Skip to main content

The Island of the Pelicans /// Isabelle Ferguson

 The battles and long descriptions of parenthood (thank you, Glaucus and Diomedes) were fun to read this week, but it was only a short dialogue that really caught my attention. I would have overlooked it, had it not reminded me of Alcatraz. Now, hear me out. One of the worst prisons ever to exist (that we know of) is located in San Francisco Bay, and location may seem unimportant at first. Learning about the physical conditions the inmates were forced to endure is enough to break the hearts of someone researching the prison. However, what makes Alcatraz one of the worst prisons ever to exist is that it wasn’t just a physical prison. Inmates could actually see the lights from the city of San Francisco. They could see everything that their lives would never be, and they could not escape.

    Aphrodite and Helen are both described (extensively) as beautiful, radiant women, but Aphrodite is a goddess. She’s powerful. Helen knows this, yet still speaks so boldly towards Aphrodite. It made me wonder what sort of anger or frustration could have gripped Helen to the extent that she would challenge a goddess to "...go to him yourself...and be a mortal...until he makes you his wedded wife-that or his slave (page 142).” Once again, Aphrodite is a goddess. She is free, for the most part, to make her own decisions, live her life, and not be treated as property. Helen looks at this woman and sees everything she cannot be. Just like on Alcatraz, she cannot escape. 

    One final bit of irony to share. “Alcatraz” developed from the island’s original name, “La Isla de los Alcatraces.” It translates from Spanish to “the island of the pelicans,” the island’s first inmates. Unlike the prisoners of Alcatraz and Helen, they could escape the island. 

PS I commented on Abbie Hedden and Jackson Riddle's posts.

Comments

  1. I loved reading your post! You have such a unique view of the relationship between Aphrodite and Helen. The comparison using Alcatraz was very interesting! Helen was definitely in a prison of jealousy. Aphrodite, her light of San Francisco. I think a further irony is that Homer displayed the gods so humanly. They were suppose to be divine beings, capable of anything. Surely they would not be caught up in such petty disagreements or be "trapped" in a certain station (Hera as Zeus' wife. Aphrodite as his lover). Maybe the goddesses were more like pelicans with clipped wings.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Before I even dive into the wonderful correlations you made in this post, I just wanted to say that your final paragraph was amazing and I loved it!

    I thoroughly enjoyed hearing your take on the unique relationship between Helen and Aphrodite. It never really occurred to me until reading your post just how similar their situations truly are. However, I do find it ironic, that Helen is the one who seems to possess more bravery than her ethereal counterpart. Though Aphrodite is a goddess and therefore immortal, Helen is the firecracker, speaking out against a powerful deity despite being a mere mortal!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Word Painting in Vesta—Lily Caswell

  Word painting in Weelkes’s As Vesta Was from Latmos Hill Descending is quite interesting. And because that is a really long title, I’m calling it Vesta from now on. Word painting is basically when the melody matches up with the lyrics. So in Vesta, when it says “ascending” and “descending”, there are obviously scales going up and down. The madrigal was written for six voices to sing unaccompanied, so when they start to come together, it matches with the lyrics; so if the lyric says “two by two”, there are only two voices; “three by three” there is another voice added, and so forth. All the parts combine in exclamation before Vesta before it is left “all alone” to the highest soprano. All the way to the end of the piece, word painting continues when shouts of “Long live fair Oriana” with the bass sustaining long notes. Word painting in and of itself is a highly interesting topic because a musician takes the words of a poem or a sonnet and writes a melody line that pertains to cer...

Welcome to Honors! (Please Read This)

     Welcome to Honors! My name is Abbie Hedden and I serve as President of Honors. Jamie Peters is our Vice President, and Caroline Tucker is our Secretary. I look forward to getting to know all of you in class during this upcoming year! There are a few things you need to know about Honors.      There are no quizzes or tests in Honors. Grades are provided based on attendance/class participation, blogs, explication papers, and the research paper. The papers will be addressed at a later date, as they aren't due until later in the semester. However, there is a blog post due every week. Bearing that in mind, here are the requirements! Criteria Blog posts are due Monday at 11:59PM , and comments are due Tuesday at 9:29AM . DO NOT BE LATE ON ASSIGNMENTS. Points WILL be deducted from late assignments! Be sure to have your name in your Blogger profile Blog posts should include at least one to two paragraphs on that week’s reading assignment.  Blog posts shoul...

Topsy Turvy Day—Lily Caswell

  I cannot remember how old I was when I watched T he Hunchback of Notre Dame  but I was at least 8 or 9. I didn’t realize until probably a couple of years ago that the song  “Topsy Turvy” and the corresponding event was actually based on a real festival. The Feast of Fools was usually held on January 1 though it could have also been held on the 6 th  or the 13 th  of January. It was portrayed as a parody of Catholic feasts. Church bells were rung improperly, songs were sung out of tune, and the celebrants “wore strange garments and masks, and used puddings, sausages, and old shoes as censers.” (Seaton, p 77) In the song “Topsy Turvy”, it says “It’s the day the devil in us gets released / It’s the day we mock the prig and shock the priest / Everything is Topsy Turvy at the Feast of Fools… And it’s the day we do the things that we deplore ‘ On the other three hundred and sixty-four.”  I commented on Haylee Lynd’s and Jamie’s posts. Sources: https://www.brita...