Thursday, March 19, 2020

The Flea Vs To His Coy Mistress Essays - The Flea, Free Essays

The Flea Vs To His Coy Mistress Essays - The Flea, Free Essays The Flea Vs To His Coy Mistress Seduction has been the game most played through out the centuries, as males attempt to convince and invite females into their beds. In Marvell's To His Coy Mistress and Donne's The Flea, the speakers, propose a peccadilloes offer, which is so cunningly backed up by a liberalistic argument and is presented to each female when the generous request has been declined. These arguments are designed to induce thoughts of a carnal nature. The persuasions used by each are completely different but are structured entirely for one purpose. To corner or trick the maiden into saying Yes. Though both arguements are supurb, Marvell's has a nicer, refined style to it. In To His Coy Mistress and The Flea, there is an exemplification of just how crafty men can be during the hunt. The speakers, in both poems, makes a modest but declinable offer for sex to their maiden of choice. And, upon rejection, each male begins a fluent yet rhetoric arguments on why the maiden should accept his simple offer of passion. For Marvell, the argument was that there wasn't enough time left in the world, and that the maiden should partake in indulgence before it is too late. But at my back I always hear/ Times winged Charriot hurrying near(lines 21-22). He also states the unpleasuarble thought of the worms enjoying her verginity instead of him. Suggesting that if she continues to waste time she will die a virgin. then Worms shall try/ that long preserv'd Virginity:(lines 27-28). Whereas Donne's argument revolves around a metaphorical flea. Which as claimed by the speaker, represents his union with the maiden in matrimony, since the flea has taken blood from them both.It suck'd me first and now sucks thee/And in this flea our two bloods mingled be(lines 3-4). And, since their bloods have already mingled together, intercourse with him wouldn't be a sin and no honor would be lost if she yields to him.Though know'st that this cannot be said/A sin nor shame nor loss of maidenhood: (lines 5-6) Though however similar the gist of the poems might be, the art of seduction used by each speaker is quite different. The speaker in To His Coy Mistress seems to change his tone of persuasion rapidly from stanza to stanza. At first he is sweet, comming across as a gentleman and overstating how many ages he would spent on a single part of her anatomy A hundred years should go to praise/Thine Eyes..Two hundred to adore each breast (lines14-15). Then he dramatically changes to say that the worms will take her in her grave and that she will loose her beauty and die. In The Flea, the speaker tries to convince the maiden that they are one, since the flea has sucked both their blood and if she were to kill the flea, she would commit three sins by taking three lives, refering to his, hers, and the flea.And sacrilege three sins in killing three(line18). This speaker is however quick on his feet and very slick. The maiden kills the flea, proving his convivtions to be false. He responds however, by telling her that she suffers from false fears, because if she looses her virginity to him, she still has her honor. Just so much honor when thou yield'st to me/Will waste as this fleas death took life from thee(lines 26-27). These two unique poems containing their differences but over all more similarities are entertaining pieces for any reader to view and listen to the cunning speaker attempting to get his maiden.

Tuesday, March 3, 2020

Mayahuel - The Aztec Goddess of Maguey

Mayahuel - The Aztec Goddess of Maguey Mayahuel was the Aztec goddess of maguey or agave (Agave americana), a cactus plant native to Mexico, and the goddess of pulque, an alcoholic drink made from agave juices. She is one of several goddesses who protect and support fertility in its different guises.   Key Takeaways: Mayahuel Alternate Names: NoneEquivalents: 11 Serpent (post-classic Mixtec)Epithets: The Woman of 400 BreastsCulture/Country: Aztec, Post-classic MexicoPrimary Sources: Bernadino Sahagun, Diego Duran, several codices, especially the Codex MagliabechianoRealms and Powers: Maguey, pulque, drunkenness, fertility, revitalizationFamily: The Tzitzimime (powerful destructive celestial beings who embodied creative powers), Teteoinan (Mother of the Gods), Toci (Our Grandmother) and the  Centzon Totochtin (400 Rabbits, Mayahuels children) Mayahuel in Aztec Mythology   Mayahuel was one of several Aztec gods and goddesses of fertility, each of whom had specific roles. She was the goddess of maguey, and patron of the 13-day festival (trecena) in the Aztec calendar that starts with 1 Malinalli (grass), a time of excesses and a lack of moderation.   Mayahuel was known as â€Å"the woman of the 400 breasts,† probably a reference to the many sprouts and leaves of maguey and the milky juice produced by the plant and transformed into pulque. The goddess is often depicted with full breasts or breastfeeding, or with many breasts to feed her many children, the Centzon Totochtin or â€Å"the 400 rabbits,† who were the gods associated with the effects of excessive drinking.   Appearance and Reputation In the existing Aztec codices, Mayahuel is depicted as a young woman with multiple breasts, emerging from a maguey plant, holding cups with foaming pulque. In the Codex Borbonicus, she wears blue clothing (the color of fertility), and a headdress of spindles and unspun maguey fiber (ixtle). The spindles symbolize the transformation or revitalization of disorder into order.   The Bilimek Pulque Vessel is a piece of carved dark green phyllite completely covered in complex iconographic signs, and in the collections of the Welt Museum in Vienna, Austria. Made in the early 1500s, the jar has a large head projecting out from the side of the vase that has been interpreted as the day sign Malinalli 1, the first day of Mayahuels festival. On the reverse side, Mayahuel is illustrated as decapitated with two streams of aquamiel squirting out from her breasts and into a pulque pot below.   Other associated images include a stele from the great classic period pyramid of Teotihuacan dated between 500–900 CE which shows scenes from a wedding with guests drinking pulque. A rock painting at the postclassic Aztec site of Ixtapantongo illustrates Mayahuel rising from a maguey plant, holding a gourd in either hand. Her head is crowned with the head of a bird and a feathered head-dress. In front of her is a pulque god and Pantecal, the father of her 400 children.   The Myth of the Invention of Pulque According to the Aztec myth, the god Quezalcoatl decided to provide humans with a special drink to celebrate and feast and gave them pulque. He sent Mayahuel, goddess of maguey, to the earth and then coupled with her. To avoid the rage of her grandmother and her other ferocious relatives the goddesses Tzitzimime, Quetzalcoatl and Mayahuel transformed themselves into a tree, but they were found out and Mayahuel was killed. Quetzalcoatl collected the bones of the goddess and buried them, and in that place grew the first plant of maguey. For this reason, it was thought that the sweet sap, the aguamiel, collected from the plant was the blood of the goddess. A different version of the myth tells that Mayahuel was a mortal woman who discovered how to collect aquamiel (the liquid), and her husband Pantecalt discovered how to make pulque. Sources Garnett, W. The Paintings at Tetitla, Atetelco and Ixtapantongo. Artes de Mà ©xico 3 (1954): 78–80. Print.Kroger, Joseph and Patrizia Granziera. Aztec Goddesses and Christian Madonnas: Images of the Divine Feminine in Mexico. Ashgate Publishing, 2012.Milbrath, Susan. Decapitated Lunar Goddesses in Aztec Art, Myth, and Ritual. Ancient Mesoamerica 8.2 (1997): 185–206. Print.Miller, Mary, and Karl Taube. The Gods and Symbols of Ancient Mexico and the Maya: An Illustrated Dictionary of Mesoamerican Religion. London: Thames Hudson, 1993.Taube, Karl. Las Origines del Pulque. Arqueologia Mexicana 7 (1996) :71. The Bilimek Pulque Vessel: Starlore, Calendrics, and Cosmology of Late Postclassic Central Mexico. Ancient Mesoamerica 4.1 (1993): 1–15.