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#80650 - 09/13/02 03:03 PM Pleiades
wwh Offline
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Registered: 01/18/01
Posts: 13858
From Brewer:
Pleiades (3 syl.) means the “sailing stars” (Greek, pleo, to sail), because the Greeks considered navigation
safe at the return of the Pleiades, and never attempted it after those stars disappeared.
The PLEIADES were the seven daughters of Atlas and Pleione. They were transformed into stars, one
of which (Merope) is invisible out of shame, because she alone married a human being. Some call the
invisible star “Electra,” and say she hides herself from grief for the destruction of the city and royal race
of Troy.


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#80651 - 09/13/02 03:22 PM Re: Pleiades
Faldage Offline
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I have heard that the "missing" star was visible at one time and the myth records the disappearance.

The Japanese word subaru refers to the same constellation, which is the one featured on the car company's logo. I have often wondered if they have a corresponding myth.


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#80652 - 09/17/02 03:51 PM Re: Pleiades
WhitmanO'Neill Offline
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Loc: Rio Grande, Cape May County, N...
Also often referred to as "The Seven Sisters".

And brings to mind the title of a classic Eugene O'Neill play: Mourning Becomes Electra


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#80653 - 09/17/02 04:28 PM Re: Electra
Wordwind Offline
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W'on, in a nutshell would you please state why mourning became Electra? I haven't read the play, but I've always wondered why mourning became her...what it was about her that she carried mourning so well...?


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#80654 - 09/17/02 09:10 PM Re: Electra
WhitmanO'Neill Offline
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Mourning becomes Electra

Please state why mourning became her--WW

Some call the invisible star “Electra,” and say she hides herself from grief--Dr. Bill

Dr. Bill's observation is the tale behind the imagery, of course.

And, as far as the play, an Oedipal incestual love triangle ridden with denial and guilt works wonders for rendering the aura of mourning as a fitting accoutrement of attitude.

(what, you want I should give a 4˝ hour classic play away for those who haven't read or seen it?) (sigh...sure, of course you do...)

>Mourning Becomes Electra, first produced on the New York stage in 1931, is an updated telling of one of the oldest, grandest, most spine-twisting tales of murder in theatre history. Taken from the ancient Greek drama The Oresteia, this version tells the story of Lavinia Mannon and her quest to avenge the murder of her father.

In an excerpt from Eugene O'Neill's diary written in the spring of 1926, he pondered whether it was possible to get a "modern approximation of the Greek sense of fate into a play intended to move an audience which no longer believes in supernatural retribution." Moreover, he questioned, "Why did the chain of fated crime and retribution ignore her mother's murderess?" This was an inherent weakness that he felt existed in the Greek tragedy — that there was no play about Electra's life after the murder of Clytemnestra.

To answer this nagging question in his mind, O'Neill crafted an addition to the story — the punishment of Electra who "has too much tragic fate within her soul to be allowed to slip from heroic legend into undramatic married banality." The fruit of his creative labor was Mourning Becomes Electra.<





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#80655 - 09/18/02 05:14 AM Re: Electra
johnjohn Offline
member

Registered: 07/05/00
Posts: 167
Loc: Australia
And why is a Harley Davidson Electra Glide so named?

jj


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#80656 - 09/18/02 07:57 AM Re: Harley Electra
Wordwind Offline
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Sounds deadly.


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#80657 - 09/18/02 09:00 AM Re: Electra Glide
Faldage Offline
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Because it has a battery and a starter motor.


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#80658 - 09/18/02 10:47 AM Re: Electra Glide
wwh Offline
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Registered: 01/18/01
Posts: 13858
A Harley Electra can cause so much mourning so quickly, when some motorist does something
stupid changing lanes.


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#80659 - 09/18/02 01:08 PM Re: Harley Electra
WhitmanO'Neill Offline
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Loc: Rio Grande, Cape May County, N...
Get on the wrong side of some outlaw bikers riding Harley Electras and you'll learn something about mourning very quickly!

Uhhh, did I answer you question, Dub-Dub? Vroooooooom!


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