Monster Racism

As the semester comes to a close, my mythology class comes to a close. For those of you that know me well enough to hear my rants on AIM, you know there has never been a class I've hated more. Even including high school math. This says a lot. This week is presentation week for our final projects. Our task was to map the myth of the group of the argonauts, some groups were assigned books to map the places, and others map the actual stops along the journey. My group was the latter, taking up the first four spots. My assigned place was Cyzicus.

No one's ever heard of this place, but long story short, the events that took place there with the Argonauts all centered down to the events of Hera's monsters attacking them. It could be seen as one of Hercules' labors, and he of course shot and killed all the monsters.

HOWEVER, this is MONSTER RACISM and that's REALLY IMPORTANT.

Because monsters aren't humans and that's not ok with the Argonauts. According to my mythology teacher, that is.
Now I said, monsters always get killed by the heroes in myth, that's just how it goes? Though 'monster racism' to me evokes the image of the cyclops sitting in the back of the bus or Cerberus tramping into one bathroom while Hercules strides into another. Racism? Maybe.

We have plenty of examples in this besides Hercules killing Hera's monsters on the peninsula of Cyzicus.

Odysseus comes to mind. After all, what right did he have to go into the Cyclops's home and go on poking his eye out! And eating his food! Ok so maybe a few of his friends got killed slash eaten, but he didn't have to go there in the first place asking for hospitality when he was stealing first! Besides, blinding someone is just uncalled for. And then mocking them for being blind.

RACISM.

Also, what about the centaurs? And when they went to war with the Lapiths? Peirithous invited them to the wedding to have a little fun, and so they did. Nothing wrong with a little drinking, right? I'm sure the flirting was all in good fun. The Lapiths should have loosened up a little.

RACISM.

And hey, the harpies. We all know these birds used to be some lovely women. And then it was decided that, ok, lets turn them into some "nasty birds". Oh, and they should smell bad. So now they're associated with death and all these other negative things because they smell a little? They have other great skills like flying as fast as lightning, carrying away those annoying children and wounded people that just complain all the time, and they have great taste in food. So why doesn't anyone hang out with these chicks? All they need is a little shower.

RACISM.

Another group of lovely ladies are subject to this horror. The Sirens, an eclectic group of women have the wonderful talent of singing, are often ignored. Odysseus and his men used earplugs. Earplugs! And yet, such a gorgeous talent! Other sailors seem to love them so much - so props to them for NOT being racist and recognizing the talent of these women. They truly know how to hang out with the Sirens too, such good people.

I could go on and on, there are other monsters that are subject to terrible racism. Medusa, Chariybdis, Cerberus, and several more are some great singular examples.

And the mission here? Make sure that in mythology classes around the world understand the need to stress the theme of monster racism.


Ladies and Gentlemen, I am now off for the night to enjoy some TV entertainment.