Among her many superhuman talents, the Greek doddess of wisdom, Athena, had some human ones, too, and one of them was weaving. In this myth, Athena challenges a skilled human weaver, Arachne, to a weaving contest. When Arachne's tapestry is judged to be the winner, Athena is enraged. In revenge, she turns Arachne into a new creatures, a spider, and condemns her to spin until the end of time.
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?
lunes, 6 de junio de 2016
The Crane Wife
In this legend from Japan, a poor man rescues a creane from a fisher's net. Shortly thereafter, a beautiful woman appears at the man's doodr and convinces hiim to marry her. Whenever the man complans of his poverty, his wife relieves it by retiring to a small room and emerging many hours later with fabric so beautiful that her husband is able to sell it to the Emperor for a great price. Though the wife has made her husband promise not to intrude on her while she is spinning, the man's curiosity eventually leads him to open the door to the spinning room. There she sees the wite crane wif flies awaya and never returns.
The Talking Bird
This Persina legend, a retelling of one in the Arabian Nights, tells of a gullible and foolish ruler, the Sultan Kohs'roo Shah, who is tricked by his jealous sisters into abandoningn his three infant children. The babies - two boys and a gril- are rescued and raised by a gatekeeper and his wife, who educate the children, give them every material advantage, and provide the love and guidance that enables them to grow up wise and brae; that is, having all the qualities a good rules should have but which their royal father lacks.
The foster parents die, and young Princess Palizade and her brothers Bahman and Perviz are still unaware of their noble birth. A mysterious old woman tells them a Talking Bird, a Singing Tree, and Golden Water. Determined to acquiere these magical things, first Bahman and then Perviz sett off to find them. Both young men are turned to stone when they forget to heed a dervish's warning about the dangers they will meet in their quest. Palizade, however, is successful: she brings her brothers back to life and three carry the bird, the tree, and a flagon of the Golden Water back to their home. The Shah, journeying through the land, stops for a meal there. The Talking Bird tells him who the exemplary young people really are. The Shah repents of this past foolishness and names his children his rightul heirs.
Plumed Serpent
In Aztec mythology, Quetzalcoatl, or the Plumed Serpent, and his people, the Toltec, brought civilization to Mexico. The story in this collection tells of how Plumed Serpent established peace in his kingdom through his own bening rule and through the simplicity, prayerfulness, and dedication to ceremony of his own daily life. Smoking Mirror, the god respresenting war, disorder, and bloodshed, is determined to establish his own rule in Tula, the majestic capital. He accomplishes thsi by showing Plumed Serpent his own image in a mirror. Aghast at how he has aged, Plumed Serpent begins to mourn his lost youth and forget his responsibilities to his people. To completely undermine Plumled Serpent, Smoking Mirror tempts him into a night of drunken reverly.
In the morning, saddened at what he has done, Plumed Serpent has his place set afire and leaves his kingdom forever, so that it becomes the domain of the bloodthirsty Smoking Mirror.
Theseus and the Minotaur
There are many stories about Theseus, the mythic hero whom Greeks considered the ideal ruler because of his civilizing influence and insistence on "law and order". The myth here tells of his birth, of his journey to Athens to join his royal father, of how he slew monsters and established peace of the countryside, and finally of his encounter with the Minotaur on the Island of Crete.
The Minotaur, a creature half human and half bull, lived in a labyrinth beneath the palace of King Minos, who demanded that Athenians send fourteen young men and women each year to satisfy the Minotaur's appetite. Theseus sails to Crete as one of the year's supposed victims. Ariadne, Mino's daughter, gives him a ball of twine, which he unwinds as the gropes through the dark labyrinth. He finds and slays the Minotaur, follows the twine back to the gateway, frees the other young Athenians, and salis home with them Ariadne.
Daughter of the Star
In this myth told by the Nilotic Alur in Africa, a heavenly princess whose kingdom in a model of order falls in love with and marries a mortal king. When the king's subject follow the princess's orders concerning the wedding feast, all goes smoothly. But when the princess returns to her sky kingdom to visit her parents, her husband's servants who accompany her disobey her instructions not to open a lidded jar. As a result, a swarm of locusts and other insects is released and attacks the servants. Unlike the similar story of Pandora, in this tale the pestilent insects are put back into the jar, and the servants thus learn to obey their rulers' instructions.
Origin of Disease and Medicine
In this Cherokee legend, animals seek ways to fight back against the humans who kill them. Afflicting humans with disease seems to be the only retribution. It is only the deer who decide that a human hunter will be spared disease if he or she offers thanks to the animal he or she killed. The kindgom of Plants, friendly to humans, provides remedies for many diseases inflicted by other endangered animals.
