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I grew up with myths - Greek myths, primarily, and as I grew older I started branching out into other cultures.
I love stories of all kinds, really, and what I find especially fun is retelling those stories in new and interesting ways. Sometimes it’s just plain entertaining, and sometimes it shines a new light on the original story. (I don’t have a bard’s tongue, sadly; my retellings tend to go along the lines of “…so then Kali’s all ‘Yo, Durga, tag me in!’ And Durga reaches out from the back of her TOTALLY SWEET riding-tiger and slaps her hand, so then Kali sticks her tongue out and…” Complete with bouncing up and down and lots of hand gestures. Enthusiasm, yes; poetry, no.)
One example of this type of re-imagining is Sita Sings the Blues - an interpretation of the Ramayana from Sita's point of view. Among other things, it incorporates torch songs from the 20's-30's, which made me happy :) (Two things. Thing the first! While I personally enjoyed it, the film's gotten mixed reaction from the Hindu community - some have loved it, some have hated it, and some are ambivalent. The creator herself is not Indian, so... whether or not it's appropriative or disrespectful is open to interpretation. Thing the second! While giving Sita her voice is arguably a feminist approach to the story, the story itself is not feminist - control issues, patriarchy, and victim blaming abound.)
Another is Myths Retold, where Ovid (no, really, that's what he calls himself) writes a whole bunch of... well... retold myths. I especially like this one, because he tends to tell myths about the same way I would (see above.) They're best read out loud, for maximum effect :D (Do note: the site is NOT a safe space. Basically take any normal trigger warnings that would apply to any given myth, and dial them up to eleven.)
Open thread! Did you grow up reading myths, or did you learn them in school? What types of myths are your favorite? Is there a lesser-known story that you particularly like to share? Do you tell stories in "traditional" ways, or do you tend towards a more casual/modern style? Do you like new interpretations of old stories, or do you prefer the older versions? What other re-imaginings have you found that are good or at least interesting? Do you know of any places or sub-communities where the oral storytelling tradition is alive and well? Bonus question: what IS the difference between a) religious stories, b) myths, and c) fairy tales/legends/folklore/other stories? I tend to group them all under the heading of "myths" (for reasons I don't have the space or the time to get into here), but I always wonder what dividing lines other people use...
~ Kristycat
Monday Reminder! While I have fun coming up with pretty pictures and/or interesting “prompt” questions for open threads, you aren’t limited to those! These threads are open - go wild, talk about whatever moves you! (Just remember that this is still a safe space, please!)
51 comments:
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And then there's the thing about how broad situations can be.
Whenever I'm in a position to hire someone it's in the form of an election, when the field has generally been winnowed down to two or three people of such different qualifications that things like age, race, religion and gender could basically never make enough of a difference to be a deciding factor unless I was willing to say, "Yeah, they'll completely suck at the job, but they've got the right diversity background."
Whereas when a corporation is hiring people, especially in an economy where it was just so recently, "A job opened up flipping burgers and there were already 500 applications within 12 hours," there's probably rarely if ever going to be a situation where one could even approach an objective "best person for the job".
I mean maybe there could be a best person for the job, but it would seem to require a contrived set of circumstances. Say the position is, "This is basically the same technology Microsoft released two years ago, we need someone to convince everyone it's new and shiny and cool," and then a resurrected Steve Jobs walks through the door, you've probably got your objective best person for the job. But short of that I don't see a lot of places where it comes up in the private sector.
The reason that I defaulted to thinking about elections, by the way, isn't just, or even mostly, that that's the only time I hire people.
I think it was mostly that when I see "people yelling that [one] should support women no matter what they do because they are women" it is usually around election season. Like, if you cast your memory back to 2008*, all the people insisting that Hilary supporters must -must, I tell you- switch to Palin supporters and thus vote for McCain on the off chance he has a heart attack in the following four years. (Note that the part about McCain dropping dead was usually left as subtext, though I do remember a speech where Palin basically said (making a Hilary reference in the process) that a vote for McCain-Palin would make her president while standing right next to McCain.) Only reason ever offered: Hilary and Palin happen to share a gender (and not much else.)
That was a presidential election and so the shouts of, "Support person X because person X is female!" were amplified more than they are most election seasons, but election seasons are generally when I hear the shout.
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*Can anyone remember that far back? I heard that it's a veritable ice age and anything from it must have aged into a classic by now.
And then there's the thing about how broad situations can be.
Whenever I'm in a position to hire someone it's in the form of an election, when the field has generally been winnowed down to two or three people of such different qualifications that things like age, race, religion and gender could basically never make enough of a difference to be a deciding factor unless I was willing to say, "Yeah, they'll completely suck at the job, but they've got the right diversity background."
Whereas when a corporation is hiring people, especially in an economy where it was just so recently, "A job opened up flipping burgers and there were already 500 applications within 12 hours," there's probably rarely if ever going to be a situation where one could even approach an objective "best person for the job".
I mean maybe there could be a best person for the job, but it would seem to require a contrived set of circumstances. Say the position is, "This is basically the same technology Microsoft released two years ago, we need someone to convince everyone it's new and shiny and cool," and then a resurrected Steve Jobs walks through the door, you've probably got your objective best person for the job. But short of that I don't see a lot of places where it comes up in the private sector.
The reason that I defaulted to thinking about elections, by the way, isn't just, or even mostly, that that's the only time I hire people.
I think it was mostly that when I see "people yelling that [one] should support women no matter what they do because they are women" it is usually around election season. Like, if you cast your memory back to 2008*, all the people insisting that Hilary supporters must -must, I tell you- switch to Palin supporters and thus vote for McCain on the off chance he has a heart attack in the following four years. (Note that the part about McCain dropping dead was usually left as subtext, though I do remember a speech where Palin basically said (making a Hilary reference in the process) that a vote for McCain-Palin would make her president while standing right next to McCain.) Only reason ever offered: Hilary and Palin happen to share a gender (and not much else.)
That was a presidential election and so the shouts of, "Support person X because person X is female!" were amplified more than they are most election seasons, but election seasons are generally when I hear the shout.
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*Can anyone remember that far back? I heard that it's a veritable ice age and anything from it must have aged into a classic by now.
Errr.... So basically, "I believe that acknowledgement of the existence of a demonstrable phenomenon, of which I have direct, personal, and incontrovertable experience, interferes more with my logic and reasoning skills than does pretending that this phenomenon does not exist and therefore ignoring the influence it may have on said logic and reasoning skills" ?
Errr.... So basically, "I believe that acknowledgement of the existence of a demonstrable phenomenon, of which I have direct, personal, and incontrovertable experience, interferes more with my logic and reasoning skills than does pretending that this phenomenon does not exist and therefore ignoring the influence it may have on said logic and reasoning skills" ?
"I don't believe in emotions because they're not sciencey."
Yeah, well, I don't believe in money because it's made out of paper, and I don't believe books either because they're made out of paper. So there.
I knew there was a reason I quit going to the movies...
"I don't believe in emotions because they're not sciencey."
Yeah, well, I don't believe in money because it's made out of paper, and I don't believe books either because they're made out of paper. So there.
I knew there was a reason I quit going to the movies...
To be honest, I think that I'm the only one who made it be about elections, because that's where I tend to see "people yelling that [one] should support women no matter what they do because they are women," happening. Odds are that elections weren't actually the topic of the discussion devilfish was describing with the thing I just quoted.
a couple of years ago we watched the new G.I. Joe movie.
I mostly remember that movie for "science" woman on a treadmill explaining to sidekick that she doesn't believe in emotions because they're not all sciencey and stuff. Which sort of made my brain stop and have a massive, "DOUBLE-U_TEE_EF? You do realize that there are entire fields -that's with an "S" at the end for plural- of science devoted to the study of emotions, right?" moment. Of course that was the set up for her falling in love with the sidekick so of course it doesn't need to make sense. At all.
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As for your workplace, I hope they either reform or you find a place with a more sound human resources strategy.
> Since we do start from a position of sexism that means that
> wanting the best person to get the job does conflict with
> wanting equal representation as soon as possible, because
> equal representation would be better served by getting
> women into the job more than about half the time since
> those who already have the job are mostly male. And I don't
> have a good answer for that.
You probably want to introduce value for equal representation directly into your evaluation. There are enough positive follow-on effects that it's intellectually honest to do so, I think.
Yeah, I definitely wouldn't say that we can just tell people 'hire the best person for the job' and expect that to actually result in equal representation even if it should once one breaks down all the relevant qualifications and experiences. It's one of those efficacy-vs-effectiveness things. Good on paper. (Although I can't imagine how hiring all the alphaiest people would even be good on paper.)
Yeah, I definitely wouldn't say that we can just tell people 'hire the best person for the job' and expect that to actually result in equal representation even if it should once one breaks down all the relevant qualifications and experiences. It's one of those efficacy-vs-effectiveness things. Good on paper. (Although I can't imagine how hiring all the alphaiest people would even be good on paper.)
Oh I've been meaning to come back to this for days, I have.
I've read a lot of mythology, but most of it has to do with ancient Greece, and that had such an effect on me that Greek myth and ritual forms the core of my spiritual practice (I'm not a Reconstructionist, though--I'm not patient enough for that). Until this year I was part of a group of people that re-enacted the myth of Demeter and Persephone as a ritual drama for the better part of a decade, including co-writing the script, which was an interesting exercise because, well, it's a challenge to retell it in such a way that it doesn't come off as Stockholm Syndrome.
If I may toot my own horn for a bit, my current project is a Greek Gods-in-America sorta dealie, a podcast titled the Hermes & Hekate Road Show: http://hhroadshow.libsyn.com/ Our first episode goes up next week and I am super excited. (We have a Facebook page too of course.)
You probably want to introduce value for equal representation directly into your evaluation. There are enough positive follow-on effects that it's intellectually honest to do so, I think.
Indeed, the presence of positive follow-on effects suggests that the process can still be streamlined to not need to explicitly include 'equal gender representation', because it that can be broken down into the benefits of having a diverse range of experiences that covers a greater scope of the total population. To the extent that gender influences people's experiences, gender is a form of expertise (though not nearly so applicable that a single person of a given gender can speak for that entire gender).
You probably want to introduce value for equal representation directly into your evaluation. There are enough positive follow-on effects that it's intellectually honest to do so, I think.
Indeed, the presence of positive follow-on effects suggests that the process can still be streamlined to not need to explicitly include 'equal gender representation', because it that can be broken down into the benefits of having a diverse range of experiences that covers a greater scope of the total population. To the extent that gender influences people's experiences, gender is a form of expertise (though not nearly so applicable that a single person of a given gender can speak for that entire gender).
I agree, Jenna. But we can still be for more women doing X, or all women having the right to do X, without supporting a certain woman/faction of women doing X.
Random aside: apropos of nothing, I wanted to point to the http://bundleofholding.com/index/current "Bundle of Holding," which is a pretty cool way to get 6 cool eBooks for whatever price you want, one of which is mine. Or 9 cool eBooks, including Mur Lafferty's "Playing for Keeps,"* if you go over $15.36.**
* I have no real reason to single Ms. Lafferty's book out except that I really like superhero stuff.
** or whatever the current average is.
Random aside: apropos of nothing, I wanted to point to the http://bundleofholding.com/index/current "Bundle of Holding," which is a pretty cool way to get 6 cool eBooks for whatever price you want, one of which is mine. Or 9 cool eBooks, including Mur Lafferty's "Playing for Keeps,"* if you go over $15.36.**
* I have no real reason to single Ms. Lafferty's book out except that I really like superhero stuff.
** or whatever the current average is.
I... I'm sort of on-topic in an open thread. I just finished what I'm choosing to call a very fairy tale-esque butterfly for a very, very late Christmas present. At this point, having worked on it since November, I'm thinking 'ran afoul of evil wizard' is the best explanation. My camera is having issues, but the colors involved are all the shades of purple DMC seems to make. The cloth color was chosen as being coffee-shop friendly, so to speak, as seems practical for a Kindle cover. Neither green tea nor coffee can make a noticeable stain, except on the butterfly itself.
*
I loved myths and folklore as a child and devoured whatever I could find. The public library had an awesome collection (especially for a small town children's section). There were Native American stories and jacktales, along with the more standard Greek myths. And lots of things about ancient aliens and bigfoot. >.> These all sort of ran together in my head, and then I was old enough to get into the Time Life Mythology and Folklore collection in the adult section. Good times, even if any book with a 'satanic' title has a tendency to vanish from the library these days (they can't keep a copy of _Memnoch the Devil_ and I refuse to believe Anne Rice fans are more larcenous than anybody else).
I... I'm sort of on-topic in an open thread. I just finished what I'm choosing to call a very fairy tale-esque butterfly for a very, very late Christmas present. At this point, having worked on it since November, I'm thinking 'ran afoul of evil wizard' is the best explanation. My camera is having issues, but the colors involved are all the shades of purple DMC seems to make. The cloth color was chosen as being coffee-shop friendly, so to speak, as seems practical for a Kindle cover. Neither green tea nor coffee can make a noticeable stain, except on the butterfly itself.
*
I loved myths and folklore as a child and devoured whatever I could find. The public library had an awesome collection (especially for a small town children's section). There were Native American stories and jacktales, along with the more standard Greek myths. And lots of things about ancient aliens and bigfoot. >.> These all sort of ran together in my head, and then I was old enough to get into the Time Life Mythology and Folklore collection in the adult section. Good times, even if any book with a 'satanic' title has a tendency to vanish from the library these days (they can't keep a copy of _Memnoch the Devil_ and I refuse to believe Anne Rice fans are more larcenous than anybody else).
Myths Retold gives me a lot of joy because a friend of mine has a character with an interest in literature and who types/talks *exactly like that*, and I like to imagine that said character runs the blog in his spare time.
There's a popular Chinese myth (often retold via TV series, usually played as a comedy) about a white snake demon who wants to become immortal, and ends up becoming a human to marry a human man. The interesting thing I find is that there are similar Chinese stories, and probably older versions of this myth, where an evil spirit takes the shape of a woman to seduce an innocent scholar with the ultimate goal of taking his soul or straight-up eating him. (There are weird cautionary tales where a traveller finds out that a woman he, ahem, spends the night with turns out to be a giant turtle. No maliciousness or reason why, she's just a turtle. So, um, moral of the story: pay more attention.) But the version of the white snake story that people tell today is a tragic romance, where she honestly loves the man and ends up betrayed by him (despite saving his life!), separated from her own son, and sealed under a pagoda. A spectre of wicked feminine wiles turns into a misunderstood heroine.
People talk about how fairy tales are bowdlerized over time, but sometimes the stories change for the better.
Myths Retold gives me a lot of joy because a friend of mine has a character with an interest in literature and who types/talks *exactly like that*, and I like to imagine that said character runs the blog in his spare time.
There's a popular Chinese myth (often retold via TV series, usually played as a comedy) about a white snake demon who wants to become immortal, and ends up becoming a human to marry a human man. The interesting thing I find is that there are similar Chinese stories, and probably older versions of this myth, where an evil spirit takes the shape of a woman to seduce an innocent scholar with the ultimate goal of taking his soul or straight-up eating him. (There are weird cautionary tales where a traveller finds out that a woman he, ahem, spends the night with turns out to be a giant turtle. No maliciousness or reason why, she's just a turtle. So, um, moral of the story: pay more attention.) But the version of the white snake story that people tell today is a tragic romance, where she honestly loves the man and ends up betrayed by him (despite saving his life!), separated from her own son, and sealed under a pagoda. A spectre of wicked feminine wiles turns into a misunderstood heroine.
People talk about how fairy tales are bowdlerized over time, but sometimes the stories change for the better.
The idea that all women could be on the same side of an issue seems about as insultingly reductive as the idea that there's one way to get women to sleep with you or whatever. I have been finding that when people say that the often mean "All the women (who count) agree with this."
It can be an overwhelming majority and the women on the other side can be oppressive asshats who shouldn't get their way. But way too often I end up hearing things about how all women are equally oppressed or all women desire the freedom to dress like Americans or (insert stream of horrible ablist assumptions...)
I kind of think objectification can be in the eye of the beholder just fine. Not that there's anything wrong with "behold the hotness," but well-crafted entertainment with compelling characters is going to generate plenty of lust, fantasy, kinkmemes, etc, whereas entertainment containing sexism and objectification will do that for some people but at the cost of making other people extremely uncomfortable.
Thank you so much for taking the time. This discussion I was in, well, it came down to people yelling that I should support women no matter what they do because they are women, and that didn't sound right at all. Confused the hell out of me. So this helps a lot. Thanks again.
Credit for "Loki, no swiping!" goes to my daughter when she was 3 or so.
I was raised with Greek myths but never heard anything else really. Bible stories, and Tolkien, which have a similar resonance, I guess. When we were older my mom read us some Hopi stories...I don't remember many details, should look them up...
Credit for "Loki, no swiping!" goes to my daughter when she was 3 or so.
I was raised with Greek myths but never heard anything else really. Bible stories, and Tolkien, which have a similar resonance, I guess. When we were older my mom read us some Hopi stories...I don't remember many details, should look them up...
Somebody recently put me on to Padraic Colum's The Golden Fleece and the Heroes Who Lived Before Achilles, which is a retelling of Greek myth for children. (The main spine of the book is a retelling of Jason's quest for the Golden Fleece, but whenever Jason and his crew have some down-time they sit around telling earlier myths to each other, so those get in too.) The overall quality of the book is somewhat iffy, but it has a really nice retelling of the myth of Pandora in which the moral is not, in any way, shape, or form, "Look it was all the woman's fault".
Also, if you like creative re-tellings of legends and Arthurian retellings in which the point-of-view character is aware of the ridiculousness of the situations Arthur and his knights tend to get into, I can recommend The Idylls of the Queen by Phyllis Ann Karr. It's based on an incident in which Guinevere was falsely accused of a murder, refashioned as a detective novel. In the course of Sir Kay, in the role of the detective, checking out the obvious suspects there are some interesting takes on the standard Arthurian villains.
Somebody recently put me on to Padraic Colum's The Golden Fleece and the Heroes Who Lived Before Achilles, which is a retelling of Greek myth for children. (The main spine of the book is a retelling of Jason's quest for the Golden Fleece, but whenever Jason and his crew have some down-time they sit around telling earlier myths to each other, so those get in too.) The overall quality of the book is somewhat iffy, but it has a really nice retelling of the myth of Pandora in which the moral is not, in any way, shape, or form, "Look it was all the woman's fault".
Also, if you like creative re-tellings of legends and Arthurian retellings in which the point-of-view character is aware of the ridiculousness of the situations Arthur and his knights tend to get into, I can recommend The Idylls of the Queen by Phyllis Ann Karr. It's based on an incident in which Guinevere was falsely accused of a murder, refashioned as a detective novel. In the course of Sir Kay, in the role of the detective, checking out the obvious suspects there are some interesting takes on the standard Arthurian villains.
Lonespark - I am SO using "Loki, NO SWIPING!" when the baby gets older!
TRiG - you got to learn Irish myths in school??!? I am so jealous. (Also, thanks for the recommend, I'll look that author up!)
I'm stealing this thread to do shameless self-promotion, as I was afk for most of the weekend :)
1) I wrote about baby's first sword and stuff babies do (CN: childcare, obviously)
2) I wrote a little bit of Fat Acceptance stuff, one about body image and feeling pretty, and one about Diet Coke. (CN: fat shaming on both, food policing on the second)
3) I got really irritated and called out Fox News about their segment on Wiccan holidays
4) And finally, I'd started to write a big long thoughtful piece about humor and why feminists are often accused of not having a sense of humor, including an analysis of what I find funny and non-funny and why, and then the Oscars happened. So I wrote this instead.
Lonespark - I am SO using "Loki, NO SWIPING!" when the baby gets older!
TRiG - you got to learn Irish myths in school??!? I am so jealous. (Also, thanks for the recommend, I'll look that author up!)
I'm stealing this thread to do shameless self-promotion, as I was afk for most of the weekend :)
1) I wrote about baby's first sword and stuff babies do (CN: childcare, obviously)
2) I wrote a little bit of Fat Acceptance stuff, one about body image and feeling pretty, and one about Diet Coke. (CN: fat shaming on both, food policing on the second)
3) I got really irritated and called out Fox News about their segment on Wiccan holidays
4) And finally, I'd started to write a big long thoughtful piece about humor and why feminists are often accused of not having a sense of humor, including an analysis of what I find funny and non-funny and why, and then the Oscars happened. So I wrote this instead.
Way back in elementary school (I'm not sure which grade exactly) I found a book on Greek mythology in the school library. It was a strange find, because the cover illustration was a scantily clad woman. It was a scootch risque for elementary school.
Anyway, later in high school, I read The Odyssey and learned a bit more about Greek mythology. While I was in high school, Hercules: The Legendary Journeys was on TV and Disney came out with their Hercules movie. It was interesting to see how the two treatments contrasted with each other in their treatment of the original stories.
Also, all throughout my childhood, a book series called Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark was really popular. I gotta say, I think the illustrations were far scarier than most of the stories. Anyway, my classmates and I loved those books.
I love to pick up a book of myths and folktales every now and then. Lately, I've really been interested in Persian mythology. I'm reading the Shahnameh. It's a huge book, chock-full of different stories, so I'm taking it one tale at a time. I was lucky to find a full English translation at Borders right before the chain closed. Perhaps one day, I'll be able to read it in the original Persian.
Now the Hub channel is rerunning Hercules: The Legendary Journeys. It's fun to recognize actors that have become famous in later shows and movies. For instance, I didn't remember Claudia Black being in the show! Also, the Dahak story arc is particularly interesting, because I didn't know a thing about the original Dahak legend during the show's original run. I think Angra Mainyu would have been a much better fit for the villain in this arc, but I guess the writers just thought the name Dahak sounded scarier. I dunno.
Wow, this post was longer than I expected!
Way back in elementary school (I'm not sure which grade exactly) I found a book on Greek mythology in the school library. It was a strange find, because the cover illustration was a scantily clad woman. It was a scootch risque for elementary school.
Anyway, later in high school, I read The Odyssey and learned a bit more about Greek mythology. While I was in high school, Hercules: The Legendary Journeys was on TV and Disney came out with their Hercules movie. It was interesting to see how the two treatments contrasted with each other in their treatment of the original stories.
Also, all throughout my childhood, a book series called Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark was really popular. I gotta say, I think the illustrations were far scarier than most of the stories. Anyway, my classmates and I loved those books.
I love to pick up a book of myths and folktales every now and then. Lately, I've really been interested in Persian mythology. I'm reading the Shahnameh. It's a huge book, chock-full of different stories, so I'm taking it one tale at a time. I was lucky to find a full English translation at Borders right before the chain closed. Perhaps one day, I'll be able to read it in the original Persian.
Now the Hub channel is rerunning Hercules: The Legendary Journeys. It's fun to recognize actors that have become famous in later shows and movies. For instance, I didn't remember Claudia Black being in the show! Also, the Dahak story arc is particularly interesting, because I didn't know a thing about the original Dahak legend during the show's original run. I think Angra Mainyu would have been a much better fit for the villain in this arc, but I guess the writers just thought the name Dahak sounded scarier. I dunno.
Wow, this post was longer than I expected!
I think I first encountered Greek myths in second or third grade, and Norse mythology shortly thereafter (not counting Saturday morning cartoons based on Marvel comics). Oddly, my parents had a copy of the Larrouse Encyclopedia of Mythology which I looked through, but didn't always understand. It covered a myths from a wide variety of cultures. Interestingly, it treated Greek and Roman mythology separately, something the children's myth collections didn't always do. BTW, I'm pretty sure that my parents had the specific edition linked.
For a more modern take on the Norse myths, Norse Mythology According to Uncle Einar is very amusing. Please note, I know the author of this one.
(Ana, if you want to edit in affiliate links for those, go right ahead).
I think I first encountered Greek myths in second or third grade, and Norse mythology shortly thereafter (not counting Saturday morning cartoons based on Marvel comics). Oddly, my parents had a copy of the Larrouse Encyclopedia of Mythology which I looked through, but didn't always understand. It covered a myths from a wide variety of cultures. Interestingly, it treated Greek and Roman mythology separately, something the children's myth collections didn't always do. BTW, I'm pretty sure that my parents had the specific edition linked.
For a more modern take on the Norse myths, Norse Mythology According to Uncle Einar is very amusing. Please note, I know the author of this one.
(Ana, if you want to edit in affiliate links for those, go right ahead).
I've been reading more of the Greek mythology since Hera and Hermes called me. I grew up liking the Norse better (names were easier). I always knew the stories, but I'm reading more of the Homeric hymns, and learning about the gods, and not just the mortals involved.
When I started writing a series of seasonal make-and-do books for pagan children, I knew I wanted more than just Greeks and Norse. There are also Caddo (Native American), Welsh and Irish mythology in the first 2. I may spread out more in the other two books.
One of the first books from my publishing house, Inkstained Succubus Press, is called "Beyond the Veil" and it poses the move from the Greek pantheon to the Roman one as a hostile business takeover. http://www.inkstainedsuccubus.com/ And just as a side note, that's my daughter as Aphrodite on the cover.
As a child, I was on a long summer vacation in the Canadian wilderness (aka "Cottage Country" if you're from Ontario) with only two books to read all summer: Edith Hamilton's "Mythology", and H. G. Wells "War of the Worlds". I became very familiar with both volumes and have avoided reading them ever since, but that slim paperback did start my life-long fascination with mythology and folklore.
I must say, though, going to some of the more complete translations of classics such as the Odyssey and the Poetic Eddas has been eye-opening. Let's just say that Edith Hamilton rather heavily bowdlerized Greek and Norse mythology, and that Odin was called "All-Father" for good reason. Rather like Zeus.
I'll never forget reading Ovid's Metamorphosis as a kid. No, I didn't understand even half of it and no, I didn't catch any of the sexual subtext, but I loved that book so much I was sad every time I had to return it to the library. Myth and folklore were my escapism of choice as a kid and awkward teenager. Mostly Western European stuff. And then in school I learned about the mythology of other cultures, and realized there's more of it than I can ever read. But I'll always prefer Germanic folktales. Maybe it's because the stories and I have a shared past or maybe it's just childhood nostalgia, but they have a very special place.
Dramatically switching gears...
I understand this isn't Feminism 101 here, and I'm not asking anyone to take hours of their life to give me long and detailed lectures, but I would really appreciate some links, or direction of any sort. Long story short, I recently found myself in a heated debate about the concept of sisterhood, and it got very, very nasty. That didn't help me much, because now I'm extremely confused about the subject, and apparently every thought I ever had about it was just wrong. If anyone has any links, insights, just anything at all that can help me understand what that concept is and what it means (because I really, honestly don't), I would be so very grateful. Thank you.
I know it's corny, but I used to love the show "Hercules: The Legendary Journeys"!
There is a really good series of books by Gerald Morris that retells some of the many tales of King Arthur's knights. They're from the POV of the knight's squire, or his page, or someone who ends up traveling with them - and frequently fully aware of the ridiculousness of some of the situations! The bit about Guinevere and Lancelot is in there, but it's in the background, and is given a compassionate treatment by the author.
The first two books in the series are "The Knight's Squire" and "The Squire, His Knight, and His Lady". There is some continuity between the different books, so publishing order is best.
Another good Arthurian tale is "Black Horses for the King" by Anne McCaffrey - more horses than king in this book!
I can't remember a specific source that I learned Greek myths from, but I remember after I saw Disney's "Hercules", listing all the things that were wrong/changed!
Sort of unrelated: I used to love reading Greek myths, but now I'm branching out onto other mythologies due to the influence of Fate/Stay Night and related visual novels.
Among Greek myths, the one I found most memorable was Galatea, though there's plenty of problems with it - modernizing it reveals so many problems. On the plus side, there's this interactive novel by Emily Short that explores some of the implications. It's funny, too.
Related topic, does anyone know how well Robert Graves's work has stood up over the decades? I really loved his hypotheses about how the different classical Greek myths were either explanations of social institutions, or glosses over older mythologies (old goddess-based mythologies, with more human sacrifice), but I don't know how well his scholarship has stood up over the years.
Yay, myths! I started out on some kid-friendly versions of the Greek myths, and then decided to read Kevin Crossley-Holland's collection of Norse mythology, which was a bit of a mood-swing given that he preserved quite a bit of the original phrasing (CN: conflation of violence and sex: there's a bit where Harbard mentions sinking shafts into heroes and virgins, I was very confused for quite some time why he was boasting of murdering noncombatants). After that there was Egyptian and Arthurian and various miscellaneous myths, but Norse mythology is still my favourite.
(That being said, one of my favourite individual myths is Hecate's adoption of polecat!Galinthias, because it's one of the few times I remember a Classical deity just doing a random kindness to anyone, which is nice.)
I grew up with Rosemary Sutcliff's retellings of Irish myths. (Of course, we also covered some of them in primary school.) The High Deeds of Finn McCool was the book of hers I read most, probably (well, that and Sword at Sunset, which was a take on the Arthurian legends).
TRiG.
Google Reader doesn't want to distinguish between headlines, captions, and text, so before I opened the article, Reader told me that "Open Thread - Mythology" was "Hosted by a Greek Statue I grew up with..."
Maybe later today I'll write that version. Unless someone else wants to. :)
Being Scandinavian, and an avid reader from the age of three (I learned to read at a very young age thanks tomy grandfather, who was sick of reading the same book for me over and over, so he began using the book to teach me the letters instead), I pretty much grew up with the Norse myths, or at least some of them. I remember going through a lot of picture-books and comics with more or less kid-friendly versions of the myths, and standing in the window when it was thundering and saying to myself "That's Thor who's out with his hammer."
I don't think I ever actually believed in the Norse gods, but I thought it was a really neat thing to pretend that it was thundering because some huge guy with a beard was out pounding on trolls and monsters with his magical hammer.
Probably one reason why I never could get with the Marvel Comics version of the Norse gods. I'm not a purist, but when you've had the image of Thor as a temperamental and slightly gullible jerk-with-a-heart-of-gold, with red hair and a beard, a blonde and beardless Thor who speaks in Ye Olde English is just... wrong. (The movie was okay, though; at least he got to keep his beard and gullibility there.)
Just wanted to say that this is a great topic. There was a series on fairy tales (each book featured a different supernatural being) in our libary that I blazed through as a kid. Plus all the D'aulaires books of mythology. These days, I like the re-examinations and reconstructions of myths.
Myths! Wooooo!
We haven't been reading so many, lately. The kids are too old for "Loki, NO SWIPING!" and I have been having a hard time finding any anthologies with nice pictures for most of the stuff I want.
Myths! Wooooo!
We haven't been reading so many, lately. The kids are too old for "Loki, NO SWIPING!" and I have been having a hard time finding any anthologies with nice pictures for most of the stuff I want.
Oh man, it's not a myth but I've been having so much fun reading through the archive to The Lizzie Bennet Diaries. Basically, it's Pride and Prejudice (one of my favorites) retold in the modern era through video blogs and twitter, and they keep an archive on the main site so you don't have to actually follow all the characters to keep up with it.
Any look at the re-telling of myths should include Margaret Atwood's compelling "The Penelopiad", which looks at the story of Odysseus from the view of his long-suffering wife Penelope and her thoughts while he was off playing with gods and heroes, and her enduring the burdens of family and expectations. Included is the compelling story of the twelve serving maids slaughtered when the so-called hero Odysseus returned home.
Oh man, it's not a myth but I've been having so much fun reading through the archive to The Lizzie Bennet Diaries. Basically, it's Pride and Prejudice (one of my favorites) retold in the modern era through video blogs and twitter, and they keep an archive on the main site so you don't have to actually follow all the characters to keep up with it.
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