My Life as a Mythic Detective

When we were first given this assignment, I thought about how I’ve seen so many connections with art and mythology in my life.  I originally came to school to be an architect because I knew that I wanted to do something creative with my life and this would allow me to do that but not live the life of a struggling artist.  But as I explored this field and partook in classes, I realized that if I was an architect I was never going to be given the opportunity to design the things I loved.  I enjoyed creating organic, curved, structures out of expensive materials which is extremely unpractical for what is needed in the world.  I also realized that I would always be designing for someone else, and following their requirements so this took away my creative freedom.  As a result, I realized I needed to stick with an art field that gives me the freedom in life that I’d been striving for so I switched to graphic design.  Some of the core classes for this major include several art history classes.  I took my first one this semester, simultaneously with mythologies.  As I’ve read Ovid’s Metamorphosis and learned the history of art, I have realized that they are directly related.  So many famous art pieces have portrayed mythological themes such as Peter Brueghel’s, “Landscape with the Fall of Icarus.”  This coincides with the story of Daedalus and Icarus in Book 8.  I’ve placed this picture on the following page as a reference.  The artist took details from Ovid such as the farmer at his plow, the shepherd leaning on his staff, the fisherman down by the water, but none of these figures seem to notice the subtle inclusion of Icarus falling into the water.  I love this story because it shows that we aren’t always as ready for certain tasks as we think we are, and patience is essential when growing up.

I was planning on listing many more of these images, as there are probably thousands that have been done over time referencing Metamorphosis but I think this would end up being a lengthy list so instead I thought about breaking my own life down and pointing out key moments that have shaped my mythological journey as I’ve grown up.

There is always a beginning, a middle and an end, however when I tell my mythological story, it won’t have an end because I am still on my journey.  I will of course start at the beginning.  I was born in Baltimore, Maryland and was an extremely colicky baby.  I was extremely cute of course but I wasn’t one of those babies that liked to cuddle with her parents.  I wanted to sleep but never really could and gave my parents a pretty hard time at first.  After a few years they figured they would have another baby because it couldn’t get much worse after me.  We moved to Helena where my sister was born which is the primary location of my mythological life.  When my sister was born I was no longer the center of my parents world, I had to share their attention.  This is always a struggle for many people.  As humans we want as much attention as we can possibly get, it’s just in our nature.  As toddlers, we think the world strictly revolves around us.  If we cover our eyes and can’t see, than that means that no one else can possibly see either.  We are self-involved and don’t move past this until later on in life.  I started taking ballet lessons when I was four, then my sister started these as well.  I joined a soccer team so my sister decided she wanted to play soccer.  I loved to paint so my sister wanted to paint.  I started racing dragsters with my dad, so my sister started racing as well.  I quit ballet when I got into high school and joined the cheer team.  Guess what?  My sister did this as well.  When I was young I began to resent this as I started to notice the reoccurring trend.  She was always doing what I was doing which created a competition between us.  I’m sure participating in the same activities was easier on my parents because they could take us to the same locations and not be constantly running around, but I initially hated how much she copied me!  I always fought with my mom about this because the copying was so frustrating; especially if she beat me in one of our drag races.  My parents would always tell me that I should be flattered that my little sister wanted to do everything that I did because it meant she wanted to be like me, but I always had trouble seeing things that way.  Then as I started to mature and somewhat grow up in high school, I started to realize that she really did admire me, and that I should be honored by this.

As we grew up, my sister started to get intense pains beginning in her knees.  We took her to the doctor several times and were always told it was tendonitis or growing pains and that it would subside when she had fully grown.  When she got into high school and finished growing the pain started to get worse and spread.  She now had shooting pain starting in her lower back that went down her legs and later spread to her arms.  These developments really increased when I went away to college.  My mom traveled around to different hospitals with her to try and help her because she could no longer sit down for an extended period of time.  Doctors had prescribed her with a ton of different kinds of medication that no child should ever have to deal with.  She then had doctors tell her that the pain was just in her head and that she was faking it because they had run so many tests and simply didn’t want to try anything else.  This caused my sister to lose a lot of faith because she knew that it was real and having professionals tell her she was basically crazy seemed unbearable and she wanted to give up.  Thank goodness my mom never let her.  Finally this last winter break she was diagnosed with degenerative disc disease, spondylo arthritis, piriformis syndrome, and fibromyalgia.  She has started physical therapy for it and it is finally starting to improve. 

Finally, let’s get back to mythology.  The beginning of this story started with my parents having a colicky baby in Baltimore, Maryland.  As when we are children and think everyone’s world revolves around us, I thought my story would primarily be about me and my life; but as I have matured and grown up, moving to the middle of my story, it has become about my life with my sister.  She is my very best friend in the world and I am now honored that she wanted to be like me even throughout all of the struggles she has gone through in her life.  I know that it doesn’t matter what I do with my life, people are what matter so I always want to surround myself with these opportunities.  Overall, I have no idea what my mythological ending will be, but I know I want it to no longer just involve myself.  As a mythological detective I am striving to think more selflessly and have realized that everything has come from something else and we all need people and past knowledge to survive.