Storybook Plan

Hello there!

When I was reading through the last part of this week's project assignment, I realized I had actually answered majority of the bulleted items in my last week's project research post.

Just to recap:
- I decided to do a Storybook!
- I think the storybook will be a great way for me to bring the the Greek Heroines and let my readers know of their importance, origins, and what all they did and stood for
- I will be referring to theoi.com
- I think the overarching theme will be displaying the female strength in various forms.
- I want to almost make it in the form of bedtime stories, imagining that these are stories I might tell my niece or nephew
- I don't want to limit myself on the story style, but I am leaning more towards bedtime story style rather than stories geared for adults...

So this is easier for me I hope you don't mind I took your email from week 3 and added this week 4 material on, so that I have all my comments on one page. The comments in red are for this week.


I would like to know what their origins were (i.e. parents, the city they were born in, who they married, any children) and focus the stories on what made them the heroines rather than just another average Greek. I would like to have the stories in a first-person view and be descriptive of the challenges they faced and connect two or three heroines in some way. For example, I might do a first-person narrative of Penelope and her struggles during her wait for Odysseus.

==> first-person perspective sounds great! you might be interested in this ancient experiment by the poet Ovid, where he imagined some famous Greek heroes writing letters to the heroes; it's called the Heroides (which is Greek for "heroines"): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heroides ... and here is an English translation online: https://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Latin/Heroideshome.php#highlightheroides

I looked into the Heroides and could not find ones that related to the heroines I am thinking of writing stories about. 

I want to focus my stories on:

Atalanta:
Atalanta was an Arkadian heroine--a huntress and a favourite of the goddess Artemis.
Atalanta swore to defend her virginity and when two Kentauroi (Centaurs) burst into her grove, she slew them with arrows. She later took part in the voyage of the Argonauts and defeated the hero Peleus in wrestling at the funeral games of King Pelias.
The heroine reluctantly agreed insisting that a suitor must defeat her in a race and that the losers be put to death. Melanion--or Hippomenes--however, sought the help of the goddess Aphrodite who provided him with three golden apples to cast before the girl in the race.
neglected to pay Aphrodite her dues. She cursed him and he was compelled to lie with his wife in the sacred precinct of Zeus, Rhea or Artemis where an offended deity transformed them into lions.

==> Atalanta is AWESOME, and as you can see there are so many different dimensions to her story; you can choose the episode(s) from her life to include in your story based on what you think are the most important aspects of her character.

I found this story of how Atalanta came to be and how her husband came into the picture. There are so many aspects of her that all play a key role in developing who she is, I am kind of struggling on what aspect to capitalize on.. I am leaning more towards how she became a huntress. Source 1: https://www.greek-gods.org/greek-heroes/atalanta.php. Source 2 has an ode at the bottom: http://atalantaandhippomenes.weebly.com

Leda:
Leda was a queen of Sparta, the wife of King Tyndareus, who was seduced by Zeus in the guise of the swan.
In the chronology of myth Leda was a contemporary of Herakles who placed her husband Tyndareus on the throne of Sparta.
Leda was usually described as a daughter of Thestios, king of Pleuron.
not really sure I like Leda's character so much at the moment

==> although with these characters you can imagine them in any way that you like! that's why people keep coming back to Greek myth over and over again: there are so many different ways to imagine each character... and with all those famous children, it makes you wonder what she thoughts about her children, and what they might have thought about their mother! but if you are not happy with Leda, you had mentioned Penelope, who would be another great character to include

I did not find as much information on Leda as I had originally hoped so I am trading her out for Penelope. There's is a Heroide of Penelope to Ulysses. For this I am going to talk about Penelope is the daughter of Icarius of Sparta, and how she ended up marrying Ulysses...since there is so much significance about Penelope and Ulysses, I am thinking maybe I should do one story that introduces her and one that she tells about her time awaiting for Ulysses. What are your thoughts? Or should I combine the two? There are various resources embedded within this one site: https://www.greekmythology.com/Myths/Mortals/Penelope/penelope.html

Penthesilea:
Penthesilea was an Amazon queen who led her troops to Troy in support of King Priamos during the Trojan War.
In the battles which ensued Penthesileia slew the Greek Makhaon (Machaon) but was in turn felled by Akhilleus (Achilles).
Penthesileia's name means "mourned by the people"

==> Penthesilea is such a great character; I am really excited you want to include her! there are ancient authors who wrote about her, and modern authors too; here is a book (poem) about Penthesilea: http://bit.ly/37Y4Qpn ... if you like poetry, you might enjoy reading that as an extra credit reading thing!

There's a story that talks about how she killed Achilles first and Zeus brought him back to life and then Achilles proceeded to kill Penthesilea. I think the readers will really like that story and tie into the story why her name holds significance as well. I am going to mention her origins at the beginning of the story. 

Tyro:
Tyro was a Thessalian princess who fell in love with the river Enipeus. As she was sitting on the banks of the river, Poseidon seduced her in the guise of the river-god.
There were several alternate versions of her story. In one, after Tyro revealed she was pregnant by the god, her father Salmoneus refused to believe her, suspecting that his wicked brother Sisyphos was involved. He commanded her to expose the children as soon as they were born.
Stories will focus on bringing the importance of the heroines into the stories and making the readers knowledgable about the origins of the goddesses. Picked some that overlapped. Any suggestions and comments are appreciated!

==> oh wow, this is so cool: no one has ever done a Tyro story for this class before; I think that sounds great, and you have picked out such an unusual set of heroines, all with such different stories and different ways for you to imagine their personalities! that sounds wonderful! you can see all the ancient testimony about Tyro here at theoi.com: https://www.theoi.com/Heroine/Tyro.html

I think for Tyro I plan to introduce her origins/family and then dive into how she fell in love with the river god, Enipeus, who ignored her. She married someone she didn't love and was a mother to five children (not all from her husband). Mentioning Poseidon is important because she bears his twins.