Lansingburgh High School - Odyssey Yearbook (Troy, NY)

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THE ODYSSEY being Raven established lakes and rivers He taught the people to trap fish to construct storehouses to build canoes and to weave blankets He restored the sun and the moon when the light had been stolen from the sky As he flew back Wlth the ball of fire he broke off DIECSS of light thereby creating nlght and day The mrracle of the c eatron of the mountain krndles imagination and from the oldest times men have associated the mountalns with wlsrtatlons of gods Magnitude and grandeur suggest the power of Drety God s majesty and mystery By the stairway of the mountain slope the Great Splrlt first descended from the sky upon the California mountalns From there he established all the earth The Catskills and the Adirondacks we e the abodes of powerful beings and rebelllous spirits The White Mountams were homes of blessed and great spirits with Mount Washington as O15 mpus and Ararat in one for God stood upon its crest Who can say he does not enjoy mythology? Let him seek the legends of the northern Hudson those of hrs own region the t adltronal storles of the Scandrnavlans or the Indians Let hrm delve lnto myths for pleasure forgetting the educational value Mythology will then be as fascinating to h1m as an any modern novel or history LENA M HANSEN In 'Defense of eibffodern cyflrrw A gg.. HAT rs Art? Some have defined rt as a medium of communi ki catlon a unrversal language by which the artrst may tell 9 ,A .m hrs thoughts to his fellowmen and by which men may under stand each other It rs an abstract idea put into a decora the concrete form rn the simple wet comprehensrxe words of the child First I think and then I dravw a llne around my think Some anclent races have left no lrterature in the wrltten sense of the word but their art has told us more about the trmes than any story could It has been an rndrcatron of the climate In southern Europe where nature prowlded comforts for dally hung the people had lersure for developlng beauty for its own sake They delighted rn frescoes and statuary but were indifferent to the coarse workmanship shown rn their fu nrture and utensils In Italv clumsy rll made carriages have been found profusely cox ered vsrth artistic designs In the North hovx exer the sexere weather made necessity the first consideration so comfort and utility were cultnated to a high degree with art of sec ondary rmportance 19 A, I , IF A III l:I 1 y - J s V . ' Q ' 9 , . I' ' v uv ' ' '- , . v. . . . 1 1 . , . Y . . , . x . . . 1 . . A I' - s . . ' . , L 9 y r . . V. . . . , . . . . i . 0 24? - fps: I I . I I- x 'xr AVA x ,-A , . . . 1 . N yQ .n Z ,Y L I 3 'J V . . . 5 L. 72- . .- . f f ' v 6 li I . . Q J .D . . . - . Y ' . . . Y ' . Y Q r 1 . 9 ' ' as ' ' , , , ' , Y ' rv 1 , . . I . Y v - v v. . . Y. . v . . . . ' . ' I v I 1 . v ' ' ' 1' f ' - 1 f ' - rx r x q U i , 5 . v - v' 1 ' ' ,U . ,- - 9 v 1 V V 1. 1 l ul ' V r - v ' - ' v Y 1 ' 1 . Q 7. 1 I - v

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THE ODYSSEY The stoly of Arachne and Mmerva shows the results of mortal boastmg Mmexva was the pres1d1ng goddess of defensne war peace and needlevsolk Arachne was a pletty ma1den hung 1n Greece vxho was very sk1lled ln needlework She boasted far and wlde that she had no fear to match hex sk1ll wlth that of Mme sa The goddess became annoyed and appeared to the gul as an old woman A con velsatlon began and the glrl commenced to talk of her sklll The vroman adv1sed her to be more modest but her admon1t1on was un heeded Arachne scolned the vsolds and declared she vushed the goddess would propose a contest Immedxately Mlnerva accepted the challenge Arachne knevs of her fallure after the contest and bltterly repented he1 folly The goddess changed the glrl lnto a splder and condemned her to spln vuthout ceaslng a warnlng to all concelted persons Many storles are assoclated wlth Apollo the Sun god One of the most allu11ng IS the adventure of Phaeton the son of Apollo as he drove the sun charlot across the sky Phaeton boasted of h1s father s beauty and power untll h1s playmates taunted hlm and compelled h1m to show some proof of h1s fathel s dlxlne 0I'1gll'1 Phaeton journeyed dnectly eastward unt1l he came to h1s fathers abode Wlth golden 1eweled turrets and pmnacles Phaeton fancled he knew better than h1s palents and set out Wlth the sun charlot Because he dlsregarded Apollo s 1nst1 uctlons h1s horses vsandered from the beaten path H became reckless and drove too close to the earth Fountalns were ened earth In the low er contment the people were burned black as Phaeton passed over and the descendants of these people vshom we call AfTlC3HS 1eta1n that hue to th1s day Anothel stolv of Apollo tells of Clytle a fan young malden who watched w1th lov1ng ey es Apollo s dally Journeys from the moment he left h1s home 1n the east untll he descended into the far western sea 'xt mght She nevel won fax O1 1n Apollo s ey es ln splte of her longlng md she became heartbloken The god ln plty changed her 1nt0 a sunflower and now she st1ll watches the course of the sun across the sky The North Ame lcan Indlans had an equal number of myths re latmg to the creat1on of the earth and the lntroductlon of the blessmgs of whlch we now thlnk llttle One myth tells of Raven who l1ved at the head of the Nass Rner When Raven was a baby he asked fol the moon When It was handed to hlm he let lt go lnto the sky He had the sun moon the stars and daylxght ln hlS house On one of h1s vxandeungs he took vxlth h1m a box contalmng dayllght When he heald the H0159 of the people hshmg 1n the darkness he freed dayllght The people telufied by such an mtense llght iled mto the forest and 1umped 1nto the watel Those who fled 1nto the forest were called vvolx es and those who Jumped 1nto the seas were named seals Thls 18 -2' 'C' A -2- 'I' I 9 7 . , . . - - 1 ' A 1' 7 . N . Y . V. . - l . . 1 I . . . , - K 1. . , 1 . I . , 7 . 1, . 7. . . D I . .4 . . , . , . Q . . 7 ' . e dried up, plants shriveled and smoke rose from the parched and black- , . T ! . . 7 , . . I - i Y 4 n , V o o K Q I 1 , z ' . , , ' .r , . I' t - 7 Y K Y ' 'Y , . . . . . , v , uv v 5 , ' . D YI J l V V , K 1 l . 1 I - .ki

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THE ODYSSEY The customs and manners of preuous c1v1l1zat1ons have been shovwn in the11 at The Egyptian pyramids dlsclose the method of bu11al used ages ago The carvlngs of the Chinese explaln thelr mys t1c religion The pure beauty of the Parthenon shows the intellekltual ideals of the Greeks The well constructed roads and brldges of the Romans llldlflate thelr practlcal nature The Gothic architecture was a result of the dogmatlc control of the Church IH the Mlddle Ages while the paintlng of Raphael and da V1nc1 show the new freedom caused by the Renalssance Thus It 1S posslble to lnterpret any nation through 1tS alt Europe IS iustly proud of her fine tradltlon centuries of definite progl ess ln the field of art Yet the fact that America has no back ground of achlevement need not discourage us We should reallze oul advantages we do not have to bear the weight of a glorious past there is no monopoly held by government rel1g10n or classes of society and gleatest of all ou1 fresh vigorous country offers an opportunity to the dexelopment of a distinctly national taste Howex er this does not mean a complete breaking away from the old traditions We may avoid many mlstakes by referring to the knowledge of the Europeans accumulated by much experience Also thele should be no nationalism 1n art lt should be 1nd1v1dual and un1 wel sal Foreign countlies have set a good example by provldlng open closer together One ot the worthiest proJects today IS the attempt to cause a mole unix ersal appreciation of art Some wealthy people mistake a mercenary and purely xaln sentiment for a love of beauty Oth61Q complain that they haue no lelsure for art-as lf it could be enjoyed only at certain tlmesl The truth of the matter IS that the busy un cultuled classes may be more easily elevated to a desirable perceptlon fOl they ox eilook small technical faults 1n seeing the artist s meaning In literature we do not reject Chaucer and Shakespeare because then spelling IS unusual and difficult to understand we admlre then splendid ldeas So It should be in art Avoiding first lmpresslons and 1flX6St1g3t1Y1g the soundness of new works we may find that the fault IS 1n ouiselx es because we have not elevated ourselx es to the level of the artists meanings The 1nc1eas1ng appreciation of art IS shown by the large enroll ment in art schools and the crowds frequentlng art museums and Lttendlng lectures Thls qualifies the theory of Charles Eliot Norton '1 Haixard professor that only through the study and knowledge of fine ants can the imagination be cultivated and reiects the general 1de1 th it am one who has never painted knows nothlng about painting Modeln art the subject of so much dlscusslon IS not so new as lt sums I1 thc tlame IS icmoved from a modern palntlng and the lines 20 l n:l-1 l:I 5 l:l I 7. . . . . Y 7 . 7 7 . 77 - 7 7 L77 . . 7 1 .R , y A1 Z . 7 . 7 , . 77 7 . . . I 7 7 . . v 7 . ' 7 competitions for public designs. This should tend to draw the nation 7 . 7 . . . 7 7 . . 77 . 7 - 7 . . 7 n, 7 ' ! . 7 . . 7 . . 7 7 7 7 , . . , . - U . N 1 4 v 7 . . . . ,, . . 7 C , . I 7 7 7 7 . 7 . . . 7 7 7 7 . .7 . 7 . 7 7 Lv , , L s ' x ' . ' 1 , . ' ' l xl