Genesis Chapters 17-24: More Freaks and Bipolarity

In this chapters of Genesis, Abram forms a covenant with God in which he agrees with circumcision. Every man is circumcised as ordered by the Lord. Then, young ninety year old Sarai (note the sarcasm) is finally fertile and conceives a child. Isaac. The child is circumcised and the treaty is formally established.

As stated by God,
“This [is] my covenant, which ye shall keep, between me and you and thy seed after thee; Every man child among you shall be circumcised.” (Genesis 17:10)

Ok so, what is wrong with God? He always has these weird ideas. Couldn’t he just ask Abram for something else? Why would he want circumcision? It’s like if we were his toys and he has fun playing with us. I cannot understand why God wanted this, like really, what kind of FREAK would want to undergo this process? It has been said that this process begun as a religious sacrifice to ensure fertility and to affirm masculinity, but this leads me to my next point. How can you really ensure your masculinity by having a part of your penis cut? I think it’s just a little strange since a very important aspect that determines your sex is your reproductive system and by being cut a part of it cannot emphasize this.

Then, the story of Lot is told. Lot was tricked by his daughters, which got him drunk and had sex with him in order to preserve her father´s generations. As said in chapter 19,
“Come, let us make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, that we may preserve seed of our father.” (Genesis 19:32)



So, first of all, what the hell is wrong with these girls? How can they be so disgusting and stupid to have sexual relationships with their father in order to keep breeding? The fact of seeing this in the bible just disturbs me. Eeeewww! Lot´s daughters are so dumb since doing this with your dad it’s considered a sin and an act of adultery. This fits totally into sexual abuse since when having sex with a drunk person, the person is totally unaware of what is happening. These girls have clearly no respect for their father, their mother, and themselves. I hate the fact that during this time women were used to reproduce and their duty was to have kids in order for the family name to continue. Why were women treated in such an inferior way? Why are women considered always as the bad character of the story? In Adam and Eve, Eve was the bad one, and here, the daughters are the sinners since it wasn’t Lot´s intention. I thought this story was kind of disgusting, but at least the daughters had sons which continued the family tree.

After this story ends, another story is introduced, the story of Abraham and Isaac. So basically the story starts when the Lord orders Abraham to make him a sacrifice in the mountain. Loyal Abraham goes with his son, Isaac, to the mountain and when he gets there he realizes that there is nothing to sacrifice, so SURPRISE, he is ordered to sacrifice his son. When he is about to kill poor Isaac, God tell him to stop since he has already proven love to his Lord. Then, Abraham and Isaac return home, happy ending?



According to the story this ended completely normal and they both return home, but really how could Isaac forgive his father? Like really, if my Dad was going to murder me just because this weird voice told him to I would never forgive him. Where is the love? How could Isaac be capable of almost killing his own son? According to me, as a father you should love your son and give your live for him, but this showed me the opposite. Abraham is not a good father at all. Also I think that God is crazy. What kind of maniac which is considered wise and superior would order someone to kill his own son? Each time I read these things I get madder with the Lord since he is so inhuman and doesn’t care about anything. The society God wants is just confusing since he is always punishing everyone who sins, but he is always committing these inhuman acts. It is obvious that God is bipolar and has mood swings every second and that Abraham is a loser who lets God manipulate him and determine everything he does.

Genesis 10-16: Christian Threesome

In these chapters Noah´s generations spread and divide into many different nations. After many of this generations passed, Abram is finally born. Abram marries Sarai and they both go to the land God blessed for them. Unfortunately, Sarai is barren and she is unable to conceive a child which would cause the end of their generation. Due to this, Abram is “forced” to have sex with the maid, Hagar. Sarah did this because she wanted his husband to have a son that would be his heir. But I think that what was wrong with Sarah? How could she let her husband sleep with the maid? Yes, I understand that she wanted she wanted all the best for Abram, but she must´ve obviously felt anger at her husband sleeping with someone else. If God is almighty and the most powerful why couldn´t he have made Sarai fertile before she was ninety?

As stated by the narrator,

“And Sarai said unto Abram, My wrong [be] upon thee: I have given my maid into thy bosom; and when she saw that she had conceived, I was despised in her eyes: the LORD judge between me and thee.” (Genesis 16:5)

This proves that she was a bit jealous. Every woman wants to be a mother and even though she accepted the deal, after seeing the consequences she must have felt worse. So Sarai was jealous. The maid is practically forced into this because seriously who would want to be forced to sleep with this old guy out of nowhere to give him a child? Abraham must have felt ok with it since he agreed to do it, I mean, which man would not agree to have sex with a woman younger than him willing to?
I could relate this very much to modern society and the new use of surrogacy. Surrogacy is a method of reproduction whereby a woman agrees to become pregnant and deliver a child for another family due to women´s infertility. Using this procedure the embryo is inserted into another women´s body. I think this is extremely weird. I would totally disagree with the fact of another person conceiving my baby. I believe that being a mother is undergoing all the process of maternity, and this totally ruins the experience. I understand that many women are barren and they want a son with their genetic features, but can´t they just recur to adoption. This can be related to this story since Sarai had to force the maid to have a baby and later when she saw her pregnant felt jealous. According to many people each story of the Bible has a lesson, but this left me completely confused. I really can´t understand the fact that God permitted this to happen. If God was the creator of everything and he can do whatever he wants with his creation, why did he make Sarai sterile if he wanted the generations to continue?

Genesis Chapters 3-9: Why is God a Man and not a Woman??

Adam and Eve were now together and one day a serpent appeared and "forced" Eve to eat an apple of the tree of good and evil. Although Eve knew that God had prohibited them to eat of this tree, she couldn’t resist and decided to eat it. She offered some to her husband and they both ate and sinned. Then, they suddenly heard God coming and decided to his themselves. When Lord God saw them he said:

“Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire [shall be] to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.
“And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed [is] the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat [of] it all the days of thy life…” (Genesis 3:16)

When I read these verses I thought this was so unfair. God cursed the snake and punished Eve, but didn’t do “anything” to Adam. I understand that Eve gave him the fruit, but he was the one who decided to eat of it. I got really mad while reading since this is very male chauvinist. Why does God decide that men should rule women? This gets me really upset since this might be one of the big reasons of why women were always treated inferior and didn’t have the same rights as men. I totally hate the believe or stereotype of women depending on their husbands and just taking care of home issues and their children. Today, many people have this believe, but women are rebelling and being more independent. The Bible really annoys and confuses me since I as a Catholic had never actually analyzed the Bible, and this makes me question myself a lot about my own vision of religion. Also I am now starting to notice how God has many human characteristics (he talks, walks, gets angry, etc.)

After all this happened, Eve conceives Cain, and later she gives birth to Abel. Cain was very jealous of his brother since God preferred him.

As stated by the narrator,
“But unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell.” (Genesis 4:5)



In effect, Cain ends up killing his brother and then, filled with regret, runs away and continues his generation. Adam and Eve also continue their generation by giving birth to Seth.

Now, I’m beginning to believe that God is extremely biased. Why did he prefer Abel? Couldn´t he just love them equally and save the jealousness between brothers? I really liked this part since I have a sister which is my same age. It is very common that at many occasions you feel jealous of her and think that she is better, but this is no reason to murder her. How can you kill your own sister? It would’ve all been better if God didn’t show preference for one of them.



As I said before, their generations continue after finally Lamech´s son, Noah, appears in the story. God, wanting to destroy evil, decides to send a flood and to kill everyone except Noah, his wife, his 3 sons, and a pair of animals of each species. He orders Noah to built an ark and to embark with his family and the animals. Noah follows his orders and they all survive the flood. I don’t understand God´s mood swings. He does not like evil, but by killing everyone with a flood isn’t he considered evil as well?

When the flood is over and he finally gets to a dry land the narrator states:

“And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.” (Genesis 9:1)

I found this verse very interesting since if they were the only humans alive they had to have sex with each other in order to reproduce. Don’t you think it’s like weird to have relationships with your family members? Well I think it’s VERY awkward. The only explanation I find to this is that these occurred in a totally different period of time. Another aspect that caught my attention was how these characters could live hundreds of years. I think their ages are kind of unrealistic, but maybe this stories were exaggerated by the persons who wrote them. Until now I have enjoyed reading The King James Bible and analyzing it since my perspective of the world is changing.

Genesis Chapters 1 & 2: The Creation

In Genesis chapters one and two we can see how God created the world in seven days. He divided light into day and night, divided the waters and created heaven, created the earth and the seas, the plants and the fruits, the sun, the moon, and the stars, the seasons, days and years, created the creatures (animals), and at last created man to domain the other species.
As said by the narrator:

“And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.” (Genesis 1:26)

In this verse we can see how God created men in relation to his image so they could rule and domain all the other living creatures. I found this very interesting since the bible is pointing out that men are superior and they should govern the world. I as a Catholic don’t agree with this since if from the beginning men were brought and created for this purpose, it explains perfectly why in modern days we kill other species and destruct their habitats as if we were the owners of everything. While reading this I couldn’t stop thinking about Ishmael since in the book Daniel Quinn also tries to explain why we humans think we are the most important species. If from the beginning God assigned everything he created a role in the world, how could he actually expect us to respect each other and every other creature that surrounds us? I strongly believe in God, but this sounds kind of unjust. Why would God want to make men superior? In fact, we are all animals in a universe trying to survive.

Then, in chapter two in the seventh day God finally rested and admired his creation.
As the narrator says,

“And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.” (Genesis 2:3)

I thought this part of the chapter was very intriguing since it says that God blessed the seventh day (Sunday) because it was the day his creation was done. Now I actually get why we have to go to church on Sundays and pray to him.

After this, chapter two describes how Lord God created men and the Garden of Eden. After creating all this, he decided that men needed company and shouldn’t be alone and out of one of Adam´s ribs he created women.

As stated by the narrator,

“And Adam said, This [is] now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.” (Genesis 2:23)

This was how women were created and although I find the relation between men and women very interesting I think that it is a little male chauvinist since it is extremely unfair that God created men first and similar to his image while he just took women out of men to serve as his accompany. I see this as an explanation of why we always imagine God as someone masculine and not a women.

The end of Metamorphosis

Baucis and Philemon were a happy married couple who lived in their humble home. One day Zeus and Hermes decide to test their goodness by going as two beggars to their home and asking them for a place to stay. When Baucis and Philemon see the two guests, they kindly receive them, offer them a place to sleep and feed them. Later that evening, the Gods showed their true identity and because of the goodness of the couple they decide to grant them a wish. Baucis and Philemon wish for them to die together and the wish becomes true and they both become trees.

“Baucis:
Having spent all our lives together, we ask that you allow us to die at the same moment.
Philemon:
I´d hate to see my wife´s grave, or have her weep at mine.
Narrator two:
The gods granted their wish. Arrived at a very old age together, the two stood at what had been their modest doorway and now was a grandiose facade.
Zeus:
And Baucis noticed her husband was beginning to put forth leaves, and he saw that she, too, was producing leaves and bark. They were turning into trees. They stood there, held each other, and called, before the bark closed over their mouths,” pg 82

I think this story taught me a lot of things specially that you have to treat everyone good because you never know if you´ll need that person´s help. I really liked the characters since they are very good and don’t judge by appearances. I almost cryed when reading the last part since it is amazing to see how Baucis and Philemon love each other so much that they choose to die together and remain close to each other forever. This is a perfect example of how strong love can be.

This story gave end to “Metamorphosis” and I personally loved reading the stories. It taught me so many things about love, death, family, greed, and other feelings. The characters made the stories very interesting since I realized how the Gods also had human characteristics and imperfections. The main lesson I took from reading this is that there is love everywhere and that it may be love for an object, a person, food, nature, religion, or other stuff, but it is still love.

Phaeton Burns the World

The story begins when Phaeton is talking to his therapist about what happened to him. Phaeton, as the son of the sun God, Apollo, starts narrating the story by telling us how everything occurred. He had always known that his dad was Apollo, but he had never actually talked to him. The only thing he knew was that he is the sun and that it had been like a one day stand sort of thing with his mother. One day in school a kid bullies him by asking him about his dad and when Phaeton tells him that his father is the sun, this kid beats the shit out of him. When he gets home he keeps crying and his mom supports him and tells him the harsh route in order to see his dad. Phaeton decides to go to look for him and begins the difficult journey. When he finally gets there he is welcomed by his dad´s servants and at last he meets his sire. Then, Apollo promises to grant his child a favor and Phaeton asks for the chariot so he can enlighten the world for a day. When the God hears this he totally regrets having promised him and is forced to give him the chariot knowing that this may be extremely dangerous. Then, he tells all the rules to Phaeton (who does not listen) and then he embarks to enliven the universe. Unfortunately it all turned out bad and everything ended up burned and destructed.

“Phaeton:
It was over before it began. It was chaos, okay? Out of control, as if no one was driving. You know, my knees were weak, I was blind from all the light. I set the earth on fire. And I fell. And it just destroyed me-you know, I was just completely and utterly destroyed. O-V-E-R. Over.” Pg 67

I thought that Phaeton fits the perfect stereotype of a spoiled kid since he asks his dad for this dangerous favor knowing that it may bring terrible consequences. Although he is spoiled, I totally understand him since it is very hard to grow without your dad´s presence and love. I had heard this story before and I have heard many theories about it. Some people have told me that this is how deserts were formed. This seems very reasonable since Phaeton burned the world. I actually liked this version more than Dryden´s version since in this one Mary Zimmerman uses a more modern language and entertaining tone so I can relate more to the story. I also liked the way she used the therapist since it makes the story more entertaining.

Love is not about Pretending

This story is about a beautiful nymph called Pomona. Pomona dedicated her life to take care of the trees and flowers and loved the fields and orchards. Pomona lived happily with nature and kept away from every suitor. However, the God of Springtime was completely in love with her and was determined to do anything to gain her love. Unfortunately, Pomona was too busy taking care of the plants and tree so she didn’t pay attention to him. In effect, Vertumnus decides to disguise himself with different costumes so that Pomona notices him.

“Narrator:
In the manner of the shyer gods he used to disguise himself, would put on the clothes of a farmhand, wear a straw hat and a working man´s shirt, and stick hay stalks behind his ears, to look like some storybook yokel.” Pg 49



“Narrator:
When that produced nothing, he thought he might hold in his hand a pruner, trying to look like a field hand who tends the grapes in their arbors. After the complete failure of that, he came with a ladder, to seem as though he were bound for some nearby orchard to gather apples. With wigs, costume, and makeup, he once tricked himself out as a soldier, romantically returned from foreign wars. Another time, he set himself up as an ordinary fisherman fishing in her path on the chance she might pass by. He waited from dawn to dusk, passing from boredom to terror and back again.” Pg 50

Vertumnus is determined to win Pomona, but she ignores him and does not seem impressed by his efforts. Finally he dresses up like an old lady and tells a story to Pomona.

I think that out of all the stories this one has been my favorite. I really enjoyed it since it has to do so much with love and how people act when they love someone. Vertumnus loved Pomona and despite her constant rejection he did not give up and continued struggling for her love. He did everything he could to gain her attention and played a bunch of different roles, but according to me this was completely useless. I think that if somebody loves you, he/she has to love you for who you are and not for whom you pretend to be. Vertumnus was so worried about getting Pomona´s attention that he totally forgot to show her who he really was. He was pretending to be everyone but him. I can totally relate to this since when you like someone you try to gain that person´s love and attention by acting as someone else. You start lying about what you like, how you feel, what you do, and everything that determines your identity. This may seem good at the beginning and sometimes you may actually obtain the person you desire, but in a long term basis this will result as an epic fail. Why? Because at the beginning you may trick yourself and your pair, but sooner or later he will find out who you really are and you will get tired of pretending.

"That's what real love amounts to- letting a person be what he really is. Most people love you for who you pretend to be. To keep their love, you keep pretending- performing. You get to love your pretence. It's true, we're locked in an image, an act-” Jim Morrison

Bon Appétit

Erysichthon was a man who scorned the Gods and didn’t honor them. For him, nothing was sacred and he refused to make sacrifices in the altars of those in the Olympus. One day, Erisychthon decides to cut an old tree knowing that this tree was sacred to Ceres. Ignoring the importance of this, he chopped down the tree, but when goddess Ceres heard the cry of her tree she decided to punish him. Ceres, then, decides to send Oread so that he orders Hunger to make Erysichthon suffer and pay for his actions. In effect, Hunger follows orders and makes him suffer.

“Hunger crawled through the air to the house of the victim. As she flew overhead, fields withered and men starved. The birds scattered from her path, too weak to fly. It is night when she arrives at Erysichthon´s home and curdles through the halls until she finds him sleeping in his room. She wraps cadaverous arms around him in an embrace as strong as love, but quite the opposite of love. She breathes her spirit into his spirit. And he begins to dream.” Pg 36

From this moment on Erysichthon started to feel hungry. He couldn’t control his hunger and anxiety so he started eating, but nothing seemed to satisfy him and it was never enough. Each time he asked for more and more food until the food was over and he decided to sell his own mother in order to eat. After selling his mom, he continued eating until there was nothing left. Then, Ceres appears with a silver tray, a fork, and a knife andgives them ho Erysichthon. The man, unable to satisfy himself, and greedy for more, ends up placing his foot in the tray and starts eating himself. This is actually called self-cannibalism.

"Narrator:
There can only be one end to such a man.
[CERES comes toward ERYSICHTHON with a silver tray holding a plate, a large fork and knife, and a rosebud in a vase. She sets it down on the deck.]

Narrator:
He will destroy himself.
[ERYSICHTHON goes to the tray, takes off his shoe, places his own foot on the plate, and raises the knife and fork.]" pg 40

Ceres:
Bon appétit.

I really liked this story since I thought it was very interesting how a person can sell his own mother to satisfy his necessities. It was very surprising to see this since it is incredible how someone can be so selfish and I could relate this lot to modern society. In modern society it all has to do with surviving and survival of the fittest. Everyone seems to be always acting to accomplish and satisfy their desires without thinking on how their actions could affect others. I could also relate this story with the Buddhist and Hinduism believes of Karma.

Karma: The total effect of a person's actions and conduct during the successive phases of the person's existence, regarded as determining the person's destiny.
Basically this principle means that your actions determine your destiny and what you give is what you will eventually receive (what goes around comes around).

In this story karma is reflected since Erysichthon by cutting the tree was punished by being always hungry and eating himself. Because of his bad actions, the future gave him what he deserved.

Alcyone and Ceyx: Love is Patient

Alcyone and Ceyx is a love story which ends up with a not so happy ending. Alcyone and her husband, Ceyx, lived happily together until one day Ceyx decided to go on a voyage through the sea. Ceyx leaves and Alcyone devastated gazes to the blue ocean as she sees her husband depart. She waits for Ceyx for days and months, she woke up every day with the hope and faith that her husband would returned, but he never did.

Unfortunately, Poseidon, the god of the seas, created a huge storm which destroyed Ceyx´s boat and ended up with his life. Meanwhile, Alcyone kept waiting for his return and prayed for him. In effect, Goddess Aphrodite appeared as Ceyx in one of Alcyone’s dreams and told her he was dead. The next morning, Alcyone went to the shore and found out that Ceyx had transformed into a bird and as she approached him she became a bird too and both flew away to the sky.

"Lucina:
For the dead body was changing, restored to life, and renewed as another seabird...." pg 32

I really enjoyed this part of the story since it can be understood as reincarnaton and as an afterlife. This part fits perfectly to the title, Metamorphosis, since by becoming seabirds we can see change and transformation.


I really liked this story, since I enjoyed seeing how the Gods also have characteristics and react to situations as humans. I thought it was really cool to see the transformation from humans to birds of Alcyone and Ceyx as a symbolism of freedom and in a way eternity since they are always going to be together. While reading this I thought a lot and its meaning. Love may be interpreted as loving a person so much that you are willing to spend your entire life waiting for a person to return or just taking the risk of waiting for a person you don´t even know that is alive. Love is giving the other person liberty and freedom in doing what he/her desires and supporting your partner in the decisions he takes. In this story we can see how Alcyone had the strength to wait for her husband to return and spend all her life having faith in someone who will maybe never return.

Metamorphoses

Metamorphoses are a series of stories compelled in a book which talk about the creation of the world and how men appeared on it. According to this, first there was chaos. The world was filled with mobocracy. Then, God created everything we know that exists (the ocean, mountains, rivers, animals, and others) and after this he created humans. Humans were created, created words, and so the story continues.






The stories in Metamorphoses are about ancient myths and mythological-fictional characters and their adventures. Throughout the story we can find many Greco-Roman Gods and read about their actions and adventures and how they as well have human characteristics.