Golden Hair Research Articles

Unlikely Friends in Patriarchal Lands: An Ecofeminist Reading of Rajasthani Folktale “Sonal Bai”

"Sonal Bai" is a popular folktale about a girl told by women in Rajasthani-speaking areas of north India to initiate young girls into adulthood. This paper investigates the metaphorical representation of a girl’s coming of age through her relationship with a Sandalwood tree analysing, "Sonal Bai" as an ecofeminist text. The story renders voice to socially prohibited themes of menstruation and women’s sensual desire as embodied in silent friendship between a sandalwood tree and Sonal (girl with golden hair). The paper highlights how the outwardly simple tale of “Sonal Bai” is in fact an encoded lesson for teenage girls, inverted as a relationship between two highly treasured “belongings”/ “commodities”—sandalwood and a unmarried girl—in a patriarchal society economically dependent on agriculture. The sandalwood tree is highly valuable for farmers; different parts of the tree are used to produce furniture, oil, fragrance and food items. It is also a part of religious rituals where its essence is used as tilak on idols in Hindu traditions. Rajasthani Language is spoken prominently in the desert regions of India (Thar Desert) and the existence of such a tree in a desert is as precious and rare as a girl with golden hair. The paper draws reference from recurrent invocation of olfactory senses of the listeners captured by the images of the sandalwood tree in the story. It also explores use of growth metaphors using ‘rhizome’ like imagery of sandalwood branches reaching the sky which become an escape route for a teenage girl hiding from her family. The temporal and spatial indicators are infused together in the story of Sonal Bai leading to an unlikely friendship between two prized possessions that eventually breaks with the arrival of a patriarchal archetype: a handsome young prince. This study discusses the prevalent katha culture in India where women exercise freedom of voice through singing and narrating tales within all-female groups. This site of independent feminine interaction in a highly patriarchal society is investigated using Bakhtin’s “Chronotope” to highlight culturally encoded lessons in folktales meant for young girls in Indian society as a means of informal education.

The Golden Hair in Fairy Tales: Metonymy and Shifting Connotations in Cultures and Locations

This paper makes a close reading of four fairy tales, one each from France, Russia, Armenia and Nepal that feature maidens with golden hair as central characters and examines how the hair, a recurring metonymy in these tales, acquires different meanings in different cultures and locations. These moving tales retain the golden hair as their meme or cultural replicator but the societies that adapt the tales ascribe different meanings to the meme. Taking the golden hair as a metonymy for the personality of the maidens featured in these tales, this study maps the tales across distances by using the Derridian idea of teleiopoiesis. In the process, it demonstrates the shift in the connotations of the metonymy as an outcome of a circular nature of expression that allows an outside reader, both an individual and a culture, to imaginatively reconstruct its structure and meaning by conditioning the shifts to its own value system. The study reveals that the French and the Russian tales depict the golden hair as a symbol of beauty and grace while those in Armenia and Nepal, where golden hair is not a norm, treat it as a symbol of negativities as well. This difference, the study concludes, is because of the difference in the ways these societies ascribe meaning to the hair colour.

Identification and application of an endophytic fungus Arcopilus aureus from Panax notoginseng against crop fungal disease.

Endophytic fungi are important microbial resources for developing novel antibacterial and antifungal drugs to prevent and control crop diseases. Panax notoginseng has been used as a Chinese medicinal herb for a long time, as it has various bioactivities. However, information on endophytic fungi isolated from Panax notoginseng is rare. In this study, an endophytic fungus known as SQGX-6, which was later identified as the golden hair fungus Arcopilus aureus, was isolated from Panax notoginseng. SQGX-6 was extracted using ethyl acetate, and the active components of the fungus were identified using ultra-performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (UHPLC-MS). The antifungal and antioxidant activities of the extract were determined and evaluated in vitro and in vivo. SQGX-6 and its extract inhibited the growth of Corn stalk rot (Fusarium graminearum), Corn southern leaf blight (Helminthosporium maydis), and Tomato gray mold (Botrytis cinerea) in vitro. The free radical scavenging rates for 2,2-Diphenyl-1-pyridinyl hydrazide (DPPH) radical scavenging activity, 3-Ethylbenzothiazoline-6-Sulfonic Acid Radical scavenging (ABTS) activity were also downregulated by the SQGX-6 extract. In vivo, the SQGX-6 extract inhibited the mycelial growth rates of the three aforementioned fungi and downregulated malondialdehyde (MDA) content and upregulated peroxidase (POD) and phenylalanine ammonia-lyase (PAL) content in fruits, leading to significant reduction in damage to cherry tomatoes caused by Botrytis cinerea. UHPLC-MS was performed to identify various active substances, including Alkaloids, Azoles, Benzofurans, Coumarins, Flavonoids, Organic acids, Phenols, and plant growth regulators contained in the extract. These results suggested that the endophytic fungus SQGX-6 of Panax notoginseng and its extract have excellent antifungal and antioxidant activities, and thus, it is an important microbial resource for the developing novel drugs against plant fungal infections.

A rare case of Hermansky-Pudlak syndrome

Hermansky-Pudlak syndrome (HPS) is a rare autosomal recessive disorder characterised by oculocutaneous albinism, a bleeding diathesis and platelet storage deficiency. Aim of this paper is to report a case of patient with HPS who was followed over a decade. A 2-and-a-half-year-old boy presented with recurrent respiratory tract infections and global developmental delay. On examination, he had light golden hair, grey iris with nystagmus, fundus hypo-pigmented fovea and white macules all over body. Also found to have neutropenia without granules on peripheral smear. HPS can often be diagnostic dilemma mimicking disorders like Chediak-Higashi syndrome (CHS), in this case diagnosis was made due to characteristic skin and hair hypopigmentation and ocular findings along with bleeding diathesis. Our patient categorised under HPS2 subtype which has mild immunodeficiency. HPS is usually associated with neutropenia and hence pyogenic infections, present case however was associated with advanced form of pulmonary tuberculosis-miliary TB and granulomatous TB lymphadenitis giving rise to the possibility of T-cell defect.

Generating desire: Chocolate, chromolithographs, and Marie-Catherine d’Aulnoy's fairy tales

There existed a fascinating means of collecting fairy tales in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries that has hitherto remained unexplored: the collection of chromolithographs or “chromos,” used as a marketing tool by French department stores like Le Bon Marché and by chocolate producers like Poulain. Scholars such as Emily Cormack, Laura Kalba, and Pearl Michel have carried out essential research on the deployment of chromos in the rise of consumer society, but this is the first study with a specific focus on chromos that feature fairy tales. In mid-century, Victor-Auguste Poulain, a French chocolatier from Blois, found the means to mass produce chocolate and sought to transform the nineteenth-century conception of chocolate from being an elite privilege or a medicinal product to being a plearurable food accessible to the middle classes. It was under the direction of Victor-Auguste's son Albert that chromos, including fairy-tale themed chromos, became an important marketing tool for the company in the 1880s. Children in particular were encouraged to purchase the mass-produced chocolate by the insertion into the packaging of fragments of tales like “The White Cat,” “The Doe in the Woods,” and “Beauty with the Golden Hair.” Each chocolate bar would include a beautiful color chromo of the tale on the recto, with the narrative fragment on the verso. This marketing strategy becomes a desire-generating machine: the desire for more story fuels the desire to purchase more chocolate, which subsequently fuels the desire for more story. In effect, as I hope to show through this case study of Poulain's use of tales by d’Aulnoy, narrative desire gets converted into consumer desire through Poulain's marketing campaign.

The unrealised potential of Robert Browning’s “Gold Hair: A Legend of Pornic”

ABSTRACT This article explores a hitherto neglected context of Robert Browning’s “Gold Hair” (1864), analysing the poem in relation to the tradition of “hair harvests” in Brittany, France, as well as the broader contexts of the hair trade and hairwork in the nineteenth century. In doing so, it makes a case for reading the textual evocation of hair in the poem literally to trace a cultural shift towards hair framed in material rather than corporeal terms. The girl of the poem has abundant golden hair that corresponds with gold, hairwork, and the hair trade in ways that highlight its potential against the girl’s apparent rejection of common hair practices. Diverging from previous analyses that have read poetic representations of hair in Browning primarily as symbolic (especially in relation to sexuality), the pairing of hair with gold is shown in this poem to signify unrealised sources of credit, unprocessed matter, holding the potential to be exchanged or refined. This article considers practices of keeping, working, and selling hair in conjunction with the Brownings’ collection of hair and hairwork held by the Armstrong Browning Library, in this way elucidating the materiality of hair in both the poem and the Victorian imaginary.

Das mittel- bis spätawarenzeitliche Gräberfeld von Edelstal/Nemesvölgy – Ein regionales Machtzentrum im nordwestlichen Karpatenbecken?

Abstract Although well known to the community of Avar Age archaeologists, the old excavated cemetery of Edelstal (Hung. Nemesvölgy) played a quiet limited role in the discussion about social structures and societies, even for the northwestern part of the Carparthian Basin. This circumstance was also linked to the lack of publication of all graves. Based on this and the complete analyses of this cemetery the author wants to illustrate how important the burial community might have been in the social system of the Late Avar Khaganate. A special focus lies hereby on prominent items like gilded boar belts, buckles with the emperor's image or golden earrings and hair clips indicating wealth, communication, relations and links to the top social elites and presuming a high elaborated prestige chain network.

Easy Potatoes for Two

Easy Potatoes for Two William Millar (bio) All he'd wanted was sex. Now he was preparing their supper. Bending over the old sink was making his back ache. But there were only a few potatoes left to peel. The baby stirred in its cot behind the screen at the back of the kitchen, until the gentle susurration of its breathing began once more. Hardly audible. It hadn't been asleep for long. Actually, life's what stomps on your head when you're not paying enough attention. Get it right, John. It's okay to admonish the dead. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. There was still a bruised, puzzled look behind his eyes. Like that of the victim of a mugging. Maybe it would always be there. Pigeons chuckled in their cool, bubbling way on the ledge outside the window at the back of the sink. They shat on the stone all the time. He shooed at them. They clattered off. You win for now but we'll be back. We'll always be back. [End Page 55] Leaves blew across the communal grass down at ground level. Light rain. Light wind. Darkening sky. He liked this time of year. There was something French about it. It suited his mood. He'd parked the pram in the stairwell earlier after returning from father and son's daily outing. He'd once pushed it to the timber store to buy wood to build bookshelves, then all the way home again with the baby peeking out from behind the planks. Mothers had given him strange looks. The skin slid off easily under the knife, curling away with little concretions of soil, browning the water. . . . to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death do us part. . . He'd affirmed it all. Christ. At the rehearsal the minister had taken him aside and suggested he might pray for forgiveness. He'd politely but firmly declined. He'd wanted to tell the fat prick to fuck off, but it wasn't the right time. He'd keep though. On the day, tailcoats had been worn. Champagne drunk. A reception line, for God's sake. Toasts and speeches. All the proprieties. But no shotgun. The decision had been his after all. His alone. The first day she went out to work while he looked after the baby, a blackbird came down the chimney, entering the room via the old kitchen fireplace. The first day. It had a broken wing and flapped around depositing soot everywhere, or so it seemed. He'd killed it eventually before wrapping it in newspaper and putting it in a waste bag. The rest of the day was spent cleaning. Soot can really mess up a room. He'd blocked up the chimney that night. [End Page 56] The tiny child, blue-eyed with its little slick of golden hair, looked at him on occasion, looked at him as if he was the most wonderful creature in the world. Sometimes he wanted to put a pillow over its face until it just stopped its noise. He'd been present at the birth. Held her hand while she pushed. It hadn't been a long labour. And he'd felt no great outflow of emotion at the arrival, just mild curiosity. She'd been nauseous, so he'd eaten her hospital toast and drunk her hospital tea. Out of the sink with them now. Cut them in half and into the pan. In the mornings when it was asleep, he would often run down to the baker's for a scone and then the shop next door for a newspaper. He reckoned four minutes maximum. Nothing could happen in four minutes he told himself. That wasn't true and he felt guilty. Guilt was all he seemed to feel these days. Guilt for quitting a potential career. Guilt for getting her pregnant. Guilt for thinking of shuffling off this mortal fucking coil. Guilt for the dark, complex feelings he had which he didn't understand but which fucked him...

A Classical Source for Petrarch’s Conceit of the Binding Knot of Hair: Apuleius’s Metamorphoses

The conceit of the beloved’s hair ensnaring and binding the poet’s heart and soul is common in Renaissance poetry and particularly widespread in the tradition of Petrarchan love lyric. The topos can be traced back to Petrarch’s canzoniere, or Rerum vulgarium fragmenta, in which Laura’s golden hair is often described in terms of knots and laces tying both the poet’s heart and soul. No classical antecedent has previously been identified for the image. In this study, I propose a possible classical source for the characteristic Petrarchan motif of Laura’s binding hair knot: Apuleius’s Metamorphoses, a manuscript of which the poet owned and which he read and annotated several times. In particular, I show how passages such as Lucius’s celebration of the beauty of women’s hair (Metamorphoses, II.8–9), and especially his declaration of love to Photis, an oath he takes on ʻthat sweet knot of your hair with which you have bound my spiritʼ (ibid., III.23), can be convincingly regarded as a source for Petrarch’s conceit. In addition to the value inherent in the detection of a new source for an influential Petrarchan topos, the present study may have some further implications. It could offer novel arguments for the dating of a series of Petrarchan poems, and it could foster a potentially fruitful reappraisal of the influence of Apuleius’s work on Petrarch’s vernacular poetry.

Siberian cats help in solving part of the mystery surrounding golden cats.

Golden cats have been appreciated since the beginning of the cat fancy. Golden is a modification of the tabby coat. In the Siberian breed, a specific golden phenotype, named sunshine, has been described. Sunshine tabby cats exhibit a warm tone of tabby, a pink nose lacking the black lining and a large light cream area around the nose. Pedigree analyses revealed an autosomal recessive inheritance pattern. A single candidate region was identified by genome-wide association study (GWAS) and homozygosity mapping. Within that region, we identified CORIN (Corin, serine peptidase) as a strong candidate gene, since CORIN variants have been identified in mice and tigers with a golden phenotype and CORIN has been described as a modifier of the ASIP (Agouti Signaling Protein) pathway. A homozygous CORIN:c.2383C>T missense variant was identified in sunshine tabby cats. Segregation of the variant was consistent with recessive inheritance. The variant was also found in three Kurilian bobtail cats and in two ToyBob cats from the 99 Lives dataset but genotyping of 106 cats from 13 breeds failed to identify carriers in cats from other breeds. The CORIN:c.2383C>T variant was predicted to change an arginine to a cysteine at position 795 in the protein: CORIN:p.(Arg795Cys). Finally, hair observation in Siberian cats was consistent with elongated ASIP signaling as golden hair showed a large yellow band instead of the short subapical one usually observed in agouti hair. These results support an association of the Siberian sunshine modification with the CORIN:c.2383C>T variant. The Siberian cat has helped us to decipher one of the golden phenotypes observed in cats and we propose that the CORIN:c.2383C>T variant represents the wbSIB (Siberian recessive wideband) allele in the domestic cat.

The Scythian Stag in Contemporary Arts and Craft: Tuva and Abroad

The article examines the interest in Scythian imagery and motifs in contemporary arts and crafts, both in Tuva and outside Russia, on a surge after the excavation of Arzhan II burial site. As proved by numerous references, the most popular of the Arzhan II finds was the stylized image of the Scythian stag on a golden hair pin. It has since appeared on the photo taken by Russian photographer Andrei Bronnikov, whose main subject is jewelry. Tattoo artists in English-speaking regions have seen an uptick in customers requesting Scythian stag tattoo designs, due in large part to the discovery of the popularly dubbed “Ukok Princess” and increase in interest in prehistoric fantasy media. Russian-speaking fashion designers redefine textile and ornament in the twenty-first century, influenced by the golden accents of the looped stag in their work, at times inventing an embellished narrative of the past. Folk crafters have created costume and jewelry designs for a different world they wish to inhabit, even creating alter-egos and stories that accompany Scythian-inspired pieces. Finally, within Tuva, wood carving continues thanks to trailblazers that promote folk handicrafts through education and archival work. Artists around the world are fascinated by this unique relic of the past and employ the symbol in romantic imaginings of their past and present.

Maybe She’s Born with It: Spenser’s Una, Milton’s Eve, and the Question of Golden Hair

This essay reopens the question of why Spenser’s Una and Milton’s Eve have golden hair. Una’s golden hair is allegorical; Eve’s golden hair is less so. Yet in both cases, the unstable function of h...

An Excerpt From Kin: A Memoir

An Excerpt From Kin: A Memoir Shawna Kay Rodenberg (bio) Grand Marais, Minnesota, 1978-1979 Most mornings, the first sound I heard was either a mosquito, tinny in my ear, or the rusty springs of the rough-hewn door as it closed behind my father when he left to stoke the stoves in the other buildings or to wait tables in town. The second sound was my sister's easy breath. She fell asleep rubbing my mousy, fine hair between her [End Page 48] fingers, a process she called fuzzying, so before I could move, I had to loosen her chubby toddler fingers from the tangled loops of my hair, and I did this as carefully as if I were untying a knot in a thin gold necklace, so she would keep sleeping. In Grand Marais, Minnesota, there were only a few weeks in summer when a fire in the stove was unnecessary. My father kept ours packed with wood and poked the coals regularly, but some mornings the heat seemed feeble against the cold, since the bare plywood walls of our room in the Bunk House were uninsulated, and I had to will myself to leave the pocket of warmth trapped beneath the heavy quilts. It felt like leaping into the northern shore of Lake Superior, which was just across the road and vast as an ocean, but visible only in winter when all but the pine trees were bare... The four of us shared half of the Bunk House, which was about the size and length of a singlewide trailer, and sometimes my mother divided it further by using an old bedsheet as a curtain, so she and Dad could have privacy. Despite our small living space, we weren't terribly crowded because we didn't have many possessions: Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt. The Bible was clear that people who collected too much stuff on earth were idol-worshippers, in love with the carnal world and at best only halfway committed to the Kingdom of God. Misti and I had no toys or dolls because they were essentially idols, graven images. My mother disagreed with this idea because she thought little girls needed to practice if they were ever going to learn biblical woman- and motherhood, and I wholeheartedly agreed with her, but she said so only in private. I did have my complete set of the Little House on the Prairie series, which she chose for my birthday, a special edition so the spines and matching cardboard case were baby [End Page 49] blue instead of buttery yellow like the ones at the library. Dad made the gift even more special by hanging a small wooden shelf above my side of the bed I shared with Misti, and the matching set of books complete in their case on my very own shelf was my most prized possession. I never tired of reading those books, especially Little House in the Big Woods, because no matter which chapter I chose, I could see myself in the story. Laura Ingalls lived in the wilderness and, though she loved her father best, found being good impossible. Jealous of her sister's golden hair, Laura smacked her across the face hard and had to be spanked. She loved sugar and spoke out of turn. She played tricks on people who treated her badly because she was poor. She embarrassed herself by hoarding pebbles from the shores of Lake Pepin, tearing the pocket of her dress. I didn't tell anybody, but I thought about her like she was my best friend. And just like her, I was happy to play with wood chips and thimbles, thrilled to receive simple tokens for birthdays or Christmas, which, like all holidays, we were not supposed to celebrate, though each year my mother conspired to create our own secret Christmas celebration together. In the few private moments we had between our schedule of meals and women's Bible study, school, which was more Bible study, chores, and evening services, she'd gather Misti and me on her bed and retrieve a handful of treasures from the...

A Little Muzhik, Muttering to Himself

The night before her suicide, Anna Karenina has a strange nightmare about a muzhik, or former serf, who speaks French and is doing something with a piece of iron. Given the place of class in the novel, if mainly on the Levin side rather than the Anna side, critics of Tolstoy have said less than might have been expected about the simple fact that this is a wealthy woman dreaming uneasily about a poor man. This essay attempts an interpretation of the dream, which Anna shared, more or less, with Vronsky, relating it both to Anna Karenina as a whole and to the general issue of the marginal existence of the poor in novels by, for, and about their social superiors. Reference is made to Gabriel García Márquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967), John James Bezer’s Autobiography of One of the Chartist Rebels of 1848, Edmund Wilson’s 1942 novella, “The Princess with the Golden Hair,” and Jacques Rancière’s The Philosopher and His Poor.

Rapunzel! Rapunzel! How Strong Is Your Hair?

In this issue, the strength of a well-known biological material, hair, is assessed across a number of mammalian species, from humans to elephants. The multiscale keratin-based structure of hair is of interest, representing a possible archetype for biomimetic high-strength threads.

The Persians: <em>Timotheus</em>

The Persians TIMOTHEUS (Translated by John Warden) . . . urging on their floating bronze-beaked chariots ram by ram furrowing the waves with pointed teeth . . . . . . . with humped heads stripped away arms of fir, thumped ’em on the left, mariners tumbled, smashed ’em on the right in their pinewood towers, back on their feet again. Ha! Tear off flesh to their rope-bound ribs, sink ’em with thunderbolts, rip away gilded splendour with iron-helmed rams. Thonged javelins fly fire-like, shafts trembling in pierced limbs, wood slivers ablaze long-winged brazen-headed, slaughtered victims swarm. ◊♦◊ Sea with glass-green hair its furrows stained with blood; shouts of victors, screams of vanquished; the barbarous fleet borne away over the fish-crowned gleaming curves of Amphitrite’s breast. ◊♦◊ Lord of a daywide land, islander out for a sail ha! listing, tipping, arms and feet arion 28.1 spring/summer 2020 96 the persians thrashing in the buffeting waves, cries to the sea god, “Father . . .” Winds drop and veer, smite him on the other side. No Bacchus poured that liquid into his wine jar belly. He vomits up the boiling sea flood, screaming through clenched teeth against the defiling sea: “Was once not enough to have your proud neck yoked with bonds of hemp? See, now my lord will churn you with pine trees born in the mountains, encompass your watery plains with mariners, you madcap, long-loathed, faithless plaything of the swift-surfing winds.” Gasps out the words and a disgusting stream of sour sea water comes belching from his belly. ◊♦◊ Homeward they scurry, the Persian fleet, the foreigners squadron smashing into squadron in the long-necked strait jolts from their hands their mountain feet, leap from their mouths their gleaming helpmates; bodies without breath, without light, festoon the starsprent sea, weigh down the headlands. Survivors on the shore sit naked and freezing, tears dripping from their howled laments. Possessed by the dirge-song of grief, they keen and beat their breasts: “O vales of Mysia with your trees like a woman’s hair, take me home. For the winds are carrying me away. Timotheus 97 Never will the dust of earth receive my body . . . . . . . in a cave where nymphs are born, below the ocean floor. Protect me from Helle, ship-bridged bringer of war. Had my lord not built that far-travelled causeway, never would I have come from Tmolus or Lydian Sardis to keep at bay the Greek war god. But now where shall I find sweet refuge from unbending fate? Who will free me from suffering and bring me home to Troy? Could I but fall at the ivy-robed knees of the Queen, the Mountain Mother, embrace her lovely arms and pray: ‘Goddess of golden hair, mother, I beg you rescue me, rescue me from the devious steel that slits the throat, from the wave-skimming gales, ship breakers, from Boreas that freezes by night. The winds will dash me to pieces. Already the cruel waves have torn the clothing from my body. Now I shall lie wretched, my flesh a feast to the tribes of birds.’” ◊♦◊ See a Greek with a sword of iron grab a man from Celaeno, rich in flocks, bereft in battle, drag him by the hair. Arms twined around knees, he breaks the seal of his lips seeking Greek in the shrill voice of Asia: Listen Mister not me why come. Not me, no never, big master send me, me no never come fight. Stay home Sardis, Sousa, Ecbatana. Great god Artemis 98 the persians Ephesus guard me. Swift-running backward-running they pursue their flight, cast from their hands the twin-mouthed javelins, tear the flesh from their faces, rip from their breasts their sumptuous Persian gowns, raise in one voice their Asiatic wailing. Those round the King are loud in panic at the coming disaster. The King looks down at the mingled host in flight, falls to his knees, defiles his body. Tossed in fate’s waves he speaks: Root and branch my house has fallen! The flaming ships of the Greeks have slain the flower of our youth. There is no way home, our ships consumed by the blazing might of harsh...

The Persians: Timotheus

The Persians TIMOTHEUS (Translated by John Warden) . . . urging on their floating bronze-beaked chariots ram by ram furrowing the waves with pointed teeth . . . . . . . with humped heads stripped away arms of fir, thumped ’em on the left, mariners tumbled, smashed ’em on the right in their pinewood towers, back on their feet again. Ha! Tear off flesh to their rope-bound ribs, sink ’em with thunderbolts, rip away gilded splendour with iron-helmed rams. Thonged javelins fly fire-like, shafts trembling in pierced limbs, wood slivers ablaze long-winged brazen-headed, slaughtered victims swarm. ◊♦◊ Sea with glass-green hair its furrows stained with blood; shouts of victors, screams of vanquished; the barbarous fleet borne away over the fish-crowned gleaming curves of Amphitrite’s breast. ◊♦◊ Lord of a daywide land, islander out for a sail ha! listing, tipping, arms and feet arion 28.1 spring/summer 2020 96 the persians thrashing in the buffeting waves, cries to the sea god, “Father . . .” Winds drop and veer, smite him on the other side. No Bacchus poured that liquid into his wine jar belly. He vomits up the boiling sea flood, screaming through clenched teeth against the defiling sea: “Was once not enough to have your proud neck yoked with bonds of hemp? See, now my lord will churn you with pine trees born in the mountains, encompass your watery plains with mariners, you madcap, long-loathed, faithless plaything of the swift-surfing winds.” Gasps out the words and a disgusting stream of sour sea water comes belching from his belly. ◊♦◊ Homeward they scurry, the Persian fleet, the foreigners squadron smashing into squadron in the long-necked strait jolts from their hands their mountain feet, leap from their mouths their gleaming helpmates; bodies without breath, without light, festoon the starsprent sea, weigh down the headlands. Survivors on the shore sit naked and freezing, tears dripping from their howled laments. Possessed by the dirge-song of grief, they keen and beat their breasts: “O vales of Mysia with your trees like a woman’s hair, take me home. For the winds are carrying me away. Timotheus 97 Never will the dust of earth receive my body . . . . . . . in a cave where nymphs are born, below the ocean floor. Protect me from Helle, ship-bridged bringer of war. Had my lord not built that far-travelled causeway, never would I have come from Tmolus or Lydian Sardis to keep at bay the Greek war god. But now where shall I find sweet refuge from unbending fate? Who will free me from suffering and bring me home to Troy? Could I but fall at the ivy-robed knees of the Queen, the Mountain Mother, embrace her lovely arms and pray: ‘Goddess of golden hair, mother, I beg you rescue me, rescue me from the devious steel that slits the throat, from the wave-skimming gales, ship breakers, from Boreas that freezes by night. The winds will dash me to pieces. Already the cruel waves have torn the clothing from my body. Now I shall lie wretched, my flesh a feast to the tribes of birds.’” ◊♦◊ See a Greek with a sword of iron grab a man from Celaeno, rich in flocks, bereft in battle, drag him by the hair. Arms twined around knees, he breaks the seal of his lips seeking Greek in the shrill voice of Asia: Listen Mister not me why come. Not me, no never, big master send me, me no never come fight. Stay home Sardis, Sousa, Ecbatana. Great god Artemis 98 the persians Ephesus guard me. Swift-running backward-running they pursue their flight, cast from their hands the twin-mouthed javelins, tear the flesh from their faces, rip from their breasts their sumptuous Persian gowns, raise in one voice their Asiatic wailing. Those round the King are loud in panic at the coming disaster. The King looks down at the mingled host in flight, falls to his knees, defiles his body. Tossed in fate’s waves he speaks: Root and branch my house has fallen! The flaming ships of the Greeks have slain the flower of our youth. There is no way home, our ships consumed by the blazing might of harsh...

Reading Hair as a Symbol to Understand Changing Gender Roles in “Rapunzel” and Rapunzel’s Revenge

Fairy tales have always been captivating for young readers. Since most of the fairy tales have their source in oral folktales, they highlight traditional gender roles and create stereotypes. As Maria Nikolajeva (2003) states, fairy tales reflect its own time and society. Evolution in readership has led to a change in these reflections. “Rapunzel” is one of the most iconic fairy tale characters and she is known for her long golden hair. Hair carries symbolic implications and is often associated with femininity, and exhibits how societal control influences how she/he wears their hair. By the transformation of her hair in the adaptations, the authors depict a change in the traditional gender roles. Rapunzel’s Revenge by Shannon and Dean Hale will be read as a counter-narrative to Grimm‟s “Rapunzel” to investigate the changes in the fairy tale genre and enable a reading of the changing hair symbolism in order to understand the change in gender roles and identity.

Rapunzel syndrome: a tail too long to tell!

Trichobezoar leading to Rapunzel syndrome (RS) is an extremely rare entity with about 90 cases reported in literature.1 RS derives its name from the fairy tale ‘Rapunzel’, where the German...

Genetic and morphometric characteristics of Korean wild mice (KWM/Hym) captured at Chuncheon, South Korea

Laboratory inbred mice are used widely and commonly in biomedical research, but inbred mice do not have a big enough gene pool for the research. In this study, genetic and morphometric analyses were performed to obtain data on the characteristics of a newly developing inbred strain (KWM/Hym) captured from Chuncheon, Korea. All of five Korean wild male mice have the zinc-finger Y (ZfY) gene. Also, all of 19 Korean wild mice used in this analysis have the AKV-type murine leukemia virus gene, indicating that Korean wild mice might be Mus musculus musculus. To identify the genetic polymorphism in KWM/Hym, SNP analysis was performed. In a comparison with 28 SNP markers, there was a considerable difference between KWM/Hym and several inbred strains. The homogeneity between KWM/Hym and the inbred strains was as follows: C57BL/6J (39.3%), BALB/c AJic (42.9%), and DBA/2J (50%). KWM/Hym is most similar to the PWK/PhJ inbred strain (96.4%) derived from wild mice (Czech Republic). To identify the morphometric characteristics of KWM/Hym, the external morphology was measured. The tail ratio of male and female was 79.60±3.09 and 73.55±6.14%, respectively. KWM/Hym has short and agouti-colored hairs and its belly is white with golden hair. Taking these results together, KWM/Hym, a newly developing inbred mouse originated from wild mouse, might be use as new genetic resources to overcome the limitations of the current laboratory mice.