Recreating My Creation Myth

This is me sharing/enacting my creation story with my friend, Channy. Channy is taking the picture while I tell the story and play the role of Mbumba, vomiting up the universe as we know it today. I tried to find children to share the story with, but alas the timing did not work out so I shared it with my friend and my dogs. 

My friend thought the story was funny, but my dogs were not too impressed. 

I'll share the story again at my niece's birthday in a few weeks...

The Final Pages

I chose to look deeper into the last pages of The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony. I was feeling very indecisive with what page to pick, and then it occurred to me that perhaps it is worth looking into what Calasso would like to leave with us. And it turns out Calasso leaves us with a circle. Though there is much more to look into in the passage, Calasso starts and ends the book with the bull Zeus carrying off Europa over the sea. I am left with the impression that Calasso's problem of "how did it all begin?" is a problem as there is no beginning or end to mythology, but an ever present ring of truths.

The last section in the book is about Cadmus and Harmony, old snakes together leaving the city of Thebes. After reading this section (390-391), to be honest, I had more questions than answers. I learned that Thebes was destroyed by an earthquake caused by Dionysus, and that Cadmus had brought with him the alphabet when he came to Greece in search of his sister Europa. Although I previously knew none of this, I needed to know more. So I started doing my own research. I learned that Cadmus built the city of Thebes, after the oracle at Delphi told him to quit his search for his sister, and follow a special cow and build a city where the cow lay down. Cadmus was of direct godly lineage and a Phoenician. He killed a sacred water dragon when he first arrived where he would build Thebes, which plagued his life with misfortune for many years.

In spite of the fact that all of the gods were present and in support at the marriage of Cadmus and Harmony, their lives were incredibly troubled by the gods. Looking at the genealogy of Cadmus, I could not help but notice how much Zeus is in and out of the family's lives! His name is dotted all over the family tree, bringing with it rape and tragedy. And Dionysus is Cadmus' grandson! So the divine grandson of a mortal destroyed the city which his grandfather built from nothing. And there's more snakes. Dionysus was conceived from Zeus and Semele as Zeus in the form of an intoxicating snake, bringing into the world with him the god's gift of wine.

Inachus Melia Zeus Io Phoroneus Epaphus Memphis Libya Poseidon Belus Achiroe Agenor Telephassa Danaus Pieria Aegyptus Cadmus Cilix Europa Phoenix Mantineus Hypermnestra Lynceus Harmonia Zeus Polydorus Sparta Lacedaemon Ocalea Abas Agave Sarpedon Rhadamanthus Autonoë Eurydice Acrisius Ino Minos Zeus Danaë Semele Zeus Perseus Dionysus

It seems unsurprising to me that humans would eventually turn to indifference towards the gods after their behavior. I feel like if I were Cadmus, I would be pretty unhappy with the gods, raping my sister and my daughter; and that's only what I found out with some light research.

Calasso ends the book by telling us the tale of the final misfortune of Cadmus, but also reminding us that he made a permanent mark on Greece with his introduction of the alphabet. "No one could erase those small letters, those fly's feet that Cadmus the Phoenician had scattered across Greece, where the winds had brought him in his quest for Europa carried off by a bull that rose from the sea". 

Ritualized Feeding

In many ways I am a very ritual, methodical person. Though I tend to have probably less daily rituals than most, I have many weekly, seasonal, and other rituals.

One of my favorite rituals is my weekly trip to the grocery store. Almost every week, I go to the same grocery with my best friend on Wednesday. We go through the store in very nearly the same order, at near the same time of day, and go through the same lady's checkout line. We like our grocery trips. Sometimes we have other shopping to do after. Or we pick up my CSA box. Then go to the post office and head home.

At home, Channy hangs out while I meticulously organize my groceries and put them away, organizing and cleaning out the fridge at the same time. I love looking at my fridge when I'm done, all full of color and clean. I love to cook for my husband and I and live out of town, so looking in at all my fresh produce and meat for the week makes my heart smile.

If you have to do something all the time you might as well make it fun, right? Sometimes we'll go out to lunch as well, or fold laundry and watch tv, or Channy will stay over for dinner and a movie. But for some odd reason Grocery Wednesdays are pretty fabulous.

Our Creation Similarities

There seem to be many common threads running through the various creation myths we have already heard in our mythology class.

In the beginning, it was dark...
In the beginning, there was no land...
In the beginning, there was a lonely god or creature...
In the beginning, there was no one; and then the animals were created and then people were created...
In the beginning, there was the number seven and eggs and circles and floods; spiders, ants, trees and lightning; and the whole earth was perfect until people ruined themselves upon it.

But how did it all begin?

There were giants. And ravens. And death and diving and the emergence of land from the water.

But how did it all begin?

With dirt, blood, clay, water and sky.

And light.

The Creation of the World

In the beginning on Earth, there was nothing but darkness and water and Mbombo, the white giant, all alone. 

One day, Mbombo became incredibly sick to his stomach. He vomited and vomited in pain. He threw up the Sun and it created light and heat and the water began to dry up, creating land. Then he vomited up the moon and stars, and then nine animals; followed by many people and trees, medicine and lighting and more. These nine animals then began to create all the other animals on Earth. 

Mbombo's three sons attempted to finish the job of creation. The first died after creating white ants. The second created the first plant, from which all plants and flowers were then created. And the third son created the kite bird. 

The only trouble among Mbombo's people was created by Tsetse, lighting, so Mbombo chased him into the sky, after which Mbombo taught the people how to make fire out of trees instead. 

Mbombo was then pleased and the left the human most like him in charge. He has not been heard to have a stomach ache since. 

Chasing love.

• This whole creation is essentially subjective, and the dream is the theater where the dreamer is at once scene, actor, prompter, stage manager, author, audience, and critic.
  • General Aspects of Dream Psychology (1928)
• Emotion is the chief source of all becoming-conscious. There can be no transforming of darkness into light and of apathy into movement without emotion.
• Psychological Aspects of the Mother Archetype (1938)

There seems to be a whole lot of love and a whole lot of war in mythology. And a whole lot of complexities between the two.  And "Aphrodite is even more delightful when she is with Dionysus, and their gifts are sweeter if mixed together." (Calasso, 82) Innuendo and betrayal, love and deceit, and the same story countless ways with countless meanings and it really is the precedent as it rings so true still today. These are the archetypes. 

Hugging a Tree with My First Memory

"Though wisdom is common, the many live as if they have wisdom of their own"
"the way upward and the way downward is one and the same."
 - Diels, Hermann; Burnet, John Translator. "Heraclitus 139 Fragments" (in Greek/English).
   (taken from TS Eliot's "Four Quartets")

This is me hugging a tree. It's a giant tree in my new backyard (I just moved in last weekend) and I love it. The house was built in 1906, so I assume the tree is just about as old, and I love anything with that much history. I wonder how many people have sat under it, or how many birds have nested in it, how many squirrels have made it home...

A score and three years ago, when I was only about four years old and in preschool, I cracked an egg on the counter too hard and it broke. We were making cookies together in preschool and I made a mess on the counter and remember being so bummed because I had cracked them successfully before. This is the first memory I can recollect. 

Isn't it interesting the things that stay with us?

Picking the duplicate

One thing struck me strongly about the details of the amorous adventures of the gods explored in chapter one of The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony. That is Zeus' tendency to infidelity with women of a similar nature.
As if the irony of cheating on the goddess of the bed wasn't enough, Zeus' initial infidelity was to the woman closest to his wife Hera - Io, a woman who also appeared just like her. And then, as Calasso weaves throughout the chapter, Zeus also takes Io's progeny, Europa. It seems poignant to me, the subtle details which have been maintained throughout the years in these tails of human misbehavior, vengeance, jealousy, betrayal, sadness and love.
The fact that Zeus would replace Hera, essentially with a newer and different Hera, is devastating in it's lack of difference. The greatness and tragedies of humanity move along in patterns which we can all recognize and relate to.