gifts.  In this manner, Beowulf is honored and praised for his victory.

The story of the Epic of Gilgamesh involves death of characters.  The picture in the link above shows the death of Enkidu, which occurs at the end of part 3 of this story.  Enkidu’s death is a sign of punishment as well as a serious consequence for doing a wrongful action, which was killing the bull with Gilgamesh.  This is shown by the following quote on pg 26: “Anu, Enlil, Ea, and heavenly Shamash took counsel together, and Anu said to Enlil, ‘Because they have killed the Bull of Heaven , and because they have killed Humbaba who guarded the Cedar Mountain one of the two must die. ‘Then glorious Shamash answered the hero Enlil, ‘It was by your command they killed the Bull of Heaven, and killed Humbaba, and must Enkidu die although innocent?”  Clearly, the quote says that Enkidu was chosen to die.

Because Enkidu was chosen to die, Enkidu’s death was a very tragic as well as an emotional event for Gilgamesh.  Gilgamesh loses his best friend, and he won’t stop weeping for Enkidu.  Gilgamesh’s words while weeping for Enkidu are “Here me, great ones of Uruk, I weep for Enkidu, my friend, bitterly moaning like a woman mourning I weep for my brother.  O Enkidu, my brother, you were the axe at my side”(pg 28).  This quote shows that Gilgamesh was very close to Enkidu, meaning that Enkidu was always there for him just like someone losing a loved one or a very close friend.

Enkidu’s death also teaches people a valuable lesson.  The lesson is that you shall not kill or else death will approach you at any moment.

After tirelessly scattering the web, in my opinion this is by far the most powerful performance of an already powerful play. As I was reading “Medea” this is exactly how I pictured her, evil laugh and all. Eaten by grief, humiliation and betrayal by her husband, she seeks nothing less then revenge. Although this scene is only a relatively small fragment of the play, it shows Medea’s state of mind and the power that she holds, that even the King Kreon of Corinth of fears her so he bans her into exile. Even if a person just saw this clip and did not know how the story ends, it would come as no surprise to them that a women in such state of mind is capable of murdering her own children.

Most are familiar with a saying “hell hath no fury like a woman scorned”. Well Medea is a ideal example of a woman who’s been scorned. Medea seeks no comfort from anyone. She has no homeland and now she has no family. If we compare the typical women of Corinth to Medea, we see that women are concerned with where Medea will go for her exile, while Medea is too busy trying to decide  how best to hurt those that did her wrong.

The story of the Ramayana tells of the love Sita has for Rama. This story shows the perfect ideal couple. Rama is brave, wise, and hard-working, and Sita is generous, beautiful and loyal. But during the story, Rama questions the love Sita has because he sees her with another man. Sita tells Rama he is the only one she loves, but Rama does not believe her pureness. He goes on a quest and Sita follows him. He rescues her, but still thinks shes cheating on him. She tells him that they have 2 kids together, but Rama still banishes her. When Rama sees that Sita is being treated badly by the king Ravana, he saves her from him. After he learns of his 2 kids, he accepts Sita and they reunite. A theme of this story is dharma. In ancient India, indians followed the principle of dharma and it is exposed in the story. Here is a picture of Rama and Sita together.

The story of Apollo and Daphne tells the story of how Apollo is in love with Daphne. Apollo, in the beginning of the story, talks to Eros and sees his love arrows. He is struck with the love arrow and begins falling in love with Daphne. Daphne begins to flee, but Apollo becomes more in love with her. Apollo gets impatient and begins chasing her down. Once Apollo catches her, Daphne turns into a tree. Apollo stills embraces the tree and makes its a sacred tree. He makes it his tree. The theme of this book as well as all the other books in metamorphases is about transformation.