Edith Hamilton's Mythology, is basically a huge guide of myths, offering a detailed overview of the myths of ancient Greece and Rome and a brief overview of Norse mythology. For this blog, have some fun and briefly summarize a myth that you have created on your own that involves any Greek/Roman character from Hamilton's Mythology and/or relates to any of the myths that are included in the book.
This blog is moderated my Channing, Alice, and Alyssa
9 comments:
The purpose of mythology is generally to explain certain phenomena, both of nature and of men. This myth that I have written is intended to explain why it rains.
It is common knowledge that the gods can be jealous beings. Apollo, the god of the sun, felt that when he was given his jurisdiction he had been dealt an unfair lot. He felt that Poseidon had been granted an imprudent amount of power by being in control of the seas. Therefore, Apollo took it upon himself to take some of what he felt he deserved. He told the sun to dry up small amounts of water at a time. Poseidon took note of the disappearing water, but couldn't figure out how, so he asked Zeus for help. One day Zeus, by pure coincidence, happened to visit Apollo when he was congratulating the sun on the theft of the water. He confronted Apollo about the water and threatened to punish him. However, Zeus did harbor a special kind of affection for the young god and so he struck a deal with him. He would help to return the water with0ut Poseidon knowing who took it. The king of the gods, also the god of the skies, would pour the water back down to earth periodically in the form of rain.
My myth is a continuation of the story of Pygmalion and Galatea.
Pygmalion was a mortal Ivory sculptor who fell in love with one of his own creations, Galatea, after the Goddess Aphrodite granted Pygmalion's wish to do so. Together they had one son, Paphos.
Aprhodite, the Goddess of love, granted Pygmalion his wish to console his loneliness. One day, their village experienced a widespread fire, in which Galatea appeared permanently disfigured. Pygmalion and the grown Paphos cared for her at end, but eventually Pygmalion found that he seemed to love his wife less now that she was disfigured. As a result, he was unfaithful. Full off vengeance, Aphrodite turned Galatea back into the Ivory sculture she once was, to be eternally beautiful. Pygmalion and paphos both killed themselves soon after, full of grief.
This myth I created is a continuation of Persephone's story. She was the daughter of Demeter and Zeus who was abducted by Hades. Because she ate pomegranate seeds while in the underworld, she has to live with Hades for a season each year. During this period of time, the earth becomes barren and cold until Persephone is reunited with her mother.
During the months that Persephone is in the underworld, Demeter weeps in the cold winter air. Her tears freeze into icicles that hang from trees and rooftops. They also transform into snow and coat the earth in a thick blanket. She is sad, but not angry because she knows that Persephone will return someday. The snow is peaceful and brings silence to the earth.
When Persephone and Demeter reunite in the spring, they go out on a mission to awaken the dead plants. With baskets filled to the brim, they implant every flower with pollen. They are quite careless when they toss about the pollen. It ends up everywhere it shouldn't be: on cars, walkways, cats, and fences. Humans are unable to handle the pollen storm. When we sneeze from pollen, we know that Persephone has returned. It is somewhat of a greeting.
My myth is going to be about a more modern Atlas. Atlas was condemned to bear the weight of the world due to his siding with Cronus in a war against Zeus.
One day, Atlas decides to test the strictness of Zeus' puinishment. He finds a tall cliff and sets the pillar down to take a rest. He looks around and notices that no one is around to observe him. He walks away to bathe in the river, leaving the pillar behind the cliff.
Atlas becomes so caught up in his freedom that he goes off to talk to some beautiful mortal women. He gets even more distracted and forgets about his punishment completely.
Zeus, observing all of Atlas' actions from above on Mt. Olympus strikes up a violent storm in the middle of the night. The forgotten pillar, shaken by the turmoil of Zeus' thunder, falls off the cliff into the raging sea.
The pillar crashes against the waves and eventually slams upon the shore. Zeus, enraged at Atlas' actions realizes that he must find a better way to bond the weight to Atlas. He decides to chain Atlas to the pillar impaled into the shore. Atlas must stay bonded to the pillar, unable to move from the location upon which it landed. Furthermore, Atlas becomes a source of laughter and humiliation for all of the other gods and goddesses.
My myth is about Zeus and, like Anne Stuart's and Deidre's, is an explanation of natural phenomena.
One day, Zeus was looking down from heaven when he saw a beautiful girl walking in the mountains near her home. Smitten, he disguised himself as a human and went down to talk to her. However, his jealous wife, Hera, saw his intentions and followed him. Furious, she appeared before Zeus and the girl, surprising them both. Zeus quickly ran away to escape his wife's ire, but the girl wasn't fast enough. Hera turned her into a goat, cursed to roam the mountains for eternity.
However, Zeus still loved the girl and didn't want her to suffer because of him. To make her punishment more bearable, he created snow. No two snowflakes were alike, and the beautiful snow covered the barren mountainside. The girl, though cursed to live as a goat for the rest of her life, at least has the beautiful show of softly falling snowflakes to watch everyday.
Once upon a time, Zeus decided to have another affair with a mortal women... again. When Hera found out about it, she was outraged and vowed to get her revenge on mother and child.
The boy was destined to be a demigod capable of recognizing conflict and creating peace between sparring groups as a method of resolution. When Hera learned of this from the Oracle, she realized that he would have to be vanquished before he could bring peace to her heart.
Hera fed the woman a potion that would cause such great indigestion that the child could not survive, but his powers were already so formidable that he settled the indigestion and emerged unscathed. Hera was devastated, but he instantly created a calming of her heart. Hera instead decided to create monuments to honor this peace, and that is why rainbows are created after the storm: just as the new demigod created a new peace, so too does the rainbow after a chaotic storm.
Channing et al., I think it is a great idea to have the students do some creative writing based on the myths! Class, I truly enjoyed reading all your mini-myths - super imagination with interesting takes!
Channing, Alice, and Alyssa - please include some comments about the students' myths and also give a closing comment, so I can finalize your grade. Thanks!!
Chromos the Baby Swallower: Post Digestion
After Chromos' wife, Rhea, deceived him by making him swallow a stone baby instead of his new son, Zeus, Rhea slipped him a potion to free all of her other children he had previously swallowed. The potion, however, seemed to only rid him of the human children and not the stone baby. The stone within him messed up his digestive system and he was no longer able to enjoy food because the stone baby cause him great constipation. In order to be free of the dreaded blockage he had to seek the forgiveness of all of his swallowed children. They refused his apologies and ever since he has become the god of all bodily waste (or lack thereof).
Post a Comment