Week 2: Possible Storybook Topics

I know I’ve recently become really interested in Celtic mythology and I’ve always enjoyed Scandinavian myths. But I don’t want to narrow my storybook topic to just one region. I’d really like to work on a storybook that somehow encompasses something central or present in all myths from around the world.

Topic: The Gods Among Us

Comments: So, if anyone has read American Gods by Neil Gaiman, you’re probably thinking this idea is a rip-off of his story. Honestly, it’s a similar idea, but it’s an idea for stories I toyed around with long before I ever read American Gods. Reading the first chapter in the Ancient Egypt chapter, the last line mentions how Ra took the form of a mortal man and stayed on Earth and how centuries passed like years to him.

Possible stories: I know the gods are thought to walk amongst mortals in many different myths. I’d like to make a compilation of stories about gods interacting with humans in the modern age.

Sample Story comments: In Greece, Norse, and I guess Egyptian mythology, the top gods (Zeus, Odin, Ra) are spoken of taking human form and helping/dispensing wisdom to humans. I’m sure this is the same for many other cultures across the world, too.

Bibliography:

Story: Creation,

Book: Egyptian Myth and Legend,

Author: MacKenzie, Donald

Year of Publication: 1907

Link

Topic: Marriage Across Worlds

Comments: I’ve read stories about humans who marry fairies (or even animals in Native American folklore). Sometimes the marriage doesn’t end well, but other times it does.

Possible Stories: I would like to set up a storybook that reads from the account from a ‘special’ marriage services agency, with fantastic tales of their successful (and failed) marriages.

Sample Story comments: I like the tale of the fish-peri in Turkish fairy tales, as it’s one of a happy marriage. There are other stories of animal-husbands or wives in Native American legends, but those sometimes take a turn for the worst (such as the Bear-Woman).

Bibliography:

Story: The Fish-Peri

Book: Forty-Four Turkish Fairytales

Author: Kunoz, Ignacz

Year: 1913

Link

Topic: Magical Devices throughout tales

Comments: A common theme in many stories is that of a magical device which somehow benefits the protaganist - Excalibur in the tales of King Arthur, the Sampo in the Kalevala, fetishes in the Congo… I’m curious to see what other magical items there are in different folk tales.

Possible stories: An unassuming, totally plain-looking antique shop that has magical artifacts for sale and the stories behind them.

Sample Story comments: The great sword Excalibur was drawn by Arthur, which proved him to be the true king of England. I know that Arthur will use this sword on many of his quests, so I’m interested to see where this enchanted piece takes him and how it will be used.

Bibliography

Story: The Drawing of the Sword

Book: King Arthur: Tales of the Round Table

Author: Lang, Andrew

Year: 1902

Link

Topic: Powerful women of the Mythoverse

Comments: Powerful women, especially in the forms of priestesses, enchantresses, etc, play a large role in shaping myths. There’s Morgan Le Fay in Arthurian legend, Isis in Egyptian mythology, and Britomart of the Faerie Queene tales.

Possible Stories: Going along again with my theme of the gods in the modern world, I could tell the stories of these women and how they influence still today the workings of the world (in ways big or small).

Sample Story Comments: I enjoyed reading about Britomart’s cunning and moral composure when she fought with the six knights who were beating up on one. Not only is she physically strong, she’s strong-willed and bright.

Bibliography:

Story: How Britomart Fought with Six Knights

Book: Stories from the Faerie Queene

Author: MacLeod, Mary

Year: 1916

Link

"Isis" by Janice Duke on Deviantart

Extra Reading Diary: The Odyssey

Land of the Cyclopes:

I wonder what kind of pact the cyclopes made with the Gods so that Zeus would rain down magic fertile water to keep the crops ever-growing. Because honestly, that would be a pretty handy thing for us humans to have.

Prisoners of the Cyclopes:

I’ve read in the myths that when drinking wine, it was to be mixed with water so that the drinker would not become so quickly intoxicated. I think that would be a good practice to bring back for a lot of college parties.

This story is reading a lot like with Jack and the Beanstalk, but much more violent. Odysseus seems to be losing more and more of his men with each adventure. I appreciate his foresight, though, in waiting to try and kill the Cyclops the next day instead of right then and there.

The Cyclops defeated:

Good thing Odysseus still had all that potent wine to drug the Cyclops with. And clever of him to give him the name nobody!

The Cyclopes advise Polyphemus to pray to their father Poseidon? Maybe Poseidon made his children go live on an island far from mortal men so that they wouldn’t war and convinced Zeus somehow to give them fertile rain. Interesting.

Escape from the Cyclops:

Odysseus taunts too much. His ship could have been crushed from just one jest. Also, Cyclopes must have great hearing to be able to land a rock so accurately from that far away.

The Curse of Polyphemus:

What’s the point of having a God for a father if they can’t curse your enemies for you? I’m curious if he ever had his eye healed by poseidon.

Circe, also a character in the Marvel Universe

Image: Wikipedia

Circe’s Magic:

I don’t understand why Odysseus keeps urging his men to go into danger. They obviously don’t want to investigate the smoke in the woods, and with good reason. I’d be terrified if my last venture had ended in 90% of my shipmates being slaughtered.

Ah, but it appears men will not be a suspicious of a woman. Eurylochus is wise to have abstained from entering her home. Why didn’t Odysseus go with his men if he was so eager to know what was there?

How kind of Hermes to offer help. I would think Odysseus would be more suspicious of him though, because Hermes is often depicted as a trickster God.

Moly Defeats Circe:

This wicked goddess just keeps trying to take and take, but Odysseus is having none of it. Good for him. At least he got her to free his men before succumbing to her wily ways.

On Circe’s Island:

I think Eurylochus has the right idea in still being distrustful of Circe, but I’d be tempted by the thought of a warm bed and food after so many years wandering at sea.

At least this time it’s not a trap. It’s more like a vacation from weariness and despair. I’m glad Circe’s a woman of her word.

Death of Elpenor:

Wow, is there anywhere Odysseus can land his men where at least one of them won’t die? Seriously. At least this death wasn’t as gruesome as the others.

And Odysseus has misled his men again about where they’re going. Surprise, there. It’s like going shopping with one of your really energetic friends and, just when you think you’re about to go home, they say you’re going to yet another store with them. I’d be upset, too.

Read the Odyssey here!

Week 2 Storytelling: The Queen of the Dead

My story is not for the faint of heart. But its morals are clear: sometimes, what we need comes to us disguised as disaster.

It started one fine day in Spring. I was out gathering flowers with my friends in the glade next to the Pergus spring, known for its magical waters. The sun sifted through the trees to shine down speckled onto the flowers and shrubs below, hiding my friends and me in golden camofluage. My skirts were already filled to the hem with crocuses, lilies, violets, dandelions, and those prized Tyrian purple flowers. My heart was light and happy, in the way only a girlish heart can be.

But deep within that girlish heart was a fierce longing. Though I was still young, my first blood had come and gone and by that rite I was already a woman. My mother, proud Demeter, refused to acknowledge that the time had come for me to go find my own path, to pave out my own trail of greatness as she had eons ago. I played the part of her little girl, but the wildness in my heart grew with each passing day.

"Gathering Flowers" by Albert Lynch

Image: Medea's Lair

The daydreams which dared to take me away from my girlish prison drowned out all my other senses and in that moment that same wildness in my heart manifested itself in the form of dread black horses whisking a chariot that moved deathly silent. I saw not my kidnapper’s face, but I felt his strong arms encircle me and snatch me from my childish daydreams. I cried out in surprise rather than fear as the flowers tumbled out of my skirts and into the waters of the fabled spring. Like an ill omen, I knew those trampled flowers marked the end of my childhood.

My captor and I raced across the countryside, going so fast that my vision blurred and I struggled to see where we were going. The winds tore the cries of help from my mouth and I beat uselessly upon his chest with my fists.

A beautiful nymph tried to stop him, to dissuade him from taking me, but my captor was merciless. With one blow from his scepter he commanded the Earth to open and we plummeted down into darkness, the dank earth swallowing my cries for help.

Beyond that, nobody on Earth knows what happened next. Most think the worst of my husband, my Hades, but he did not force me as Zeus forced so many other women. He gave me a room that was a section of a cave and did not speak to me for days.

I wept bitter tears during that time. Mourner’s tears. I wept for the true end of my childhood, for the unknown future, for my surely distraught mother. I was sequestered away somewhere in Hell with no way out.

After several days - I cannot tell you how long - I ventured from my room to explore. My door was a tangle of vines which wove together to make a green curtain. Outside was a long corridor lit by glowing orbs of light. My room was the only one with a ‘door’, and the rest seemed unoccupied.

I explored for several hours and discovered that the Underworld really was not as horrible as the Olympic deities had made it out to be. There was an ethereal glowing quality to everything, even to the river Styx which glided silently by.

I came upon an orchard and realized I couldn’t remember the last time I had eaten, so fraught with grief and shock I had been. Without thinking, I plucked a ripe pomegranate from one of the trees and savored the juice from seven seeds before the crack of a twig made me turn around.

There he stood - solemn and quiet, tall and foreboding in his black cloak. His face betrayed no emotion but his eyes burned with quiet fire. Silently, he knelt and presented a bouquet of the exact same flowers I had been picking when he stole me away.

“Your mother is scouring all of Earth looking for you. She misses you dearly,” he started, glancing upwards.

“I know.” I answered quietly, accepting his offering.

He stood, taller than night, taller than Olympus and clasped one of my delicate hands in his cold pale ones. A heavy silence hung between us.

“Forgive me. In all my eons of existence, I have never felt such passion, such reverence, such devotion, as when I set these tired eyes on you,” he confessed, sighing as his thumb stroked the top of my hand.

“I know this is not a world you are used to,” he continued, those eyes of cold fire searching mine, “but here you would rule. Here, you would stand with me, and together we would have a kingdom of the dead. No one would be able to force you or command you. You would be your own person, and….” he stopped, his gaze lowering... “Hopefully, my Queen.”

I tore my gaze from his and looked at his underground kingdom. The orchard, though in the domain of the dead, was alive and fruitful. There were springs, rivers, and even small flowers. Everything I had learned about Hades had turned out to be lies.

Queen. Queen of the Dead, Queen of a domain none of the other Gods, save for Hades, could govern.

“I accept. I will rule by your side,” I whispered, trembling. “But give me time. I am not accustomed to you or your world, yet.”

“For you, I would give all the time since the formation of the Cosmos.”

Hades and Persephone

Image: Puistopulu

My love story is not typical. One could say it started off with a bribe, but it continues to be one of the best things to have ever happened to me. I make my own rules and reign over a kingdom which even the highest of Gods trembles to visit. My fate was not so terrible as the myths made it out to be.

Author’s Note: So, if you can’t tell, I like taking stories that appear to have a dark theme and then telling them from a point of view which makes them seem not so bad. Here, I told the story from Persephone’s point of view. Maybe in the myths she truly was forced by Hades and had an awful time in the underworld, but what if that wasn't the case? What if she was just looking for a way out from under her mother’s protective wing?

It was difficult for me to tell what happened to her after the initial kidnapping because I didn't want to stick to how the original myth was told and have him 'take' her. For one, that would be very difficult to write, just because of the emotional scarring it would cause and second, I wanted to make this more of a happy story. Thus, I just had him toss her in a cell so she could figure things out.

There were many ways to tell this story; I had originally thought about telling it from the point of view of Hades, but I can't imagine kidnapping anyone, so I wouldn't be able to follow his thought process realistically. I've been hit by one of Cupid's arrows before, but not quite so thoroughly as Hades had.

I also had a difficult time conveying the color of their eyes, their composure, and just overall demeanor because these are Gods I'm writing about. To me, it's impossible to describe their beauty, the actual color of their eyes, or the grace with which they walk. That was one of the larger road blocks I ran into while writing this.

I know the writing style for this is really cheesy and prose-like, but I felt an ample helping of cheese helped to tell the story better. I promise not all my re-tellings will be this way. :)

Bibliography
Title: Dis and Proserpine 
Book: Ovid's Metamorphoses
Author: Tony Kline
Year: 2000

Reading Diary A: Ovid's Metamorphoses

Dis and Cupid:

It took me a moment to begin understanding which Gods were being talked about because I’m used to reading Greek stories with the names of the greek gods. However, after taking Greek Religion last semester, I now understand that the names of the gods between Greek and Roman pantheons are not mutually exclusive and that oftentimes in stories one god can be referred to by several different names (i.e. Hades as Pluto, Plutus, Dis, etc.)

Venus doesn’t seem to care too much about true love, but rather expanding her empire. I can appreciate her manipulative and cunning nature, but advertising yourself as a goddess of love and then using your son to do your dirty work to expand your empire is really shady.

Dis and Proserpine:

I am very familiar with this story and how it will go - I first read the tale of Persephone (Prosperine) when I was 8 years old and had my first taste of Greek Mythology. I have also read this tale in the Homeric Hymns, though Ovid is much more descriptive and visual about Prosperine’s kidnapping. It always irritated me how her husband, Zeus, knew that his brother had kidnapped their daughter but waited until Ceres starved half of Greece before telling her.

Persephone’s Fate:

Didn’t anyone ever tell Demeter not to kill (or mangle, harm, change form of) the messenger? Seriously. Hades stole your daughter, go turn him into a screech owl.

On the one hand, Persephone’s childhood was stolen away from her early, BUT now she’s queen of the underworld and in some sense, is more powerful than her mother.

Arachne and Minerva, Minerva Weaves a Web:

See, I think instead of Athena being jealous of Arachne’s ability to weave better than her, she should instead commend her and maybe make her into a goddess, or some lower deity under her jurisdiction. Then again, she did make her into a spider, which is also pretty cool.

Niobe rejects Latona, The Death of Niobe’s Children:

Oh, man. This woman is just asking for trouble. What do you think is going to happen if you start bragging about all your children and refuse to worship the mother of two of the most famous deities in all of Greece?

Latona and the Lycians:

This story and the one where Niobe rejects Latona all tell me one thing: Don’t piss off the mother of Apollo and Artemis. She will either kill your children or turn into a frog monster.

Marysas:

I’m honestly a little confused by this one. Did Marysas tear himself apart because he was so distraught at losing a music battle to Apollo? Regardless, I am never going to cross Latona, Apollo, or Artemis. No, Thank you.

Check out the stories here!



Persephone
Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons