Sirens and Mermaids

Sirens were beautiful women creatures, who were said to lure sailors with their enchanting songs and voices to shipwreck them on the rocky cast near their island.  They're goal was to steer the ship straight toward their island where they would crash on the rocks and ultimately die.  It was said they used the bones of the sailors they killed as musical instruments.  In Homer's Odyssey, the sirens were believed to be in mermaid form.  It was believed that these mermaids would not only use their voices and musical abilities to lure sailors to their deaths, but also they would use their upper human half to make it appear as if a woman was drowning in the water.  They used this to lure sailors into the water to try and "save them".  They would then pull the sailors down and drown them.  In the Odyssey, the sailors plugged their ears with wax so they would not be lured by the sirens' songs.  Ullysses even had his sailors tie himself to the front mast of the ship so tightly that he could not escape while the sirens attempted to lure the ship towards the rocky coast.  It was said that the sirens were so mesmerized by Ulysses' gaze and radiance that no matter what they did, sing or stay silent, they were not going to be able to lure his ship towards their rocky coast.  It was said that "Ulysses was so full of guile, was such a fax, that not even the goddess of fate could pierce his armour."  A major difference between mermaid and sirens, however, is that mermaids were human from the waist up, and fish from the waist down, while a siren was said to have a human body from the waist up, and a bird-like body from the waist down.  Visual artists have now transformed the myth to suit modern audiences by generally making these creatures seem more beautiful than evil.  Nowadays, a mermaid is generally portrayed as a beautiful, innocent creature.  Siren's, however, have maintained an evil vibe.  For example, in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, the mermaids are innocent creatures who like to mind their own business.  They are prized for their "tears's".  The sirens, however, are evil creatures who are portrayed as mermaids, not the bird-like creature they were originally portrayed as, that lure the sailors to their deaths by their song and ultimately drowning them.  In other modern work, sirens and mermaids are portrayed as the same character, without the upper body being a beautiful woman and the lower body being a fish, no longer having the bird-like body.  Another modern reference to mermaids and sirens is at the Coney Island Mermaid Parade, which occurs each year where people dress up as mermaids and sirens.  Even in Disney's The Little Mermaid, which almost every child watches as they grow up, portrays a mermaid as a innocent creature who just wants to become a human in order to marry a man named Eric, who she is truly in love with.  

O Brother, Where Art Thou

In O Brother, Where Art Thou, some of the transformations that the Coen Brothers perform on The Odyssey are having John Goodman being basically a giant compared to the other three that escape, resembling Cyclops.  The blind man pushing a handcar (their prophet) in the beginning of the movie is considered to be the prophet Odysseus visits in Hades.  The blind radio owner seems to represent the boatman in Greek mythology who helps the dead cross the River Styx into Hades.  Clooney’s character essentially goes hand in hand with Odysseus.  With his crew being escaped convicts, Sheriff Cooley takes on the role of Poseidon and how the god was always behind Odysseus, hunting him down.  Another similarity was Clooney’s characters wife is named Penny, which can be inferred to be short for Penelope.  Additionally, both wives give their husbands a final test before accepting them back, which is essentially the same with The Odyssey.  

Fair Tales Part II

After reading and studying the different versions of Beauty and the Beast, some differences that stood out were that in the Norwiegian version, Beauty has to be talked into marrying the best by her father whereas in many of the other versions she volunteers to prove her love and gratitude towards her father.  This leads to another difference between versions, that some of them deal with the virtue of the beauty and 'being good' vs others dealing with the beauty being forced to marry the beast and 'doing well.'  Another difference that is closely tied with the others mentioned is that in Madama de Beautmont's version she values the essences of the beast over the physical appearance.  Her version is very virtuous, vs many of the other versions that are complete opposite and have the Beauty being completely turned off by the physical appearance of the beast.  

A couple similarities are that the transformation of the beast to prince does not happen until the morning after the wedding in basically all of the versions.  Each version expresses a woman's "anxieties about marriage" but now had turned into a story focused on the beast rather than the beauty.  It's almost has if the story has originally changed from the beauty in need of the beast, to the beast in need of the beauty.  Another similarity is that "defiance is, in fact, a characteristic trait of many of the folkloric heroines who find themselves pestered by beasts."  Basically saying that the heroine character in all of the versions deals with the same problem of defiance at one point or another throughout the story. 

I think that these changes were made based on where and when the version was written.  Each culture is different throughout the world from the US, to France, to Polish, to Spanish, to Russia, etc.  I feel like each version is based off of what their society and culture truly values.  

Beauty and the Beasts

After watching both of the films, right off the bat there are obvious differences.  Clearly the first video is black and white of real people, whereas the Disney is color and a cartoon.  The original is in French with English subtitles, and clearly takes place in a different time.  The Disney version takes place in the past as does the original, but being in what seems an American culture vs a French culture really changes the entire dynamic of both films.  The cartoon is a musical, which really changes the dynamic even further.  

In terms of the Beast, he physically appears different in both films.  In the black and white film, he is standing at the stature of a man, but his face appears to be a mix of a lion, bear, and vampire almost.  He has hair flowing all over, but he doesn't stand tall as an incredible giant, like he does in the Disney version.  In the Disney version, he stands massive and towers over Beauty (Belle) and is incredible hairy all over his body.  He looks again like a mix of a lion, vampire, and bear.  In this Disney version, he stands on both of his hind legs but also can move on all fours.  He does not do this in the black and white version.   

A huge difference that I saw between the two films was that Belle's father in the black and white version goes to find her a rose.  He gets lost and when he plucks the rose, the Beast appears and threatens to kill him for stealing a rose from his garden.  He offers in exchange for the man to bring back one of his daughters in his place to avoid death. He doesn't realize he will eventually fall in love with this girl, because he says to the man, I will kill her instead of you.  

In the Disney version, however, Belle finds her way to the Beast's castle where she is looking for her father who was locked up by the Beast for trespassing.  When she finds her father in a prison cell, the Beast comes out of nowhere where Belle offers herself in exchange for her father.  The Beasts rule is that she must stay there forever.  She is terrified at first, and asks the Beast to come out in the light.  When he does, she shrieks at the sight of him and this angers the Beast a lot.  He scoops up her father and basically kicks him out, not allowing them to even say good bye to each other.  She is shocked at first thinking she is now a prisoner to the Beast, but the Beast offers to show her to her new room.  She did not know that she was going to be more than just a prisoner to the Beast.

Another big difference was when Belle first arrives at the castles, there are two personified objects, a clock and candle, that see the girl and say "She is the girl they have been waiting for to break the curse."  So clearly this gives away that the Beast is a man who is under a curse that I did not catch in the original version.  It also shows a difference between the two films that there was no inanimate objects that were personified like this clock and candle. 

Antigone

I truly believe that Creon is the tragic hero in the play Antigone.  The play starts off with Creon as being seen as a great king, especially by his family.  But what turns out to be his tragic flaw is his arrogance and stubbornness.  Creon even admits this flaw by saying "The mistakes of thoughtless minds, stubborn, deadly mistakes, you who look upon kinsmen slayers and the slain.  Ah me!  The unhappy counsels among counsels.  O boy, new to life with a new kind of death, aiai, aiai, you died, and you have departed because of my bad counsels, not yours."

The central idea of being questioned and essentially betrayed by his own people begins to scare Creon, setting the stage for his big tragic fall. "The people, all Thebes together, deny it" Haemon says to Creon showing this idea of his people beginning to lose trust in him.  Creon goes from being a good and just leader, to having hubris which leads to his demise..  He doesn't realize it until it is too late.  Creon refuses to believe Tiresias and will not compromise over the fact that he could be wrong about Antigone. He even says "Know that you are not going to sell my purpose" ....basically saying that whatever you say will not change my mind.  He finally realizes towards the end of the play that his hubris led him to his downfall and that it was his fault that Haemon died after not listening to his advice.

What makes me believe that Creon is the tragic hero over Antigone is that he goes through all the phases of a tragic hero.  He is royalty, a king, more so than Antigone.  He has incredible arrogance, stubbornness, and hubris.  After allowing all three of those traits to lead to his downfall, be recognizes his flaws at a time when it is too late.  He has officially fallen.

Heroism

A hero on contemporary TV or cinema that has some characteristics that relate to the Ancient Greek hero Herculues is Batman/Bruce Wayne.  Batman, at a young age is fueled by the murder of his parents where he devotes his entire life to ending the corruption in the city of Gotham.  He became a skilled fighter both with his body and weapons, but one thing that separated Batman from the rest is that his number one rule is no killing.  This becomes a crucial problem for Batman later on in the trilogy of whether he must face the decision of breaking his rule in order to accomplish his goals.  He inspires good in all people, not just Gotham, which relates to Hercules' feats as well.  Like Hercules, Batman's best weapon is not just his physical strength, but his superior intelligence and tactics.  They both used these tactics as well as their ability to manipulate their surroundings in their favor.  As difficult as their foe or challenge may be, once given the chance to prepare and analyze, they overcome and succeed in all of their challenges.  An example for Hercules is his defeat of the centaur Chiron, and for Batman, his defeat of Bane.  They do not know what the meaning of failure or impossible is.  They are willing to sacrifice themselves as the scapegoat if it is for the greater good. 

Of the gods discussed in the pantheons PDF, I select Poseidon.  Poseidon was the god of the sea, earthquakes and horses.  He was considered one of the supreme gods of Mount Olympus, but he spent most of his time under wate.  He was the brother to Zeus and Hades; all three divided up creation.  One of the myths revolved around Poseidon was that he and Athena, the god of wisdom and war among other things, clashed heads with who would be the patron of Athens.  Poseidon used his three-pronged spear to strike the Acropolis, creating a spring of salt water. Athena, on the other hand planed an olive tree for the Athenians to use.  Despite the fact the water spring Poseidon created was salt water, the people of Athens knew they could not favor one god over the other, so they were careful over who they honored the most.  

Another myth that circulated around Poseidon, was that he cursed the wife of King Minos of Crete.  Minos called upon Poseidon to send a bull form the sea, which the king promised he would sacrifice.  When the bull was sent, Minos liked it too much to sacrifice it, so Poseidon asked Aphrodite, the goddess of love, to make Minos's queen fall in love with the bull.  This love resulted in the infamous Minotaur, half man and half bull.  

Lastly, another myth having to do with Poseidon that I found somewhat interesting was when he and Medusa were having a small love affair.  They had a sexual encounter in on of Athena's temples, which infuriated her.  As a punishment she transformed Medusa into a monster, and when Perseus decapitated her, Pegasus and Chrysaor came out from her neck.