The Decameron Day 2

Within the assigned readings, I chose the Fifth Day, Eighth Story and the Third Day, First Story. On the Fifth Day, Eighth Story, it told a tale about a woman who created on her husband (her GAY husband) with the help of a troublesome elder lady. When the husband finds out about this affair, he has a surprising reaction. In most of the other stories, men were not looked upon different if they cheated but women were seen as whores. This being said, I was seeking the reaction of the husband going mad on the wife. However, the husband does not care. Instead, he tells the wife to invite over the man she cheated on her husband with. The three of them, then, have a threesome. I found this very weird but interesting. In most other stories we have read, the wife would have been killed, literally, if she cheated. In this one, the wife gets away with it and gets permission to have a threesome? Not only would this not have happened in the other stories, but this would not really happen in real life relationships as well. On the Third Day, First Story, it told a tale about a seedy man who pretends to be deaf and pretends he cannot talk as well. He uses this story to lure young pretty nuns to him in order for sexual advances. The nuns, however, appear to be more sexual than he is. He gets angry with this (as well as slightly embarrassed) because he cannot keep up them with physically and mentally during sex. I found this story even stranger than the first because not only is a man being applauded for pretending to be vastly ill to get sex, he is having sex with NUNS. Nuns aren't supposed to have sex with anyone, yet, they are all having sex with the very same man repeatedly. 

Both of these stories have to do with lust, even though it is in a strange way. Both stories tell of situations where inappropriate sexual advances are overlooked and are almost rewarded with sex again. It almost seems as if sex isn't this act of love anymore, even though this is how it is portrayed in some of the stories we have read about. In one story, a man lies about a disease and has sex with nuns....and the other is about a wife cheating on her husband and then her husband initiating a threesome with the guy who had sex with his wife! As I saw in Hilary's blog, it make me question what people will do these days in order to have their sexual wants to be taken care of. The wife risked her marriage to have sex with a random man and the nuns are risking their connection and devotion to Jesus and God in order to have sex with a lying scumbag. In both of these stories, surprisingly, the women are the ones who commit these heinous acts. All the men want are love. However, they don't care when they find out what the women did in order to have sex. 

The Decameron- Day One

Day One of The Decameron is about Ser Ciappelletto and his horrid behavior and actions he thrusts upon others. Within this class, one of the main themes we have studied is the theme of religion. Religion was very important during these times, especially in the Mediterranean region. Within this story, Ciapelletto is horrible man who commits sin everyday. He does not respect anyone, including any religion or any God for that matter. However, karma comes into play and one day, Ser CIappelletto becomes very very sick when he is working. The strange thing that happens is that he requests a priest come to him before he maybe dies so he can confess all of the sins he has committed over the years he has been alive. The old Ser Ciappelletto would have even lied during confession, making his matters and sickness even worse. He technically did confess to the priest some things, but he never went into detail about all of the wicked things he has done in the past. I was hoping that he wouldn't be sent to heaven but he was in the end because "he became pure"...I don't know about anyone else but I feel he cheated his way into heaven. He did not even confess anything worth confessing! he might as well have not even confessed as well.

Middle Ages Travel Stories

The tale of Margery Kempe was very unique. In the olden days, women were inferior to men and had their own place in society. However, she was very strong willed. She traveled alone from her home in England to Jerusalem with help from other men. This act was definitely unheard of during that time period, which is why it is very interesting to read and reflect on. Women were seen as being employed in their own houses, by doing dishes, laundry, cooking, and basic homemaking. So not only did she technically "quit" her job, she traveled also. Her story was very inspiring to many women and should be told more. I'm surprised I haven't heard of it until the reading was assigned. However, her story started to fall apart. She talks to God, Jesus, and Mary and they made an oath to protect her wherever she went. When she went to Mountain Calvary she was the first woman to have something like that. She was just important as a man if he went. However, she started to get depressed. I don't get why tears are a gift of God but she continues on her journey and realizes how precious life is.

Arabic Poetry

When I read "The Dove's Necklace", the assigned reading for this week, all of the themes were typing back to a common motif of love; most of the descriptions were very in depth. The most common message I received throughout the whole poem is to always support your partner in everything they choose to do and how people morph into the person their lover wants to see them as instead of being their true self. When a person has a lover, they tend to change into the person that their lover wants to see them as. This can be physical changes but also personality changes as well. For instance, a boyfriend can want his blonde girlfriend to have short brown hair and she will cut and dye her hair to make him satisfied. Also, he may not like bubbly, over the top characteristics so she may tone down her own personality to make him happy and accept her more. This is very common in today's society and I have experienced first hand changing for someone you are connected with. In addition to people morphing into someone they're not, people also will support their lover until the end, even if it means risking their own morals or even lying. As Samantha said, couples tend to help each other lie to help the other one not fail in something. For example, couples lying on the stand to back each other up. it is breaking the law but that is what people do in the name of love and in the name of what they believe is right in their eyes, their partner's eyes, and their own relationship. Due to these two common themes, I believe love is the most powerful emotion one can have over another. People do crazy things in the name of love and will continue to to get love if they do not have anyone to love. We see it everyday in the news, in our own lives, and in society as a whole. Love changes people for the worse, but sometimes for the better.

Islamic Art

Early Islamic art was influenced greatly by the Byzantine empire and the Sasanian empire as well. When the Byzantine and Sasanian empires had their own artwork, they progressed little by little into Muslim patronage. A good, traditional example of these empires showing how they progressed with Islamic art is a stucco relief plaque, with a king riding a horse in the mountains. This image was very common in early islamic art and with the byzantine empire as well. Glass work was also common but was influenced with Roman styles. During the medieval times, the Islamic empire was gaining power and was moving into various parts of Italy and Africa. Different religious backgrounds influenced many forms of art because within these areas, there was a lot of diversity with religions. Countries also were at different standards of living. For example, Egypt was in the Golden Age, where they had vast amounts of gold, jewels, and and crystals. In the later times, the late medieval era, Chinese culture started to affect Islamic art. There were more colors and metal involved within the artwork. The art had a better sense of life. Mongolian culture also affected the artwork because their art depicted fantasy items, such as clouds, dragons, and various flowers. In addition, scripts were inclusive as well, especially Shananama.

Ovid Day two

The myths about Tereus and Medusa are very similar because they both seem to represent going against authority or their family due to only seeing their way as the right one, and then receiving punishment. In Tereus's story, he is a tyrant. He marries Procne, the daughter of the king of Athens, after he and his people take over. A few years into their marriage, Tereus allows Procne to see her sister, Philomela. However, when his soldiers bring back her sister, Tereus rapes her over and over again. Philomela then says "Now that I have no shame, I will proclaim it. Given the chance, I will go where the people are, and Tell everybody". To make matters worse, he then cuts off her tongue so she can't tell anyone what happened. It is a very gruesome scene to read, nonetheless, and his morals clearly are not in touch with himself. Revenge gets him back though when Philomela made a picture for Procne. Procne then killed her only son and served him as a MEAL to Tereus. Tereus eats him and finds out he just ate his son. The three of them then turn into birds. Researching this further, I found that Procne was turned into a nightingale, a bird that sings a sad song, Philomela into a swallow, a bird with no song, and Tereus was turned into a hawk, a very violent predator. Even though the story is not directly related to going against the gods, this part of the book shows a side of deception. Tereus went against his own family and raped his wife's sister and then mutilated her to ensure silence. However, Procne committed sin as well by killing her only son and having Tereus eat him, unknowingly he became a cannibal. These things all relate to the fact of deception and ultimately, going again the gods. I know they went against the gods because I'm pretty sure the Gods wouldn't want a family to rape, mutilate, and cook/eat each other.

The story of Medusa tells a story of deception but not towards family, instead, towards the Gods. Medusa was portrayed as a very pretty woman. This made her have her heads in the clouds and think she is above everyone else. She even thought she was above the Gods, and they knew this. Obviously this angered them. The Gods made Athena talk to her. This only egged on Medusa, because Medusa then went on a whole rant saying how Athena was jealous of her beauty. Since Athena was a God and Medusa was dumb, Athena took away Medusa's beauty and made her into a disgusting creature. This creature is the one we typically see as having snakes for hair. This story was relating to deception because if Medusa was humble and respected her Gods, she would have been able to keep her beauty. However, since she was arrogant and ignorant, she caused her own pain.

Ovid (Books 1 and 3)

1. The first book of Ovid was very very confusing to me. I was very lost because I did not get any background information such as characters, location, time, and everything like that. I felt that I could not even understand the text or even the foundation of the text for that matter. I felt like I was just thrown into a random page of a book and know nothing about it. I had to read the first book about 5 times to finally start getting it. I know the title of the book was about the creation of the world, which was the ONLY reason I started to understand my analysis of the first book/song. Therefore, I feel Ovid's story about creation is very similar to the first stories we read in the beginning of the semester, Genesis. For the first example, they created the Earth, land and water, as one. So, the stories of creation of the world were very similar. However, the biggest similarity between the two was the fact that both "authors" feel the human race was a huge mistake and road block for the world. In Genesis, God tried to flood the earth. In Book 1 of Ovid's Methamorphoses, he floods the earth to. However, both stories leave a couple survivors in hope of changing the course of creation.

5. In Book 3, Narcissus falls in love with "someone". However, this person technically is not real. Narcissus's true love is...actually himself. He sees his reflection all the time in water and that's when he sees the person he loves. His deepest desire was to have someone to love but when he tries to reach for this loved one, the person/image is disturbed due to splashing the water around. It's a bit sad actually. I like what Emily said on her blog about people generally falling in love with people who are similar to themselves. People try to find a lover with similar interests so Narcissus goes to the extreme, obviously, and falls in love with himself. Maybe he can't love others because he can't love himself? As you can see in the third book, there is an underlying self-hatred going on with Narcissus.