Week 6 Story: Knowledge is Power

There once was a young man named Nour, who spent his days reading the ancient records in the House of Life. He loved to read the scrolls and books and the inscriptions on the walls because he wanted to learn as much as he could. One day when Nour had gotten completely lost in his readings, an older priest came up and tapped him on the shoulder.

“I am so sorry to have startled you!” The priest apologized to Nour, who had jumped, “You just remind me so much of a man who used to come here many years ago when I was a much younger priest. His name was Nefer-ka-ptah and he too loved to come here to read the ancient records.”

“I know that name! Written next to his name was the name of his wife and his child and the date his name was registered but nothing else. What happened to him?” Nour asked the priest.

“His death was not registered here in the House of Life. The gods do not like people to know what happened, but I will tell you his story anyways. One day when Nefer-ka-ptah was visiting the House of Life, a priest told him he could gain great power from the Book of Thoth which was guarded by many boxes, crawly creatures, and snake that no man could kill. Nefer-ka-ptah knew he could get this book so he convinced his wife and son to travel with him to the Southern Land where it was located. He defeated the snake no man can kill, he froze the crawly creatures with a spell, and opened all the boxes until he got to the Book of Thoth. As soon as he opened the first page, he was overwhelmed with great power. Immediately, he began to write the spells down, then wash away the words with beer, and drink the beer, so that he could learn the spells. Thoth was enraged that someone had found his book so he punished Nefer-ka-ptah by drowning his son and then his wife. Nefer-ka-ptah realized what Thoth was doing and tied the Book of Thoth to himself before he jumped into the river and drowned himself. The book remained tied to him until his body was found on the shores of the Northern Land, where his father, the King, decided that the book would be buried with his son and it has remained there since then.”

Nour sat in silence for a minute, thinking about the story of Nefer-ka-ptah and the Book of Thoth. He had so many questions that he didn’t know where to start.

“What is so special about the Book of Thoth?” He decided to ask.

“Thoth wrote the book himself and it contains all the magic of the world. The first page contains a spell that allows you to talk to animals and the second page contains a spell that allows you to perceive the gods themselves.” The priest answered.

Nour talked to the priest about the Book of Thoth for a few more hours and when night fell, he left the House of Life and headed home. For some reason, he took a different path than usual, which found him walking past the North Land shore; the final resting place of Nefer-ka-ptah and the Book of Thoth. Curiosity got the better of the young man and followed the trail that led to the Egyptian prince’s tomb. He could feel the magic from the book getting stronger with each step he took closer to the tomb, like it was drawing him to the tomb. Before Nour reached the entrance, he turned around and ran home because he knew what he had to do.

Nour spent the rest of the night and all the next day working on his creation. When the sun set, he set out for the tomb again, but this time he was prepared. Just like the night before, the Book of Thoth’s magic called to him and this time he let it pull him all the way to the entrance. He walked into the tomb and up to the coffin where prince and the book were supposed to stay sealed in for all eternity. Nour pushed off the heavy metal lid of the coffin and grabbed the Book of Thoth. The ghost of Nefer-ka-ptah appeared before the young man and tried to seize the book back from the young man.

“Give me the book! The power it contains is not worth the price you will pay!” The prince yelled at him.

“No! I’m putting this book back where it belongs!” Nour dug around in his bag for his creation. He hadn’t opened the book even though he was tempted too but he knew what the prince said was true. The knowledge contained in the pages of the Book of Thoth was too great for humans to have.

Nour pulled his creation out of the bag and presented it to the ghost. It was a small box, just big enough for a book, with a latch and lock on the side. He placed the Book of Thoth into the box, shut the lid, and locked it up. He knelt to the ground and held the box up to the sky.

“Oh, great and powerful Thoth, god of knowledge, please take your book and hide it once more. The contents of this book are too much for any human to know.” Nour called out.

A bright light started to appear causing Nour to squeeze his eyes shut. When he opened them, the box in his hands was gone, the ghost of Nefer-ka-ptah was no where in sight, and the lid to the coffin was firmly back in place. Everything had been returned to how it was before, but for some reason Nour felt different. He just shrugged it off and headed home, deciding to investigate more in the morning when he would make his daily trip to the House of Life.

(Photo from Wikimedia Commons)

Author’s Note: This is based off the story The Book of Thoth which I gave a summary of in the story above. I felt that in the original story, Thoth came after the prince for no reason because the prince never said or even implied that he was going to use the power he gained for evil. He was died very soon after reading the book so we never got to see him in action. I wanted to retell this story with the main character being intrigued by the knowledge of the book and not the power that it could give them. I decided to have Nour not open the book because I felt that it would have ruined the message I was trying to get across. If he had gotten the power of the book and then given it back to Thoth with the reason that it’s not for mortals, it would have come across that he is better than other people who have come before him. He is a person who has a passion for knowledge and for him to not open the book I think reveals a lot more about him anyways than if he had opened it. I also decided to leave the ending open for more adventures in case I get the chance to write another story.

Bibliography. The Book of Thoth by Donald Mackenzie, link to Part One.

Reading Notes: Ancient Egyptian Myths and Stories, Part B

I'm really excited to read the rest of the Ancient Egyptian Myths! Part A was a little confusing and disjointed because of all the different stories. Part B should be more clear because it contains only three stories 

The Two Brothers

This story was my favorite by far! All four parts were really interesting and each one could have stood on it's own. Part 2 was my favorite because it was so different from what I was expecting. Every time that I was like "Oh no! This is going to happen!" it didn't and that was really refreshing to read. Of course, when the younger brother told his wife not to leave the house, you knew that at some point she was going to leave the house. The whole progression of this story flowed really well and was easy to read, so I enjoyed it a lot. The ending was also wonderful with both brothers coming out on top in the end. I don't know how I could change it to be better since it was so good so maybe telling it from a different perspective would be an interesting retelling.

The Book of Thoth

I liked this one less than The Two Brothers but it was still very good. This story was broken into three parts and I could have seen it ending after Part 2 because he had found the Book of Thoth and discovered it's magical powers, but nooooo! This one definitely was more tragic because literally everyone died and I don't know why that had to happen. The story never implied that Nefer-ka-ptah was going to do anything bad with the book, it seemed like he was just interested in the knowledge. The gods just seem to like to punish people to no end in these myths and it's kind of annoying. Thoth wasn't doing anything with the book so why not let someone else read it?!

(Gif from Rebloggy)

Bibliography. Egyptian Myth and Legend by Donald Mackenzie, links to the reading

Reading Notes: Ancient Egyptian Myths and Stories, Part A

Due to my love of Greek gods and goddesses, I figured I should give some other cultures deities a try! The author of the Percy Jackson series, Rick Riordan, did write another series about the Egyptian gods and goddesses, so this is a good way to see what it's all about! I had to pretty much review every story because some crazy stuff happened in every single one!

(Photo from Sporcle)

Ra and Hathor

I think I followed this story correctly: because some guys called him old, Ra created a flood. He was like "Who's old now?" as he's killing everyone, but then he got tired while killing everyone (because he's old) and had to be carried away on the back of Nut, the Celestial Cow. This flood also created an annual festival for Hathor because she saved them from the flood (that she also started but it's fine). I get all this but I have a few questions? Hathor is the goddess of what? Is Ra immortal or mortal because gods don't age. Was he just living among the mortals and now that he is old is going to be with the gods? Maybe I'll do some research and figure this out.

The Sun's Journey

So all of my questions about Ra were answered in this chapter. Yes, he was a mortal god as the first Pharaoh and then he later became a cosmic deity. But now I have more questions! Why did he just now start assigning people realms and areas to be god or goddess of? I feel like that should have been handled a while ago. Is this myth saying that for the 12 hours of night we have, Ra is asleep and everyone is trying to kill him? What good is that?! I still have so many questions!

Osiris

This myth felt like it was really just there to give us some background info before the real conflict begins. I thought it was cool that Isis, a woman, held so much power in Egypt and actually ruled in place of her husband while he was away. Also, what was Ra doing if he didn't make people civilized during his time as pharaoh? Like Osiris built temples for worship and permanent cities. Were the people of Ra's time just running around fighting each other? So far Ra is sounding pretty useless to me.

The Death of Osiris

What a fun party game Set brought to his brother, Osiris' feast: "Who Fits in the Box the Best?" I like how the story had to point out that no one thought this was a trick because everyone was having such a great time and were eager to play. Why did Osiris have a child with someone else? Isis sounds like the perfect woman! I mean she searched for his body and asked every person she met if they saw it. She also had seven scorpions follow her around and protect so she's pretty badass and probably someone you wouldn't want to mess with.

The Journey of Isis

Well this all took a crazy turn! It's literally like a bad soap opera and nothing makes sense! The body in the tree part was cool and Isis and Osiris having a son, Horus, is a nice touch because he's destined to take back the throne and overthrow his uncle. Everything else is just straight up bonkers! Horus is killed by a scorpion even though scorpions were protecting his mom so I'm not sure how that happened. Then the gods said we aren't done with you and brought him back to life. Isis set a baby on fire and was upset at his mom for rescuing him because now he can't have immortality. She actually did kill the king's other son on (maybe) accident when he walked in on her kissing her dead husband's corpse. Oh and the cherry on top was Osiris' body was cut up and a fish swallowed his penis. 

Bibliography. Egyptian Myth and Legend by Donald Mackenzie, links to the reading

Week 5 Story: The Tale of a Sorority Girl

Kay walked through the front door of her sorority house and into the living room to find one of her roommates sitting on the couch reading a textbook.

“It’s ten o’clock don’t you usually do that in bed?” Kay asked.

“Yeah but Trish is getting ready to go out…” Melanie trailed off as she gave her roomie a look that had been passed between the two of them many times before.

“To go see Chad?” Kay asked even though she already knew the answer. Melanie just nodded in response while rolling her eyes, so Kay plopped down onto the other couch in the room. The two of them had been finding themselves in this position more and more over the course of the semester. They were waiting to intercept their third roommate, Trish, and stop her from going out. They didn’t mind that Trish went out to parties, and they would even be going with her, if it wasn’t for Chad.

Chad was Trish’s latest hook up and he was by far the worst. Every time Trish went out and saw him, the next morning she would stumble back into their room swearing she was never going to see him again and made her two best friends promise they would stop her. The first time Kay and Melanie tried to stop her, they failed miserably. Of course, they would be the first to admit they messed up by simply telling Trish not to go see Chad because Trish does what she wants, especially when she’s told no.

The two quickly learned that to get Trish to stop seeing Chad they needed to make her think it was her own idea. They did this by telling her a story that either took so long that it was too late to go out by the time they finished it, or convinced her to go to a different frat party.

After about fifteen minutes of waiting, Kay and Melanie heard Trish laughing with a group of girls coming down the stairs. They didn’t even need to discuss what they were going to say because the same series of events happened every time Trish was going to see Chad. She began by telling Kay and Melanie she was going out and that they shouldn’t wait up for her with a wink. One of them would ask if it was to see Chad and Trish would act all coy and then reveal some problem she was worried about with him. The girls would assure her everything would be fine and not at all like insert person they all know who has a story that is relevant to your situation. Then she would demand to know the nature of this story and they would gladly tell it to her.

“I’m going out tonight ladies! Don’t wait up for me!” Trish called from the living room entrance, giving her roommates her trademark wink at the end.

“You going to see Chaaaaaad?” Kay asked.

“Maybe… I’ll see if I can fit him into my busy schedule.” There was the coy response, which would be followed up with an issue, “He’s been really distant lately. He hasn’t been snapping me back right away and he almost let our streak die.”

“I’m sure everything will be fine and you’ll smooth things over.” Melanie chimed in, “Just don’t be like Courtney and Derek and you’ll be good.”

“Courtney and Derek?! What happened with Courtney and Derek?! Tell. Me. Everything.” Trish exclaimed as she ran over and sat on the ground in front of them. Her shrieks about the senior power couple of their sorority drew the girls who were waiting in the front hall in to the living room too.

“Okay well…”  Kay began.

The two told the group the story of Courtney and Derek and once they were finished it caused someone else in the group to tell a story and then someone else and so on. They did this until Kay looked at her phone to check the time.

“Oh my gosh, Trish! We’ve been talking forever! You need to go see Chad!”

Trish would get up, intending to go to him, but then the first of the walk of shame girls would come through the front door and the sun would peak through the windows, and her visit would be put off.

(Personal Photo of my roommates and I,

who may or may not have inspired this story, from April 2016)

Author’s Note: This story was a retelling of Tales of a Parrot, where a parrot tells his mistress a story every night to keep her from visiting her lover. As I mentioned in my reading notes, this immediately reminded me of a friend I have who we would have to convince not to go out and see this guy because he was just not good for her. It’s also super common when living in a sorority house to be getting a snack or just needing to borrow a pencil from someone and then being drawn into a 2-hour long discussion about the difference between snappy casual and business casual. I tried to use some of the phrases that were in every chapter of this story and made you want to scream every time you saw them (if you read this story this week you know what I mean) because you felt like you were living in some kind of groundhog’s day situation.

Bibliography. The Tooti Nameh or Tales of a Parrot by Ziya'al-Din Nakhshabi, links to the reading here

Reading Notes: Tales of a Parrot, Part B

Okay so by this point I've discovered that nothing makes sense! All the stories directly contradict each other, the parrot is reverse psychology-ing to the point where any reasonable person would have figured out what he is doing, and Khojisteh should just go see the lover and accept the shame of it because she is too stupid to figure out she is being tricked by a BIRD!

A King Falls in Love and the End of Khojisteh

I read this entire convoluted, mess of a story for that ending?! It didn't even make sense! Either I missed something or there are just too many plot holes for anyone to follow this story! When did Khojisteh ever meet the suitor so that she could kill him? Did she really kill him or did the parrot make that up? Why did the parrot go through all that trouble of telling a story every night just to have her killed in the end? Why is the parrot such a little sociopath? I have so many questions that were left unanswered because the ending was so rushed! I thought everything was going to tie together nicely in the end but it didn't and I'm so confused! What was the point of the story then? The messages I learned were all about how to be a worse person and screw people over.......... omigosh I get it. The bird was doing that all along. He was setting her up the entire time to be killed. He was telling her all of these terrible stories about getting away with bad deeds and in the other stories goodness rarely prevailed. They would do terrible things, confess, and still get killed or shamed or something equally terrible. I figured it out! Omigosh!

(Gif from Giphy)

Bibliography. The Tooti Nameh or Tales of a Parrot by Ziya'al-Din Nakhshabi, links to the reading here

Reading Notes: Tales of a Parrot, Part A

As soon as I read the description for this book, I knew I had found my reading for the week! The parrot telling a story a night to prevent his mistress from visiting her lover immediately sparked the idea of setting this story in a sorority house and having girls tell different stories to prevent someone from going out. My friends and I used to do this all the time for one of our friends who always wanted to go out, meet the same guy, and go home with him, even though she would tell us every time to never let her do that again. We realized we couldn't tell her no because she would just do it anyways, so we used some great reverse psychology (like the parrot) and would basically make her think that it was her idea in the first place not to go out. Worked every time.

(Photo from Wikimedia Commons)

Miemun and Khojisteh/ Khojisteh and the Parrot

I combined the first two stories in my notes because to me they both acted as the prologue and set the scene for how everything was going to go down. I'm so glad this story had a sort of prologue to explain everything. I thought that Khojisteh was single and the parrot just really cared about her well-being or thought her lover was bad for her. It's nice to know that she has a husband and now wants to have an affair because he is gone and that the parrot is telling her stories to protect his own skin because she killed the bird that protested to her leaving the house. I don't know how I feel about Khojisteh yet. If she and her husband love each other so much that she sunk into a depression when he left, then why is she trying to run into the arms of the first man she's seen since her husband left? Does she love her husband or does she just not like being lonely? These are the real questions! 

The Old Lion and the Cat

The entire time I was reading these stories I was wondering if Khojisteh really wanted to go to her lover. She keeps asking the parrot for permission (which is weird in it's own right) and the bird keeps saying "yes but I hope you lover isn't like this guy" and then she wants to know the story which takes all night to tell! Are these just the longest stories ever or the shortest nights?! Anyways, I liked this story because the parrot brings up the fact that Khojiteh keeps listening to her stories and not going. Again this makes me wonder if she is just lonely because now that the parrot is telling her stories and keeping her company she doesn't seem to mind missing her suitor every night. Also ,is this guy just the most understanding guy ever or the worst guy ever?! Khojisteh is standing him up every night and he hasn't sent a note asking what's up! 

Bibliography. The Tooti Nameh or Tales of a Parrot by Ziya'al-Din Nakhshabi, links to the reading here

Comment Wall: Olympus University

Check out my Storybook where I'll be retelling Greek Myths in the modern setting of college!

Week 4 Story: The Trial of Niobe

Niobe opened her eyes to find herself in a strange place that looked like an empty court room. The light shining through the windows was tinted red and she could hear something in the distance that sounded like tortured screams. Suddenly, the doors burst open and in strode a man that she immediately knew as Hades, King of the Underworld. He was dressed in robes so black that it felt like you were staring into an abyss when you looked at them, and his equally as dark hair contrasted with his pale, almost translucent, skin. The god stepped up to the bench, unrolled a scroll, and began to read from it.

“Niobe, daughter of Tantalus and wife of Amphion, now that you have died and escaped your rock prison, it is time for you to be judged and receive your punishment in the afterlife.” Hades booming voice echoed through the room, “You are being charged with fourteen counts of reckless child endangerment and fourteen counts of manslaughter. How do you plead?”

“Not guilty, your Honor.”

“Then let the trial begin!” Hades bellowed. The doors at the back of the court room burst open again and in walked a small crowd of people. Leto, the goddess Niobe had insulted so many years ago, strode up to the front and sat at the table next to Niobe’s. Her children, Artemis and Apollo, sat behind her and other miscellaneous gods filled in the rest of the seats. Then in a complete surprise twist that no one saw coming, Niobe’s children walked in and sat in as the jury for their mother’s trial.

“Now unlike your stupid mortal court, I will be the one asking the questions and I will be the one deciding your fate, Niobe.” Hades announced. “Of course, the jury does help me make the decision on the severity of the punishment, however with a jury made up of your children lets hope they are lenient, but also considering your actions are the reason for their deaths… I wouldn’t count on it.”

“My dear brother, I would like to call my son, Apollo, as my first witness.” Leto smiled sweetly as she said this.

“Objection! This entire thing is a conflict of interest and will lead to a direct bias against me!” Niobe stood up and yelled.

“Sweetheart, everything we Olympians do is a conflict of interest, if you haven’t noticed, so sit down and don’t make this worse for yourself.” Hades replied. “Now Apollo, please tell the jury about the day Niobe insulted your mother and my sister, Leto.”

“Uh well it was a few decades ago, so of course I remember it like it was yesterday. I created a beautiful sunrise, one of my top ten of all time, man. I bet my sunrise is what stirred that divine impulse in that chick, Manto, because right after that she was telling everyone to put laurels in their hair and bring offerings and stuff to the temple in honor of Mom, my sister, and I. It was super awesome, but then this lady who looked like she would totally name drop Zeus, ruined the whole thing.” Apollo answered in his surfer dude way.

“Do you see that woman in the court room?”

“Yeah, actually I do. She looks a little different, her face is kind of puffy almost like she had been crying for the last half a century.” Apollo answered pointing at Niobe.

“The witness has identified Niobe as the horrible woman who stopped the wonderful, spontaneous day of celebration!” Hades dramatically told the jury, “Apollo, please tell us what happened next.”

“Uh yeah this lady- I mean Niobe- just starts ragging on Mom and saying how much better she is because she has fourteen children and she is super rich and how Zeus is her great-grandfather. Told you she would name drop Zeus! Anyways, she tells everyone she should be worshipped for being a great mother instead of my mom and sent all the people away from the celebration. Well nobody messes with my mom so my sis and I decide it’s time to teach Niobe a lesson.”

“And how did you teach her this lesson?” Hades inquired.

“By shooting and killing all seven of her sons,” He answered sheepishly.

His answer caused some restlessness among the jury so Hades thanked Apollo for being a witness and dismissed him from the stand, but before he left he called out to the jury, “Oh yeah I almost forgot! To the one dude who prayed for me not to kill you? I totally heard you man and was going to let you live but I had already shot the arrow so that one was my bad.”

As Apollo returned to his seat, Leto called Artemis to the stand as her second and final witness.

“So, Artemis, Apollo killed Niobe’s sons why then did you kill her daughters? Did Niobe not learn her lesson?” Hades inquired.

“We were totally going to stop after the sons and spare the daughters.” She told the jury, her eyes pleading for them to believe her, “We were so moved by the sight of all of you mourning the loss of your brothers and sons that we thought we had gotten through to you, but then your mother screwed it up.”

“How did Niobe mess this up?” Hades asked.

“As she was begging and crying for us to spare you she turned to the sky and asks us where our victory was because she still had more than us.”

Everything in the room just stopped for a moment as everyone let that sink in.

“Wait... so as she is asking Leto for a favor, she also insults her?” Hades asks with a confused look on his face.

“That’s exactly what happened.” Artemis replied.

“So how did you respond?”

“I shot and killed her daughters and then as Niobe was crying over the bodies of her children and her husband, who had been driven to kill himself because of all of this, Mom turned her into granite on the mountain side where she stayed until she showed up here.” Artemis answered.

“Okay that’s it! This trial is over! I have made my decision! I do not want you here in my Underworld so I am turning you back into granite for all of eternity and that is final!” Hades announced.

The next time Niobe opened her eyes she was surrounded by granite and had a nice mountain view.

(Photo of the Weeping Rock, also known as Niobe's Rock, from flickr)

Author’s Note: This was a pretty accurate summary of the myth of Niobe and how her pride got the best of her. The original of course is much longer and not near as funny as mine. I also changed all the gods from their Roman names to their Greek ones because that is just easier for me to keep up with and I feel like it would be easier for yall too. I was originally going to have another god commentate on the whole thing, but I stumbled across the afterlife trial idea as I was looking though the story ideas and I decided that this would be a much more interesting way to summarize the story. I also wanted to make the characters more causal and use more modern language because I feel that the formal way some of these myths are written really take the humanness out of the stories, therefore making it hard to see them from different perspectives. I just hope you guys all thought Niobe was as annoying as I did and enjoyed her trial.

Bibliography. “Niobe Rejects Latona” from Ovid's Metamorphoses, translated by Tony Kline. Web Source.

Reading Notes: Olvid's Metamorphoses II, Part B

Part B of the reading was two long myths, each broken up into smaller parts. I decided the best way to take notes on these was to just discuss both myths in full instead of breaking it up into the little sections because way too much happened to try and split it all up.

(Photo from some ecards)

Procne, Philomela, and Tereus

Where to even begin on this crazy tale? We could all tell that this wasn't gonna be a happy tale when the wedding of Procne and Tereus was attended by the same creatures that attend funerals, but I really didn't expect the ending I got! I mean I don't want to spoil it for anyone but this was some serious Criminal Minds stuff. My favorite character was the father because it was clear how much he loved his daughters and if he knew what Tereus was going to do to either daughter, he would never have sent them with him. It was a nice departure from the uncaring and callous fathers that are so often depicted. Honestly the whole myth was very modern in that the women aren't treated as dumb or unable to fight back. It was very, very tragic though but I really wouldn't change anything about it because while everyone did terrible things, everyone also lost something and was punished for their actions.

Medea

Another tale of betrayal and crazy twists and turns, except this one includes magic! When Medea is telling us about her love for Jason in the beginning, it felt very much like a fourteen year old girl telling her diary about her love for her current crush and how the world is so unfair for keeping them apart. It was very annoying especially because I knew beforehand that Jason betrays her and you're just kind of like "awwww sweetie of course he was going to tell you all these things to sleep with you and then never talk to you again." Of course, Jason actually does marry Medea after she helps him win the golden fleece. He then asks her to restore his father's youth, which she does, and then she kills Jason's evil uncle, and then Jason leaves her for another woman. She then sets everything on fire and flies away on a dragon. She was basically the original Deaneyrus and she just came off as super crazy but also a little justifiably crazy.

Bibliography. Olvid's Metamorphoses II by Tony Kilne, links to readings here 

Reading Notes: Olvid's Metamorphoses II, Part A

Some of these transformations were pretty brutal. I didn't expect the transformations to be so graphic and gory, and I was honestly a little taken off guard. These really should have come with a warning that the people of Lycia are just awful and you think they would have learned to treat the gods better.

Arachne and Minerva

I had heard a little bit about this myth before didn't know the full story and I found Arachne and Minerva and the follow up myth, Arachne Weaves a Web, pretty interesting. I was very impressed with Arachne's call out of the gods even though the entire time I was like just admit someone taught you to weave and you could've avoided all of this. I also thought she was an idiot to call out Minerva as the old woman but then it all made sense when she wove the tapestry of all the times the gods had tricked people to best them and cover up their own mistakes. I think it would be interesting to write a storybook about all the times the gods got called out on their mistakes because I think it would hilarious.

Niobe Rejects Latona

Now this story was filled with just so much stupidity on Niobe's part. I totally get Arachne's pride and her great call out of the gods because she knew that she was going to probably be killed no matter what so why not go out with a bang. Niobe on the other hand continually spits in the goddess's face. Her pride in the beginning was kind of justifiable because it could have been played off as a general question to the gods about why she wasn't worshipped as a goddess because she had all the qualifications. Then, in The Death of Niobe's Children, after all her sons have been killed, she begs Latona to stop and leave her daughters alive but then insults the goddess again! You idiot! I could just picture all the gods stopping a second to look at each other and be like "did she really just ask that?" Honestly I would just rewrite this from another god's perspective and have them commentate on the entire thing. 

(Photo from Wikimedia Commons)

Bibliography. Olvid's Metamorphoses II by Tony Kilne; links to readings here 

Feedback Strategies

(Photo from green egg media)

Presence, Not Praise

I enjoyed this article because it referenced the idea of growth mindset and we all know how excited I get about that topic. I find it interesting how many articles aren't about giving someone negative feedback badly but are about feedback that most people wouldn't see as harmful to a person. It just shows that there is a really fine line between giving the proper balance of criticism so as not to hurt a person's self esteem but also not giving them undue praise.
(Read the full article at Presence, Not Praise)

Try Feedforward Instead of Feedback

This article attracted me because of the concept of looking forward. When we often think of feedback we do think of things to change in the future, but it's by referencing everything you did wrong in the past which doesn't exactly pump you up to fix things in the future. All you can remember with criticism isn't what you can do to fix a situation, it's what everyone said you did badly. This feedforward thing is really cool in that it's all just suggestions coming from a nonbiased perspective. If you are saying you want to be a better listener, nobody is going to say you interrupt a lot so maybe try not interrupting, instead all they are saying is good listeners don't interrupt. It doesn't seem like such a personal attack.
(Read the full article at Try Feedforward Instead of Feedback)

Topic Research: Gods and Goddesses

I've decided to focus on Greek gods and goddesses specifically because I continue to find them so interesting and think there really are a lot of different stories that have yet to be told about them.

Orion, The Hunter

There are many different versions of the story of how the constellation of Orion came to be but my favorite is the one involving Artemis and Apollo. I originally read this story when I read the Percy Jackson series and just fell in love with it. While it is tragic, it is also super beautiful. Due to Artemis's own pride (even though she was tricked), she accidently killed her one true love, Orion. As a tribute to him and all he had done for her and the other gods, she put him in the night sky as a constellation so that he would always be there for her midnight hunts. She then also became one of the maiden goddesses in his honor. I don't know what I would do with this story, maybe I'll retell it in a new way kind of like a high school love story. I could never change the ending because that is the best part to me. Very rarely do the gods ever admit they messed up but Artemis does and it has a profound impact on her.
(Myth can be found at Star Lore of All Ages)

Judgement of Paris

I'm not a huge fan of Trojan War myths because I saw a play called the Women of Troy or something like that and it was just awful so it forever turned me off from the Trojan War. It is a really interesting subject especially from the god's point of view because they all had to choose a side. I stumbled upon this myth when looking for myths on Athena because she is one of my favorite goddesses and I can just imagine this giant cat fight between Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite as they try and get this golden apple. I can see Hermes being a real pot-stirrer and playing the three of them against each other and creating alliances with the three of them. Honestly, just some really great reality TV.
(Myth can be found at theoi.com)

(Photo from TV Tropes)

Psyche

The tale of Psyche and Eros seems to be a pretty interesting one. I've never heard it before and I was very surprised to see it have a happy ending. I like that it's about a minor god, his mother, and a beautiful maiden. I think a story like this could easily be turned into a modern day love story or maybe some kind of fairytale. I would definitely do some more in-depth research on this topic.

(Myth can be found at theoli.com)

Week 3 Story: The Wendy and the Sunni

There were once two sisters, Wendy and Sunni, who were always in competition with one another. Constantly trying to figure out who was the fastest, strongest, or smartest. One day they decided to figure out who made friends the best because there was a new family moving in across the street. The family had a little girl about their age so the sisters chose her as their new friend to make. Their older brother J.J., having overheard them make their little bet, reminded them:

“Kindness effects more than severity.”

Wendy just scoffed at him and told him to butt out and to quit being such a weirdo before heading across the street. Sunni disappeared inside leaving J.J. to watch Wendy’s attempt at making a new friend. She went right up to the new little girl and said, “You’re my friend now! We are gonna go over to my house and play!”

Wendy grabbed the girls hand to bring her across the street but the girl resisted. This caused Wendy to pull harder and insist more but the girl kept her feet firmly planted. Eventually, Wendy let go of the girls hand, whipped around, and snapped, “Fine! I didn’t want to be friends with you anyways!”

Wendy ran back over to the yard and stomped up the steps to where her brother was sitting on the porch. She sat down next to him in a huff with a pout on her lips and her arms crossed just as Sunni came back outside with a plate of cookies in one hand and a glass of milk in the other. She skipped across the street and right up to the neighbor girl, without spilling any milk somehow, and introduced herself, “Hi, I’m Sunni! I live across the street. What’s your name?”

“Barbara. Are those chocolate chip?” The girl asked pointing at the cookies.

“Yup! My mom just made them so they’re still warm and gooey. I also brought milk so we could dunk the cookies in it.” Sunni replied as she thrust the glass out towards her new friend. Barbara took a cookie from the plate, dunked it in the milk, and sat down on the edge of the porch so her legs hung off. Sunni sat down next to her with the plate between and they began to chat. After they finished their cookies, Sunni brought Barbara across the street and introduced her to Wendy and J.J. From there the three girls continued to play and went on to be great friends even if Barbara and Wendy got off to a rocky start.

(Photo from tinygreenmom)

Author’s Note: This is based on The Wind and the Sun, a fable about a competition between, you guessed it, the Wind and the Sun to see who is strongest. They decide the best way to figure this out is to see who can get the traveler on the road in front of them to take his coat off the fastest. The Wind goes first and blows as hard as he can to get the traveler to take his coat off, but it seems to have the opposite effect and the traveler just keeps pulling it tighter to keep warm. So the Wind gives up and now it’s the Sun’s turn. He shines brightly warming the traveler up enough that he immediately takes his coat off. The moral is that “kindness effects more than severity.”

I was trying to write this differently with the girls in high school and having a competition to see who made the most friends but it was coming out more like The Tortoise and the Hare in message and in story. I decided to make the girls younger and only have them try to make one friend. I think it’s pretty straight forward other than that. I hope you like their punny names (Sunni and Wendy) and I made their older brother J.J. for Joseph Jacobs, the folklorist who these fables came from. It turns out Barbara means travel in Greek and she is supposed to be the traveler from the original story so that is where that came from. I discovered I really don’t like retelling fables because I just want to write these long complex stories with a ton of dialogue. I loved reading them though but this will probably be my only fable story.

Bibliography. "The Wind and The Sun" from The Fables of Aesop by Joseph Jacobs. Web Source.

Reading Notes: Aesop's Fables (Jacobs), Part B

I tried to read these fables with the mindset of retelling them in a high school setting just like I did with Part A. So again I tried to put the animals into human stereotypes, but I'm starting to realize that the stereotypes for each animal aren't consistent. That's really cool though because nobody is that one dimensional not even the animals in fables. Except for the snake, it's always evil.

(Photo from Imgflip)

The Man and the Serpent

I really connected with this story's message of "injuries may be forgiven, but not forgotten." I think it's something everyone experiences at least once in their life whether it be with a friend, a lover, or even a family member. I would definitely love to tell this story but I don't think it really needs a retelling since it is already so relatable.

The Wind and the Sun

I like this tale because it can be retold in so many ways. If I stay with my theme of high school, I might write a story that features siblings trying to make friends at their new school on their first day. They decide to make it a competition and then they meet is the guy who always speaks in fables. With his cryptic message they don't understand they are set to relive the fable with one sibling having a very harsh approach to people and the other one being much nicer.


Bibliography. Aesop's Fables by Joseph Jacobs; link to the reading online.

Reading Notes: Aesop's Fables (Jacobs), Part A

As I was reading these, I thought about how I wanted to retell fables in a high school setting (if I did fables for my storybook) and it made me start sorting the animals into human stereotypes. The lion is the jock that can either be scary or watch out for you, the wolf is the bully, the deer is that one guy who thinks he's God's gift to women, and so on and so on. The only one I have trouble putting in one stereotype is the fox because he's manipulative but also spits wisdom. All in all I really enjoyed the fables and I can't wait to read Part B!

The Four Oxen and the Lion

The classic lesson of "united we stand, divided we fall." It's a classic for a reason, though, and this telling of it is the perfect combination of short and sweet to really drive the lesson home. This story is perfect for retelling in the way I want to retell fables in my storybook. The only thing holding me back from telling it this week is that I may want to use it in my storybook if I decide to do fables. 

The Fox and the Stork

This story is literally the definition of petty high school drama and I love it! Literally the lesson is "there are games two can play at" what is better than that?! I would totally retell this by having a popular girl be nice to the "nerdy" girl and then turn on her causing the "nerdy" girl to seek her revenge.

(Photo from Pinterest)

Fox Fables in General

All of the fox fables are just amazing! I kind of want to do my storybook on just fox fables now because they are all so good and unique and have really great lessons! The fox isn't always a trickster but sometimes he's just very wise as seen in the The Fox and the Mask or The Fox and the Lion. A lot of the fox fables are lessons I learned in high school or as a teenager and they could so easily be retold in that setting. 

The One-Eyed Doe

I really liked this story even if it is improbable. It would be a very good story to retell, but I think it would be very difficult due to it's "thought experiment" like nature. The fact that it has two messages ("you can't escape your fate" and "you must watch all your sides") could change how it is written a little bit. If anyone does retell this story I would love to read it!

Bibliography. Aesop's Fables by Joseph Jacobs; link to the reading online.

Feedback Thoughts

I'm pretty okay with getting feedback. I'm much better at receiving it on papers and other academic assignments because people usually give nicer and more constructive criticism. In real life, I feel like more people just tell you that what you did was wrong and that you suck but don't actually tell you how to fix it. That's not helpful at all and so I don't take personal feedback too well. I have a habit of taking things too personally but again that's in my personal life. I just like feedback that is constructive and can help me get better as a writer.

I read both of the articles on being a perfectionist because I am one but the article I liked the best of the two was Recalibrating the Perfectionist Mind. While the other article was helpful in a sense that it pointed out some of my perfectionist tendencies and made me realize that these are common things, it didn't give me a way to fix them. Recalibrating the Perfectionist Mind really hit the nail on the head with some of the issues that I face when I'm doing school work and then it told me how to stop myself from falling into those traps. It didn't really talk about receiving criticism or feedback, per say, but it will be a great reference for times when I feel myself getting bogged down by trying to not make mistakes.

I don't like rejection at all, but really who does? I mentioned before I can handle feedback on academic stuff and that includes rejection because that's part of school and grading is to get feedback so that you can do better. I was drawn to the article Why Rejection Hurts and What to Do About It mostly because of my fear of social rejection. I thought it was super helpful because it flat out said stop self-criticizing and start self-loving. I know that's much easier in theory but it can be done. I find myself constantly flip-flopping between tearing myself down and building myself up because I don't want people to think I'm vain but the truth is I'm pretty awesome. 

(Photo from blogspot)

Topic Brainstorm

Greek Gods and Goddesses

Lets just start with the obvious here, I have mentioned multiple times that I really like Greek Mythology and I think so much can be done with the gods and goddesses. Most of my knowledge about Greek Mythology is from the Percy Jackson series but because of my love for it I managed to do some projects in high school about the subject. The only problem I see myself having while doing this project is coming up with a an original concept because there are already a lot of storybooks about them. I would like to learn more about some of the goddesses and maybe some about the lesser known gods and goddesses.

One of my favorite myths is about how the constellation Orion came to be and how that affected the goddess, Artemis. I would like to do something with that story because it is a really beautiful story and it shows a softer side of the gods. I know that a lot of the Olympians had lovers and I could turn those stories into gossip at a sleepover or into some kind of dating game show. Also there was this really good idea I found on Tumblr that I posted a picture of below that I think would be fun to try!
(Information found at Theoi.com)

(Photo from Tumblr)

Aesop's Fables

One of the storybooks I liked was about Aesop's Fables. I like that they end all nice and wrapped up with a message at the end giving you endless possibilities to tell them how you wish. I want to learn more about the messages of the fables and how certain elements of them were chosen. I want to know why a lion was chosen for so many stories and I guess just why animals, in general, are more prevalent. I like that they read like children's books and if I were artsy in anyway I would try to make a storybook that involved my own illustrations (feel free to steal that idea artsy people). I think a good way to tell these stories would be like a friend who only gives advice in fables, then the people he was giving the advice to would end up reliving the fable causing them to figure out the message of the advice. It could end up being really funny because you could have people actively avoid him when they need advice but he finds them anyways or some more genre savvy people would seek him out just to get things over with. 
(Information found at Aesop's Books)

Moon Stories

There is something very intriguing to me about the moon stories. I like that every culture has stories about the moon whether they be about how it came to be or their specific moon worship. A lot of cultures are on a lunar calendar rather than a calendar based on the sun. It also seems like most cultures have a female deity for the moon which I want to know more about. Is the moon just inherently more female? According to Wikipedia, the sun and moon deities are usually opposite genders, so if a culture has a male lunar god then they have a female sun goddess. Those could be interesting stories to tell, kind of a battle of the sexes type thing. Maybe the female solar and lunar deities hang out and talk about their male counter part and how each culture treats them. 
(Information found at Wikipedia)

(photo from imgur)

Weather Gods

Continuing with the common theme here of gods, I've taken an interest in the weather gods. Like the lunar deities, every culture seems to have their own weather deities and I would like to find out how they came to be. I think it would be fun to have a weather report done by the gods and they talk about old myths in passing. For example, if Greece was experiencing a big heat wave then the new caster could reference the last time Apollo did this and it happens to be a classic myth. Each story would be about a different culture and their weather gods.

(Information from Wikipedia)