Final Paper Post

Katie Kilwine

Final paper         

Northrop Frye's Furnace within Greek Mythology and the "Metamorphoses"

                Northrop Frye, a literary critic and theorist wrote a very involved book concerning The Bible.  It was titled  "Words With Power: Being a Second Study of 'The Bible and Literature" in which one of the main discussions dealt with demonstrating four central and unifying themes and images: that of the Mountain, Garden, Cave and Furnace.  Frye applied these four images to passages within The Bible, using the text as support and evidence to reinforce his theory.  At times, he often referenced other authors and their texts as further support for these central themes as well.  Of all the texts and allusions Frye did use, I was quite surprised to see that he did not make as many citations to Ovid's Metamorphoses as I expected, especially since the text (and Greek mythology in general) are  of the great foundations of literature alongside that of The Bible.  This essay will serve not to replace Frye's account of references used, but rather to add to the list. Of the four images/themes, I will focus on the appearances of 'The Furnace' mostly because it had not necessarily the most, but some of the best parallels within Ovid's Metamorphoses and in some cases, Greek mythology in general. 

                One of the statements Northrop Frye determines to be a theme involving the Furnace deals with wisdom and power residing within His rivals, not communicated by God himself.  Frye exemplifies Satan and his demons from The Bible, but within Metamorphoses this can be seen in the story of Semele and The Birth of Bacchus.  In this case, Juno (Jove's wife) serves as the rival.  She is jealous of Jove and Semele's affair and sets out to punish Semele - by trickery no less.  Juno convinces the girl that the only way to know that he is for sure Jove, and the father of the child, is to ask him to appear to her in all his glory as a god.  Juno of course knows the consequence of this, yet Semele does not, and thus upon seeing Jove in all his true and divine form she was destroyed.  Jove then took the unborn child and sewed it into his thigh until birth. From this Bacchus was born.  This story parallels with Frye's Furnace notion that some wisdom can be communicated by rivals, as well as the fact that situations associated with the Furnace don't always have negative outcomes. Semele got to see what no mortal has, she obtained the wisdom that no mortal had, and as a result of her death, Bacchus survived upon Jove's thigh.  Quite remarkable outcomes for two humans, a God and a Rival.

                Another point Frye makes about the Furnace concerns self-made wisdom and that of Prometheus.  Frye himself makes this direct connection to Prometheus who defied Zeus by giving the gift of fire and the arts to civilization.  By giving this gift, humans were now able to create for themselves and as a result, create their own wisdom.  It is important to note that in order for Prometheus to do so, he defied Zeus and stole the fire, for this, Prometheus was punished and became a tragic hero to the mortals. Prometheus sacrificed himself so humans can have this " titanic creative energy" Frye calls self-wisdom. 

                Another defining theme of the Furnace is a descent to the bottom, in which Frye states is

"to the sources of genuine human power." Frye references many titles including "Macbeth" and "Moby Dick" but does include the story of Theseus, Pirithous and the abduction of Helen (and encounter with Hades).  It is from this myth that Hercules descends into the underworld and by completing his 12th and final task, he performs "genuine human power" and as a reward given the gift of immortality.  This is another example of a descent resulting in an ascent.  Another example of this lies within Ovid's tale of Athamas and Ino.

                The story of Athamas and Ino not only supports Frye's Furnace concept exemplifying a descent, in this case negative, turning into a positive ascent, but wisdom being communicated through a rival as well.  The rival again, is Juno, whom set out to punish Athamas and Ino because they raised Bacchus (Semele's illegitimate child with Jove) by using madness - Bacchus' power no less! Juno went down to the Underworld and found one of the three Furies to aide her revenge against them. Juno hoped with this infection of madness that they would destroy their children and themselves. The Fury wrapped snakes around her arms and hair and went into Ino's palace. Upon seeing Athamas and Ino, the Fury took  the snakes from her hair and threw them at the couple. The snakes didn't bite, but instead breathed a poisonous breath on the couple and infected their minds with frenzied madness. Athamas trapped his wife and one of their small sons in a net and bashed the baby's head on a granite stone. Ino,  grabbed their other son and ran away to the edge of a cliff and jumped off. Sharp rocks at the bottom would have killed them but Venus intervened and asked Neptune to make them immortal.  This is a negative descent on many levels - into madness, jumping off a cliff, punishment by Juno but in the end, they were ascended to immortality. 

                The final definition deeming to be qualities included under the Furnace dealt with the descendant of Cain (the first criminal) and their association with blacksmithing and "demonic technology." The smith "has a sinister reputation" as a maker of swords and shields, and devils are traditionally the inventors of gunpowder and cannons. This ties back both to Prometheus and Vulcan/Hephaestus as well as wisdom created via rivals.  The mythology of Hephaestus, the god of fire and blacksmithing parallels that of Caine's descendants and their professions.  The story of Mars and Venus having an affair (Vulcan's wife) also demonstrates a negative descent as well as an enlightenment brought out through self-created wisdom via tools.  In order to catch Mars and Venus in the act Vulcan constructed a net and upon catching them their affair was brought to the light, in front of all the Gods and Goddesses he had assembled as witnesses.  Phoebus, the sun god, was the rat who discovered their affair first and informed Vulcan, Venus attempted to punish him by making him fall in love with Leucothoe and rejecting Clytie, his original lover, who was buried alive by her father for jealousy. Phoebus could not save her but he poured nectar on her body and she became a frankincense bush.

                All of Ovid's metamorphoses of characters became positive changes after negative descents.  This alone is a enough to support Frye's four images/themes to apply not only to The Bible alone, but Ovid's Metamorphoses as well, and perhaps, all texts.  Further evidence can be seen within Greek mythology concerning, blacksmithing, wisdom residing and communicated through rivals as well as the ability of self-made wisdom gifted by Prometheus.  By introducing the arts and sciences to people, Prometheus provided the basis of community that distinguishes humans from animals and the natural world and when they "participate in this communal endeavor humans can experience eternity through their own efforts" as Frye stated. This can be confirmed through Ovid's last lines "I Shall Have Life" in which Ovid has gained immortality through his works.

Works Cited

Frye, Northrop. "Words With Power: Being a Second Study of "The Bible and Literature," New York: Harcourt, Brace and Jovanovitch, 1990.

Ovid. "Metamorphoses" Trans. A.D. Melville. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986.

More Mythic Clues

"The great gods of Egypt themselves were not exempt from the common lot. They too grew old and died. For like men they were composed of body and soul, and like men were subject to all the passions and infirmities of the flesh. " - James George Frazer, The Golden Bough (pg  224)

          This weekend I watched "In Bruges" in which there is a wonderful scene of a lone swan silently floating along one of the ancient canals of the old town.  Upon viewing this, I remember thinking "Where is its mate?" based upon once hearing that swans mate for life. It was such an idyllic (and slightly romantic) scene; why was it alone? This brief question reminded me of a moment during one of our family vacations.  We were driving out to Washington to visit relatives and of course - I fell asleep. After a while, the sun was on its way down, at the perfect angle to blind any driver and passenger, so there was little chance for any attempt to fall back asleep. I had no idea where we were along the interstate at this time but I remember seeing us come upon a decent sized lake one the left side of the interstate, and loads of pine trees and greener foilage on the right side. I was in the back seat so the view was somewhat limited. Then my father said "Thats odd, I wonder what he's doing there?"
What in the world was he talking about??
Then my mother replied "I do believe Canadian Geese tend to mate for life..."
I then realized we were coming upon a pair of Candian Geese on the side of the road; one of them had been hit - and the other was fretfully standing over it.
My first though was 'how the hell did it get hit?' and then I rationed 'well there is that lake maybe they were taking off, or trying ot land in it' and then I realized how tragic it was- after hearing that they were probably mates for life - why else would the other one stick around?


          I did not realize it at the time, but this an example of Icarus and Daedalus. Icarus may have flown too high, but this goose flew too low, and was hit by the "waves" of traffic.  After passing them, my dad ended with "well I guess it will either wait until it dies, or until he gets hit himself."  It was absolutely heartbreaking to turn my head and see this one goose being pushed back by the gusts of air of the passing cars, trucks an motorhomes in attempt to still protect his/her mate. And like in "Musee des Beaux Arts", we (and presumably every other vehicle) went on with our vacation ways and "had somewhere to get and sailed calmly on."

My Friend's Chthonic Demision

My friend lives in a cave.  His apartment is cold, dark and bare. Everything from the carpet to the drapes are absolutely ancient, with "that old smell" eminating from them that no amount of candles and air fresheners can cloak. We leave the windows open at all times - even when it's raining or snowing, hoping the elements would 'freshen things up a bit'.  I do not exaggerate when I say that his kitchen sink faucet streams water with metal shavings and his fridge hardly keeps anything cold, often resulting in spoiled meat and milk.  I joke about there being asbestos and black mold residing in the walls - although I probably shouldn't because I wouldn't be surprised that even the very thought of these plagues would cause their creation.  I won't even begin to talk about the demons associated with the bathroom for fear of arising them, and needless to say I get nervous everytime I plug my laptop in. 

Dave's apartment resembles the Roman mythological caves that represent Somnus's darkness, Pan's isolation, and Python's concealment. Caves are often where few venture, and my poor friend must live in one "because its cheap." I hope this place will not corrupt him and turn him into some sort of monster by the end of the semester :(