Sublime - impressing the mind with a sense of grandeur or power (dictionary defintion)

    

"The explanation here given of the custom of killing divine persons assumes, or at least is readily combined with, the idea that the soul of the slain divinity is transmitted to his successor."                     (Frazer 247)

      This quote from The Golden Bough gave me the thought of sublime.  How the nature of murder is portrayed, and how a king must feel, knowing that he'll die.  "With great power comes great responsibility" (Stan Lee).  I was trying to think of when I had a sublime experience and myself at a complete loss.  Then I remembered the first time I actually felt fear, and the after effects. 

   I was six years old, and my parents had just bought a couple of horses.  We decided to take these new animals out for a spin, and enjoy the beautiful summer day.  The horses were pretty calm and we had traveled a couple miles away from home.  My mom began to panic, because the sky had darkened and the air began to feel chilly.  Dad was not so worried and told us to keep moving forward.  The wind began to kick up tumbleweeds and drops of water slowly fell.  My dad decided that we should turn around and go home.  As we were turning the horses toward our house, the rain started to force its way down.  Lightning and thunder streaked across the scenery and I remember seeing the panic in my dad's face.  Next thing we know, golf ball-size hail began to drop, and we had no shelter.  Nature had decided to hit us with everything she had, and I vividly recall how my face being stung with hail and rain.  It felt as though we would never make it back home.  A friend of the family drove by in his pickup and saw us struggling against the weather.  He stopped and offered to take me home while my parents walked the horses back in the storm.  By the time I got home, the weather had changed as if nothing had even happened.  The sun peeked out and slowly warmed the air.  The birds even came out and chirped, as if mocking our struggle with nature.  I was so confused by all of these chaotic feelings.  In fact, it was surreal to feel fear one moment, and then being in awe of the beauty produced by such terror. 

Three clues of summer's farewell...

It was the first of November, yet the sun shone in cloudless splendour and the heat was so great, that when I had examined the magnificent remains of ancient Greek fortification-walls which crown the summit of the hill, it was delicious to repose on a grassy slope in the shade of some fine holly-oaks and to inhale the sweet scent of the wild thyme, which perfumed all the air.  But it was summer's farewell.  Next morning the weather had completely changed.  A grey November sky lowered sadly overhead, and grey mists hung like winding-sheets on the lower slopes of the barren mountains which shut in the fatal plain of Chaeronea.  (Frazer 363)

  Wandering around after class I began to think about three clues.  Of course we covered the leaf change in class, but I fondly thought about a trip I took to Wisconsin.  We had just visited relatives on Madeline Island (on Lake Superior) and decided to travel north and then west to Montana.  My boyfriend was not looking forward to going back to our reality that was waiting.  So we took a two hour detour to see how the leaves had changed that fall. It was a perfect way to say goodbye to our carefree summer.  Then the clues started to unravel in their perfect place.  I began to hear the ravens cawing and thought of Coronis and the fate of the bird changing its color.  A gust of wind blew up and I pulled my jacket in tighter and thought of Juno's frosty ways, brrrr...  I felt so close to nature and was enjoying my game of recollecting, when all of sudden I was snapped back to reality, I noticed a girl pass me by.  I looked back and saw her stop and stare at her reflection in a window.  I giggled to myself and instantly thought of Narcissus. 

Book 1 & 2

Book One:

The Four Ages:  A decline in metal notes a decline in man.

Lycaon:  Trying to fool Jove into eating flesh transforms savagery behavior into a wolf.

Deucalon & Pyrrha:  Represent two halves of human endeavor.

Apollo & Daphne:  Apollo feels the scorn of love in Daphne's refusal.

Io & Jove:  Be wary of Juno's wrathful jealsousy.

Book Two:

Phaethon:  A son takes his father's chariot for a joyride and fails miserably.

Callisto:  Took shape of a bear as punishment from Juno

Ocyrhoe:  Morphed into a mare for prophesizing fates.

Mercury, Herse, Aglauros:  Envy becomes involved consuming Aglauros.

Europa & Jove:  Jove tricks Europa as a handsome heifer and kidnaps her. 

Bovine Tendencies

 

When the ancient Egyptians sacrificed a bull, they invoked upon its head all the evils that might otherwise befall themselves and the land of Egypt, and thereupon they either sold the bull's head to the Greeks or cast it into the river.

    While reading Ovid's Metamorpheses, it is unquestionable that the "bovine" plays a central role.  Professor Sexson mentioned this in class and I decided to research the myth behind the bovine.  I had found quite a bit and realized that there was a theme.  In Egyptian mythology, a bull-deity called Apis, was said to be a life-force and also a symbol of the Pharaoh.  They believed that Apis had reincarnated into a real bull.  Bovines that had special markings were taken to a temple and given a harem of cows. If the bull had a white triangle on its black forhead, the outline of a white vulture wing along its back, the mark of a scarab under its tongue, a crescent shape on its right flank, and double hairs on its tail.  Then it would be considered a cow worthy of worship.  Kinda picky. 

      Even in Paleolithic European cave paintings Aurochs (ancestors of domestic cattle) are depicted.  According to some their life force had magical traits.  In India the cow is viewed a bountifully sacred animal.  Not only is the animal spared but it is allowed the right of way over traffic.  While we may slap a cow in between two buns, other cultures have found the bovine as a useful way of worship.

A bad day to get help...

I recently had a terrible day... I call it my sick day.  I have been sick about... 9 days now and decided to finally visit our trusty health center.  Thinking that I was such a great person in taking care of my illness and not spreading my wonderful cough, I went during one of my classes, boy was I wrong.  I start off getting checked in and finding hand sanitizer at my every turn.  Granted I felt crappy, but I continued patiently to wait in the sitting room.  Then a very nice nurse took my stats and felt the need to talk to me about the most random of things.  I don't know why but she felt that I was making a very competent conversationalist, honestly, I only remember coughing and wiping my hand on my pants (gross).  Then I was told to wait out in the sitting area once again..... tick tock.. I waited for two and a half hours.  It seemed that every person was getting called except me.  I even went up to a receptionist and pleaded her to let me go next... oh no "two more people before you... you can leave if you want." What? After all the hours spent sitting and minutes spent coughing? No way!  After many Erins being called, I finally got to see a doctor.  This lady had me sitting in her examining room for only 5 minutes, prescribed me medicine and told me I really wasn't that sick.  Pffft! I had no fighting spirit left in me and accepted that MSU health services had a very confusing system, especially when you feel like your lungs are on the floor dragging behind you.