Blake's Mythology Blog

Source: Flick Every day, a humble monk came to pay his respects to a great and wonderful king, who had watched over and protected his kingdom for many years with justice and kindness. The monk came daily and presented the king with a piece of fruit, thanked the king again for his kindness, and left. Although the king was a good man, he did not care so much about the fruit and because the fruit from his own orchard was always bigger and tastier appearing, he threw the fruit away each day without a second thought. This was not done out of spite, but simply a matter of course, for the king was a rich man and happy, who was simply grateful for the obeisance of the monk. One day, the monk came in as was his custom, and gave the king a small fruit. Bowing and thanking the king, he took his leave, as usual. This day however, there was a young pet monkey that happened to be roaming around the courtyard as the monk left. Absentmindedly, the king gave the fruit to the monkey, who gl...

The lion awakes The stories continue in the second part of this book, more of the same kind of ideas about choosing between very similar outcomes.  There was one story in particular that called my attention, and that was the story of the 4 brothers and the lion. In this story, each brother learns a small part about resurrecting an animal, one to assemble a skeleton, one to put organs, one to put on the skin, and one to reanimate it.  The brothers begin their experiment by recreating a dead lion, which, when reanimated, immediately kills them all and runs off into the woods.  The king is then asked by the strange goblin which is to blame, and the king identifies the last brother, the one who actually brought the lion to life.  His justification was that the others did not know it was a lion, but he did and still used his power to do so.  That seems highly unlikely, as a lion's skeleton is pretty obvious and each step further highlights the folly of their act...

Three Men and a Tortoise In this story, a goblin (which is apparently a kind of spirit that inhabits a dead body) is hanging in a tree.  A monk has requested that the king bring him the goblin, for some unknown purpose.  As the king goes to retrieve him, the goblin tells him a story, or a kind of riddle.  If the king answers the riddle correctly, then the goblin jumps back into the tree he is hanging from.  If the king does not know the answer and gives an incorrect response, then nothing happens and they may continue walking.  However, if he knowingly gives a wrong answer, the goblin will split his head in two. So far in the overall story, I am a little confused as to what is going on and why there is a goblin, or why the king even continues to play this little game.  Why wouldn't he just ignore the goblin?  I hope that this is resolved later. Each of the riddles or stories that the goblin tells the king hinge around a similar kind of premise....

My Project website is here ! A picture I took while in Peru of a tiny pueblo  in the Andes

The Old Man and the Sparrow Sire, the third old man knew that he had to tell an even more incredible story than the first two in order to appease the fearful genius.  The first two men had shared such thrilling stories of their family being transmuted into animals, but the third old man had an even greater tale.  He carried with him at all times a small cage which contained a rather plain looking sparrow.  He fed it regularly but the sparrow was always despondent, rarely singing, instead preferring to sleep or sit still and silence.  The old man raised the cage in front of the genius and began his story thus: Oh, great one, this is not the first time that I have met a genius of your stature and power.  In fact, when I was quite young, one of my best and most beloved friends was a genius such as yourself.  I was small and carefree, living my life without fear or consequences, happy from one meal to the next, free to roam and explore the world. ...

Source The second part of the reading is all about the story of  Aladdin and his lamp, but in this version (as opposed to the Disney version with which we are all familiar) he has also a magic ring.  I thought it was interesting in the story how the evil magician pretends to be his uncle but only wants to manipulate him.  The story detailed the consequences quite clearly for the evil actions of the African magician, but did not do such a wonderful job with looking at the consequences of Aladdin's acts.  He commits several morally questionable acts, but never seems to face any really consequences for this.  He essentially kidnaps several people, commits robbery and fraud, and many other things, but never seems to face that head on.  Unlike many other stories like this, it does not seem to contain a moral lesson of any kind, rather than simply being an entertaining story. Story source:  The Arabian Nights' Entertainments  by Andrew Lang and il...

Image source The story of Scheherazade begins with the classic and well known tale of the sultan who, each night, married a girl and then had her killed in the morning.  He had done this for many years and Scheherazade was determined to put a stop to it. Scheherazade then begins to layer her stories, one after another, in a kind of "story-ception" in order to maintain the Sultan's interest and prevent her from being killed.  The first story is that of a genius (or genie) who is going to kill a man for killing his son, however unwittingly. I did not quite understand how that happened, but that is ok. In the story of the genius, there are three old men who also begin to tell stories.  The first is a strangely familiar one of a vengeful and bitter wife who is turned into a deer for her black magic and murder.  The other is another similar story about shapeshifting humans, where two vengeful brothers are meted out the punishment for having attempted to ki...

I have decided to do my project on the myths of ancient Peru, in the time of the Inca.  Although I spent two years of my life there, I only learned a little bit about the ancient legends of the area and I thought it would be very interesting to learn a great deal more about it. A picture I took at some ancient ruins that predate the Incan Empire The book I selected is called  The Mythologies of Ancient Mexico and Peru , by Lewis Spence.  It is not the most exhaustive source for these legends, but it gives me a good basis to start from.  It was published 110 years ago, so it is a bit dated and has some culturally insensitive writing, but I should be able to read past that just fine. One of the stories it recounts is the basic creation story, of how the offspring of the sun and moon came together in a place near Lake Titicaca, which is now near Cusco.  They had been commanded by their parents, the Sun and Moon gods to travel until they found the "hub of the ...

  Photo Source Cold shivers ran the length of Psyche’s spine as she contemplated the crashing waves breaking against the sharp rocks hundreds of feet below her.  Tears streamed down her cheeks, aided by the frigid wind and brought on by the terrible sadness in her heart.  She glanced back at her family, at her loving parents, at her weeping sisters.  This was the last time she would ever see their faces. Her heart stopped as she leapt, every muscle in her body clenched and her vision went black as the rushing air slipped past her small frame.  She was acutely aware of her own beating heart, its dull drumbeat strangely isolated from her own screams and those of the wind.  Then, everything was black. She opened her eyes, not to the sight of the underworld, but to the rushing ocean.  The wind whistled around her and she realized that she was flying through the air, rapidly, propelled by some invisible hand.  She started, and nearly fainted a...

Psyche being idolized above Venus (Source) The last half of the story of Cupid and Psyche gives the resolution to the story.  I thought it was interesting how poor Psyche had to go and care for the altars and shrines at the temples of various gods, but they all rejected her and sided with Venus in her feud with the mortal girl.  I have always found it fascinating in Greco-Roman mythology the almost obsession that the divine beings have with their mortal counterparts. Another interesting plot point was Venus' threatenings to strip Cupid of his power by replacing him with a slave boy.  Strange the lengths to go for immortal and supreme-ply powerful gods. The strangest and most interesting thing that I wanted to read even more about what the whole story with the vial of water from the river styx, and then the vial of the essence of beauty.  I was very confused as to what that was referring to, so I want to know more about the tension between Persephone and Venus a...

Cupid and Psyche (Source) The story of Lucius the donkey begins when a girl is captured.  This first part of the story has definitely piqued my interest.  I like how it starts with Lucius already being a donkey, so the reader does not know how it has happened, only that it has.  This is a writing technique that I like, and have used before. In this next chapter, the plot thickens, so to speak, and we learn that the young kidnapped woman.  It provides an interesting emotional motivation, that of a woman about to be wed.  This same kind of setup is used with "The Count of Monte Cristo" and I am interested to see if there are any further parallels. The old woman then began to tell the tale of Cupid and Psyche to the frightened youth.  This was an extremely interesting story, and made up the bulk of this reading.  I was actually a little confused at first, as to what was happening, but it later made sense.  I really liked the ethereal feel of Cu...

I read about the 6 mental habits that will sabotage your success , with perhaps the most striking and resonant with me being seeking audience approval.  I think that sometimes I really can spend too much time considering what the audience will think and judge about me, instead of just focusing on really doing my best work and pleasing myself.  I don't normally struggle with self-doubt, just worry about how the audience might react sometimes to what I am writing. For this week's reading I found the article about praise to be very interesting.  It was a unique perspective and one that I had not really considered much before.  I liked how the author was very direct with addressing the problems inherent in praise, something that we normally consider good and worth doing.  It made me second guess a little bit some of the things I "praise" about my family members and friends, but I was reassured by his reassurance that we still need to find thing to praise, just may...

Machu Picchu, of the ancient Incas  Source I have already pretty much decided that I want to do my project on Lewis Spence's Mythology of Ancient Mexico and Peru , focusing only on the myths of Peru.  This is because I spent two years living there, and although I did learn some myths while I was there, there were clearly many more that I needed to learn.  Just a basic perusal of the chapters sparked my interest in the many rituals and sacrifices that they made to the sun god as well as their similarities to Mexican ancient rites. Another interesting topic is that of the mythologies of ancient britain, specifically Beowulf .  I loved the story of his fights with the monsters and dragons when I was younger, and his ideas about honor and leadership.  It would be interesting to really reread this ancient epic with a more modern and mature outlook, which would be good fun for a project. The myths of the Native Americans have also interested me, particularly of...

 The Golem  Source It was a cold dark night again in Prague, and the winding streets had long been deserted.  A few lights flickered faintly in windows, but chilly air kept them shut and only the barking of dogs disturbed the otherwise peaceful scene.  In a three-story house, in the top floor, one room shone brighter than the rest.  Rabbi Loew was up late again, as was his habit.  He was regarded with a mixture of fear, respect, and admiration among the local population.  Some thought he was a crazy old man, others suspected he was a wizard, while others saw him as a wise and powerful Rabbi.  Mostly, he kept to himself though, trying not to disturb anyone, but the flashing lights and loud bangs that often emanated from his attic would sometimes cause the more ignorant neighbors to complain. Rabbi Loew had lived alone for some time now and his physical frame was not as strong as it used to be, though his mind was as sharp as ever.  Task...

A Jewish Rip van Winkle? This first story was quite interesting.  I myself have fantasized about sleeping for a long time, long enough to pass all the heartache and trials of life, but wake up to a kind of utopia like Rabbi Onias.  I don't think this is right though, I feel like it would have been better to have faced the trails and even to have helped rebuild Jerusalem. The story of "A king for three days" is interesting because it was much more modern (relatively) and deals with a more modern day example of Jewish folklore (i.e., real life historical figures).  However, the premise seemed a little contrived, I don't think that it was very realistic for a hardened christian general to seek out the blessing (or curse) of a Rabbi. The next story is actually one of my favorite funny little bible stories about Abraham and Sarah.  In the Bible version, Abraham similarly lies to Pharaoh, but when he finds out, he is hurt and angry that Abraham deceived him.  There ...

The first story, about the giant and the flood was very interesting, it was not something that I had encountered before.  I thought it was interesting how this introduced phoenixes into the mythology, as well as alcohol, as explanations for why they are what they are. The story of the Beggar King is somewhat reminiscent of the story of "The Prince and the Pauper" where a somewhat similar situation takes place.  I wonder if it was inspired by this story. I find some mythological explanations for certain events quite interesting and clever, but I have to say that the reason given in this story of cats and dogs to be a little disappointing.  Dogs and cats hate each other because cats are jerks?  I guess that is true, but I couldn't help feel like there should be more to this story. The story of the water-babe was quite interesting.  I had never heard of the backstory of Jethro, and although his conversion to Judaism seems implausible, I like the idea of him usin...