Credit is owed to the Greeks for our Western secular culture in philosophy, mathematics, politics and drama, and we acknowledge the Greeks as our ancestral storytellers. For whatever reason we have as to why we write, they have given us the beginnings of what we write.
I'm interested in framing the New Adventures and the new series in this mythology. I am also interested in unfolding Barry Kosky's production of The Lost Echo. This was Kosky and Tom Wright's exploration of Ovid's Metamorphosis. In this the themes of change and story resonate as the lost echo.
Showing posts with label narrative source. Show all posts
Showing posts with label narrative source. Show all posts
Monday, April 30, 2007
Physicality
Another issue I have yet to resolve is with the equality of movement. This is the physical act that is present in both stories of Orpheus and Lot and I find the movement striking. It has a resonance with me and its a movement that even recently I experienced when watching 300 as Dilios (David Whenham) leaves for Sparta to become the narrator for the 300.
What I think it is I feel is a mimetic resonance. I can feel the physical sensation of twisting my torso, the muscles in my back tighten, I strain my neck to look over my shoulder, wondering how much more I have to twist to accommodate my vision. It is an effort but it also makes me vulnerable. I could fall, I could run into something or someone. The act runs opposite to all the different ways the body operates.
What I think it is I feel is a mimetic resonance. I can feel the physical sensation of twisting my torso, the muscles in my back tighten, I strain my neck to look over my shoulder, wondering how much more I have to twist to accommodate my vision. It is an effort but it also makes me vulnerable. I could fall, I could run into something or someone. The act runs opposite to all the different ways the body operates.
Monday, April 23, 2007
My Orpheus laundry
I have some Orpheus issues, I've not finished wrestling with this myth.
From what I've read (scanned), most academic interpretation of Orpheus looking back, is understood as Orpheus' humanity as a noble act. This I find a difficult position to agree with, from the few primary sources I've looked in to.
Ovid describes this as an act performed out of anxiety, but that doesn't read to me as a noble human. Virgil, in The Georgics, does not give a word to describe Orpheus's action. These are our two leading Roman writers, but where are the Greeks?
Ainslie tells me that it is in The Odyssey, referred to; I have yet to locate it.
In the operas (such as in Monteverdi L'Orfeo- Ainslie) depicts the scene as Eurydice calling after Orpheus. Eurydice asks why does he not look back, and therefore why does he not love her. After her continuous calling, Orpheus looks back out of love. That works - but where are the Greek writers?
Or is it that I'm to praise Orpheus as the noble human in his failing? Then why is Ildith's act, in the Lot story, not interpreted as the noble human; surely temptation is a human act?
Ainslie challenges - Ildith and Lot is an obedience story - a morality tale. the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice is not. Context is the thing. I think my comparison is a fair one, the exercise brings out the meaning out of the two stories. Where I have perhaps gone wrong is that I failed to recognise that one is to be read as a story of events that took place and that the other is a myth, that is a difference to be respected.
From what I've read (scanned), most academic interpretation of Orpheus looking back, is understood as Orpheus' humanity as a noble act. This I find a difficult position to agree with, from the few primary sources I've looked in to.
Ovid describes this as an act performed out of anxiety, but that doesn't read to me as a noble human. Virgil, in The Georgics, does not give a word to describe Orpheus's action. These are our two leading Roman writers, but where are the Greeks?
Ainslie tells me that it is in The Odyssey, referred to; I have yet to locate it.
In the operas (such as in Monteverdi L'Orfeo- Ainslie) depicts the scene as Eurydice calling after Orpheus. Eurydice asks why does he not look back, and therefore why does he not love her. After her continuous calling, Orpheus looks back out of love. That works - but where are the Greek writers?
Or is it that I'm to praise Orpheus as the noble human in his failing? Then why is Ildith's act, in the Lot story, not interpreted as the noble human; surely temptation is a human act?
Ainslie challenges - Ildith and Lot is an obedience story - a morality tale. the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice is not. Context is the thing. I think my comparison is a fair one, the exercise brings out the meaning out of the two stories. Where I have perhaps gone wrong is that I failed to recognise that one is to be read as a story of events that took place and that the other is a myth, that is a difference to be respected.
Friday, April 13, 2007
Orpheus, Lot and Faith
Could the Orpheus myth be a distillation of the story of Lot?
In chronological terms, this could be true. The story of Lot as featured in Genesis would have been part of the oral tradition, before any establishment of the greek tradition. There are certainley similarities with the general plot of both stories: the leaving of a place; of God's/the Gods' instruction not to look back; and the fateful action of looking back. However the differences are far more pronouced and a lot more siginificant in both action and meaning.
Lot is fleeing Sodom and Gomorrah at the command of God, where as in the greek myth Orpheus leading Eurydice out, follows from the choice Orpheus had made when he had entered the Underworld.
It is Lot's wife (Edith/Ildith (ref: wikipedia)) who looks back, whereas it is Orpheus, not Eurydice who looks back in the greek story. Though whilst one might find an equality of physical action it doesn't follow there is an equality of meaning. The common moral extracted from Lot's story is that of the temptation and failure of man. This is definitely not the meaning behind Orpheus' action - the story of Orpheus and Eurydice is not a morality tale.
The tension established in the Orpheus and Eurydice is one between the Gods and Man. In Ovid's Metamorphosis, the Gods are often shown to be deceitful and cruel, where the human heroes of greek and roman myth are celebrated for their humanity.
Orpheus and Eurydice is a story is about a man's humanity. Orpheus uses his humanity to travel to the Underword. through his art he expresses his humanity to win Eurydice from death. In this story it is the Gods who behave poorly, it is their trivility in placing the condition on Orpheus. In the face of this banality, in his humanity, Orpheus looks back with love for Eurydice.
The story also demonstrates man with choice, it is Orpheus' choice to enter the Underworld, and only because Orpheus was certain that he would succeed. Michael Cadnum, in his novel Nightsong interprets from the myth that Orpheus has complete faith in his skill and art with song and lyre that he knows that he can not fail to express his love of Eurydice before Hades and Persephone.
In Lot, man is his faith in his god, In Orpheus man is his faith in his humanity and his art.
In chronological terms, this could be true. The story of Lot as featured in Genesis would have been part of the oral tradition, before any establishment of the greek tradition. There are certainley similarities with the general plot of both stories: the leaving of a place; of God's/the Gods' instruction not to look back; and the fateful action of looking back. However the differences are far more pronouced and a lot more siginificant in both action and meaning.
Lot is fleeing Sodom and Gomorrah at the command of God, where as in the greek myth Orpheus leading Eurydice out, follows from the choice Orpheus had made when he had entered the Underworld.
It is Lot's wife (Edith/Ildith (ref: wikipedia)) who looks back, whereas it is Orpheus, not Eurydice who looks back in the greek story. Though whilst one might find an equality of physical action it doesn't follow there is an equality of meaning. The common moral extracted from Lot's story is that of the temptation and failure of man. This is definitely not the meaning behind Orpheus' action - the story of Orpheus and Eurydice is not a morality tale.
The tension established in the Orpheus and Eurydice is one between the Gods and Man. In Ovid's Metamorphosis, the Gods are often shown to be deceitful and cruel, where the human heroes of greek and roman myth are celebrated for their humanity.
Orpheus and Eurydice is a story is about a man's humanity. Orpheus uses his humanity to travel to the Underword. through his art he expresses his humanity to win Eurydice from death. In this story it is the Gods who behave poorly, it is their trivility in placing the condition on Orpheus. In the face of this banality, in his humanity, Orpheus looks back with love for Eurydice.
The story also demonstrates man with choice, it is Orpheus' choice to enter the Underworld, and only because Orpheus was certain that he would succeed. Michael Cadnum, in his novel Nightsong interprets from the myth that Orpheus has complete faith in his skill and art with song and lyre that he knows that he can not fail to express his love of Eurydice before Hades and Persephone.
In Lot, man is his faith in his god, In Orpheus man is his faith in his humanity and his art.
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
Sunday, April 8, 2007
Orpheus
In the story of Orpheus and Eurydice, Orpheus was told not to look back. What is the meaning of this instruction/action?
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