What's in a name?

Antigone comes from the Greek roots anti for "against" and gon for "birth," but what does this mean? Should pro-choice supporters be referred to as Antigones? Actually, that strikes me as an interesting idea because Antigone was obviously pro-choice, no, not in the modern sense but in the Athenian sense. Antigone deliberately chose to disobey Creon's laws in order to bury her brother. She felt that she had the right (or the obligation) to choose to obey the divine law of her gods, the gods of the underworld. She could have done as she was told and saved herself the agony. However, Antigone was unwilling to be told what to do, what to say, or how to think. As Woodruff says, Antigone chose to "give up everything to put right something she believe(d) was wrong" and illustrated "that leadership must be tempered by advice from those who are led." So, could it be that Antigone means "one who exercises the right to choose?" Well, it is one way of looking at it, but there are also a number of others. Woodruff, for example explains it as "she was plainly born for trouble." This makes sense because Antigone was hardly going to be a well-adjusted member of society with a dad that was also her half-brother, a fiance that was her cousin, and seemingly more than just a sisterly love for her brother. What part of that doesn't spell trouble?

What's old in the "newspaper"

After looking at the Bozeman Daily Chronicle, I was assured that the stories in the newspaper are in fact classical stories that are being retold in a modern setting. There were a few items in particular that seemed especially interesting. One appeared in the police reports and read, "A woman on Love Lane got into an argument with her mail carrier." My first thought was that it was ironic that this woman lived on Love Lane when she was obviously not practicing a "love thy neighbor" approach. But then I thought about classical literature and how often quarrels and wars stem from love. I also thought about the fact that the woman fought with her mail carrier, a messenger of sorts, which reminded me of Hermes, the messenger from the gods to humans. From the Homeric Hymn to Hermes we know that he was something of a trickster. I imagined the mail carrier, Hermes, playing a practical joke on the woman on Love Lane.

As I read on, I was also inspired by two of the obituaries. One obituary, for Carol Kanta, referred to her as "the Queen of our lives," and I couldn't help but wonder if those lines had been written by one of her two surviving daughters. It made me think of the indescribable connection between mothers and daughters that we discussed in class when talking about Demeter and Persephone. How telling that they should lose each other during the winter when Demeter and Persephone are forced to be apart.

Another obituary, for James Knox described a modern-day Odysseus who traveled the globe enjoying both fabulous and dangerous adventures, including a run in with Mao's army in China and traveling Europe with a family of seven. Anyone who does not believe that the tales of Odysseus could have happened never met Mr. James Knox, possibly a student at the school of hard "knox", (okay, that's a lame joke, I know, but I couldn't resist the play on words). These were modern people that were very much connected to the past.

Mount Olympus

Another article that interested me dealt with the proposal that national parks should have limited access in order to preserve them. So, I began to think about Mount Olympus, the home of the gods. I thought about what it would be like to have a huge, god-like figure standing at the entrance of Yosemite National Park telling visitors that only the gods were allowed to live and play in the heavenly surroundings. Would we honor their wishes out of love? Fear? Or would we resent the power that they had over our travels?

Yosemite National Park