SCM.Resistant.Weak: ottobre 2010

The most famous story in which Orpheus figures is that of his wife Eurydice (also known as Agriope). While walking among her people, the Cicones, in tall grass at her wedding, Eurydice was set upon by a satyr. In her efforts to escape the satyr, Eurydice fell into a nest of vipers and she suffered a fatal bite on her heel. Her body was discovered by Orpheus who, overcome with grief, played such sad and mournful songs that all the nymphs and gods wept. On their advice, Orpheus traveled to the underworld and by his music softened the hearts of Hades and Persephone (he was the only person ever to do so), who agreed to allow Eurydice to return with him to earth on one condition: he should walk in front of her and not look back until they both had reached the upper world. He set off with Eurydice following, and, in his anxiety, as soon as he reached the upper world, he turned to look at her, forgetting that both needed to be in the upper world, and she vanished for the second time, but now forever.

In our opinion the Myth of Orpheus and Eurydice is a quite representation of the dichotomy between the Resistance and Weakness: the inability of Orpheus to respect the Hades' condition.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orpheus

re·sist·ant [ri-zis-tuhnt]

adjective

1. resisting

noun

2. a person or thing that resists.

Origin:

1590–1600; < MF resistant, prp. of resister to resist

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/resistant

re·sist [ri-zist]

verb (used with object)

1. to withstand, strive against, or oppose: to resist infection; to resist temptation.

2. to withstand the action or effect of: to resist spoilage.

3. to refrain or abstain from, esp. with difficulty or reluctance: They couldn't resist the chocolates.

verb (used without object)

4. to make a stand or make efforts in opposition; act in opposition; offer resistance.

noun

5. a substance that prevents or inhibits some effect from taking place, as a coating on a surface of a metallic printing plate that prevents or inhibits corrosion of the metal by acid.

6. Textiles . a chemically inert substance used in resist printing.

Origin:

1325–75; ME resisten (v.) < L resistere to remain standing, equiv. to re- + sistere to cause to stand, akin to stāre to stand

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/resist

weak [week]

adjective, -er, -est.

1. not strong; liable to yield, break, or collapse under pressure or strain; fragile; frail: a weak fortress; a weak spot in armor.

2. lacking in bodily strength or healthy vigor, as from age or sickness; feeble; infirm: a weak old man; weak eyes.

3. not having much political strength, governing power, or authority: a weak nation; a weak ruler.

4. lacking in force, potency, or efficacy; impotent, ineffectual, or inadequate: weak sunlight; a weak wind.

5. lacking in rhetorical or creative force or effectiveness: a weak reply to the charges; one of the author's weakest novels.

6. lacking in logical or legal force or soundness: a weak argument.

7. deficient in mental power, intelligence, or judgment: a weak mind.

8. not having much moral strength or firmness, resolution, or force of character: to prove weak under temptation; weak compliance.

9. deficient in amount, volume, loudness, intensity, etc.; faint; slight: a weak current of electricity; a weak pulse.

10. deficient, lacking, or poor in something specified: a hand weak in trumps; I'm weak in spelling.

11. deficient in the essential or usual properties or ingredients: weak tea.

12. unstressed, as a syllable, vowel, or word.

13. (of Germanic verbs) inflected with suffixes, without inherited change of the root vowel, as English work, worked, or having a preterit ending in a dental, as English bring, brought.

14. (of Germanic nouns and adjectives) inflected with endings originally appropriate to stems terminating in -n, as the adjective alte in German der alte Mann (“the old man”).

15. (of wheat or flour) having a low gluten content or having a poor quality of gluten.

16. Photography . thin; not dense.

17. Commerce . characterized by a decline in prices: The market was weak in the morning but rallied in the afternoon.

Origin:

1250–1300; ME weik < ON veikr; c. OE wāc, D week, G weich; akin to OE wīcan to yield, give way, ON vīkja to move, turn, draw back, G weichen to yield

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/weak