Reading Notes: Macbeth

Act 4, Scene 3 

Malcom wants to cry, and Macduff wants to kill somebody. Malcom suggests that Macduff will hand him over to Macbeth to win his favor, but Macduff says he is not a traitor. They try to think of a way to take him down, but Malcom thinks he would make no better leader as he cant keep his hands of of women and Macduff thinks he can learn to hide it from the public - but Malcolm can't stop talking down on himself. Macduff makes a speak so inspiring that Malcolm decides he will let him guide him and that he is trustworthy.
Their conversation is interrupted by a doctor who speaks of one curing by touch, and eventually Ross follows. Ross speaks of the great fall of the nation under Macbeths rule. He then reveals that Macduff's wife and children have been slaughtered. Malcom uses this info to fuel Macduff into killing Macbeth. They end the scene by deciding to go fight Macbeth.

Act 5, Scene 1

Doctor and a man speak of Lady Macbeth's sleepwalking. As they discuss it, she walks in appearing to be washing her hands, speaking of secrets and blood on her hands.

Act 5, Scene 2

Tension rises in the rebel army, they speak of how insane Macbeth has become.

Act 5, Scene 3

Macbeth is freaking out, yelling at servants and putting on armor before the battle has arrived. He learns his wife is sleepwalking. He barks orders at anyone within shouting distance, saying he has no fear until the army is past Birnam Wood.

Act 5, Scene 4 

The men are past Birnam Wood. They hide behind shrubbery to hide their numbers from the spies Macbeth surely has watching. They march.

Act 5, Scene 5

Macbeth brags that if only so many men hadn't deserted him then they would meet the opposing army to fight, but they can wait them out. He finds out his wife has died, and barely has an afterthought about it saying it would have happened eventually. A messenger tells him the forest is moving! Macbeth decides he has had enough of this thing called life, and wishes that if he dies he dies in armor and chaos.

Act 5, Scene 6 

Short and sweet, the rebels prepare for battle.

Act 5, Scene 7 

Macbeth kills a man, referencing how the only one he cares for is the one not born of a woman. Macduff swears he will be haunted forever if he is not the one who kills Macbeth.

Act 5, Scene 8

Macbeth and Macduff come face to face, Macbeth brags on how charmed his life is and how Macduff is worthless to try fighting him as he can be killed by no man born of a woman - this is when Macduff reveals he was born via cesarean. Macbeth, frightened, says he will not fight Macduff. But as we cut scenes to the rebellious army who has won, in walks Macduff with Macbeth's head.

image source

And so ends the tale of Macbeth. A once noble man turned merstyrant with power and greed, a once doting husband who ended a man that could not care less about the suicide of his wife. Were the witches to blame, or would he found his way to his moral demise without them?

Reading Notes: Ovid’s Metamorphoses - Perseus and Medusa, Part B

Ovid's Metamorphoses: Perseus and Medusa, translated by Tony Kline (2000).

Perseus stabs a monster repeatedly, making it vomit as it torments it in battle. Perseus drives into overkill, stabbing the monster until he hears applause from the people he has saved. Having done his part in the bargain, he will now marry the beautiful Andromeda. During the celebration, he sets Medusa's head on the ground which turns the green plants into stone coral. Sea nymphs try the head's magic on other plants and are delighted by the magic.  

In a shrine to the gods, Perseus sacrifices a cow to Athena and a bull to Zeus. The wedding ceremony starts, with many rich guests and even Dionysus joining the party. Perseus takes a request to tell the story of how he acquired Medusa's head: 

He sneaked past the Gorgon's who share one eye, and after finding Medusa turning men to stone with her gaze he used his shield to look upon her - waiting until she was asleep to cut off her head; after this event, Pegasus and Chrysaor were born from her neck hole. 

A prince asks why she alone had snakes for hair, and the tale of Medusa is recounted:

Medusa was a gorgeous woman who had the best hair above all other women, it was the key feature to her beauty. Poseidon, like his brother, had no ability to restrain himself and took her against her will - in the temple of Athena no less. Athena, unable to punish Poseidon, chose to take her anger out on Medusa by changing her into a Gorgon but with snakes for hair - whose head and snakes now decorate Athena's aegis.  

image source

Reading Notes: Ovid’s Metamorphoses - Callisto, Part A

Ovid's Metamorphoses: Callisto, translated by Tony Kline (2000).

While on duty searching for damage from fires and floods, Zeus stumbles upon Callisto in her employee-of-the month-status with Artemis. He quickly falls in lust with the favorite nymph of the Goddess of hunt.

Fearing being caught by his wife, Zeus changes his form to appear as Artemis. At first, Callisto falls for the charade but too little too late when she realizes her mistake she is already being kidnapped by Zeus. 

When Callisto is returned, she tries to hide the affair (if we are going to call it that) from Artemis but sure enough when its time to hit the showers it is revealed - Callisto is pregnant, and now banished. 

Hera knew what happened from the beginning, and decided this time revenge was best served cold (and to the wrong person) in the form of turning poor Callisto into a bear right after giving birth. 

15 years later, Callisto's son - unaware of the fate of his mother - is hunting and sees a bear; unknown to him this is her, he proceeds to shoot her with his arrow and in the nick of time, Zeus of all people, stops him. Ending the tragic tale of these two lives, he throws them to the stars to become apart of the constellation.

image source