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Hi guys, I was wondering if anyone has fun stories that they know, it doesn't have to be mythology, but Greek mythology just fascinates me the most, along with the chinese folk tales like the one from Children of the Mind with the Man and his Dog where the man goes on his private jet and *cough cough cough cough cough cough* (I don't want to spoil the plot or give people queasy stomaches)
Anyways the only one I can remember right now is the story of Echo and Narcissus. (also known as the story of how the word Echo came to be)
Zeus the God of all Gods, or the king God or.... well... I know he's the God of Thunder, but what is his actual position? King of Gods? Lord of Gods? What?
ANYWAYS! Zeus often liked visiting Earth to dance in the forest with the nymphs and play and frollick all day. Hera (Zeus's wife) would have to go down to Earth and chase around the world to search for Zeus. She had a terrible wrath, but Zeus would never get caught by her because everytime Hera came down to search for Zeus, one nymph, who's name is Echo, would stop her from her search and talk and talk until the other nymphs could get Zeus back to the heavens. Hera wasn't a fool though, she knew the nymphs were up to something. One day Hera was having an exceptionally bad day and got tired of Echo's talking. So Hera said something or other that I can't quite remember right now (come on, I last read the story in like the 6th grade, thats 5 years ago, I'm surprised I remember this much). And so Hera put a spell on Echo so that Echo could only talk after someone else said something and even then only repeat what that person said. -insert random filler that was probably left out because this was from a middle school literature book- . One day all the nymphs in the woods were excited because the beautiful prince Narcissus had decided to travel through the woods. Prince Narcissus was a self-centered egomaniac and devoted his entire life to noone.... except himself. As he went through the woods all the other nymphs falunted themselves and tried to get him to follow them, but he just ignored them, and even called a few of them ugly. As he went deeper and deeper into the woods, fewer and fewer nymphs followed. But Echo was one of the nymphs, she followed farthesat behind and quietest of them all. Suddenly they were alone (per se) and Echo longed to be able to greet him. Narcissus stopped and suddenly realized he was lost, so he called out "Hello?". This was Echo's chance! She called out to him "Hello?" Then Narcissus said "Hello? Who is that? Is someone there?" Echo sadly replied "someone there?" Narcissus was getting a bit infuriated "If someone is there please help me, I'm lost" Echo just called out "Lost, lost". Narcissus was desperate and said "Whoever that is please help me" Echo bounded out of her hiding spot and said "help me". and then........................... ok ive spent a half hour typing this, and now i forgot what happens, something a lake and him seeing himself and dying and then echo dying and i specifically rememeber the word "pine" in there becuase echo "pined" away, so someone needs to finish the story for me, and post new ones, awesome, thanks
[ February 13, 2006, 05:42 PM: Message edited by: Alex Johansen ]
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Narcissus saw his own reflection in the water and fell in love with it; he wasted away there by the pool, as he could not bear to be away from himself.
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Then the next spring a flower came up by the pool where he died and that flower today forever bears his name the narcissus. Echo wandered the lands and sometimes if you listen closly you can hear her reapeting what you say.
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I always wanted to know more about Norse Mythology.
The gods of of the Norse always seemed so much more nice and benevolent than the gods of Greek mythology, who treat humans as nothing more than playthings. Zeus was the King of the Gods after deposing the Titans.
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I think I'd rather be a subject of the Olympians than the Aesir; better a plaything that a pawn in a grim war in which I'm guaranteed die horribly, assuming I'm one of the lucky ones.
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The Olympic gods seemed to have the trite, petty, selfish, and lustful bad qualities of men. The Norse gods seemed to have the violent and cruel bad qualities.
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Hehe, Dionysus and the pirates. I can't promise a faithful-to-Apollodorus (or whomever) recounting, but here's what I've got off the top of my head (and very colloquial English):
Dionysus was a pretty boy. He had flowing golden locks, rosy cheeks, and a lean stature. When he would take mortal form, these attributes would stay with him (unless, of course, he became a bunch of grapes, in which case all bets were off).
One day, he was in mortal form and thus was very pretty. A group of sailors - or pirates, if you will - saw the "mortal" and decided to take him on board. They planned to do many nasty things to this boy and then sell him to slavery so that more people could do nasty things to him. Sounds great, eh?
Dionysus, being a god, quickly figured out the sailors' (fine, pirates') plan. Needless to say, he was angry. Gods don't like being tricked (ask about Prometheus and Zeus sometime). In his anger, Dionysus kicked the men off their ship and turned them all into dolphins...
... all of them except the captain, who had recognized Dionysus and tried to stop the nasty stuff from going down (literally). Accounts differ on the fate of the captain, but I like to think he found another crew of pirates and carried on their merry ways, telling the world about their captain's brush with a pretty god.
Others say that the captain was murdered mercilessly by Dionysus for just bringing the god on board, and still others say that the captain was turned into a dolphin with the rest of his crew.
Good story? (And did I miss anything?)
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And also, I remember something about the Echo story.
Narcissus's reflection appeared so clear because Aphrodite (goddess of love) saw Echo kill herself through her own mourning, so she made Narcissus see only his own reflection and fall in love with it, so he could never leave for fear of losing sight of himself, the only thing he loved.
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I beileve Dionysus basically turned the boat into a giant grapevine so all the pirates jumped off but the dionysus had mercy on them and turned them into dolphins.
never heard anything about the captain though
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There once was a shepherd, who's name I forget, who fell in love with the moon.
Every night he would lay upon the highest hill top his flocks could fine, and stare lovingly up at the moon while praising it for its beauty.
And the moon began to love the shepherd back. As he lay stretched out upon the hill, the moon would come down to him. There they would frollic in the pastoral splendor.
"What can I do for you my love" the moon asked the shepherd boy.
"I wish I could live forever so I could love you for ever."
"Is that all?" asked the Moon?
"That is all."
So she made him immortal, to live for ever.
They both forgot the eternal youth thing.
So year by year the Moon kept its divine youthful beauty, but the poor shepherd grew older, more feeble of body and feeble of mind each year.
Today the moon cares for the husk of that old old shepherd, drooling away on some Grecian hilltop.
Such are the risks of loving the gods.
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IIRC, the traditional end of that myth says that the shepherd eventually withered away to a grasshopper.
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I'm partial, right now, to the story of Dionysus Zagreus:
Zeus had decided to bestow all his power on his son, Dionysus. Hera, being Hera, didn't like this at all, so she lured the child away from safety using some toys, to the Titans, which devoured the boy. Only his heart was left.
Zeus killed the Titans, and recreated Dionysus using the heart of the child that had been killed.
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Hmm, short story Scott, I usually like em lengthier. I'm one of those people that die a bit inside everytime a story ends .
Carrie and Dan, also amazing stories, I like both of them! Those are exactly the type I want, ones with slight morals in them (well, don't almost all stories have morals, all fables and myths anyways)
Does anyone know any Scary Stories? Or should I start a new thread for those?
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I'm one of those people that die a bit inside when a story that should have ended already gets yet another sequel published in the series. Posts: 16551 | Registered: Feb 2003
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You know, I've got lots of neat mythology stories, but what's the point in posting them in a mayfly thread?
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Funny story about the word Narcissism: I told my sister I was going to narc on her or something along those lines (jokingly. She's not a druggy). And she went "Narc? Does that have anything to do with narcissism?". So now whenever someone is being particularly vain, I call them a narc. I thought it was funny anyways. And I like most all Greek myths, though I especially like the stories with Titans in them. Has anyone hear read the Everworld series? I thought it was pretty good and encompassing of many different mythologies.
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oh, i only added the mayfly, because of my questiona bout scary stories, sorry, ill change it if your going to post a story!
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quote:Originally posted by Dr Strangelove: Has anyone hear read the Everworld series? I thought it was pretty good and encompassing of many different mythologies.
Yeeeeeeeeeaaaaah, I really like that series! I read about 6 or 7 but my library ran out and now I'm lost. You know what? I'm gonna look for them again.
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Dr. Strangelove, have you read Dan Simmon's Ilium? It's currently my favorite creative use of Greek myth (well, just the Iliad, really) in modern literature. Great, great stuff. Here is the first part of the first chapter. He had me at "And while you're at it, O Muse,".
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mmmmm ... looks goood Noemon. Ya'll are loading me up with too many books! Yeah, you can take the blame on yourself Noemon for forcing me to get glasses. Posts: 2827 | Registered: Jul 2005
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Alex, I don't know that you understand what a mayfly is then. It means that this is a short thread aimed for a particular purpose that you are planning on deleting after that purpose has been fulfilled. For my money, way too many people start threads with mayfly in the title that don't fit this criteria and these threads are almonst never deleted.
I'll tell these next bits so that they fit seemlessly together like an egg (10 trivia points for the reference, 1 if you majored in mythology or classics).
One of the popular stories of Dionysus concerns his birth. Zeus, as was his wont, loved a mortal woman, Semele. Hera, as was her wont, wasn't real happy about this. So she disguised herself and convinced Semele to ask Zeus to appear before her as he did when he had sex with Hera. Zeus had bound himself by an unbreakable vow on the River Styx to grant her one thing she asked for, whatever it was. So, he did and she promptly burst into flames from his majesty.
Semele was pregnant with Dionysus at this time and though Zeus couldn't save her, he saved the pre-natal demigod and sewed him up in his thigh. Nine or so months later, Zeus gave birth to Dionysus from this same thigh.
This wasn't the first time Zeus had given birth to a child from a strange body part. (See the seamless segue. Check that action.) One time, after sleeping with Metis, goddess of swift and craft thought, Zeus thought "Wait, that might have been a bad idea. She was prophecized to bear a son more powerful than me." so he ate her. Metis had, however already been impregnated and this baby grew inside Zeus. Depending on the story, some time later Zeus either caused the baby, Athena, to spring forth from his head or he began having massive headaches and Hephasteus cracked his head open with a hammer and Athena popped out.
This is particularly interesting because, in some interpretations, it halted the changing order of gods cycle. Originially, there was the Earth, Gaia, who gave birth to the sky, Ouranos, who then became her husband. Ouranos slept with Gaia, but when time came for her to give birth, he...blocked the way...with...err, his little deity. Now, Gaia was very fertile and she full near to bursting with a whole passel of young 'ums. So, she snuck a sickle to her son, Cronos, who castrated Ouranos with it, thus letting Cronos and all his brothers and sisters, the Titans, be born. They then formed the new order of ruling deities with Cronos at his head. (Interestingly this motif of earth mother/sky father needing to be separated by the children is found in many other mythologies, such as the Polynesian).
It was prophesized that Cronos would have a son who would overthrow him, so he took to swallowing his children right after his sister/wife Rhea popped them out. However, one time Rhea swapped the child out, gave him to assistants who hid him, and instead gave Cronos a rock wrapped in the swaddling clothes, which he swallowed none the wiser. The child, who was Zeus, came back and fed his father a drug that made him vomit up all the children, the Gods, whom fought and defeated the Titans and took over rulership.
Zeus, through swallowing Metis and causing a daughter to be born out of his head, is said to have put a stop to the sucessive overthrow of orders of deities.
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quote:Originally posted by MrSquicky: ...Metis had, however already been impregnated and this baby grew inside Zeus. Depending on the story, some time later Zeus either caused the baby, Athena, to spring forth from his head or he began having massive headaches and Hephasteus cracked his head open with a hammer and Athena popped out.
Now this is actually one of my favourite parts of Hesiod. While Athena was gestating inside Zeus, he was busy sleeping around with more women and having more children, including the Muses. Hera became increasingly displeased, which is understandable.
Did she get revenge on the women? Not so much. Did she do something to Zeus' children? Nope.
In response to Zeus' birth of Athena without the role of a woman (and not necessarily in response to his sleeping around], Hera popped out a child of her own, without a male playing a part - Hephaestus.
But this sets up a bit of a paradox with the second version of Athena's birth - if Hephaestus was born in response to Athena, how could he be there at her birth?
Funny. I once played Narcissus in that story. I can't think why someone so modest and virtuous as me would be cast in that role.
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quote:I'm one of those people that die a bit inside everytime a story ends
Really? How interesting...
Once upon a time, there was a fly. It had a lovely wife, and two children. I found them buzzing around my fruitbowl, and smashed them all. Even the baby one.
The end.
Tommy was a boy who always picked his nose. One day, when he was picking his nose, Nasalus, the Roman god of boogers came down. He turned Tommy into a big ol' nosehair for destroying all those lovely boogers.
The end.
Once there was a girl, Jennipher, and her dog, Trixie. They were playing fetch with a dolphin. Trixie saved the dolphin from the evil Charlie Tuna's nets.
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