Monthly Archives: February 2014

With Oedipus as our primary example, let’s consider how Greek myth imagined three other young male heroes and the routes they took to manhood: Orestes, Pentheus, and Telemachus. All three boys were the only sons of heroic kings, yet none … Continue reading →

Perhaps we need to look backwards toward old forms and old stories to re-imagine approaches to this dilemma. Greek myth is a tangled amalgam of stories, some of which date from the pre-patriarchal eras when, it is imagined, the genders … Continue reading →

Barbara Ehrenreich argued in 1983 that the “breadwinner ethic” had more or less collapsed in America. Men who avoided marriage were “deviant” in the fifties; now they are considered quite normal. By 1990 one third of all children (60% of … Continue reading →

A man needs a little madness, or else he never dares cut the rope and be free! — Nikos Kazantzakis, Zorba the Greek The problems of our modern condition threaten to overwhelm us: meaningless work; broken communities; environmental degradation; rampant consumerism; … Continue reading →