Thread by @BuffyAntiqua

My #Mythology class has a strong reception angle this semester. The premise is I give the primary sources and they engage. I don't tell them what others have said or what sources to use.

The reward? An amazing discussion about Cream's "Tales of Brave Ulysses"

Stay for #Buffy

First two lines:

Students connected the idea of "leaden winter" to the ages of man and to Demeter's famine and to Thrinacia.

Violence of sun=eating the cattle

Trans: you thought the famine would kill you, and so you ate the cattle

Violence of the sun is also a homonym pun for "son" and the epic tradition in which Odysseus is killed by his and Circe's son Telegonus.

An episode @sentantiq was discussing recently

Students brought up Leukothea giving Odysseus the veil to wash ashore Phaeacia as a model for the mermaids. Then how Odysseus always tells his own stories. He makes himself brave by bringing them.

His ears are naked because there is no wax in them. The sibillance of sirens sweetly singing shows us the sweetness.

The kissing of the white laced lips is the crests of a wave, the invite death by drowning

We spent a long time on this body and its footprints. Connected it to the idea of poetic feet and watching one's predecessors.

Where sky loves sea is horizon, this is where we sail to.

The brown body is crucial. It isn't tanned. The dancing shows us Nausicaa as does the age

Fingers finding made us think of Calypso (name=hide). In a way, the drowning is a form of hiding as well.

The carving of ripples made students think of memory theory

These lines elicited great creativity. My favorite interpretation is that they represent the Nekyia. The tiny fishes running through fingers are like the souls, esp O's mom, that are intangible.

My personal theory is that these fishes are metapoetic. They are like grace notes coming up from Clapton's guitar. They come up from his fingers as he strums the strings.

The idea of taking the girl reminded us of a whole slew of narratives: demeter and persephone, orpheus and eurydice, Ulysses and nausicaa.

Because the Odyssey is full of lies about identity, we immediately distrust the assertion that her name is aphrodite. This image comes from a later piece of reception, Botticelli's birth of venus. The shell is crimson, though, to indicate the blood from Ouranos' castration.

What about the 2nd person pronoun? Well, this makes the listener a Eumaeus of sorts, being formally addressed by a poem.

The repetition at the end says we are all on voyages ourselves. We are all Odysseus.

All in all, this is a much more exciting reading of an amazing song than the internet would lead you to believe, which basically says a trip to Greece inspired Martin Sharp to write a poem and Clapton happened to have some music.

What then about its famous appearance in #Buffy 3.6 "Band Candy?"

1st, I'd say it connects to tales of adulthood and adolescence, young Ripper (Giles on candy) is like Odysseus traveling. His theft of the store is like the raid against the cyclops' cave.

His confrontation with the cop is likewise charged as a confrontation with the cyclops. He is, in some ways, disguised, ever says his name, and gets Joyce out of there.

(I would argue that the single barrel of the gun is like one eye)

I would be remiss not to include this image in this thread. So let it stand while I make my final argument.

Cream's song is not supposed to apply (only) to Giles. Rather, it more specifically applies to his old friend, Ethan Rayne who is, in almost every way, more of an Odysseus

For it is Ethan who wonders. Our core cast stays in Sunnydale.

It is Ethan who lies, infiltrates, and disguises when ever he comes to town.

It is Ethan who slips through the fingers. And it is Ethan who's sweet song will lead to Giles' metamorphosis in "A New Man"

A final note. Most people know that the song returns in 5.17 "forever" when Giles mourns Joyce's death.

This is the same verse they listened to in Bandy Candy. In BC, the focus was on the energetic guitar riff after the verse. Giles' hand moves quickly to the beat.

In forever, he slowly lifts his drink to his lips.

"for the sparkling waves are calling you to kiss their white laced lips."