Culture Benchmark

How does one’s perception of beginnings affect their life, views, and choices?

In my initial response to this essential question I had focused more on a personal level of new beginnings in stages of life, versus thinking more of the literal beginnings of life like most of the readings in this unit. However, I think the closest connection that can be drawn most from the first reading in focusing on the emotions of Deucalion and Pyrrha. Pyrrha represents the more of the doubt and reluctance when it says, "obstipuere diu; rumpitque silentia voce Pyrrha prior, issisque deae parere recusat, detque sibi veniam pauido rogat ore," showing how unsure and afraid she was with how to precede in their situation, and warry enough that she wasn't going to follow the orders from Themis and would rather ask for her forgiveness. Meanwhile, you see the opposite approach to new beginnings in Deucalion, which can be seen in the quote, "inde Promethides placidis Epimethida dictis mulcet, et 'aut fallax' ait 'est sollertia nobis, aut (pia sunt nullumque nefas oracula suadent)," which is basically saying that he comforted her and explained that they are clever and the Oracles can't be wrong with what they recommend to do. So he is going into the situation with a very different attitude than Pyrrha, having more faith that they will do the right thing, while Pyrrha remains doubtful, "coniugis augurio quamquam Titania mota est, spes tamen in dubio est...". And although this is a very different situation which represents the actual beginnings/repopulation of humanity, it also represents the common emotions that are similar to those people can experience today when approaching some type of beginning, showing the same doubt and reluctance as Pyrrha. For me personally, I think that this is something I can relate to especially when trying to start something new, I will be unsure how to start and afraid that something will go wrong so I either just won't start it or will wait until I have the right motivation/idea in order to make it something meaningful. I know not everyone thinks like this, but I think it is still something that people experience to a certain degree. And I think that it was very interesting to look more at how Lucretius talked about Pyrrha versus Deucalion in this situation representing both of those responses that I think are most common in people, even today.

A different way I think new beginnings were represented was through spring related imagery in the Father Rain and Mother Earth reading, which I think is interesting because that is something that is still very often associated with new beginnings. It talks a lot about the growth of trees and fruits, "at nitidae surgunt fruges ramique virescunt arboribus, crescunt ipsae fetuque gravantur" and while the meaning of this sentence, "hinc laetas urbis pueris florere videmus," isn't directly related to spring, I think that the word chose of "bloom" was intentional to be reminiscent again of that new growth that you see in the spring. These are all still things associated with spring today and are things that are actually visible to people yearly. There are also even further connections with spring and growth/new beginnings that can be seen in religions, making the idea of new beginnings fundamental to some people's faith as well. This idea of faith in new beginnings was even seen in a different context in how Deucalion and Pyrrha were ordered by Themis to follow certain steps to repopulate the earth. They were put in a situation where everything was very unsure (which I made reference to in my composition, trying to communicate that). And for some people, religion/faith can definitely affect how people view things and handle certain things (again like how Deucalion seemed to have more faith in the Oracular response).

Otherwise a lot of the readings focused a lot of the readings focused on more of the survival aspects of new beginnings, and kind of the idea of starting from scratch. Lucretius did this a lot through comparisons such as, "et maioribus et solidis magis ossibus intus fundatum," saying that earlier humans had larger and stronger bones or him listing how they're not easily affected by hot or cold, strange foods, or illnesses, "nec facile ex aestu nec frigore quod caperetur nec novitate cibi nec labi corporis ulla," (which this is a rhetorical device, polysyndeton, which repeats conjunction, in this case "nec" meaning "nor", which I think makes this list much more interesting and adds interesting emphasis on his points making them stand out). So these descriptions really focus on how the beginnings of humans differ, not making any direct comparisons but putting emphasis on how they seemed more durable than people now. I feel like this is a pretty common things that people talk about, with each generation saying things about how things have changed and people are getting weaker. This is easier to say as the experiences of growing up become more different as time passes, also because I think it is natural to view things/others relative to your own experiences initial. But I think people make choices based on what they've experienced in the past, so that makes everyone's choices relative to what they have known, so yes there are going to be generational differences that are always going to stand out as people's experiences change, and so do their choices.

Overall, I think there are a lot of different ways to view new beginnings, and many ways that a person can be influenced, like based on the situation or their own experiences. And I think the different ways that it can be seen more emotionally and more literally in these readings is interesting too, because initially I had only thought of it in a more emotional way, but these stories focused on the more literal origins of humans, so that was interesting to look at further and still be able to see some connections to my original thoughts. But I was also able to expand it more into thinking about how people make choices addressing that element of the essential question that I hadn't thought about as much in my initial reaction.