Cache of http://164.107.4.25/mailing_lists/CLA-L/1998/08/0016.php
Subject: Mythological golf
From: Don
Fowler (don.fowler@Jesus.oxford.ac.uk)
Date:
Sun Aug 02 1998 - 17:09:44 EDT
Looking for something else, I found the following, a golf course designed
around (mainly Greek) mythology:
http://www.golfdesigner.com/articles/stone_harbor.htm
A typical example:
Sixteenth Hole, "Orpheus": Orpheus, famed musician of Thrace, married Eurydice, a wood nymph. With his music he charmed the wild beasts of the fields, the rocks and the trees, and caused the waters to be quiet. He had such a powerful singing voice it made him master of all nature.
One day Eurydice, whilst fleeing an unwanted suitor, was bitten by a snake and she died. Orpheus was devastated. He found he could not live without her and decided to visit the underworld to find her.
At the gate he was threatened by the three-headed watchdog Cerberus, and by the vicious Furies. His music calmed them, and he pressed on. Pluto, the King of the Underworld, was touched by his bravery.
"I will allow you to take Eurydice back to the land of the mortals," he said, "but I must tell you that you must not look back until you reach the upper world, or you will lose Eurydice forever."
So Orpheus, with his gaze fixed firmly in front of him, gratefully led Eurydice out of the Underworld. Finally as he reached the gate, to make sure she was still behind him, he impatiently looked round. Eurydice was still there but she gave a pathetic sigh and vanished.
Filled with despair, Orpheus dragged himself back to earth with only his music left to him. The loss of Eurydice caused him to become a woman hater. Refusing to join in some revels, he was attacked by a mob of screaming Ciconian Bacchantes, the female devotees of the god Bacchus. They threw rocks at him but the power of his music made him immune. Their loud screams finally drowned the music and the rocks began to strike home and Orpheus died.
In death Orpheus once more entered the Underworld, still playing the lyre. He and Eurydice were permanently reunited. Many scholars see Orpheus as another pagan prototype of Christ.
The tee shot on this hole is to an island fairway which veers strongly left to include a grove of existing and planted trees. Here in this sylvan setting perhaps the faint strains of Orpheus's music will guide the tee shot clear of the rustling foliage and the calm sheets of water. The snake is there too, squirming around at the end of the peninsula.
The second shot on this par 5 must land short of the large depression called the Underworld and avoid the Furies in the shape of a series of mounds covered with matted, tangled grass, like the rough in Carnoustie, Scotland. And don't forget Cerberus, our old friend, the threeheaded dog.
The final shot to the green which recalls the graceful Eurydice must avoid the Bacchantes, another series of sharp mounds, as well as the two bunkers on each side of the green.
Two good shots should set up a birdie on this hole, but forget it if you land in the Underworld and don't look back; you may vanish! Some say that the ghost of Eurydice haunts the woods and hollows of this hole. A few golfers even say they have seen her there.
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* Don Fowler, Fellow
and Tutor in Classics,
Jesus College, Oxford OX1
3DW.*
* Don.Fowler@Jesus.ox.ac.uk,
Telephone (01865) 279700,
Fax (01865) 279687.*
* Home Page: http://jesus.ox.ac.uk/~dpf/ *
*
Classics at Oxford: http://www.classics.ox.ac.uk *
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