Don't despair your mother loves you. Don't be proud because she has to.
Betrayal sucks. It’s a classic insult/injury combination. Not only does one suffer the injury of whatever form the betrayal itself takes, but the breach of trust has domino effects that damage other relationships which can result in a vicious cycle of distrust and frustration. Take a moment to consider all the annoying security features we... Continue Reading →
Do you remember the moment you realized The Lion King, Strange Brew, and the 1992 Robin Williams classic: Toys were all adaptations of Hamlet? I do. I don’t actually remember the exact date and time, but it was definitely in Mrs. Rowe’s 12th Grade AP Lit class. She loved Hamlet and made us read it... Continue Reading →
“What did she know?” and “when did she know it?” These two questions nag at anyone who considers Penelope and her role in The Odyssey. Penelope: long-suffering wife of Odysseus and mother of Telemachus, object of desire to over 100 young men, disenfranchised Bronze Age woman hobbled by culture in rectifying the chaos that envelopes... Continue Reading →
Billy Pilgrim first became unstuck in time while leaning back against a tree in Luxembourg on the wrong side of the German line following The Battle of The Bulge in December 1944. For the remainder of his life he found himself transported backward and forward across spacetime popping in and out of the linear frame... Continue Reading →
One of the more famous extra-canonical stories about Odysseus is his hesitancy to join the Greek army prior to the siege of Troy. He had a newborn son and initially he didn’t heed the call to join Agamemnon at Aulis. An expedition was sent to encourage/ force him to join up, and he pretended to... Continue Reading →
If you’re reading this, there’s a decent chance you also read portions of my series on The Book of Job and The Iliad. Welcome to my thoughts on Homer’s Odyssey. At some point in the introductory essay to these others series I inevitably find myself saying something like, “The Odyssey isn’t actually what you think... Continue Reading →
Unsurprisingly, Enkidu’s death deeply disturbs Gilgamesh. Anyone who has ever lost a close family member or friend knows the hole that is left in one’s life. There are the obvious facts of their physical absence and all that comes with it. The gestures of love and kindness that you’ve taken for granted. The idiosyncratic behaviors... Continue Reading →
Enkidu’s narrative arc in the Epic of Gilgamesh isn’t particularly subtle. A man is crafted from clay. He roams the steppe with herds of wild animals. He wears no clothes, his hair is unkempt, he eats grass, he drinks water, he knows nothing of civilization. He is tamed through sexual intercourse which appears to sap... Continue Reading →
On the evening of December 3, 1872 George Smith stood before the Society of Biblical Archeology inside The British Museum and read the text of his exciting new work: The Chaldean Account of The Deluge. His words echoed far beyond that meeting. The excitement raised that evening resulted in multiple expeditions to the Middle East... Continue Reading →
We left Achilles at rock bottom. His rage launched a sequence of events that were not only devastating for his comrades, but the person he cares about most in the world is dead. His desire for revenge then led him to slaughter untold numbers of Trojans, yet killing the man who killed his best friend... Continue Reading →
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