Greek Heroes: Styles Brainstorm

Topic: My storybook will be about famous heroes of Greek mythology. Greek mythology is my favorite subject so far, and I think I would enjoy this topic the most. I want to include at least four heroes, but I am having trouble deciding so I might end up just doing more. The four I have in mind are Heracles, Perseus, and Bellerophontes. The reason I chose these four is because they are the four most legendary in my opinion. Bellerophontes was one of the most famous before the time of Heracles and Perseus, so I felt like he should be included. Heracles is my favorite overall and my familiarity with Perseus, led me to choosing them as well. The three other heroes that I am unsure about are Achilles, Odysseus, and Theseus. I want to use the story of The Second Labour of Heracles, where he slays the Lernaean Hydra, most because it was his most deadly foe. Another story I am thinking of using is of Bellerophontes and The Slaying of the Chimera. Another story I would like to include is of Perseus Overcoming the Gorgon (Medusa). I am also interested in Odysseus and the Odyssey, Achilles and the Iliad, and the myth of Theseus and the Minotaur. Finding enough stories is clearly not an issue, however, I should try to limit it to four.

(Bellerophontes & the Chimera, Roman mosaic from Palmyra C3rd A.D.)

Bibliography:

1. "The Second Labour of Heracles: Lernaean Hydra". Web Source: Wikipedia
2. "Bellerophontes: The Slaying of the Chimera". Web Source: Wikipedia
3. "Perseus: Overcoming the Gorgon (Medusa)". Web Source: Wikipedia
4. "Odysseus: The Odyssey". Web Source: Wikipedia
5. "Achilles: The Iliad". Web Source: Wikipedia
6. "Theseus: The Myth of Theseus and the Minotaur". Web Source: Wikipedia

Possible Styles:

Heroes as storytellers. My first choice is in the perspective of each hero. There are a few ways I could do it, but I am thinking of making it to where each hero is up for the "Best Greek Hero" award and they have to sell themselves to the decision maker of the award. This would be fun because I could create a personality of the heroes and really make it my own. 

Defeated foes as storytellers. Having the defeated enemies of the heroes, such as the Lernaean Hydra, Chimera, Medusa, Minotaur, Hektor, etc., tell the story of their battles would be cool as well. They could either be just telling the story of their battles to a person or even an award giver like the style above. I really like this option too, so it will be difficult for me to choose.

Gods as the storytellers. The gods play a big role in greek mythology, therefore I think it would be logical to have them tell the stories of each hero from their perspective. Similar to the above styles, the gods could be giving an award to one of the heroes, and a god must nominate a hero for the award. Since the majority of the heroes I have suggested are Demigods, their parents could be the gods nominating them.

Observer as the storyteller. The final style I was thinking about is using an observer to tell about a battle for every hero. I could use an animal, a fake person, or even a different observer for each hero to recount one of their famous battles. I am leaning away from this option just because it probably won't be as fun to read or write.

Extra Reading Diary: Aesop's Fables (Jacobs)

My Favorite Stories from Aesop's Fables (Jacobs)

Lions, Part 1: My favorite story was Androcles and the Lion, which was about a runaway slave named Androcles and a Lion. Androcles sees a Lion and notices it is injured so he kindly went to help. There was a thorn in his paw, so he pulled it out and became friends with the Lion. Androcles was very courageous for walking up to a Lion, but it showed how good of a person he was. What really surprised me was what happened after the Lion and Androcles were captured. I thought the Lion would surely kill him when hungry because it is in his nature to hunt. To my surprise, the Lion licked his hand and refused to eat him. I enjoy happy stories and this showed that good things happen if you are kind.

Foxes, Part 2:  I really liked The Fox Without a Tail by Jacobs, where a fox loses its tail in a trap and tries to convince all the other foxes to get rid of theirs because it is useless. Although the fox makes some good points, pointing out "how inconvenient a tail was when they were pursued by their enemies, the dogs; how much it was in the way when they desired to sit down and hold a friendly conversation with one another." This all may be true, but it is obvious he wouldn't being suggesting this if he still had his tail. The other foxes are smart for not listening because he is only giving the advice that benefits him. 

(The Fox Without a Tail)

Wolves: The Dog and the Wolf was great, but I find that I can really argue both ways about the moral of the story. I interpreted it as the dog has a good paying job that he doesn't enjoy, where the wolf would rather do what he loves and sacrifice money. I'm not sure why I associated it with a career, as it can probably be interpreted many ways, but I hear a lot of my friends saying they would rather be poor and happy than wealthy and unhappy. In my opinion, you can choose to either live to work or work to live, and I choose too work to live while making money. You don't have to love your job to be happy, which can be seen by the dog.

Dogs and Cats: I enjoyed the story of The Fox and the Cat. Sometimes I can be indecisive, especially when there are a lot of options. It is better to know what you're going to do before you have to do it. The cat is right when it says, "Better one safe way than a hundred on which you cannot reckon." The fox seems to be the jack of all trades, but master of none. It is also well researched that the most successful people where the same thing everyday because they don't want to use any of their decision making or brainpower just to pick what to wear. Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg are good examples of this, and I can relate this story to picking what to wear.

Week 3 Storytelling: Ovid's Metamorphoses: Achelous

Ovid's Metamorphoses: Achelous

'Why must you continue to pester me about stories of the past?' said Achelous. 'Yes, child, I have changed my form many times, but those days are long behind me. I could transform into a snake or even a bull with powerful horns, at least when I still had two. Now that form is weak, as I lack both horns,' he said with anger.

Neptune's son and well known hero, Theseus, questioned why he was so angry and what happened to his horn. Achelous. the Calydonian river-god, looked much differently than he once did. Now with long, dreaded hair, he responded, 'How dare you ask something so tragic in my life? How dare you bring such painful memories back to my mind?' screamed Achelous. Theseus now felt terrible, and pleaded for his forgiveness.

Reluctantly, Achelous said, 'Fine, I will tell you the origin of my anger and the story of how I lost my horn:

My lost battle was a fluke and the hero deserves no credit. Deianira was her name. She was beautiful, and her hand desired by many men. Being one of those men, I went to her father, Oeneus, and exclaimed for him to accept me as his son-in-law and wed Deianira.

I had a contender, scion of Alceus, Hercules.

He walked in, confident and proud, bragging about his many labors. I didn't believe they were very impressive, but that's beside the point.

You see Theseus, I was a god and Hercules was not. Hercules responded to this shouting, "You may be a god, but I bet I can beat you in a fight. Let's fight for her." Without a doubt in my mind, I accepted.

The fight began and I quickly realized his power. He was overtaking me and I knew I couldn't hold off much longer, so I changed into a snake. Hercules then laughed saying, "I defeated snakes as a baby!" He was right and quickly grabbed a hold of me.

I quickly slipped out of his hands and turned into my most powerful form, the bull. "You may have been stronger than my weaker forms, but you stand no chance now" I proclaimed.

So we wrestled, slipping and sliding everywhere. There was no clear leader in the fight now and I was beginning to get tired. Back and forth it went for hours until I made a mistake. I lost focus for a second and lost my position. Hercules took advantage, grabbing me by the horns. I was doomed from my own mistake. Trying to get away, he ripped my horn right off of my head. I had lost.

He held my horn in the air as I fell to the ground. I was sick to my stomach at the loss of the fight and my horn. The Naiades took my broken horn from Hercules' hand, filled it with fruit and flowers, and made it sacred. Telling you this story, Theseus, caused me great pain. I hope you are happy, goodbye.'

(Achelous)

Author's Note: 

This story is about the battle between Achelous and Hercules. It begins with Achelous expressing to Theseus his sadness about the loss of one of his horns. Curious to know the story behind the loss of his horn, Theseus asks Achelous. Achelous tells him that it was from a fight with Hercules for a beautiful girl named Deianira's hand in marriage. Hercules is much stronger than Achelous, however Achelous thinks his intelligence and ability to transform his shape will give him the edge. He is wrong. Even in his strongest form, a bull, Hercules overpowers him, taking him by the horns, and ripping off one of his horns, thus defeating him. I chose this story because Hercules is my favorite hero and the original story made him look poorly. His character was the complete opposite of humble and disrespectful to Achelous' abilities. This often happens when a story is told from another point of view, Achelous in this case. Achelous was accepting of his failure to defeat Hercules, but I thought it would be more realistic for him to have sour grapes about it. So I portrayed him as the grumpy old man and Theseus is the annoyingly curious child. I just used the image from the original version because I thought it was a good picture of Achelous. Here is a link to the original, Ovid's Metamorhoses: Achelous.

Bibliography:

Book: Ovid's Metamorphoses (Books 8-10)
Chapter: Achelous

Author: Tony Kline

Year: 2000

Web Source: Mythology and Folklore UN-Textbook

Reading Diary B: Ovid's Metamorphoses III

Ovid's Metamorphoses III

Orpheus and Eurydice: Wow, what a sad story. Losing a significant other is tragic enough as it is, but for them to die on their wedding day is extremely sad. Luckily for Orpheus, he had the ability to beg the gods of Erebus to bring her back to life. His speech was so moving that he won over the gods and they agreed to bring her back to life. All he had to do was not turn his eyes to see her until they exited the Underworld, but of course he broke the only rule he had, thus losing his wife again. Sometimes I feel as if the author had to come up with a reason why she wasn't brought back to life, rather than admitting it was never possible. This story ended very weird and suggested that Orpheus turned into a homosexual and possible pedophile. The quote, "Indeed, he was the first of the Thracian people to transfer his love to young boys, and enjoy their brief springtime, and early flowering, this side of manhood." I may have misinterpreted this sentence, but it sounded like he gave up women.

Ganymede and Hyacinthus: Yet another story where someone dies at a young age. I think this is evidence of the time and how fragile life used to be. I did enjoy how there is honor given to the boy.

Pygmalion: I recognized the name Pygmalion from the well known phenomenon, the Pygmalion effect, where people either live up to or down to their expectations. Through the eyes of Pygmalion, this can be seen in both the women and the statue. First the women because he sees them as prostitutes and no longer has attraction to them, thus living down to his expectation. With the statue on the other hand, he sees the statue as perfect and beautiful, and becomes real by living up to his expectation.

(Pygmalion and the Statue, Regnault)

Myrrha and Cinyras, Myrrha and the Nurse, Myrrha's Punishment: These were disturbing. 

The Death of Adonis: It seems to be a common theme that the death of a young boy leads to them becoming flowers or being remembered as flowers.

I really enjoyed these stories. The imagery was fantastic as usual, and the stories were never dull.

Reading Diary A: Ovid's Metamorphoses (Books 8-10)

Ovid's Metamorphoses (Books 8-10)

The Minotaur, Theseus,  and Ariadne: I found this story pretty crazy. The fact that Queen Pasiphae fell in love with and had a baby with a bull is ridiculously weird. It was interesting that King Minos decided to imprison the Minotaur in a labyrinth, but I didn't understand why he had to feed it men. I thought it was sad that a hero such as Theseus would just abandon the person who helped him, especially on an island!

Daedalus and Icarus: This story was by far the saddest of all of the units. Why did Daedalus have his son test his invention? He should have done it himself or at least had a test flight, but instead he ended up killing Icarus.

Philemon and Baucis: I really enjoyed this story and it goes to show what kindness can do. Philemon and Baucis are probably the nicest people ever. They just invited complete strangers into their house, cooked for them, and pampered them.

(Philemon and Baucis, Rubens)

Transformation of Philemon and Baucis: Although the gods were merciful to Philemon and Baucis, I feel that they were unfairly cruel to the rest of their neighbors. The world isn't always a safe place and I don't blame the neighbors for having their doors bolted at night. Also, nobody knew that they were gods, so why should they let any strangers walk into their house? Philemon and Baucis were the perfect couple, and I loved how their last request was that they may die at the same time so that they don't have to live for a second without the other.

Ceres and Erysichthon: Unlike the previous story, I felt the gods were just and reasonable for their punishment to Erysichthon. Not only is he extremely and unreasonably sacrilegious, but he killed a guy. He cut a man's head off for simply trying to stop him from chopping down the Ceres's Oak Tree.

The Famine: Erysichthon's punishment was to have an insatiable hunger and to essentially starve to death. Personally, I sometimes wish I could eat whatever I wanted without it effecting my body. All jokes aside, I think he deserved to suffer for killing an innocent man.

Achelous: This was a very exciting story and I thought the author did a fantastic job of creating imagery throughout the fight between Achelous and Hercules. Towards the end, when Hercules has Achelous by the horns, I couldn't help but picture the painting of White Goodman from Dodgeball, "taking the bull by the horns." I also liked how Achelous was so humble and gave Hercules credit for defeating him, rather than having sour grapes about the defeat.

(White Goodman Taking the Bull by the Horns, Dodgeball)

The Shirt of Nessus: I don't understand why he trusted Nessus to take his wife and didn't just help her himself. After all, he was a demigod. Also, why did Hercules allow Deianira to take the shirt of Nessus, knowing it was covered in Hydra poison. Lastly, the lack of trust by Deianira shows how weak their marriage was.

The Death of Hercules: Before reading this, I never knew how Hercules supposedly died and I was extremely disappointed. A hero like Hercules should have died in battle, not at the hands of a poison covered shirt.

Birth of Hercules: Hercules is my favorite mythological hero, so it brought up memories from the animated Disney movie when he was recounting about everything he has conquered.