In this Chippewa-Ojibwa myth, a young boy goes off on the traditional vision quest to find his adult name and his mission in life. Uppermost in his mind is his desire to find a way to provide a constant food source for his people. He is visited by his Guardian Spirit, who challenges him to a series of wrestling matches. Though the boy loses the first three matches, his courage and determination so impress the Great Sky Spirit and his Guardian Spirit that he is allowed to win the fourth match and ultimately gain his wish: from Guardian Spirit's body comes the first crop of corn.
Unravel Myths of Origin.
Discover the stories behind Greek, American, Mongolian and Hawaiian myths.
Read about Myths that Set Order in Society
These African, Greek, American and Persian myths will give you examples.
Learn about Myths about Transformationt
These myths will exemplify things or people that are transformed.
Explore Myths of Wisdom!
Will they make you wiser? More intelligent?
martes, 7 de junio de 2016
Prometheus and Pandora
In this Greek myth, the god Prometheus enrages Zeus by bringing the gift of fire to human beings. With this gift, humans are able to make tremendous changes that improve their lives, which is exactly what Zeus did not want to happen. To punish Prometheus, Zeus tries to tempt him into marrying Pandora, a human woman created for this purpose and sent to earth carrying a mysterious lidded jar. The ware Prometheus gets his brother Epimetheus to marry Pandora instead. Epimetheus removes the lid from the jar, and a hoard of miseries escape to plague Earth forever. Still yearning for revenge, Zeus then has Prmetheus chained to a mountaintop and sends an eagle to pluck at his body and eyer forever, or until prometheus repents and swears allegiance to Zeus. Proud and stubborn, Prometheus endures his agony for thousands of years. Finally. Zeus relents and sends Hercules to break the chains and free the captive.
The Story of Oisin
In the Celtic myth, the king of the mystical land of Tir na N-og is told that he will lose his power if his daugther marries, for then his son-in-law would become king. To destroy her changes of finding a husband, the king changes the hapless girl's head into the head of a pig. Advised by a Druid that she will regain her beauty if she can get a human named Oisin to marry her, the princess goes to Eire (Ireland), finds Oisin, and so moves him with her sad story that he consents to wed her. He goes to Tir Na N-og with the princess -now restored to her original beauty- and becomes ruler of the happy land where no one ever grows old. In time, Oisin yearns to see his homeland and his family again, even though his wife tells him that three hundred years have passed since he was there. Oising, warned to never let his foot touch the earth, travels back to Eire on his wife's white horse. Leaning from the saddle to see his father's gravestone, Oising slips from the srirrups and falls to the ground. Immediately, he becomes an aged and feeble old man and can never return to Tir Na N-og.
Thor & His Hammer
In this myth from Scandinavia, Thor the Thunder god loses his hammer through his own carelessness. Helpless to defend Asgard, the home of the gods, without his hammer, Thor must find a way to get it back from the Frost King who has stolen it. The Frost King says he will return the hammer only if the goddess Freyja consents to marry him. Because Freyja refuses such a marriage, Thos disguises himself as the goddess and goes with the trickster god Loki to present himself as the bride. The Frost King is taken in by the ruse and gives the hammer to his "bride". Thor then throws off his disguise, slays some of the Frost Giants, and returns with his hammer to Asgard.
lunes, 6 de junio de 2016
Orion and the Sisters
Orion was a giant-sized hunter of prodigious strength. He was created by Zeus at the request of King Hyrieus of Boeotia, who had entertained Zeus most hansomely and who dearly wanted a son. Orion was such a passionate hunter that he offended even Artemis, the patroness of hunters, because he killed off all the wild animals of Crete. Orion then began to hunt young women, mainly the seven daughters of Atlas. Fleeing form the giant, the sisters prayed to Zeus for help. IN response, Zeus turned them into doves; when they reached the sky, the doves became the star cluster called the Pleiades. Then Zeus, to keep Orios out of further mischief, also chaged him, alng with his dog Sirious, into a constellation.
Chih-nii, the Heavenly Spinner
In this Chinese myth, Chih-nii, the daughter of a major deity, comes down to earth to bathe in a river. A simple cowherd, not knowing her identity, steals her robe and hides it, and -when the goddess comes to fetch it- convinces her to marry him. Unable to return to the heavens without her robe, Chihh-nii consents to the proposal. Years later, Chih-nii cajoles her husband into giving the robe back to her. She returns to the kingdom in the sky. Through the good offices of a genie-ox, the cowherd rises into the sky and is reunited with his wife in the eastern sky. Her father appints the cowherd to the guardianship of a star in the wet. Each year the couple is reunited for a brief time by traveling a bridge over the Milky Way.
The Dancing Children
This Onondaga myth tells of seven children who dismay their elders by dancing and frolicking all night on the shore of a lake where a group is camped for the winter. In spite of warnings from a mysterious wise man, the children continue their capers. Then, on one special night, the children ascen into the sky and become seven stars. In this form, they dance forever.
