The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony, pg. 15
Theseus and Peirithous go to abduct the queen of the underworld. Thinking they are cunning enough to fool Hades, they tell him they want his queen. Hades, "answering mockery with mockery" (pg. 15) tells the men to make them selves at home and sit on the two golden chairs. The men do so thinking they had tricked the god, but then soon realize that they are glued to the chairs and can never get up. "Peirithous 'he who wanders in circles,' and Theseus, the abductor, must forget their very selves, sitting in the kingdom of the dead" (pg. 15). Then a while later Huracles comes to the underworld, sees Theseus, an old friend of his, and pulls him from the chair to set him free.
These two men, Theseus especially, think they are smooth enough to fool a god into giving up his wife. This silly act forever glues them to a seat to be tortured to the end of eternity.
Class Notes:
Myth is defined as "the precedent behind every action, it's invisible, ever-present lining" (pg.383). Mythology is saying, doing and seeing. It is about rituals.
I thought it was interesting on page 79 where it talked about women who wear make up. "When it comes to women, Greek sensibility brings together both fear and repugnance: on the other hand, there is the horror at the woman without her makeup who 'gets up in the morning uglier than a monkey' ; on the other, there is the suspicion that makeup is being used as a weapon of irresistible deceit. Makeup and female smells combine to generate a softness that bewitches and exhausts." It's interesting that the greeks thought of makeup in this way. It is relevant even in today’s society that women that wear too much makeup have something to hide--in hiding imperfections it is implied that women are secretive. They are hiding behind a false mask, so to speak. If a person doesn't show their natural appearance then they may be concealing their true self.
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