Story: The Pitiful Medusa

On a distance hill stood a gleaming temple, where people worshipped the daughter of Zeus, Athena. Because of Athena’s wisdom and calm temper, she was the idol of many young girls. Among them, Medusa was the most beautiful and faithful follower of Athena. Although many men pursued her, she made an oath to remain virgin in order to spend her life worshipping her goddess, Athena. Days through days, Medusa was always the first to enter Athena’s temple and the last to leave. Her persisting actions touched Athena, and the goddess sometimes appeared to Medusa, complimenting her faithfulness. However, Medusa’s happy time ended on that treacherous night.

Being so beautiful and yet, still innocence in the mind and body, Medusa’s name is carried throughout the land and to the sea by the travelers. Because of this, Medusa got Poseidon’s attention. He appeared to Medusa, offering her to be his lover.

Poseidon: “Dear beautiful one, I am the King of Sea, Poseidon. The mere mortals are not a match for your beauty. Become mine, and I will grant you the life of riches and power.”

Although she was fearful of Poseidon, she rejected his offer because she believed her goddess, Athena, would protect her.

Medusa: “O the mighty King of the Sea, I am grateful for your compliment, but I have pledged to be virgin follower of my Virgin Goddess, Athena.”

Angered by her rejection, thinking that she’s just making up excuse to deny him, Poseidon decided to taint her in the temple of Athena. If she is the true follower of Athena, the goddess would intervene.

In Medusa’s midst of struggling, she called out to her goddess for help and protection.

Medusa: “O my Goddess of strength and justice, please protect your faithful follower from this tragedy.”

In reply to her pleading, Athena’s statue turned away.

Completely stunned by her goddess’s abandonment, Medusa whispered, “Why?”

Her soft whisper echoed throughout the temple as to remind Medusa that her faithfulness was just a mockery. Because of Athena, she swore to remain virgin, and because of Athena, she dared to reject Poseidon’s offering, which led to her suffering. In return, she was abandoned at her helpless moment.

At that moment, Medusa died. The faithful follower of Athena died. The admirer of the Olympian gods died.

After satisfied himself, Poseidon scorned Medusa for claiming that she was the virgin follower of Athena and left. Medusa collected herself in a corner of the temple and stared aimlessly. All her beliefs and purposes in life were rejected. She was lost.

In this moment, Athena appeared with a burning anger.

Athena: “You wretched mortal. How dare you to taint this holy temple with your filthy body?”

Medusa ridiculed at Athena’s accusation.

Medusa: “I was your faithful follower. You accepted my daily offering and witnessed my oath to be your virgin servant for the rest of my life, but you turned away when your servant called out for you. How can you question me? I am a mortal being. I am no match to the any earthly deities. How can I fight back Poseidon, the God of the Sea?”

Athena: “How dare you to question your god, you filthy mortal! If you truly want to be my virgin servant, how can Poseidon know your name? Cease with your lies. With crimes of tainting this sacred place and offenses against the gods, I punished you. Since the source of your crime is your beautiful face, I condemned you that your beautiful hair will become poisonous snakes and your eyes turn any living being into stone. Your name will become the representation of fearful monster.”

After putting out the curse, Athena expelled Medusa into the deep forest, where Medusa began her transformation. Pain took over her body. Her shiny hair turned into slimy, hissing, snakes, and her deep green eyes turned into clouded gray. Unable to accept her current appearance and the burning pain, Medusa fainted.

As she fainted, she had a dream of the future where she lived isolated from the people, fearing other people of seeing her monstrous appearance and fearing of turning people into stone. No matter how far she stayed away from the human, the people who claimed to be the warriors and heroes tried to hunt her down for the fame. Yet, no one succeeded, and rumors spread she was a blood-thirsty monster that live to kill the men who come to her sight. Until that day, a man, Perseus, who claimed as the mortal son of Zeus, beheaded her in her sleep with the help of Athena. Perseus, shamelessly as his kin, rode on one of her son Pegasus, who was born with her blood along with his brother Chrysaor. Poor Pegasus, unknown of his mother’s tragedy, helped the Olympian gods in many battles.

Medusa, then, woke up with the tears on her face. She believed this dream is her future, and yet, knowing the future did not help her in escaping the hands of gods. Her hopeless and painful cried moved the god of west wind, Zephyrus. As one of wind gods, he knew of her past. Touched by her tragedy, he wanted to help her, but he is powerless against the Olympian gods. Wiping her tears with his airy hand, he consoled her in his formless body.

Zephyrus: “Cry not Medusa. The tears won’t help your current state. I knew of your tragedy, but there is nothing that I can do to help you. You may come to my mother, Eos the Goddess of Dawn, for help. Since she is the cousin of Zeus, there may be something that she can do to help you. You should travel at night to the far east and cry out to the first gleam of light that touch the sky. Tell her of your story, and I, Zephyrus send you to her. Farewell Medusa.”

Thankful with Zephyrus’s help, Medusa set out to the far east, hoping she can change her fate. As the gleam of light shined in her eyes, Medusa cried out.

Medusa: “O joyful Goddess of Dawn, I was sent by your son, Zephyrus, to ask for help. Please spare me a moment and help my lowly life.”

Eos: “Who are you? Why did my son send you to me?”

Medusa told Eos her tragedy and asked Eos for safe place to hide. Moved by her suffering, Eos replied.

Eos: “As long as to stay on earth, Zeus and Poseidon can find you, and your current state is not safe for other living beings either. You can go to the Underworld and ask Hades to stay there because the underworld is the only place where Zeus and Poseidon have no power to enter. However, it is hard for Hades to let you live there. Since your eyes can turn all beings into stone, I suggest you offer both of your eyes to Hades as gatekeepers in return of you staying there. Maybe he will accept you.”

Learning of possible way to escape her fate, Medusa grateful thanked Eos and headed to the gate of the Underworld. At the gate, she kneeled and pleaded with Hades, the God of Underworld. On the first day, there was no respond. Days passed, and she still persisted on begging. Finally, on the thirtieth day, the gate of the underworld opened. Charon, the ferryman of Hades, led her into the underworld and to Hades.

Medusa: “To the Great King of Underworld, I offered to you my humblest offering. Please let me stay in your underworld. I offered up my eyes that can turn all being into stone to be your gatekeepers.”

Hades: “Lowly mortal. You are the first one to request staying at my realm. You have to understand that once you enter here, you cannot leave. As for your offering, I accepted it.”

Hades used his power to remove Medusa’s eyes, turning them into two women with snake hair like Medusa. He named them Stheno and Euryale. When Hades removed Medusa’s eyes, her blood dropped on the ground and gave birth to Pegasus and Chrysoar. Hades sent Medusa and Euryale to watch the deep abyss, Tartarus, and sent Stheno to the Styx River, preventing any unwelcome visitors. To keep as eternal gatekeepers, Hades granted Medusa, Euryale, and Stheno immortality. As for Pegasus and Chrysoar, Hades added Pegasus to his chariot and set Chrysoar as the keeper of his chariot.

After Hades’s decisions, Medusa knew that she escaped the fate of being killed by Perseus because it is difficult for the gods to enter the underworld. Now, it is even more difficult with the addition of the Gorgon sisters. Although she lost her sight, Medusa contently spent her life with her new “sisters” and children.


Author’s Note

I based my story on Perseus’s encounter with Medusa. In the story, Perseus killed Medusa in her sleep, and her blood gave birth to Pegasus and Chrysoar. He also told the story on how Medusa was turned into a monster with snake hair and eyes that can turn people into stone. Medusa was cursed by Athena for being raped by Poseidon in Athena’s temple. I don’t like this part because Medusa was the victim in both situations. She probably doesn’t want to turn people into stone, but her eyes did automatically as she sees something. It is not an excuse for Perseus to kill her for his own motive, which is to protect his mother and future wife. So, I twisted the endings to let Medusa has a happy ending by letting her foresee her future. In the mythology, Medusa does have two sisters born with the same parents, but I made up that the sisters are the recreation of Medusa’s eyes. I think it goes with the flow of the story. Since Athena and other gods do not like Medusa, I think it is safer for her to live in the underworld.  Hades is not known as a rapist as his brothers, and the other gods cannot enter underworld, not mention coming close to Tartarus.  I think I went overboard with the length of the story, but it is difficult to condense all the details I wanted for the story. I hope readers enjoy my story. 

Medusa Look at Herself.  Pinterest

Bibliography. Ovid's I. Link

Reading Notes: Ovid's I - Part B

Echo and Narcissus – Both stories are very sad. I want it to have a happier ending. If I create a situation where Narcissus loses his beautiful appearance, will Echo falls in love with him and will the prophecy still be fulfill? The first thing I notices that Echo and Narcissus attracted by Narcissus’s appearance. So, if I remove that element, will these two stories have the same endings? When Narcissus is dying, he loses his beauty, but Echo still has feeling for him. I wish I can make them come together.

Hellenic Mythology - Echo and Narcissus. DeviantArt

Perseus’s Stories – Regardless of how I like the Perseus movie, I have to say most of Zeus’s kids have very bad characters, and it is the same when it’s apply to Perseus. Just look it this way, when Medusa was violated by Poseidon in Athena’s temple, instead of helping out the poor girl, Athena chooses to punish her by turning her into a horrid monster. Since Medusa appeared in Athena’s temple, this could mean that she is a follower of Athena. Although Athena receives praises and gifts of her followers, she turns away when her follower needs her. Perseus is not any better than his sister, Athena. After intruded Atlas’s territory and received Atlas’s unwelcoming action, Perseus turned poor Atlas into stone and stole his golden fruits. If I was Atlas, I would be unwelcome to the intruder to my house especially when I was told that he could be the one who ends my life. Atlas was nice enough to shoo Perseus away instead of attacking him, but Perseus still killed him. Like his father Zeus, Perseus also drooled over pretty women, which was why he saved Andromeda. If she was normal and not beautiful, I doubt Perseus will save her since her mother made an outrageous praise that even anger the gods. In addition, why Perseus intruded into Medusa’s den and killed her in her sleep? She did not do anything to him. This is not the act of hero because only villain stabs people from their back. He shamelessly rides the Pegasus, who is the offspring of the one he just killed. At the end, I have to say I am speechless toward Zeus’s children.

 Medusa. DeviantArt

 Bibliography: Ovid's Metamorphoses I by Ovid. Link to Part B

Reading Notes: Ovid's I - Part A

Deuclion and Pyrrha – I wonder “What evil deeds have mankind done?” Could this be the way that Mother Nature used the gods’ hands to recreate the mankind into more perfection? Why choose rocks as a part of creating new human kinds? The new mankind is more fit to the world they live in, the world of Olympian gods not the Titans. I can write about how Mother Nature tries to make the perfect human kind.

Io, Semele, Callisto– Poor Io for enduring suffering! I want Hera to punish Zeus instead of Io because it is not her fault that Zeus raped her. I think Hera did this because she cannot direct oppose to Zeus since he is the ruler of gods. I want to create a plan where Hera can tame Zeus, and I want to make Zeus suffer. It will be interesting if Zeus is loyal only to Hera. I can write about how Hera can prevent Zeus’s cheating or punish Zeus.

These are more like pondering questions when I do the readings. These will help me retract my thoughts.

Bibliography: Ovid's Metamorphoses I by Ovid - link to Part A

Hera Goddless and a Bird. DevianArt

I'm really glad that Laura assigned this Growth Mindset assignment.  Through the videos, I realized that I have a fixed mindset because I fear of change and challenge.  I used to be "Question Girl", asking about everything when I get a chance, and now, I just try to pass my classes.  Like the students in the video, my confidence was shaken when I first receive a "B" when I started at OU.  I was in shock.  I could not believe that my effort was wasted, but now, I see that I might not try hard enough.  There were things that I could have done better, but I chose to accept my limitation.  Because of this mindset, I lost my curiosity in learning new things.  With this Growth Mindset activities throughout this semester, I hope to change my mindset and become for more active in my learning.

Confront your fears. Growth Mindset Memes

Starting the Semester

My way of organizing is very traditional, which is the to do list.  I used the Sticky Notes program in my laptop to organize my works.  I make a note on everything going on in my life like a note of special events, a note on appointments, a note on work schedule, and a note on school.  For the note on school, I tend to create it weekly unless there is a long term project.  I prioritize the list by the importance of the assignment,  the assignment's deadline, and assignment's difficulty.  So far, this method works very well with me since I use my laptop everyday. I hope this tip is useful.

 

Sticky Note + Gadget. Google 

Reading Options

For the week 2 reading, I decided to choose one reading from each unit.  I have not decide which one I will read first, but these choices are my favorites.

Classical Unit: Ovid's Metamorphoses
I like this set of readings because it contains various stories.  Some of the stories I already know, and some I have not read.  I hope to learn more about Greek mythology that is less known to the public instead of famous story like Homer's Iliad and Odyssey.

Biblical Unit: Women Saints or Bible Women
As a Catholic myself, I really want to know more about my religion.  I chose these two set of stories because I want to know more about the women role in the biblical story.

Here, I listed the possible readings that I want to read for the upcoming units.

1. Chinese Fairy Tales - I personally read many Chinese fairy tales and folklore, and some of my favorites are the story of Daji, Journey to the West, and ghost stories by Pu Songling.  Pu Songling's Liaozhai Zhiyi and Journey to the West known as two out of four famous masterpiece of Chinese literature.  I hope this reading will be as exciting as them.

2. Ancient Egyptian Myths and Stories - After reading "Ouke no Monshou" manga in my teenage years, I fell in love with Egypt's mysterious history and myth, and I am also a fan of Mummy 1 & 2. This is why I chose this unit.

3. Japanese Mythology, Japanese Fairy Tales (Ozaki), Japanese Fairy Tales (Lang) - As a manga fan, I don't think I need to explain any further about my choice.  I plan to read at least one of these set of stories if not reading all of them.

4. The Voyages of Sinbad - I watched the Adventures of Sinbad TV show growing up, I really want to know if the story is better.  First thing I noticed is there are less adventure in the story than TV show itself.

5. Ovid II ,Ovid III - Sorry, but I can't get enough of Greek mythology!!!

 

Age of Mythology Gods. Wiki

Storybook Favorites

Story: Girl Power on Mount Olympus

The topic of this story is very traditional, which is telling mythological stories of Greek goddesses. The twist on these stories is using the character’s perspective to tell the story instead of third person. I think this approach on the project is the easiest way to do this project. Personally, I think the title of the story is a bit misleading. When I see “Girl Power on Mount Olympus”, I thought the author will tell stories about how the Greek goddess overpower the Greek gods or at least emphasize these goddesses’ power not lessen to the male gods. I noticed this author has a different blog’s setup than the majority of the story. However, navigating through stories is very inconvenience since she did not include a label sidebar.

Hera. Web Source: Deviant Art. 2010

Story: The Four Beauties of China

I really like the time-traveling approach of this story, and the author also used the similar story-telling method like other stories, which is a series of individual story within overall story. However, I noticed these individual stories are leaning toward historical perception than the mythological perception. The only supernatural element in this story is the immortal cricket. This confused me. I am wondering if semester-long project should have more supernatural elements or it can be more historical. Besides this, the overall design and title of the story is relevant to the topic.


Story: Living in the Past: Tales of Ancient Vietnam

This story is my top favorite. Of course, I am a little bias on this decision, but the approach of this story is more challenging than the other two stories. The author incorporated many Vietnamese folklores in the brand new story. This implies that he has a very good understanding of these folklores in order to use these elements efficiently. I like how he smoothly transitioned from his introduction to the next chapter. His title also relevant to the story, but I think he could have done better with the design and images throughout his story.

Introdution to a Daydreaming Bookworm

Here, I want to tell everybody a little about myself. I am senior in Chemical Engineering. My current goal for this semester is to get a job offer in my hometown (I am a family girl. I don’t like to stay far away from my family.). I am taking Myth & Folklore course as a relax class to fill up required credits for this semester. In addition, my friend told me this class is very interesting if I like reading myths, folklore, and fairy tales.

My hobbies are reading books and watching TV. I am a bookworm, and I am a huge fan of fan-fiction. Since I am bilingual, I read books in both English and Vietnamese. My favorite online fan-fiction or book from online writers is Wattpad. If any of you like reading books with new genres, you should try this site. It has multiple languages that you can choose from. Currently, I am reading many books from Chinese authors. Of course, these books are translated into Vietnamese. Some of my favorite genres are fanfiction, time traveling, futurism, and myth/fantasy.  If I have a chance, I want to spend a whole day just reading my fanfiction.  As for watching TV, I like almost all genres except for horror and sad theme.

In one of my previous post, I mentioned that I like to travel to Japan, but I also want to travel to many other places like Egypt, Korea, China, France, Greek, and other European countries. The reasons I like these countries are mainly: 1) scenery, 2) food, 3) history. Some of these countries have very fascinated cultures, which shown in their mythology and beliefs. There was a time when I was crazy over mythology, and I read many mythical stories from Egypt, Greek, and China. Since I love fan fiction, I really want to incorporate my fantasies to the mythology of these countries (I am a Pisces, which means I daydreaming a lot). Thus, I am excited for this class. I hope you guys will enjoy my future stories and please give me feedback to help me improve further!

 

Library (Beauty and the Beast). Disney Wiki

Story: "The Lion in Love"

Once upon a time, in a deep forest, there lives a ferocious lion, named Mighty. He is well-known for his razor-sharped claws and unbreakable bite. All the animals fear his presence, but Mighty enjoys his power over all beings.

One day, as he takes his daily walk around his territory, he strolls near the river where the two alligators are talking.

Alligator A: “Hey buddy, have you heard about the Wise One?”

Alligator B: “Who is that? What is so special about him?”

Alligator A: “The rumor said that the Wise One is the old monkey, living in the biggest tree in this forest, and I heard that his knowledge is more powerful than our king, Mighty. He can even predict the future.”

Alligator B: “What is knowledge? I want to know if he is tasty.”

Alligator A: “Dummy, if he is powerful as the rumor said, there is no way we can eat him. Since you brought it up, it makes me curious too. I think he will taste…”

After overheard the alligators’ conversation, Mighty becomes curious about this “Wise One”, thinking if the “Wise One” is truly powerful as the alligators said. To satisfy his curiosity, Mighty decides to give this “Wise One” a visit, and if it is necessary, Mighty doesn’t mind challenge the “Wise One” to reaffirm his position as the sole ruler of this forest.

When he arrived at the biggest tree in the forest, he sees an old, wrinkle monkey.

Mighty: “Are you the ‘Wise One’?”

Wise One: “I am, My King.”

Mighty: “Since you proclaimed me as your king, this means you succumb to my power. Now, I am curious if you can see the future like what the rumor said you can.”

Wise One: “Yes, I can see the future, but the future can be change.”

Mighty: “Tell me, how long will my power continues?”

Wise One: “Since one day you will die, there will be a time that your power will cease.”

Mighty: “When is the time that my power will cease?”

Wise One: “One day you will meet your fated one. You will fall deeply in love her, and because of her, you will give up your power.”

Mighty: “Nonsense! There is no such thing! Because of your obedience, I forgive your foolish lies, but do not tell anybody else. Or I will come back to claim your life.”

Although Mighty walked away, the Wise One’s words rooted in his mind. As the time passed, Mighty becomes anxious and short-tempered. He separated himself from his pride especially away from the lionesses, but this does not ease his mind. So, he decides to move to the forest’s border, where many humans reside, thinking this will be safe for his power.

In the new place, Mighty comes across a young maiden who walked pass his new territory to fetch water. Separating from the forest’s animals, Mighty grows lonely, and so, watching the maiden passing by becomes his favorite time of the day. As the time passed, he becomes more eager to see the maiden’s appearance. When the winter arrives, the maiden appears less and less. Mighty becomes more restless. He realized he can’t live without seeing her, and so, he decided to marry the maiden.

One day, the maiden passes by to fetch her water, and Mighty follows her home. He stands in front of the maiden’s parents and asks to marry the maiden.

Mighty: “I fell in love with your daughter, and I want to marry her.”

Maiden’s Parents: “Dear mighty lion, we afraid our daughter is too fragile for your touch. We will agree if you let us clip your claws and remove your teeth because it will be safer for our daughter.”

Mighty is so deeply in love that he agreed. After they done with his teeth and claws, they refused to marry off their daughter.

Maiden’s Parents: “We do not want to marry our daughter to a beast like you. Go away!”

Angered by their words, Might want to use his claws to slash them, but he looked down at his feet and realized his claws are clipped.

Maiden’s Parents laughed: “Without your teeth and claws, you are nothing more than a big cat. Now, go back to where you belong before we beat you.”

After being shooed away by the maiden’s parents, Mighty walked aimlessly back to the forest. Greeting him are the ridicules and mocking laughs of other animals. Now, he realized that he meets the fate that he was running away from.

Crying for his fate, he comes to the Wise One to ask for help.

Mighty: “Dear Wise One, is there anything you can do to help me escape my fate?”

Wise One: “There is no escape in life. The more you want to running away from it is the faster you meet up with your fate. This is what you did before, and your current state is the result of your hiding. Facing your problem is a better choice than hiding from it.”

From that moment on, Mighty moves back to the forest. After a series of mockeries and challenges, he finally gets accepted back to the pride. Although he will no longer physically powerful, his mind becomes stronger.

 

The Lion in Love. Source: Web

Author’s Note:

This is the original version:

A Lion once fell in love with a beautiful maiden and proposed marriage to her parents.

The old people did not know what to say.

They did not like to give their daughter to the Lion, yet they did not wish to enrage the King of Beasts.

At last the father said:

"We feel highly honoured by your Majesty's proposal, but you see our daughter is a tender young thing, and we fear that in the vehemence of your affection you might possibly do her some injury. Might I venture to suggest that your Majesty should have your claws removed, and your teeth extracted, then we would gladly consider your proposal again."

The Lion was so much in love that he had his claws trimmed and his big teeth taken out.

But when he came again to the parents of the young girl they simply laughed in his face, and bade him do his worst.

Love can tame the wildest.



Bibliography. “The Lion in Love” from The Fables of Aesop by Joseph Jacobs. Web Source

I incorporated some other elements to story like the monkey “Wise One”. I got the idea for this character from Rafiki in The Lion King. I based encounter between the Mighty and Wise One from Oedipus. Like Oedipus’ father tried to escape from the prophecy, leading the tragedy, Mighty did the same to save his power, but he ends up fulfilling the prediction. However, I don’t want the story to have a very sad ending, and so, I let Mighty back to his pride and hope he finds a new goal in his life.