Rituals, feuds, and other crazy things

The very first thing I have written down is that we have an assignment to do a blog entry on rituals, and we are to start with the one that we are presenting on Thursday. I'm about to put several blog posts up so that people don't get confused with what I'm talking in each one. We spoke of the Hatfield and McCoy feud, and how it related to the death of Agamemnon and his family. Agamemnon was killed by his wife and her lover, and she was killed by her son, who was chased by the Furies for commiting matricide. The Furies being chthonic (thonic) beings, or from/related to the Underworld. Orestes (Agamemnon's son) goes to Athens, and Athena puts him on trial. This is where our justice system stems from. Apollo won the case by saying that women are inferior to men. Athena agreed because she essentially had no mother figure. This was because Zeus ate her mother (Metis, a titan) have he got her knocked up. We spoke of archetypes which are the original pattern, or model for something. We spoke of the meaning of the word senator, which comes from senex meaning mentor, or wise man, who was also impotent (according to the Romans). Zeus used persuasion (peitho) to control his children. We spoke for awhile about Ulysses by James Joyce. It's suggested we read it, but not alone. The essential part of the book is like when we were told to find Oz in Bozeman: mythology is everywhere. We are the heros, and everyday is a heroic adventure. We then spoke of the Eleussinian Mysteries. Eliade uses quotes to speak, essentially, of the after effects. Which all come around to the idea that those who go through the initiation are blessed and in general better off than those who haven't been initiated. Much of the initiation went on in the temenos or holy precinct, which has been cut out and designated for rituals. The initiation rituals here are concerned with the story of Persephone's abduction by Hades. Because this religion was based on secrecy, the actual rites are lost to time. We are fairly certain that fertility rituals started the initiation, outside. Then they moved into the temenos and something was seen (an ear of corn), something was said ("rain, concieve"), and something was done (likely a renactment of the abduction of Persephone). Then the initiation was complete. We don't see the importance of it because we have not been through it ourselves.