The Memory

"In this part of the world a chief will commonly ring a bell at each draught of beer which he swallows, and at the same moment a lad stationed in front of him brandishes a spear 'to keep at bay the spirits which might try to sneak into the old chief's body by the same road as the beer.'" -James Frazier, The Golden Bough, pg 194.

        My first memory I remember is when i was playing in a sandbox.  I was digging around in it looking for things and carving up the moist sand with one of my mother's gardening tools.  Next door to my house was a daycare.  The kids next door started talking to me and looking at me.  I continued to dig while I looked up and talked to them.  Then they all had a shocked look on their face's.  I didn't know what was going on until a girl younger than me pointed down.  I looked down and saw i had taken the tool deep into my big toenail.  Of course after looking at it, the pain surged up and registered in my brain what I had just done.  I screamed like a cat that had its tail run over.  That is my first memory.

Myths and Realities/ Metamorphosis

"Thus to students of the past the life of the old kings and priests teems with instruction." John Frazier, the Golden Bough, page 250
   Anyone else find it vaguely annoying?  To me, it seems silly that they thought remembering why something happened works as medicine.  If you went to your medicine hut or whatever with your foot chopped off, screaming, you would hear a story about why you can get your foot chopped off and thats your cure.  Rather than, oh i don't know, medicine from herbs.  I'm stupid though but thats what I get out of what I'm reading. 
        Now for metamorphosis.  Everyone remember Perseus?  Yea that one.  He is still a badass.  He rescues a princess from a sea dragon to make her his wife.  He then has to fight off hundreds of warriors because the princess's uncle, who was mad because he was supposed to marry her, kills a man behind a couch and everyone blames Perseus, Phoebus only knows why.  Today we have grenades and missiles and tanks. Well those ain't got nothin on Medusa's face staring at you.  In fact, I would not want to be the guy who was getting ready to throw a grenade when he gets turned into stone. 
        I have discovered a frustrating fact in the metamorphosis, the Goddess's are freaking crazy in the head,  Juno being one of the best examples.  She goes berserk everytime her husband rapes a nymph.  Sounds reasonable, until you realize she doesn't punish him, she punishes the rape victims.  By far one of the mot frustrating and stupid situations though is what happened involving Diana.  So a random dude,  could have been me, wanders into a cave and sees Diana naked except she is shielded by the nymphs.  Before he can blink, Diana has turned him into a deer to be eaten by his own hunting dogs.  Honestly, what the hell.  Accidents happen right? Well I guess god's or at least goddess's don't believe in accidents.

Josh Kilpatrick

"If magic is thus next of kin to science, we have still to enquire how it stands related to religion." -The Golden Bough, James Frazier, pg 49.

Hello everybody :).
        As I begin to read The Metamorphoses of Ovid, I don't understand Juno.  She finds out that Jove is cheating on her, so instead of punishing him she punishes the girl he raped.  It's not like a normal nymph is gonna overpower a god, so the girl has no choice in the matter and was into chastity.  The first on she transforms into a cow which I can understand that transformation a little bit.  It's when she transforms the second nymph into a bear that I don't understand.  How is being turned into a bear a punishment?  I would love to be turned into a bear.  Juno gets pissed when Jove turns them back.  That's a shocker.  She hadn't anticipated the fact he's ALSO a god and can do that kind of magic.
        In the first 2 chapters it seems that at least half the transformations are trees.  So as I'm walking around campus now, I can't help but feel as though I'm being watched by trees.  Also, how do the trees weep?  Does that mean sap starts gushing out from 2 pieces of bark?
        Also, I would like to comment on the sun god, Phoebus.  Is it just me or does phoebus seem a little whiny? If he hates Jove for killing his sun so much, why not do something about it.  Instead, all he does is pout and say, I'm paraphrasing here,"Aww everyone is so mean to me.  Well I'm not going to be the sun anymore so ha!"