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. 

Topic Research: Greek Heroines

Hey All!

Today I'm going to expand on my topic of Greek Heroines. I strongly believe that the ladies need to be represented from Greek Mythology. I did some more research on a few different goddesses and will continue to search for more over the week. I am still debating whether to do a storybook or a portfolio. If I pursue this topic 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.

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.

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

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" 

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!

Leda and the Swan

Well, Let's Get Crackin'...Topic Brainstorm

Hey all! There are so many interesting topics out there that it is getting really hard to narrow, which ones I really am more interested in. I love learning more about the Greeks, which makes this class more enjoyable! As I had mentioned in my intro I love learning, I truly believe no matter how old you get or how many years in school you spend there is always more to learn. As you'll see I am a big greek mythology fan and so the theme for this post is greek mythology! I am truly so excited for this project!!

The Greek Titans: This is an area that I am not particularly familiar with because most of my readings concentrated on the time involving Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades. This does focus on the time before Zeus and the Olympians came to power and the ruling deities of Greece were the Titans. I would like to learn who was included in this group of Titan, how they were formed, what role did they play in the society, and how were they perceived by the Greeks. I love to learn the backgrounds first and then create fully detailed stories. I don't think I would want to model off of a sample story for this specific category. There is so much to learn about the Titans and I want the others to learn about Titans by retelling the original stories about them in a shorter form. More on the liens of taking a long story and revising it a bit and retelling it in my own words. I am not sure if I am making sense, but it would essentially be like a short synopsis. Although, I do know that I would like to focus on Cronus and Rhea.

The Greek Underworld: Through my readings of Greek mythology I know that Hades is the god of the underworld. Hades is known to have a fierce wrath and show no mercy. He has a gatekeeper and sends people out to bring those who have died down into the underworld. He is also one of three brothers, his other two bothers control the sky and sea. I would like to learn what led to Hades ruling the underworld domain and not one of the other two and if he had any children. I would like to tell stories that are set in modern times that still encompass and display Hades importance and role in the underworld functionings. I want to write short stories about an occurrence and tie that back to Hades role in what happens with that person. I am not very clear as to how I would start this, but I think even a few short stories from Hades perspective might be interesting.

Greek Heroines: This is not an area that I am particularly familiar with, so I thought it would be interesting to explore this area of the Greeks. I really do not have any previous knowledge in the area of Greek Heroines, so it will truly be a learning experience. If I pursue this topic 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. 

Gods and Goddesses of Olympus: Ask me what I do not know about the Greek gods and goddesses! I started first reading about them in 6th grade and to this day they are still my favorite summer reads. I love how there are so many of them and each plays a crucial role on earth. They remind of the Hindu gods and goddesses, there are so many of them it gets confusing to remember which role(s) each one plays. I want to specifically focus on Aphrodite, Athena, and Zeus for this project. They all serve different roles, but a human embodies all three typically. I would like this project to be more of like a storybook where the gods and goddesses are introduced through bedtime stories. There is something that happens/an event that occurs that would lead to gods/goddesses to come into the story and the reader through the story learns the power the god/goddesses yield. 

Athena Parthenos Reconstruction