My English Literature Class assignment, and how I tied it in to FIRST & ChiefDelphi.

[Elgin Clock]

In my English Literature class that I am currently taking (summer course), I had to write a reader response paper for the short play Oedipeus The King by Sophocles. Basically a reader response paper is not a summary, or a discussion of anything to do with the story itself, but rather what the story reminded you of.

For all who have not read the story, I suggest you READ THIS little summary of the play before you continue reading my post.

OK, now that you know what the story is about, read my Reader Response Paper and see how I tied in Classic Greek Tragedy with FIRST and this website.

“Oedipus the King” Reader Response

In Sophocles’ tragedy entitled “Oedipus the King”, I found a familiar name in a certain aspect of the story. This aspect of the story, which at first I just recognized as a name of a location, became more and more similar to my own experience with a web page forum of almost the same name.

In “Oedipus the King”, there was a place that people went to seeking knowledge, and prophecies. This place was called Delphi (pronounced DELL-fee). In my understanding of the text, Delphi is a place where Apollo; god of poetry, the sun, prophecy, and healing, resided. He was among a land of many gods, but was the main god that we were introduced to in this story. When someone needed knowledge or wanted to know how to solve a problem like the plagues that effected the city of Thebes in “Oedipus the King”, they would go to Delphi, and speak with the mighty Apollo and he would divulge information to them that they needed.

In my personal life, I am a mentor on a High School Robotics club. The club participates in a robotics based game every year that is put on by an organization called F.I.R.S.T. (For Inspiration of Science and Technology). Since this is a non-profit organization, many teams who participate in F.I.R.S.T. provide many resources to help the other teams. One of these resources is an internet based forum that is sponsored by a team called Chief Delphi, located at http://www.chiefdelphi.com . The reason for the team name is because the High School’s mascot is the Chiefs, and since this program is a non-profit program their main sponsor is Delphi Automotive Group, hence the collaborative name Chief Delphi.

In shorthand, the forums have just come to be known as the Delphi forums, or just “Delphi”. In my personal experience with Delphi as an internet based forum, I gain much knowledge from the site, and the people there who are always willing to share ideas. If we were to liken the Gods in “Oedipus the King” to the organization F.I.R.S.T., and the Delphi web forum to the location of the same name in “Oedipus the King” one would find many similarities. For one, both act as “middle ground” for knowledge that is passed on from a higher power to a lower one, so to speak. For example, when Oedipus sets forth to the shrine of Delphi in the story he gains knowledge of what his destiny is to be. When I log onto the forum of the similar name, I gain knowledge of things to come as well. When F.I.R.S.T. releases news letters, or other important announcements, I usually see it on the web forum before I see the actions that are written about come to be in the competition, whether they involve fees that are going up for the next year or other similar notices of things that are coming.

I know that this belief between the similarities between the shrine known as Delphi, and the forums which have come to be known as just as the “Delphi Forums” or just “Delphi” is sort of a stretch and kind of hard to see from an outsiders point of view, but the more and more I read the story of “Oedipus The King”, the more I realized that there were more in common with the two Delphi’s than just a name.

Shoot.. I hate when I see a mistake after I handed in a paper.. I forgot to include the pronunciation of "Delphi" that we use.. (DELL-fi).

Oh well......

Other than that, what do you think of it??

[Melissa Nute]

1) I think you are addicted to FIRST but that is alright, we all are.

2) I like it but remember I'm obsessed with Greek stuff and actually really know what you are talking about.

Let me know what your teacher thinks of it.

[Elgin Clock]

Originally Posted by Meli W.

Let me know what your teacher thinks of it.

So I pulled this thread up to show a fellow FIRSTer who is working on a Oedipus paper of her own and I see that I forgot to say what grade I got on the paper.


I got a +2 which is full credit and a comment that it was a well written Reader Response.

The only comment she had on the paper was that Oedipus did not go to Delphi himself, but rather sent people to go there for him.

So in turn, I can be more labeled as the messenger who brings news from Delphi back to Oedipus (ie: my team..) I guess..?

[Raven_Writer]

I thought this was a pretty good report

I've never really dove into Mythology though, but if it has anything about FIRST in it, then I'll try it

Congrats also on getting a great score.

[Andy Baker]

Elgin,

This is cool. Thanks for posting it. Your correlation is clear and well-written. My brother teaches a course like this at Tennessee Tech., as he is a professor of composition (Dr. Tony Baker).

Since you brought this up, here is some history behind our company's name: Delphi.

General Motors used to be much bigger than it is today. I don't have the statistics in front of me, but I am guessing that it was almost twice as big as today's size during its hay-day in the mid-to-late twentieth century. Back then, GM was very "vertically integrated" and they owned many supplier companies such as Delco Electronics, Packard Electric, Saginaw Steering, Harrison Radiator, Fisher Body, and such. These supplier companies were huge but only known within GM, since GM was their only customer.

In the 1980's and 90's, these divisions were grouped into one division called "Automotive Components Group" (ACG), with JT Battenberg III (current CEO of Delphi and member of FIRST's board of directors) as the president of this division. During the mid-90's, GM's philosophy changed when it came to their supplier base. They started buying stuff from other vendors who were not in ACG. They would take part prints from ACG products and competitively quote them with other worldwide suppliers. During this time, some strikes happened at a few ACG plants and GM had some setbacks.

Through this time, GM was trying to improve quality and market share, after declines in each. They decided to "spin off" the ACG group. Before the spin-off happened, ACG needed a better name. Knowing that ACG was going to be a group of divisions (Delco, Saginaw, Packard, Harrison, Fisher) that needed a common marketing "front", they thought of a new name. This name needed to represent expertise and wisdom. It also needed to convey the idea that this company can take care of many of its customer's needs. The company name became Delphi Automotive. This name portrays our company as being able to easily provide "the answer" to our customers needs, whatever they may be.

The way things are now, GM is doing better without Delphi (or ACG) as part of their company. Also, Delphi is the world's largest automotive parts supplier. It's really been a win-win situation, I think. Within a few years (if it hasn't been done already), people will be writing books about this transformation of GM and creation of Delphi. It's pretty cool to be a small part of it.

At least, that is how I see things. We still have these divisions, but we all call ourselves Delphi.

I know, I know... this is probably "way too much information", but some of you may like it.

Andy B.