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Destiny’s Child

by Renée
July 17th, 2010

The R&B group, Destiny’s Child named themselves after Destiny’s Child.

(Black Madonna and Child by Balinger courtesy of Art.com)

This is the child of prophecy in the book of Isaiah, most familiar to us as the text from Handel’s Messiah.

“For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given, and the government shall be upon His shoulder; and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.”

Destiny’s Child was born in a barn with the livestock and placed in a feeding trough because the purpose of his life was to be killed and to become food and drink for others to feast on. In other words, the Christ Child shared the same fate as Destiny, the stripper Bill procured for Russell and Lorena, to be devoured.

I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.

John 6:51

(Descent from the Cross by Alix Beaujour, courtesy of Artisan Arts Online)

The Japanese take the phrase, ‘my cup runneth over’ literally. A good host fills a cup of sake to the brim and then keep going so that is spills over the edge in a display of generosity and plenty.

Destiny’s life giving blood seeping out Russell’s limousine is surely a sign of plenty at a vampire feast, for her body contained enough of it to allow three vampires to drink their fill with the surplus spilling over onto the pavement.

This meal is quite a contrast to the processed and individually proportioned dishes on Talbot’s menu, which brings to mind Howard Nemerov’s poem to the God of  the Supermarket:

This God of ours, the Great Geometer,
Does something for us here, where He hath put
(if you want to put it that way) things in shape,
Compressing the little lambs into orderly cubes,
Making the roast a decent cylinder,
Fairing the tin ellipsoid of a ham,
Getting the luncheon meat anonymous
In squares and oblongs with all the edges bevelled
Or rounded (streamlined, maybe, for greater speed).
Praise Him, He hath conferred aesthetic distance
Upon our appetites, and on the bloody
Mess of our birthright, our unseemly need.

Could this meal have satisfied any vampire’s needs, physically or psychologically?

This is a meal for a vampire and “the bloody mess of our birthright.” That’s right, ‘our’ birthright. We are participants in this drama, and our bloodlust is just as much the point as that of the vampires.

If blood and death are our inescapable birthright, then this world is hell, but the feeding frenzy in Russell’s limousine contrasts with a similar scene from last season when three vampires fed on a another stripper.

The difference is that Lafayette survived the experience first because Eric expected his subordinates to demonstrate restraint and feed without killing and second because Eric healed him with his own blood.

Knowing when to stop is a vampire life skill that Eric obviously considered much more important to teach his child than Lorena or Bill did.  Even though Bill obviously picked it up somewhere, he refuses to pass his knowledge along to Jessica. And since a vampire cannot deny her nature forever, another death can be laid at Bill’s doorstep.

Lest you think one comparison isn’t enough to make the point about of Bill brining death and Eric conferring life, consider this:

True Blood presents two strippers who wear little more than cheap jewelry, a bra, leopard print, and some fur and catch the eye of two very different vampires.

One waits for the stripper to approach him, contracts with her to pay for her services, gives his body in a pleasurable exchange for hers, and turns her over to someone who will eat her, but it will be a meal that she enjoys and leaves her in  the world of the living.

The other vampire seeks the stripper out, deceives her about what he wants, takes his own pleasure from her body without a bit of consideration for her, and turns her over to be eaten, killed, and discarded.

One of the more cruel things Bill did in ’9 Crimes’ was tell Sookie that he enjoyed unrestrained sex with Lorena, “as only two vampires can.” The best liars in True Blood always reveal the palatable and socially acceptable truths in order to conceal the most shameful and ugliest ones.

It’s not unrestrained vampire sex that Bill craves (and Eric gives to Yvetta), it is unrestrained feeding, with no concern for the human who provides his meal. As far as Bill’s appetites go, Sookie is not a less satisfying lover than Lorena, she is a less satisfying meal than Destiny. Bill’s insatiable appetite, as both Diane and Lorena know, is for blood, not sex.

Destiny has no children for the same reason that Bill did not want to be a maker, because the world is ‘too fucked up.’ She also has no husband, and is alienated from her family of origin. Her childless state reflects her hopelessness. Her empty eyes have seen her fate, and she is resigned to it.

With a fire roaring in the background, she tells Bill that life is a hell and that she won’t escape from alive. This throw away piece of humanity, like the seer Cassandra, knows her own fate, and Bill realizes that she knows his as well.

Destiny’s vacant stare makes it clear that her soul is already dead even before Bill meets her, but in True Blood, even the dead can dream. She fantasies about true love, love that doesn’t turn to crap. Destiny may have been her professional name, but the one she chose for herself is Camilla, a beautiful name with a long line of romantic associations.

Camilla alludes to every hooker’s fantasy, Lady of the Camellias, the original Pretty Woman, the novel Alexandre Dumas, fils based on the life of his lover, Marie Duplessis. Verdi turned it into the opera, La Traviata, and numerous filmmakers have retold Marie’s story of the prostitute saved by true love, but they changed her name to Camille. Destiny knew that Camille doesn’t get a happy ending though. Her story ends with death, just like Destiny knew hers would.

Another Camilla is the heroine in Fanny Burney’s eponymous Gothic novel in which the impoverished protagonist searches for true love. The hero’s resemblance to Bill cannot be overlooked. He cares more about the appearance of virtue than its reality, and a judgemental, cold, shallow, and prudish nature hides behind his handsome and chivalrous facade.

This is one indication that dead-eyed Destiny is an alter ego for Sookie, from her identification as a member of the living dead to her mistaken notion that Bill was intestested in sex when he was really just carrying out a mission to procure something cheap and sweet with a hint of the exotic for his monarch.

The name has darker associations, as well.

What is worse than living the short life of an alienated murdered hooker? Rodin’s lover and sculptor in her own right, Camille Claudel, may have been able to answer that question. She was committed, by her family, to the living hell of a mental institution for 30 years, despite the advice of doctors and friends who knew that she was sane.

Is something like this what Sophie Anne is planning for Sookie? Could she be locked in the palace for the rest of her natural life on the word of  her cousin Hadley so that Sophie Anne  can exploit the gift that the world identifies as madness?

Since the names ‘Destiny’ and ‘Camilla’ are brimming with meaning, what can we make of this poor unfortunate’s real name, Ann? Digging deeper past the stripper persona and personal fantasies and artistic foreshadowing, who is she? She is a seer with a gift for speaking truth and understanding what it means for her.

“No point anyway, loving anyone, anything. It feels good at first, but it always turns to crap. I know the truth about life. It’s a hell I’m never get out of alive.”

It’s clear that in her life, Destiny has made mistakes, but, as Andy’s Nanny says, “In the kingdom of the blind, the one eyed man is king,” or at least can see a better than anyone else. Ann is prophesying. Lest this post get too depressing, Destiny’s truth may apply to herself and Bill, but it is not universal. Remember Eric and his life affirming actions and anticipate his joi de vivre. (It’s coming, I promise.) Paraphrasing Sophie Anne, “Destiny and Bill have convinced themselves they are in hell, so they are.”

(Rembrandt’s Mother as Biblical Prophetess Hannah courtesy of Olga’s Gallery)

We know that Ann is an oracle because her name, like the names of other seers in True Blood, is derived from the Biblical prophetess,  Hannah. The difference is that Ms. Jeanette and Nan (remember that an oracle is just a spokesperson for the supernatural) are both fake names used by liars. The opposite is true with Ann; it is her real name, and she speaks the truth.

At the beginning of ’9 Crimes,’ Bill identified himself as Death, or in Greek, Thanatos. In the middle of the episode, he explained Thanatos’s role as procurer, or psychopomp, delivering the living to the world of the dead, and at the end, Thanatos returned from his sabbatical and went back to work, escorting Ann to her destiny as a child made food and devoured.

It would be a mistake to believe that Destiny met her fate solely for the benefit of some hungry vampires. Russell invited us all to take part in the feast in a virtual communion when he looked into the camera and said, “Please join us,”  acknowledging that Destiny’s violation and murder is more for the benefit of our bloodlust than theirs, and making us willing participants in Russell Edington’s false religion, as complicit in murder as were the Weres who drank the blood of Russell’s previous victims during Debbie Pelt’s initiation ceremony.

The child of destiny was delivered unto her fate by Death. And what was the purpose of Ann’s short life? Why was she created, gifted with divine sight, and offered up for us to eat, as if she were Christ himself, a lamb lead to slaughter? Not for our pleasure, but for our edification. Alan Ball is taking Mircea Eliade’s words literally, that religion survives in the secular world through pop fiction, and he is using the tools the Greek dramatists did to develop the Greek character, not fictional characters, but the characters of the Athenians who experienced the drama as part of their religion and thus allowed it to shape who they were and what they believed. Make no mistake Alan Ball intends for us to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. The only question is what does he intend to transform us into.

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Categories altar egos, Bill, characterization, Christianity, Eric, Lafayette, literature, movies, mythology, names, parallelism, poetry, Russell, Sookie, symbolism, Yvetta
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Not Just a Pretty Face

by Renée
July 4th, 2010

by anna tsogyal

When I first saw this image of Talbot I wasn’t sure who it reminded me of, and then I remembered this from Derek Jarman’s film, Carravagio. A younger version perhaps?

Caravaggio was a 16th century Italian painter, born in Milan, who spent some time in Rome where he painted A Boy with a Basket of Fruit, on which the still from Jarman’s picture is based. There has been some controversy about whether Caravaggio was gay or bisexual; however he did become something of a gay icon, which would have appealed to Jarman who was both a painter and film director.

The fruit in this painting is not perfect, some of the leaves are blemished or diseased which seems to be unusual as most painters of the time idealised whatever they painted. Caravaggio painted other naturalistic still lifes, and the table decorations in Russell Edgington’s mansion have centrepieces of flowers and fruit that look as if they were inspired by a still life painting.

Connections have been drawn between Russell as the Celtic god, Lugus, and Talbot as his companion, Rosmerta, so I’d like to add another tale to the mix. It seems that Julius Caesar was responsible for connecting Lugus to Hermes, and others have included Lugh and Llew Law Gyffes as counterparts as well. The Welsh Llew Law Gyffes doesn’t seem to have as many parallels but there is an interesting story about him in the Mabinogion. He was forbidden to take a human wife so a woman called Blodwyn was created for him out of flowers.

We’ve already learnt from Alan Ball and Daniel Minahan’s Frenzy commentary that they took some of their inspiration for Queen Sophie Anne’s palace from Pasolini’s controversial film Salò which is an examination of the abuse of power.

Since one of the themes this season is political extremism, it seemed to be worth looking at other Italian and European films which might have provided some kind of inspiration, conscious or unconscious.

Pasolini was closely linked with the neo-realist school of Italian cinema and one of the subjects of neo-realist films was Italian fascism. The neo-realist directors included Bernardo Bertolucci whose film, The Conformist, was a exploration of the mentality of those who became fascist and the possible causes of their involvement.

The Conformist tells the story of Marcello, a young man living in Italy at the time of Mussolini, who is desperate to create the illusion of normality by rejecting his past, which includes a homosexual incident with the family chauffeur and a murder. Marcello joins the Fascist Party and his attempt to conform to society’s expectations includes marriage and later, on the orders of the Party, the murder of an anti-fascist professor. His story is told mostly in flashbacks and on occasion even those flashbacks have flashbacks. After the fall of the fascist regime Marcello is prepared to accuse others of his own actions to save his own skin in another attempt to conform.

The illusion of normality sounds to me a bit like mainstreaming and the flashbacks and the unsavoury past of the young man in question also reminded me of how the writers are telling Bill’s story. Both characters use the veneer of civility to hide their inner selves. Marcello uses the conventions of bourgeois society, and Bill the manners of a Southern gentleman.

Categories allegory, Anna, anna tsogyal, art, Bill, Celtic mythology, characterization, commentary, History, Imagery, movies, mythology, Russell, themes, WWII
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Oh, Mr. Sandman, Bring Me a Dream

by Renée
June 29th, 2010

The bust of Hermes in Russell Edington’s living room, identifies him with that god.

According to Wikipedia, ” The Homeric hymn to Hermes invokes him as the one “of many shifts (polytropos), blandly cunning, a robber, a cattle driver, a bringer of dreams, a watcher by night, a thief at the gates, one who was soon to show forth wonderful deeds among the deathless gods.” He is the guide to the Underworld,  the patron of boundaries and travelers, shepherds, herds, thieves, liars, orators, and commerce. He invented several musical instruments including the lyre, the forerunner to the modern harp. Before he was reduced to being Zeus’s errand boy, Hermes was a trickster god and the original sandman, waking and inducing sleep with the touch of his caduseus.

This aspect of Hermes is reflected in True Blood with the emphasis on sleep at Russell’s palace. When Bill arrives at the palace Russell and Talbot put him to bed. During Bill’s second night at the palace, Russell does something extremely odd. After telling Bill to ‘sleep on’ the things they’ve been discussing, he touches his pointed index finger to Bill’s forehead. This is the sandman inducing sleep, bringing Bill the dream that will induce him to change his mind and his loyalties.

One myth that is probably going to come into play is the one about Hermes stealing Apollo’s herd of cattle. There has been a lot of speculation that Russell may have killed Eric’s father Ulfric and stolen a pack of werewolves that he controlled and used for military purposes.

The idea of Russell Edington being the patron of travelers is like Sam’s mother’s repeated declaration that her family are not alcoholics. The very oldest pre-Olympian Hermes was represented by  carved phallic  stones which were used as boundary markers. One night all these stones in Athens were vandalized. That act set in to motion the events, which led to the execution of Socrates when his pupil, Alcibiades, was implicated in the crime. This bit of history is especially worth noting since Charlaine Harris links Alcide with Alcibiades in a number of ways. First she uses the real Alcibiades’s family and  political history as the basis for Alcide’s. She then uses Plato’s fictionalized jealous romantically confused version as the basis for Alcide’s chaotic lovelife and alludes to Shakespeare’s Alcibiades who searches for the lost  Bill Timon. The first night at Club Dead when Alcide introduced Sookie to Debbie, twice she is called a prostitute, first by Debbie and later in the thoughts of one of the patrons, alluding to the two acerbic prostitutes who accompanied Alcibiades in Timon of Athens.

Herveux isn’t an authentic surname, so what meaning can be derived from this made up name? ‘Her’ could be traced to Hera the same way etymologists link the first part of the  name “Hercules’ with the goddess, and ‘veux’ is French for calf. Alcide’s name indicates that he is the one who is watching over Hera’s Bill’s heifer, Sookie, while he’s away, just like Argus did for Hera. Remember that the possible involvement of Alcibiades in the vandalism against Hermes’s phallic monuments led to the execution of Socrates? Is Alcide implicated in  Talbot’s death or the destruction of the palace? Is this what leads to Eric being brought before the magister? . The name Sookie, is used as a cow call in the South to this day. Alcide better watch his back because Russell Hermes killed Argus.

So if Russell is the messenger god Hermes, does the bust in Bill’s office of Artemis in Bill’s study link him with the goddess of the moon and the hunt?

What about the bronze in Eric’s office?

*In the Sookie Stackhouse novels, Alcide was one of Eric’s alter egos, but in the episode 3 postmortem,  writer Alexander Woo says that Alide’s character parallels Bill’s in True Blood.

updated 6/30/10

Categories Alcide, allegory, altar egos, Bill, Eric, Greek Myth, History, mythology, names, Russell
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The Cassandra of Bon Temps: Tara Mae Thornton

by Renée
June 24th, 2010

by Serena

“In Greek mythology, Dionysus was murdered as an infant and ripped to pieces. The Titans ate every part of him except his heart. His father, Zeus, took the heart and planted it in a woman, Semele. A new Dionysus grew from the heart and was reborn, or “twice born.”
~ an excerpt from the Arcana

A couple weeks ago, it was discussed here and elsewhere the significance of Maryann’s rituals, specifically the rite of Dionysius, the “Hunter Souffle.” From this can be gleamed the following; the eating of the shifter’s heart represented the rebirth of the ‘mad god’ of Maryann, or Dionysus, who is the antithesis of Apollo. And from that we can gleam that the True Blood writers were assigning mythological roles to the characters of Bon Temps. Tara is to Semele, as Daphne is to Daphne, where Sam is to Apollo.

Renée then posited the question about Sam, if his Moon Queen, (whether it be his sister Artemis, the moon goddess Selene, or any of her incantations) had yet appeared. Well, so far as I can tell, she has not, but his Cassandra has appeared. Tara is doubling as Semele and Cassandra, and in this way she too is ‘twice born.’ Or maybe she is ‘twice annihilated’ as in twice cursed.

Apollon, Apollon,
Guard of the ways, my destroyer!
For thou hast quite, this second time, destroyed me.
~Cassandra in ‘Agamemnon’ by Aeschylus, line 1076.

Cassandra of Legend: Who is this Hookah?

She is the prophetic daughter of the King of Troy, Priam, and his wife Hecuba, (Hecuba it must be noted went mad after the loss of two of her other children and she was turned into a dog, which will be interesting to see how Lettie Mae handles the ‘loss’ of her daughter, if Tara cuts her out of her life. Maybe this is the ‘bad news’ Tara receives at the hospital).

Cassandra has 11 sisters and 50 brothers, most notably Paris, Hector, Polyxena, and her twin brother Helenus (This might represent Lafayette, her brother by another mother, who has the gift but not the curse). Tara also has a large family supposedly, but the rest of siblings have skipped town, though I have to say it can’t be that huge.

There are two different versions of the story of how Cassandra acquired her gift of prophecy. The first one, she fell asleep in Apollo’s temple, who fell into lust with her and made a bargain of granting her the gift in return for sexual favors, she backed out on the deal and he spat in her mouth so no one would ever believe her. (Like with Sam, Tara rejected him, even if they did consummate but I’m ignoring that. I’m also ignoring the fact that Cassandra was only granted her gift by a male god, that’s utter bull-crap, total ancient Greek sexist censoring of a powerful woman. But moving on)…

The second version for our purposes is more interesting. As a child Cassandra fell asleep in the temple of Apollo along with her twin Helenus, while her drunken parents left them behind and returned home. (Lettie Mae!) Apollo’s serpents licked the children’s ears giving them both the gift of prophecy, and when the parents returned the snakes slithered away into Apollo’s laurel grove (Daphne, snake, -sin! ). In this version, its not clear how Cassandra became to be cursed but it is clear her twin brother was not.Regardless, Cassandra became a priestess and entered the employ of Apollo, Sam Merlotte.

Cassandra is best known for her visions of DOOM, the fall of Troy and the Trojan horse. Could Dimitri, the meat tree be a Trojan horse? He was made of wood, and oversized, but he was only a symbolic uterus for Maryann’s ritual. He didn’t contain any spies. Hmm… a Trojan horse probably better applies to Bill Compton. Tara has repeatedly warned Sookie about him and his big bad yet to no avail. But anyway, as we like to say, Cassandra Tara called that shit, and no one believed in her. Alas. So, along came the big bad Greeks vampire, and the fall of Troy Bon Temps was complete. (Well, it was pretty much trashed by the end of season 2 anyway.)

Fasten your seatbelts kiddos, here is where it gets a little weird. Cassandra was ‘raped’ by Ajax the Lesser at Athena’s temple. However, I’ve read that the word rape isn’t particularly used, its more like ‘enslaved’ or ‘claimed’ or ‘violated.’ This is implied within not just ancient texts but there are a few images from pottery that depict sexual domination, but never complete forced penetration… which is pretty much what Franklin Mott is doing to Tara at Sookie’s house. (So does this relate Sookie to Athena?) Mott doesn’t seem to be forcing himself on Tara but he is glamouring her at times, and it does seem like he absconds with her to Russell’s mansion. After the sexual misconduct on Sookie’s stairs, I mean Athena’s stairs, Cassandra is given to King Agamnemnon of the Greeks as a war prize, much like Franklin Mott does in the books; he passes Tara on to Mickey. It remains to be scene what happens at the end of this season. Cassandra eventually gives birth and delivers two boys, twins, that are thought to be Agamemnon’s. (I’ve already said elsewhere I think Tara is pregnant from the Hunter Souffle business, now I’m upping the bet to twins.)

Tara and Cassandra share a lot in common, some wefts of plot are eerily the same. Notice how Cassandra when fleeing from Ajax the Lesser did not run and seek refuge in Apollo’s temple, even though she had become his priestess. She fled to Athena’s instead? Tara did not run to her Apollo, Sam Merlotte, either. She decided to bunk with Sookie. Now you could say that Jason is her real Apollo figure. He fits much better into the sun god role, but Cassandra never idolized Apollo the way Tara does Jason. I think Jason is represented in the hero Aeneas, but that is just a stab in the dark.

Now this brings us to Cassandra in literature. The Oresteia was originally a series of four plays, but only three remain intact. (Interestingly, these plays were originally performed during the Dionysia festival.) Agamemnon, the story of the House of Atreus and Agamemnon’s return home from his victory over Troy is one of them. In the play, Cassandra and her twin boys enter the house only to be slaughtered by Clytaemnestra, Agamemnon’s wife, who has a case of the Debbie Pelts, but worse.

Before Cassandra enters the house, she has a soliloquy in which it appears she goes mad but is in actuality either being possessed by Apollo or a mixture of madness and Apollo. To the audience and the Chorus she seems to be spitting out pure nonsense, but she is seeing the full history of the family of Atrues: their betrayals, sacrifices and cannibalism (heart eating) that has gone on within it. Professor Wikipedia had this to say about her soliloquy, “She evokes the same awe, horror and pity as do schizophrenics,” … “who often combine deep, true insight with utter helplessness, and who retreat into madness,” like Ruby Jean Reynolds.

Psychology is not my forte, but this does fit in with Carl Jung and archetypes, a topic pretty popular in these them parts. Apparently there is a psychological term named after the prophetess, which is referred to as either the Cassandra complex or Cassandra metaphor.

On the checklist for this condition are:

1) Dysfunctional relationships with the Apollo archetype
The Apollo archetype probably deserves its own entry, but wikipedia summarizes it as, “Individuals who resemble Apollo have difficulties that are related to emotional distance, such as communication problems, and the inability to be intimate.” (Sam barks in his sleep, and if he isn’t a loner, I don’t know who is.)

2) Suffering emotionally and physically as well as with bouts of hysteria
(Eggs beat her up; Maryann made her hysterical.)

3) Being perceived as disbelieved.
(‘E-egggz is dead,’ ‘But we’re in the same boat, Bill is missing’ comes to mind, as well as “The Comptons have always had money.”)

Also related to this complex is what is known as the Martha Mitchell effect, which is, according to Wikipedia again, “the process by which a psychiatrist, psychologist, or other mental health clinician mistakes the patient’s perception of real events as delusional and misdiagnoses accordingly.” This is exactly what Tara fears upon entering the mental health facility and in Lafayette’s car. Once she brings up Eggs and Maryann, no one will believe her and she’ll be toast.

Whether Tara actually possesses the true gift of prophecy or just the bold voice to tell it as she sees it, she shares many aspects in Cassandra’s fictional life as well as in the archetype of the angry woman with a history of true hysteria, you know all that black-eyed crap with MaryAnn.

{If you haven’t read the post on Ovid’s Metamorphoses it’s worth a gander, as well as the one on Maryann’s Rituals.}

* ‘Agamemnon’ by Aeschylus as translated by Robert Browning

Categories allegory, characterization, Greek Myth, literature, mythology, serena, Tara
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Metamorphoses, Not Just for Shifters

by Renée
June 16th, 2010

“Beyond here lies nothing but chillness, hostility, frozen waves of an ice-hard sea.”

~Ovid in Poems from Exile

The title song for the last episode of season 2, Beyond here Lies Nothin’ by Bob Dylan was inspired by a line from one of Ovid’s poems that was written when he was in exile,

Dylan’s song talks about love being the only thing that can be counted on. This is a departure from Ovid whose exile separated him permanently from his wife. He pines for her in many of the poems from this period. Ironically the reason for Ovid’s exile to the Black Sea appears to be his poems in Ars Amatoria, the subject of which was adultery, a serious crime in Rome. This ties in with True Blood because exile is reflected in the S3 cast poster with its expulsion from Paradise setting.

Like Ovid and his wife, Bill and Sookie’s separation, due to politics beyond their control, will alienate the lovers and will lead to betrayal. Ovid has an even deeper connection to True Blood. His collection of myths in Metamorphoses is one of the foundational works of literature in the Western Canon. Some say it has been more influential than Homer. Wikipedia describes this work as, “a narrative poem in fifteen books that describes the history of the world from creation to the deification of Julius Caesar within a loose mythico-historical framework.” If Charlaine Harris were contracted for fifteen books instead of thirteen, this would be a nearly perfect description of the Sookie Stackhouse Novels because when read on an allegorical level, they begin soon after the creation in the Garden of Eden and will most likely conclude with Eric becoming king and figuratively deified.

Of course the series raison d’etre is to bring about Sookie’s metamorphosis from a caterpillar to a beautiful majestic butterfly, but that’s just the starting point. Harris and Ball have both been mining Metamorphoses for characters and storylines. In fact, it is their mythological source book. While they use some myths allegorically with  one to one correspondents, most have much more loose connections to the SVM and TB, serving mainly as inspiration for storylines.

In book 1 Jupiter turns Lycaon into the raving wolf he always was on the inside. Daphne flees the the rational Apollonian world and forever becomes part of the Dionysian natural world when she is transformed into a tree. Jupiter rapes the nymph Io and transforms her into a cow to protect her from his jealous wife Juno. Here we have the first werewolf, Daphne’s love and devotion to Maryann and her cause, and Bill protecting Sookie from Lorena in Club Dead. Recall that the name Sookie is a cow call in the South to this day.

Book 2 starts with Callisto, the name CH chose for her maenad, is in book two. In the story of Jupiter disguising himself to meet and have sex with her is the kernel that leads to Sam and his first meeting with Maryann. Ovid describes a conversation between a white raven and a black crow. The raven is privy to secret information because of  his vantage point high in the sky. The crow wisely counsels to keep his information to himself. The crow doesn’t listen and tells Apollo that his lover, Coronis, has been unfaithful. In anger, Apollo turns the raven black and kills Coronis with an arrow. Eric staking Long Shadow when Sookie reveals that he has been unfaithful seems to echo this myth. AB may have used the second part of this folktale as his inspiration for the creation of Jessica. After Coronis is dead, Apollo realizes that she was pregnant, so he saves the child and finds someone else to raise it. The child is prophesied to bring healing to the world, so AB may have an important role for Jessica to fill. If Sookie is the crow in this myth, who is the wise black bird who knows to stay out of other people’s business? Sam who, in his animal from, no doubt witnesses a lot of what Sookie hears.
The name ‘Merlotte,’ means black bird. I’m going to go out on a limb and predict that Sam’s s3 flashbacks will depict how he was transformed from an innocent white bird into a wiser and more experienced black one.  While Apollo is dealing with other business, Mercury steals his sheep and falls in love with a beautiful maiden. This develops into a love triangle when another maiden falls in love with Mercury and is so overcome with jealousy that she turns to stone. This triangle seems to be the inspiration for the Alcide, Sookie, Debbie one. In book two there is also the myth of the prideful Phaethon whose rash act nearly caused the world to be destroyed, and some interesting parallels to AB’s Godric could be drawn from it.

Book 3 relates completely to Maryann’s storyline. There is Actaeon who transforms into a deer and is devoured by his own hunting dogs and his mother, Semele, who becomes pregnant with Jupiter’s child, Dionysus, and a bacchanalia complete with the frenziers who rip their beloved son and newphew to shreds much as the folks in Bon Temps wanted to do to Sam.

Book 4 has the story of Pyramus and Thisbe. They try to run away to Vermont to be together but have a Romeo and Juliet ending. There is also the myth of Perseus who flies to the rescue of the beautiful princess Andromeda and saves her from the sea serpent who is about to devour her. This myth fits perfectly with the Christian allegory at the heart of True Blood with Eric as the Christ figure and Bill as the serpent in Paradise.

In the fifth book is all Bill. Andromeda’s fiance shows up to cause trouble for the the happy couple, and Perseus has to defeat him. This book also includes the story of Persephone, the goddess of spring, and Hades, the King of the Underworld. Their story, which includes Hades plotting with Jupiter to abduct and rape her, has many parallels with the sun loving Sookie who is dragged into the dark vampire world due to a surreptitious plot to make her fall in love with the personification of death. Throughout all the books are many stories of humans turning into animals. While traditionally they lost their humanity in the transformation, CH and AB are using them as the basis for all their different were-animals. I’m skipping over most these stories, but this book includes the tale of the first human who transformed into a lynx.

Book 6 includes Arachne who Minerva transforms into a spider. She weaves a tapestry that depicts the gods conquering humans and turning them into animals. This is also the book that was the inspiration for Aristophanes’s comedy, The Birds. It tells how a king was transformed into a hoopoe bird. No doubt an ancestor of Maryann’s.

The hero Jason and his involvement with the witch Medea is the subject of the seventh book. Exactly how this relates to Jason and/or Eric waits to be seen. TB Jason seems to be on the road to becoming a mythological hero, none of whom were known for their brain size.  As for Eric, I think his backstory will reveal that at some point in the past he had a romantic relationship with a witch like his historical antecedent, Eric Bloodaxe.

Aurora, the Goddess of the Dawn is in book 7, and I’ve already written about how she relates to True Blood.

To be continued…

Categories Greek Myth, metamorphoses, mythology, Ovid
Comments (4)

Thor’s Days are Ladies’ Nights

by Renée
May 18th, 2010

I don’t really have time to do this justice,  but thought I could at least throw up some links and make a few connections.

(BTW, I’m loving the tin star on the wall behind Pam and her dress, which is suggestive of a deputy’s uniform.)

To get to the point, this is Thor, the Norse God of Thunder. Thursday is named after him.

One of his functions as a god is to protect those in danger, not unlike the job of a vampire sheriff.

He’s married to Sif, a beautiful fertility goddess with lovely golden tresses.


See that guy in the background sneaking over the wall? That’s Loki. He’s a lot like Bill. Loki is sneaking into Sif’s bedroom to steal all of her beautiful hair. Thor will force Loki replace it. Loki will give Sif new hair spun from pure gold and enchanted by dwarfs to grow just like her natural hair.

At Ragnarok, the Norse Apocalypse, it is said that Thor will kill his mortal enemy, Loki’s son, the great serpent, Jormungandr, but he will fall dead from Jormungandr’s venom. (Cross reference this post with ‘Sookie’s Sojourn,’ and keep your fingers crossed that AB doesn’t intend Eric to die the same way.)

So that’s Thor’s story.

Now back to this:



Thor’s day may be Ladies’ Night, but that not Thor. It is an image a berserker.

Berserkers were Norse warriors who fought with an uncontrollable fury.


As a distinguishing feature, they wore wolf pelts in battle.

Some psychologists believe that berserker rage may have been associated with “the hyperarousal of post-traumatic stress disorder” leading to an “emotional deadness and vulnerability to explosive rage.”

More from Wikipedia:

The earliest surviving reference to the term “berserker” is in Haraldskvæði, a skaldic poem composed by Thórbiörn Hornklofi in the late Ninth Century in honour of King Harald Fairhair, as Ulfheðnar (“men clad in wolf skins”). Snorri Sturluson gives the following description of berserkers in Ynglinga saga:

His (Odin’s) men rushed forwards without armour, were as mad as dogs or wolves, bit their shields, and were strong as bears or wild bulls, and killed people at a blow, but neither fire nor iron told upon them. This was called Berserk-gang.[4]

King Harald Fairhair’s use of berserker “shock troops” broadened his sphere of influence. Other Scandinavian kings used berserkers as part of their army of hirdmen and sometimes ranked them as equivalent to a royal bodyguard.

This is fascinating for several reasons.

1. Harald Fairhair was the father of Eric Bloodaxe , the Norse king who ruled Northumbria, the ancestral home of the Stackhouses. I previously identified him as the likely historical inspiration for Eric.

2. Harald Fairhair is identified with Ulfheðnar, men in wolfskins, which would be berserkers.

3. Ulfric, the name of Eric’s father, means either Wolf Ruler, or Power of the Wolf, so it looks like Ball is going to stay true to the historical record and make Eric’s father the ruler of a berserker gang. And he’s going to make them werewolves. So…is Ulfric going to be portayed as a werewolf packleader or as a king with a werewolf army? Was Eric a werewolf in his human life or did he just fight like one?

Taking all the S3 spoilers in to consideration, I think the reseason Eric is seeking revenge this season must be that Russell murdered Ulfric, usurped his throne, and convinced or forced the berserker gang to swear allegiance to him in exchange for V.  

Categories allegory, Bill, characterization, Eric, History, mythology, names, Norse mythology, Sookie, Werewolves
Comments (6)

Dawn by Another Name

by Renée
April 15th, 2010

Aurora e Titone by Francesco de Mura

If you thought the only Greek mythology in True Blood was connected to maenads, here’s an eye opener. This is Aurora, Goddess of the Dawn. She’s getting ready for work as her  aging husband gazes on. In some accounts, her job is to drive her chariot through the night sky carrying a pink torch that heralds in the new day. In others, she just pulls back the drapes in her palace and the pink light from inside spills out and lights up the night sky.

Remember that scene in season one when Dawn is getting ready for work, and Jason is tied to her bed? Aurora and Tithonus. He was a heroic prince of Troy. They fell passionately in love and married. When Aurora begged Zeus to grant immortality to her husband she forgot to ask for eternal youth as well. As a result, Tithonus couldn’t die but continued to age and grow ever more feeble until he lost the use of his limbs. Aurora kept him prisoner in her room until she finally turned him into a grasshopper. Tithonus is used in art and literature to symbolize passion untempered by reason and faded glory. Doesn’t that sound like a certain Stackhouse we know?

Jason as Tithonus

Jason as Tithonus

 

 

Notice the muted green backgrounds in both images. What  is Dawn doing with plain white sheets if they are not meant to mimic the clouds that pillow Tithonus? Then there are Dawn’s tragically 80′s rose chintz sofa pillows that look like they came right out of Mura’s painting.

Another connection to the myth is the grasshoppers heard outside Dawn’s house when Jason shows up on her doorstep in the middle of the night. They’re still chirping the next morning when an outside view of the house shows so much light pouring from the windows that they glow, outshining the daytime sun. The kicker? When Jason complains about being stuck in bed all day, Dawn alludes to Tithonus by retorting that he should be honored since she doesn’t tie just any old man to her bed. The sound of Dawn’s car pulling away tells us that she is off to light up the day of every good ole boy who walks into Merlotte’s.

Updated 4/16/10

Categories allegory, art, characterization, Dawn, Imagery, Jason, mythology, names
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The Opening Scene Tells the Tale

by Renée
December 23rd, 2009

Nearly all of the major themes and the plot for the entire series is encapsulated in the opening scene of True Blood. It all starts with the Greeks. They are the ones drivingTrue Bloodfiguratively and literally. The series is is based on Greek mythology, philosophy, and dramatic elements. Brad is a blonde frat boy, and Kelly a blonde sorority coed. As they travel down a dark Louisiana highway, they introduce the theme of deconstructed stereotypes to the series. Kelly, whose name means bright headed, is in the driver’s seat, and Brad is asleep, foreshadowing the state of Sam and Sookie’s relationship at the beginning of the show. She goes for his crotch. This is the first of many times sex will be used as an escape. Like Sam, only the evidence of vampires in the area wakes up Brad. Despite the green lights on the road ahead of them, without forethought, Brad and Kelly detour from their journey and open Pandora’s box by entering the Grabbit Kwik and a world where appearances are dangerously deceptive. This is the same lesson that Sookie and Sam will lean from their interaction with the vampire world over the course of the series.

The dark haired clerk who will soon impersonate a vampire foreshadows Bill’s deception and false persona. The clerk is watching Nan Flanagan on tv, which points to Bill’s interest in civil rights. Her formal, high school debater delivery, is a marker to notice that Nan is using Greek logic and rhetoric to defend the American Vampire League. This scene may also foreshadow the AVL using rhetoric and faulty logic to mislead and obfuscate. The skull ring the clerk wears associates Bill with death. His jewelry also foreshadows the possible involvement of Bill in dark magic and the Witch War. Ironically, the vampire who is shopping in the store is not interested in what Nan has to say. Neither is he interested in the clerk or the couple. He is just goes about his business and foreshadows Eric’s position at the beginning of  the series.

The clerk rises from his seat to engage the couple in conversation when they enter. This relates to Bill involving himself in Sookie’s world. The clerk poses as a vampire to frighten Brad and Kelly. This is the mirror image of Bill trying to lull humans into a false sense of complacency by presenting himself as human-like as possible. When the clerk threatens the couple, Brad tries to diffuse the situation by telling him they are just drunk and meant no harm. This willt be the first of many times that mind altering substances lead to acting without considering the consequences in the series and the first of many times that mind altering substances are used as an excuse for behaving imprudently.

Foreshadowing Eric’s involvement in Bill’s affair with Sookie, the clerk’s deception draws the attention of the blonde vampire. He wears camouflage which is symbolic of the world weary Viking god persona that Eric displays at Fangtasia. On another level, the camouflage proclaims honestly that Billy Bob, as Brad calls him, is a hunter, which is also something that Eric does, never hiding his vampire nature. The confederate patch on Vampire Billy Bob’s cap could relate to Eric in a number of ways. Eric’s close association with his Viking heritage, his loyalty to his current home state of Louisiana, and his prejudice against humans are all suggested.

When he tries to buy V, Brad introduces the theme of human complicity with evil. Kelly brings in the themes of storytelling, gossip, and knowing when she tells about the effects of V. The couple’s bickering foreshadows the conflict in Sookie and Sam’s relationship. Sookie’s morality is hinted at by Kelly when she recoils at the idea of buying V.

The blonde vampire moves from being an observer to involving himself in the situation. This foreshadows Eric’s involvement in Bill’s affairs. The vampire also acts like Eric by protecting the vampire community from V buyers and users. When the vampire confronts Brad, he introduces the homoerotic motif that carries through the series. Brad sweeps Kelly from the store and forshadows Sam acting heroically to save Sookie. They exit the store and re-enter the human world, still together as a couple and hopefully a little wiser, as Sam and Sookie will be at the end of the series. Their departure also brings up the overriding theme of the show: truth can only be arrived at through a gradual ascent to enlightenment, something that the classical Greeks realized over two thousand years ago.

Next, Vampire Billy Bob turns his attention to the clerk. He is intimidating, but ultimately law abiding. The clerk promises to stop impersonating vampires. The blonde vampire threatens to kill him if he doesn’t. This could either foreshadow Bill’s ultimate death at the end for his involvement in the queen’s plan to deceive Sookie or Eric could show mercy on Bill if he learns his lesson. Vampire Billy Bob is revealed to be, not only the most powerful character in the scene, but also the only one with the infomation and judgement to idenfidy the true nature of all the other characters and figure out what is going on. Also, just like Vampire Billy Bob, Eric is a good ol’ boy at heart, with an equal emphasis on the good, old, and boy.

Because of the show’s circular nature, True Blood’s theme of the circle of life, and the circular nature of stories constructed with alchemy a circle motif is prevalent in the opening scene with Kelly’s hoop earrings and sunglasses, Brads conspicuous white necklace, bracelet, and oversized watch, the Grabbit Kwik’s surveillance mirror, and the vampire’s case of True Blood with its circular logo and Type O blood. The light and dark imagery that will come to represent enlightenment also begins in this scene.

While we don’t know all the conflicts that Sam and Sookie will have with Bill and Eric, the foreshadowing tells us that they will eventually leave the vampire world behind and resume their journey together.

Categories alchemy, Bill, characterization, Eric, Imagery, mythology, names, Sam, Sookie
Comments (7)

What was Maryann?

by Renée
December 21st, 2009

Hoopoe

Maryann’s talons and the bird lady statue are the key to her real identity.

Those who are familiar with the SSNs, know they are littered with were-animals of all kinds–were-lynx and  were-owls to name a few. I think in her human life, Mary Ann was a were-hoopoe. All the references to flightless birds this season (ostrich roundup, penguin dick, and numerous chicken comments) allude to her identity. Only one variety of hoopoe is, or was, flightless, the  extinct giant hoopoe.

Hoopoes are colorful dramatic proud birds that often frequent vineyards and build their nests in the nooks and crannies of trees and walls. In flight they are often mistaken for very large butterflies. They fly in on an indirect, wandering path and when on the ground, hold their wing our and up toward the sun in an unusual position, not unlike Maryann’s when she was doing her shakey shakey thing. Hoopoes migrate, prefer warm weather, and are monogamous, as Maryann seemed to be.

When female hoopoes begin to brood, they transform from pretty little songbirds into filthy smelly reviled creatures. (Mary Ann wasn’t kidding when she told Tara at their first meeting that she got dirty.) Hoopoes line their nests with debris and secrete a liquid that smells like rotten meat. They rub the  liquid all over their wings, nest, and eggs to deter predators. Once the chicks hatch, they are also capable of defending the nest by spraying directed streams of feces. The creepy guy in Sookie’s kitchen sink playing with intestines is an allusion to this capability. Speaking of that incident, when Mike started screaming to alert the others that Sookie was in the house, he was actually cawing like a bird, and if you listen to the cacophony that Maryann creates when she is displeased,  it is actually a flock of birds screeching.

After the chicks hatch, the hoopoe nest becomes increasingly filthy because in addition to the raw meat stench, it fouls its own home. By the time the fledglings leave, it is little more than a big pile of droppings.

The hoopoe was holy to the Egyptian and Minoan cultures but regarded as a thief in most European folklore and as a harbinger of war in Scandinavia. (In addition to the war on vampires that Steve Newlin is gearing up for, the Witch War is on the horizon.) Hoopoes and hoopoe eggs are also strongly associated with magic.

There are also many stories about hoopoes as advice givers, including to the biblical king Salomon. Remember Tara always repeated Maryann’s words of wisdom? Advice giving is an odd character trait to give a maenad who represents chaos, the natural world, and unbridled passion, but not if she is also a hoopoe.

Maryann's hoopoe dress

In Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Tereus, a king who raped his wife’s sister and cut out her tongue was transformed into a hoopoe. The bird’s crest indicates his royal status and his long, sharp beak is a symbol of his violent nature.

Mary Ann with Feathers

Aristophanes included Tereus in his hoopoe form as a character in The Birds. In this drama, the birds decide to build a city between earth and heaven with the intention of usurping the gods’ position and transferring earthly worship from the gods to themselves and gluttonously taking all of the sacrifices for themselves, leaving the gods to starve. This is exactly what Maryann did.  Daphne thought she was a god herself, and her table was always overflowing with the best produce, no doubt offerings diverted from their intended destination.

By eating a magical herb, a group of humans transform themselves into birds and leave behind the worries of money, work, and politics (the Apollonian, rational world) and go live in the city of the birds (the Dionysian world) where they were free to transgress all manner of societal bounds. This is where Maryann’s followers come in (and Karl’s soup).

The play includes a skirmish between humans and birds using kitchen utensils, which was alluded to with the standoff in Merlotte’s kitchen when a number of Maryann’s followers armed themselves with cooking tools and in Sookie’s kitchen when she brained Coroner Mike with Gran’s frying pan.

The Birds also includes a wedding procession, and a hymn to Hymen. While we don’t hear any such hymn in TB, we do have a rather protracted conversation about Jessica’s hymen and Hymen’s torch, a necessity for all weddings in ancient Greece, did turn up last season when Rene hid Arlene’s engagement ring in his flashlight.

Apparently immortality isn’t compatible with weres. Maryann seems to have lost the ability to transform fully. She was still capable of producing talons and eggs when needed, though.

Read part II for the rest of the story.

Categories characterization, Greek lit, Maryann, mythology, symbolism
Comments (12)

Maryann’s Recipe for Summoning Dionysus

by Renée
December 7th, 2009

Edited 6/1/10

Maryann wasn’t a typical bacchante. Her rituals, mythology, and theology identify her as a member of the Mystery Cult of Orpheus. They worshiped Dionysus as the supreme god and believed in reincarnation and  transmigration of the soul.

Dionysus wasn’t just the god of wine and theater like he was to most Greeks. According to the Orphists, he was Zagreus, the horned one. (The horns actually refer to bull horns and associate him with the ancient bull worshipping cults.)  Zagreus was the child born to the goddess of the Underworld, Persephone and Zeus. As Maryann said, the Titans ripped him apart on Hera’s orders. Only his heart was left intact. Athena recovered it, and Zeus fed it to Semele, his human lover. The infant god regenerated in Semele’s womb and was born as Dionysus, the twice born who called both a goddess and human woman mother.

The followers of Orpheus believed that Zagreus/Dionysus was the reincarnation of the first corporeal god, the hermaphrodite Protogonos (The Progenitor). They thought that all living matter came from him. So where did Protogonos come from? He was hatched from the world egg. His mother was Nyx, the goddess of night and his father Erebus, the god of darkness and shadow. Nyx and Erebus were not corporeal beings, but forces of nature that came out of chaos, the primordial matter.

Orphists believed that the spirit of Dionysus lived inside every living creature and is what animated them. Their worship included spiritually cleansing themselves by bathing in mud or flour and communing with Dionysus/Zagreus/Protogonos by ripping a bull apart with their bare hands (sparagmos) and devouring it raw (omophagia). With this act, they believed they were eating their god, and he would grow in them.
What identifies Maryann as an Orphist?

1. Her belief in reincarnation and transmigration of the soul.
2. The ritual purification in mud and flour which was depicted when the frenziers rolled in the dirt and smeared cake on their faces
3. Recounting of the Orphic version of the origin of Dionysus.
4. Associating Dionysus with the horned god, Zagreus.

How exactly did she intend to marry Dionysus?
By reinacting the Orphic myth with supernatural stand-ins for the original gods and goddesses.

Tara (depticted in Jason’s hallucination as a Greek goddess) and Eggs were to play the roles of Nyx and Eurbus, Night and Darkess, the primodial gods who originated in chaos and, with their sexual energy, created the first corporeal creature god, Protogonos.*

They had to consume the heart of a supernatural creature first because, as Sophie Anne says, supernatual creatures straddle the two wolds. Apparently Maryann thought this was the way to pull Dionysus from the supernatural/spirit world into the natural/material one.

It was only after Tara and Eggs ate Daphne’s heart and had sex that Maryann, a were-bird, started brooding and turned Sookie’s house into her filthy stinking nest. That’s because in Maryann’s recreated myth, Dionysus was to have two mothers just like in the original version.

Tara and Maryann were both to be his mothers. After Maryann was confident that Daphne’s heart would lead to the result that she desired, she produced the egg that was to house the spirit of Dionysus, regenerated from Daphne’s heart by the sexual energy of Nyx (Tara) and Erebus (Eggs), before it was transferred into a living body.

Sam, shifted to the form of a bull, was to provide the vessel for Dionysus. I believe that Maryann originally intended to have sex with him in this form, remove his heart, and have her followers perform sparagmos and omophagia.

Jason’s comments about bestiality to Andy foreshadowed Maryann’s intent, as did Hoyt’s description of chicken fried steak. He told Jessica it was like a cow and a chicken got tother and had a baby. (Recall that Maryann was a were-bird.) The meat tree was a visual representation of the same idea as the bird lady statue enlarged and plastered with beef. That tree was Maryann’s sexual fantasy.

This is also what the bull mask was about. Maryann wore it to make herself attractive to her bull god like Pasiphae, the Queen of Crete, who fell in love with a bull and disguised herself as a cow to attract it. The Minotuar was the product of this union.

This myth links Maryann with the mother of the Minotaur, but she is also associated with Ariadne, his half-sister, the woman who married Dionysus and became immortal. It was also significant that Ariadne was ultimately responsible for the death of the Minotaur by revealing the secret of how to defeat him to Theseus. This ties in to Maryann’s ultimate intention of killing the bull after she mates wtih it.

Recreating this myth would make Maryann the bull god’s mother and wife, and it also links her with the Minotaur’s mother and sister. These incestuous associations are another version of Godric’s reference to father, brother, and son. The maenad and vampire storylines both explore the same taboo laden cannibalistic life cycle: life is food; food is sex; sex is death; death is life.

Updated: Serena pointed out how the meat tree resembles both a bull head and a womb, apparently the two were connected in the ancient world. Tara placed Maryann’s egg, which had been fertilized by Tara and Eggs’s sexual energy, into the giant womb. IMO we will be dealing with the fall out from this ritual for some time.

Part III

*I believe that Tara will eventually be revealed to be supernatural and assume that Eggs was, too.

Categories Eric, Greek lit, maenad, Maryann, mythology, Sam, symbolism, Tara
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