Odyssey Book 8 and of reputation and appearance.

If one notices appearance is important to the phaeacians esp in social circles.

Athena had left for Athens after accompanying Odysseus to the palace of Phaeacia. She reappears as Alcinious holds an assemble to get consent for the ship that would return him home, the motion passes and a feast and games are held in Odysseus honour. Athena had returned to her Athens which is a foreshadowing of the wisdom that later helps Athens rise to power. A blind bard Demodocus sings of the conflict between Odysseus and paris while everyone except Odysseus who weeps, laughs. Alcionious ends the feast to start the games because he sees Odysseus distress over the song. The bard is blind as are the others of the court who do not see who Odysseus is. Thus the people of Phaeacia had heard of the exploits of Odysseus and he was somewhat a legend amongst the people. the weeping portrays how sad Odysseus was over the events of troy and not triumphantly happy with his earlier deeds, the memories were painful not pleasurable.

At the games which included boxing racing and discus throwing, Odysseus is goaded into participating by being insulted by Broadsea a phaeacian youth, Odysseus easily wins the discus throw and challenges any phaeacian to any event with the pretense of proving himself superior, Alcinious ends the games by inviting the youth, including the goader, to another feast where the youth would entertain Odysseus. the same bard plays a song about Aries and Aphrodite angst against each other. Odysseus then asks the same bard to sing the song about troy again and once more Odysseus break downs at which point he is taken to the side by alcinious who stopped the singing and asked who he really is and the details of his being and journeys.

Broadsea goads Odysseus into participating in the games and shows that on Phaeacia this is an acceptable way to get one motivated. that the appearance of weakness is considered a motivating factor to prove oneself otherwise. The fact the Alcinious ends the games after realising Odysseus would make every male on the island look bad shows how the reputation and appearance of the inhabitants is important at both the social and personal level. the phaeacians are big on appearance and reputation and not allowing someone to look bad even when weeping without a known reason to a song.

Led traffic lights and concerns over their sub standard use.

before I post the next section on Odysseus I thought I should mention a more vcivic matter.
In Toronto starting in and approximately 2005 the city of Toronto began using LED traffic lights as opposed to the older and well proven incandescent lights. I have actually contacted the Engineer concerning this matter but my engineering skills free of occupational reserve proved superior to all his training. Even the common person knows led lights are effected by UV from the sun. Anyone with a cell phone knows this, thus a 12 year old is wiser concerning led and UV. The new lights fad and do not burn out as the old lights did. The city has started a program where you can report faded light. This means lights fad faster than the change program. In fact the cheaper lights fad too fast making road conditions dangerous. t5he new LED lihjys do nott use a colour filter that stops reflection and direct sun light not only fads the already dimmer lights but causes them to reflect light fooling people into thinking they are on. I have observed many people slowing down and running lights due tpo the inferiority of the sub standard of lights. they are said to have passed minimum requirements esp in the first week the light is changed then they fad below standards, the standards board that did this testing failed and proved themselves incapable of being trusted concerning their testing. visitors to Toronto from non led lighted areas observe the normally dimmer light. these conditions are dangerous but the city prefers to use these less safe substandard light system cause it saves a lot on electrical and replacement cost, but I guess the cost on human lives is not regarded

I am ta=king the issue to the justice system and hope to convince a judge as I have all who has seen my evidence to cause the lights to be changed.
If you have a moment please email Mayor miller (mayor_miller@toronto.ca) and mention the issue in hopes to fix it.

More odyssey in a bit

Analysis of social custom, educate and what impresses Phaeacians, Coa Dai a Vietnamese universal perspective religion.

The Phaeacian's social educate and ritual of cleansing indicate the type of ritual and social value attributed to the customs of the island. Hercules went to Phaeacia to cleans himself and learn control necessary to maintain social educate. Ulysses performs perfectly within the rules of this social educate proving the Greeks of his time were capable of acting within such social guidelines and thus is offered the kings daughter as a wife representing the marriage of the two peoples. Proper respect of women is part of this educate, including understanding the social repercussions of certain actions towards a women. In fact the xenophobia of the island is a product of strangers not accustomed to the same social rules, educates and social consciousness. If Ulysses had chosen the daughter of the king to accompany him so as to appear as a native of the island he would have jeopardised her reputation and endangered his by doing so and not being conscious of the proper educate afforded women on the island. He was also conscious to the fact that being accompanied by a commoner would make his entry into the capital less pronounced and more socially acceptable, esp. a female whose relations would not come into question upon arriving at the palace.
Interestingly it is wisdom concerning courting that sends the princess to wash her clothes, she wanted to look good for her courtiers. This portrays the social customs concerning courting and the female’s part in attracting such people. Alcinious offering of his daughters hand in marriage shows that Ulysses not only was attracted but proved himself superior to all previous courtier of the fair maidens hand in marriage. Thus as an ambassador Ulysses portrayed all the social consciousness necessary to befriend and cause an alliance or marriage between the two peoples.




Cao Dai ( Chow Dah ee): is a religion born in Vietnam during the 1920's
Its 0origins begin in ancient and tradition meditation/medium rituals that invoke a divine interaction. Cao Đài Tiên Ông Đại Bồ Tát Ma-ha-tát (translation: Cao Dai :] Ancient Sage / Great Bodhisattva Mahasattva)
Cao Dai means high place or heavenly place, tower or transcendent high reaches. It is believed that there are four teachings Thần (angel), Thánh (saint), Tiên (sage), and Phật (Buddha) ; each teaching respectfully corresponds to a hierarchal teaching of reverence and height on the tower of transcendence. The first period of history is believed to be that of the Old Testament, the first Buddha while the second includes Jesus and Loazi and the third is when God is in control. The third period is considered to be manifesting now. The religion is considered to be founded by God directly as is Judaism and other religions. The originator called the initiator of Gods founded religion, Ngô Văn Chiêu is said to have interacted with God and was told not to use the cross as a symbol of the new religion as it was already used but to us the eye in the pyramid as a symbol, the symbol appeared to him twice to indicate that God wanted it to be used as the religions symbol.
Cao Dai believes that there are 72 inhabitable planets that make up the upper plains of transcendence with intelligent life on them. Earth is 68 and 73 is hell. Ciaddist believe people like Victor Hugo are great sages and are used in religion doctrine based on Ngô Văn Chiêu, writing
The main initiators that help mold the religion were Ngô Văn Chiêu, Cao Quỳnh Cư, Phạm Công Tắc and Cao Hoài Sang. Ngô Văn Chiêu allowed the political material manifestation of the religion to form on its own , thus the religions structure controlled by the Tây Ninh Holy See and do not reflect the full egalitarian gender roles of the founder or initiator, for example the political authority of females in the religion, though progressive in their time reflect a misnomer drawn from the cosmology thus women can gain high rank but are not allowed to be pope as it is feared it would lead to chaos( see cosmology below ) The See was developed based on the catholic hierarchy that Vietnamese became accustom to based on the French occupation of said land.
There is an interesting Cosmology followed by the Coa Dai that is a good stepping stone to eastern mysticism.

In the beginning there was the Toa the formless potential( chaos in ancient Greek) that is equivalent to the formless form or God beyond being in western tradition. Then there was a big bag and the actualised God or simply God is formed.. Thus God beyond being is the Toa and the actualised God at the origin of creation is God. God then formed a pattern of actualised existence and set it as the Yang and then reflective cleaved yin from him that is the Buddha and the highest enlightenment of all created within the uni9verse that is the yin. The yin is female and both yin yang the logos or logic of the universe as set patterns or divine programs. Since Buddhahood is considered the highest transcendence, the female wisdom of yin is the up most transcendence of enlightenment and order of the universe, thus gender and sex based political treatment as incompatible difference counters this lesson. Women keep order and divinely represent the enlightenment that leads to oneness with yang and the ability to access him Toa as God does. Tjhis cosmology captures the imagination, is truly something God wanted saved as an actualised explanation of God.
‘
One notices that the enlightenment project effected religions formed since the late 1700’s .The idea of the universal of God in all religions versus the older xenophobia that dissipated became a core idea in the new religions. However the shift from the idea that everyone will convert to one religion exalting every religion as a glory of God gave way the universal relativism outlined in the preface to this blog, see first post Feb. 2008.)
A new age of religion is dawning and it is beyond the liberal I am right and I tolerate your way though I am right and I believe no other doctrine is and the late liberal idea that a single teaching can unify all religions peaceful into one doctrine without having any relative perspectives, The newest idea entails universal relative perspectives that entail no conversion to any doctrine yet allowing the embrace of each way as part of ones universal Way or path.

Peace till next week/

Alcinious, Pheaecian Palace and their queen, the alliance and marriage born of wise educate.

Oddysseus leaves the fair princess on the road for her parents palace. On the way Athena appears as a girl who accompanies him to the palace, she mistifies his presence so he is not easily discerned as a foreigner as the Pheaecians who were known to be xenophobic. At the city Athena disappears as Odysseus encounters a festival meant for Poseidon and is impressed by the palace. Here we see wisdom hiding Odysseus who enters the city with someone making him look conspicuous or out of place, Wisdom dictated using someone as that kind of cover. Once in the palace he falls to his knees in front of the queen and the mistification disappears, the mist pr air of being a commoner dissipates. He tells the queen and Alcinious of his plight and they agree to help him by giving him a ship, Later the Queen recognizes her daughters clothes on Odysseus and confronts him. Je explained how he got to Pheaecia from Calypsos island and the encounter of the princess on the beach and how he got the clothes. Wisely he added that it was his idea to come to the palace alone not to jerpordise the fair princess with romours. The king is so impressed he offers the daughter as a bride. This portrays how the wisdom, social educate and ritual pertinent to the islands culture was important for a marriage or alliance to be Forged.

Phaeacians and its location, the connection to washing as a ritual cleansing linked to hercules as well, a taste of semeria of africa, Hercules last

The Greek name for Calipso: Kaluyw, sounds even more native american.

Nausicaa is beseecher by Ulysses on his knees, he chooses to forgo telling her that he is a ruler and chooses to act as a humble supliant.

The fact Nausicaa has courtiers seems to suggest that women in this land courted rather than simply being arranged.

"it was during [this beseechment] that Nausicaa learned the details of Odysseus' plight, and having observed his manners, she understood that the man was no fool. And he who thinks by himself and understands beyond appearances does better, for as Nausicaa herself said, this kind of ordeal is often sent by Zeus,

"... who follows his own will in dispensing happiness to people whatever their merits." (Nausicaa to Odysseus. Homer, Odyssey 6.189).

( from http://homepage.mac.com/cparada/GML/Nausicaa.html)

"The island of the Phaeacians, which is in the Ionian Sea off the coast of Epirus, was originally called Drepane (Sickle-island), but later was called called Scheria, and Corcyra.

To this island emigrated Macris, a nurse of Dionysus 2, when Hera drove her from Euboea. This is the reason why Corcyra was also called Macris Isle, to be distinguished from Abantian Macris, which was Macris' first residence in the island of Euboea.

It has also been told that when Heracles 1 arrived to the island in order to cleanse himself for the murder of his children by Megara, he there made love to the naiad Melite 2, daughter of the river god Aegaeus, and that their child Hyllus 1 was born in the isle of the Phaeacians.

The name Phaeacians, some say, derives from Phaeax 1, son of Poseidon and Corcyra and father of King Alcinous. That could be so, but others assert that King Alcinous was the son of Nausithous 1, who once ruled the Phaeacians and was the man who settled them in the island of Scheria, after having fled from the CYCLOPES (or from those Cyclopes who resemble them), because they plundered them. Nausithous 1 himself was son of Poseidon and Periboea 1, the youngest among the daughters of Eurymedon 2, who is said to have once been king of the GIANTS, and the one responsible of bringing destruction on his people and on himself.

King Nausithous 1 had two sons, Rhexenor 2 and Alcinous. Rhexenor 2, who was killed by Apollo, was the father of Arete, who married her uncle Alcinous. While Alcinous was king of the Phaeacians, he received the ARGONAUTS, who had stolen from Colchis the Golden Fleece, and he also protected the Colchian princess Medea, who being in love with Jason, captain of the ARGONAUTS, accompanied them. The Colchians who pursued them demanded of Alcinous that he should give Medea up; for she was also accused of having murdered her brother Apsyrtus. The king answered their demand declaring that if she were still a maid, he would send her back to her father, King Aeetes of Colchis, but that if she already had slept with Jason, he would give her to him. It was then that Queen Arete, anticipating matters, married Medea to Jason.

Years later, the shipwrecked Odysseus, on his homeward way from Troy, landed on a Phaeacian beach, where he was discovered by Alcinous' daughter Nausicaa, who had gone there to wash clothes. At this time, the city was surrounded by high battlements, and had two harbours, the Phaeacians being excellent navigators. The king's palace was a splendid building with doors of gold and walls of bronze topped with enamel tiles. The entrance was protected by gold and silver dogs that served as sentries, and outside the courtyard there was a large orchard where there grew pear, pomegranate, apple, fig, and olive trees that gave fruit of the best quality at all seasons of the year. The same was in their vineyard; for while some grapes dried in the sun, others were gathered or being trodden, and still others were unripe. The Phaeacian chiefs enjoyed their great food and wine in a large hall, where youths of gold held flaming torches to light them by night.

This blessed realm, where the gods used to show themselves without disguise when attending the Phaeacian banquets, was the last foreign land Odysseus visited before returning to Ithaca. It was here that he found assistance, and King Alcinous, after bestowing gifts on him, sent him home in a Phaeacian ship, constructed with superior knowledge; for the vessel had neither steersmen nor steering-oars, and knew by itself what the crew was thinking and proposed to do. "

from: (http://homepage.mac.com/cparada/GML/Phaeacians.html)

Note that Er , the focus of my text of the myth of Er was the son of Alcinious.
Motice that after running off his wife, hercules does not kill his first wife in the original tale, hercules goes to this island to wash, or cleans himself.
Thus the ritual of washing or baptising oneself on Phaeacians goes back to Hercules. Thus far Ulysses has gone towards Atlantis outside the pillars of hercules and returns to the ionian sea to be cleansed. The order in Hercules is reversed, Hercules goes to Phaeacians first to cleans himself of rage that drove his wife and children away, then he goes to see Atlas( see earlier part of blog on write up on hercules).

Note Hercules trip to Hades might be equated to a journey to northern Africa and the death rituals the people
Of Haiti( hades) practice related to the use of the term Zombie, this wou;ld have been the last people he visited and partook in the death cult rituals before unifying them with the Greeks, Ulysses later trip to the Semerians is equivalent journey and connection to Africans, as Semeria means equinox or when the sun rises evenly in the sky like it does along the equator. Most likely the Semerians are Bantu of related to similar beliefs.
till next week

Meeting Phaeacian princess Nausicaa- the ritual washing before courtship, and alliance

Meeting Phaeacian princess Nausicaa- the ritual washing before courtship, and alliance

Book 6 of the Odyssey - Meeting Phaeacian princess Nausicaa

Odysseus awakes in a forest and hears women playing ball while washing their clothes. He finds that he is also naked and un-garbed and exposed he entreats the women to help him out without revealing his political identity as he is exposed as it is. Princess Nausicaa and her hand maidens comprised the playing nubile women. The previous night the princess had a dream in which Athena or the princesses wisdom based on the influences of divine providence reminded and convinced her that it was time to do the wash to be clean and more appealing to the males who were courting her. Thus the princess could be convinced by wisdom concerning cleanliness, hygiene and make courtship to engage in washing her clothes. It is also wisdom that makes a cleaned and washed Odysseus seem extra attractive, a naked clean wisdom. She instructs Odysseus as to how to reach the palace in the capital city and how to entreat and approach Arrete the queen of Phaeacia. She would not accompany him back to the palace but rather meet him there as she felt it would be more appropriate not to be seen accompanied by a strange male while entering the city. This behaviour alludes to the social sense and educate the princess had which goes along with her social wisdom concerning why she washed her clothes. A prayer of hospitality based on wisdom to Athena sets Odysseus off towards t5he city.

It seems Athena wanted Odysseus to wash his divine clothes as he wanted the same of the princess, they meet naked and exposed and both partake in a ritual bathing to wash themselves before strategising as to how to greet the rules of Phaeacia. The ritual bathing that is both considered attractive and wise in this land is also the precursor for the instructions and meeting of the elites and royalty of the island. The bathing is also part of a courtship ritual, or adds to it as wisdom and belief, and this courtship ritual extends to the idea of a marriage or courtship between the Greeks and the rules of the island.
Plus the vision of the need of washing , or ritual baptism, was to help court people and the courtship was with Odysseus.

Just to remind everyone that one can examine the mythological of the Myth of Et and Plato's Republic in my book Plato's Mythologizing the myth of Er, available from ink waterpress a division of firstbooks. go to https://www.inkwaterbooks.com/advanced_search_result.php?keywords=petridis&osCsid=506265ca528d90913964d82832ae6802&x=0&y=0
If you go to www.amazon.com you can order it directly. Look Up Chrysovalantis Petridis or the book title.

The text looks at the Metaphoric analysis of the myth of Plato's time and their interpretation of myths such as Hercules and Homer, a must have if you enjoy the analysis of the Odyssey and Hercules found within this blog.( Also start reading with the oldest blog entry Feb 2008.

Calypsos anti gender matriarchal system, Ulysses journey after gender enlightenment

In book five of the odyssey, Athena makes a case based on wisdom to compel the gods, minus Poseidon to have Calypso set him free. Poseidon is away while this wisdom is imparted. This shows that Ulysses had become wise on said island. Hermes was sent to Calypso to tell her that Ulysses must be freed to go home. This shows that the Greeks imparted their knowledge to the people of Calypso and the wedding was completed. Calypso sends a cold reply to the god chastising them on the double standard the male gods experience in comparison to the females. She even accuses the gods of adultery and making women subservient to their male patriarchy. This shows that calypsos island was one that promoted gender equality, it was not a fertility cult that simply promoted women goddesses and allowed only wise men in their midst as will be the case with coerce. Hera's fertility rites and ways to immortality passed down from Hercules Atlantis are still part of the ritual, but the gender equality is part of the spirituality of Calypso’s island. It took 7 years for Ulysses to reach the transcendence of gender equality to be able to partake in the immortality. The wisdom upgraded Ulysses ship technology and a new boat of the new tech stocked by Calypso sent Hercules off the island through another treacherous journey. Poseidon, returning from a trip to the land of the Ethiopians, saw that the gods had helped Ulysses sail from calypso so he made the waters treacherous. Meaning the journey was treacherous and Ulysses ends up on island of the Phaeacians. Ino helped in the storms by giving Hercules a magic a magic veil that allowed him to survive even when the ship sank. The veil is life preserving equipment the Calypso added to the new ship, like a life jacket. Athena or Ulysses wisdom helps him survive the trip as he ends the new sea navigation up river on the island of the Phaeacians,
till next week