Symposium and the origin of Drinking games

Symposium was referred to as sort of forum where elder men of a society would go to discuss things of a political nature. While this was one goal of the gathering, i would go so far as to say there was a simple motive of partying involved. Dr. Rupert Thompson of Cambridge university agrees that one of the very first references to any kind of drinking game is in symposium. They played the most simplistic game imaginable, but it is still the roots of many drinking games we know today. They simply poured wine into a bowl or kylikes and drank then passed quickly. Perhaps this is the root of games we know as speed quarters or kings cup and any other communal drinking game.

Another interesting thing i discovered was the incorporation of songs into the ritual of drinking. Anybody can tell you that anything that rocks rocks harder if you're drunk; not to flog a dead horse, but all that is past possesses the present. Socrates may have been the first rock and roller or 70's style hippie, as he enjoyed parties with music drinking games and good old fashioned friendly debate.

Weak Sister

I am the oldest of 6 siblings, and as such I have viewed any kind of sibling relationship you can imagine. The Strong sister/weak sister relationship is very real. Usually it seems that the oldest sister would be the strong one, but in my house it was very different. the youngest of three sisters Andrea is by far the most outgoing, risk taking, and anything else that places her in a status of strong. The middle sister Shantel is second most outgoing, which leaves me to question: why would the oldest sister who has had more time to experiment, and put herself out there be the least outgoing? Baffling. Of course nothing to the degree of ismene and antigone has ever occurred in our house; however, if i were to be dead and disgraced the only one who would even thing of burying my stinking corpse against the will of authority would be Andrea.

This leads me to an interesting thought. I actually agree with Creon that his decree can not be disobeyed. While I think his decree may be a bit premature in the context of the two brothers, I still feel that as king he is responsible for laying down the law and as such he must stick to his guns. If he were to just allow antigone to bury her brother against his decree and not do anything by way of punishment, then he would relinquish control of the kingdom. I only point this out Because i feel that Creon is made out to be some sort of evil villain when in fact he is only protecting his past decree. Then again all that is past possesses the present. Looking at George W's so called war, he may have just been better off admitting guilt and wrong doing right away to avoid the catastrophic aftershock that will take our country years to recover from.

Death surrounds us all, even in things basically inconsequential such as pets, we are bound by the only universal constant of death. I have to say that I don't feel too sentimental towards animals because i've never really had any pets that lasted too long, but there is some kind of unspoken need to give ritual burial for even the smalllest of creatures in my cicrle. So in that way I agree with antigone on the burial of her brother. As a survivor of her beloved brother, should have the right to give him ritual death rights. Maybe its the times we live in, or the lack of religious sentimentality, but i still don't think someone's final rights are worth another life. As bad as it seems to leave someone you love out for the vultures, wouldn't you be forced to ask, "If Rotten McDecaying had something to say whouldn't he rather only one of us be dead instead of both?"

Percephone Helsinki syndrom

In the hymn to Demeter there was a couple of concepts that interested me more than just the hymn itself. the first was the idea of Persephone embracing her captor hades, when by all rights she ought to hate him. I looked into this idea, and discovered that indeed what was most definitely still is. Scientifically this is called Helsinki syndrome. basically the idea is this: the captive develops a strange bond with the captor, and in some cases is caused stress by leaving them. Interestingly enough there is an instance of this in early American literature that portrays this "syndrome" although it does not deal with lovers it is still very easy to observe the transition from hatred and resent for the captor to acceptance and even reliance. around 1675 Mary Rowlandson was captured by the Narraganset tribe with whom she was held for an extensive period of time. In the beginning of the narrative her adjectives describe the natives as savages that are cruel and relentless; however, by the end of the essay this language disappears and she is tolerant to their ways. she has accepted their ways. She even has the chance to escape just like Persephone but turns it down. The part of this that is circumstantially bounded is this: with Persephone she is attracted to hades for what ever reason, where as Rowlandson embraces her captors as she believes it to be a test from god.