Dear tsuwm: I spent almost an hour searching but did not guess the right letters. Thanks for that link. Imagine the will power required not to become ithyphallic. Like the one about the guy who got expelled from the nudist colony, because when playing leapfrog, he balked.
Dear WW: I was not complaining about your having been unable to give correct spelling. Half the fun of the board is in improving search capabilities. I was merely giving tsuwm well deserved accolade for his superior search talents.
Interesting about "pilobolus" projecting its spores. I used to assist a mycologist, and it is a fascinating field, that was neglected for many years, until a famous athlete died mysteriously of a fungal disease. Here is a URL with action diagram of spores being projected. But I can't understand choosing it as name for a dance group.
of troy says well at least its not a hippoithyphallic! bingley points out: I know your mother handled an ithyphallic swan, but I think you should expunge all thoughts of handling ithyphallic hippos from your mind
Dear helen, you previous discussions of hippi had concerned the tuti-clad hippi in the movie Fantasia. That is, you formerly ad-dressed hippi who were explicitly female, but you now contemplate hippi who are -- ahem -- most "explicitly" male.
Dear tsuwm: Since pilobolus (spear thrower?) seems to mean in the case of the fungus expelling the products of conception as a projectile, I wonder how that would be choreographed.
>Since pilobolus seems to mean expelling the products of conception as a projectile, I wonder how that would be choreographed.
okay, bill, here's another way of approaching this: since the pilobolus has a pod, or cluster, or glob of spores which is ejected from the 'mother' plant, perphaps this could be looked at as a group which, although the individuals have strayed far from their roots, hangs together in the attempt to renew their art.
Helen of Troy, whose mother loved a swan, cites Catherine the Great's taste for horses You can Leda horse to Catherine, but you can't make him ... well, perhaps you can! but surely there is no Trojan Horse
Keiva-- Leda saw a beautiful swan.. It was majestic, and didn't frighten her. she had been persued by Zeus, but had more or less rejected him. she was naked, and bathing (in the sense of washing, not swimming. getting ready for her marriage. she was a virgin.. see didn't see the swan as threat, she felt free to admire it.
of course, as we now know, it wasn't a swan, it was more like a wolf in sheeps clothing. it was a disguise to get past her defenses. and one he did, he raped her. she didn't fall in love with Zeus. okay, maybe she wasn't the smarted one in the class, Zeus was known for these kind of tricks, but the lady had told him No.. and he didn't understand it. N!O! No! there is only one way to interpt NO. do we need a thread on the meaning of word NO?
mind you, i am not against the story, or the poems, or the imagery. but part of the story is, Leda said no, and Zeus did it anyway. sure it was a different culture, and different time, but rape was recognized. (albeit, sometimes as more damaging to a man, since it rob him of certainty of paternity, but it was recognized, and not considered anything praise worthy. Zeus might be able to get away with it.. but no mere mortal could!
rape n. 1. The crime of forcing another person to submit to sex acts, especially sexual intercourse. 2. The act of seizing and carrying off by force; abduction. 3. Abusive or improper treatment; violation: a rape of justice.
I thought that the Rape of Leda used the second sense of "rape" above. Or was that just for the sanitized myths I read as a little girl?
Remember the high expectations of the citizen band radios of the sixties? Remember how "Hey Goodbuddy what's your twenty, a Smokie's a smoking at two-double-two." quickly became, "So grab fat Mabel and put her on the table and put the petal to the metal and put your stick to the floor." What say, Movergrovers,come on? Is it true, Goodbuddies, that Rednecks are we all?
Helen, I am not disputing that there is a (vast) difference between rape and seduction. My point is simply that the legend is differently interpreted: sometimes as rape (e.g., the Yeats poem), and sometimes as seduction.
Interestingly, most googled sites refer to it as "seduction". And where the myth is rendered in painting or sculpture, Leda often appears to be a, shall we say, willing participant. It is unclear whether Leda had come to realize as of the "moment of truth" that her lover was in fact Zeus in swan form, rather than a true swan. http://www.magna.com.au/~pyb/pcres/focus/zeus.htm It would be interesting to try to establish whether the "rape" interpretation pre-dates the Yates poem.
IMHO, one detail of the legend is psychologically inconsistent with the "rape" interpretation. The detail is noted as follows in http://www.thanasis.com/mythman/mnov99.html: How can I put this delicately? Leda, apparently not entirely satisfied with Zeus'...er...swan song, had also lain with her husband Tyndareus that night, so the actual parentage of Helen, Castor, Polydeuces and Clytaemnestra was a tad suspect...My uncle Homer insisted that Helen alone was a daughter of Zeus It seems to me highly unlikely that a woman, if raped, would later have "lain with her husband" that very night.
In the course of googling the above, I found that many satellites of the planet Jupiter were named after Zeus' love interests. Those I can readily identify are boldfaced below (* indicating male). Jupiter has 16 satellites: Adrastea, Amalthea, Ananke, Callisto, Carme, Elara, Europa, Ganymede*, Himalia, Io, Leda, Lysithea, Metis, Pasiphae, Sinope and Thebe.
Question: Were others so named as well?
At least one satellite is an interesting contrast: Ananke is the powerful deity that rules compulsion, constraint, restraint, or coercion, and presides over all forms of slavery and bonds http://hsa.brown.edu/~maicar/Ananke.html
The difference between Rxxx and Romance is just a question of salesmanship. (From a college humor mag.) I do not necessarily share sentiments of allegedly humorous quotes I post.
The philosopher to daughter bit was published in Reader's Digest fifty years ago. I have heard more than a few lectures on rxxx. There is a very wide spectrum. With a kook, resistance may be fatal. For an impetuous youth, a martial arts blow to family jewels may be appropriate.And I suspect the ladies who protested have an emotional problem not necessarily shared by rest of feminine participants.
Dear Keiva: that mythology URL was sensational. I very much enjoyed it, and award you the palm for best URL of the month.
I trust that in this particular case dr. bill does not agree with (indeed violently disagrees with) said sentiment, and quotes it merely for the allegedly-humorous expression thereof.
I would draw your attentions to the fact that the word "rape" is often not meant in the sense of violent, non-consensual intercourse. It is often a shortened form of "rapine" as in rape and pillage. This had nothing to do, at least directly, with the other meaning of rape, although it probably comes from the same roots and is an extension of the original meaning.
Help, Joe Friday! You have better references that I do.
you rang? there are 6 nouns, 3 verbs and an adjective, all homonyms of rape. but who's counting? our rape and rapine are cognates of the L. rapere, but who cares? let the muses have their way with us:
The act of taking anything by force; violent seizure (of goods), robbery. When Kings their Crowns without Consent obtain, 'Tis all a mighty Rape, and not a Reign. [De Foe]
The Rape of the Lock, by Pope
The act of carrying away a person, esp. a woman, by force. Rape call you it... to cease [seize] my owne, My true betrothed Love. [WS]
We need not refer to the rape of the Sabines. [Scott, Rob Roy]
Violation or ravishing of a woman. Also, in mod. usage, sexual assault upon a man. This... treates of Tereus treason and his rape, And rape I feare was roote of thine annoy. [WS]
transf. and fig. Thou hast... done a rape Upon the maiden vertue of the Crowne. [WS]
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