Paper

I am not in love with this paper yet.  I believe that I can do better, however, given that I must present it today, I cannot brain storm and day dream how to make it more perfect any longer. I would love to hear anyone's thoughts on what I have written.

Stefanie Herrera

Mythology, Tue. Thurs. 3:35

Dr. Sexson

Mirrors

            Each day upon waking up, I look into the mirror and check to see if I am ready to go out into the day.   The face that I see in the mirror is always basically the same; however I always notice new things such as new changes to my skin.  Each change I notice are due to the choices I made that day; how late I stayed up, how much make up I put on, what kind of food I ate.   All these little choices affect how I will look in the mirror the next day.  The only thing I notice that stays the same when I look into the mirror is the mirror itself; it always hangs in the same spot, always showing me myself.  I will then go about my day, however I stop at most every mirror I see throughout the day and glance at the picture they reflect. In these mirrors I do not look at myself, but rather I look at everyone else.  I look into this story book, and I see things that my eyes do not normally see.  I see the future being reflected to me.

               

               

            ”I had immediately the sensation that I was expected.  Something had been waiting there all my life.  I stood there and I knew who waited, who expected. It was myself.  I was here and this house was here, you and I and this evening were here, and they had always been here, like reflections of my own coming.  It was like a dream.    I had been walking towards a closed door, and by the sudden magic its impenetrable wood became glass, through which I was myself coming from the other direction, the future” (Fowles 108-109)  Mirrors have always symbolized the opening to another portal; a view on something that has much more depth and meaning than the life we are already living in.  Nicholas realizes this when he enters this clearing, he realizes that he is expected, that the closed door he was walking towards is actually glass and that he can see himself coming from the opposite direction.  He sees his future self in his reflection.  Perhaps the reflections that people see are not a reflection of the life that they are currently living, perhaps it is something deeper; perhaps they instead see the future. Throughout story tales, and myths, mirrors are also more than just ways to see the future so to speak, they also reveal that maybe someone else is watching; maybe there is someone else out there.  The paths that we are currently on have already been lain out before us; history repeats itself.  However, it does not repeat itself exactly as it did before for every person.  A look in the mirror tells us that we have a story; however it only tells us one story.  Only when we shatter the glass into which we look does the true nature of that story reveal itself.  Each crack represents a different path that can be taken; and we always have the choice of which one to follow.

            John Fowles novel, The Magus is about the narcissistic Nicholas Urfe.  As well known, Narcissus fell in love with his own reflection, which is how we associate narcissism with mirrors.  Mirrors seem fitting for this novel because not only do they represent Nicholas, they are the eyes of the story teller.  The forever popular “mirror, mirror, on the wall, who is the fairest of them all” from Snow White shows the meaning behind the mirrors, they house the future, and they house the story teller.  They are the source of something far greater than us; they are where fate resides.  Fate is a specific web of different paths that one can be expected to take, which path a specific person decides to take is completely up to them; just as group 1 demonstrated with their presentation.  They had the specific scenario; however, the class was able to decide which answer they chose for the given scenario.  This is like a cracked mirror, it is easy to see the spider web of different paths that one is able to follow, however, many of them draw more attention than others, and so the person just ends up jumping around on the cracks.  Chonchis plays the part of a puppeteer in Fowles novel; he plays the part of fate itself.  Chonchis controls some of the situations and some of the actors, however, they still have the free will to choose different paths.  Chonchis toys with emotion such as a God would; by sending a fake letter of Allison’s death to Nicholas he sets up a new blow to the mirror with many different cracks one of which Nicholas will choose to follow in his reaction.  Chonchis plays a part similar to what I assume a God would play.  “His theatre without an audience made no sense, it couldn’t be the explanation.  The one thing all actors and actresses craved was an audience”. (Fowles, 458) This is the part of fate; fate has created a theatre without an audience.  It has set up some specific events that will occur, however, the actors have the free will to choose how the play will end or rather what new beginning it will take on.

            In Illo Tempore is always said in class, however, it is never covered about how things will end.  This is possibly because there is never actually an ending; it is all just new beginnings. Nicholas starts his story in London as a certain person, and at the end of the novel, he is right back where he started, London.  This time a little change in the person that he is, as well as the person that Allison is; however they did make a full circle.  “Then why are you here?  She was mysterious, almost a new woman; one had to go back several steps, and start again; and know the place for the first time.”(Fowles, 650)  To go back and start again, it is a never ending circle.  The everlasting puppeteer fate set up a very intricate web of different paths that people can take.  If the web designer or puppeteer is even still around is a mystery.  Are the Gods still around?  Or are they long gone, nothing but the beautiful web they wove remain; a spider will die long before it web does, as long as it remains untouched by a larger force.  The universe and fate are interwoven, they created a giant sphere of paths that can be taken, some obviously larger and more traveled than others.  Each story will end at the beginning of another, and so the cycle will never end.  “All that is past possesses our present” (Fowles, 311) History repeats itself; it always has and always will.  Non-existence possesses the infant before it is born, and the same goes for the person after death.  Humans complete a giant circle for a life; everything that has been lived will be relived again.  It is fitting that the novel has no real end, for with a real ending it would not make an actual circle.  The novel itself would never resemble real life, and it is the realism of this novel that gives it so much draw.  It is an explanation of humanity, and the infinite cycle that the human can go through.

            In essence, it is all connected.  The puppeteer wove the web long ago, whether this puppeteer was fate, the gods, or the universe, it will never be known; however, the web was placed and the architect has long since passed.  Only looking deeper into the mirror can people see that it is all a giant story that they are in, as Madi said in her blog, it is similar to the movie “Stranger than Fiction”, in this movie, the main character is a man realizing that he is a story.  Nicholas also realizes that he is part of a story that Chonchis is telling.  Nick becomes uneasy in situations feeling as if he is always being watched.  “The ball was now firmly in the old man’s court; I must wait to see what change this brought to tomorrows “script”.”(Fowles, 322) At the end of the novel he believes that he knows where “they” are watching from, and he acts accordingly positioning himself with his back to them.  He also slaps Allison as an added theatrical bonus.  However, he finds that there was never actually anyone watching. Never does he change the script of the old man, because what is already supposed to be cannot be changed. The designer of the web is gone.  Since Nick was an actor, he craved the audience, as all actors do.  Only he finally realized that there was no audience anymore.  The audience was gone. 

            Myth and The Magus are all interwoven; they are just a part of the giant circle that was put there long ago.  If one looks into the mirror, it is easy to see the future.  Staring back is the face that walks towards from the opposite direction.  Cracking the mirror shows the many different types of cracks and paths that a person can step to.  They are never limited to just one crack, with each step brings a new crack, a new direction.  If the mirror is large enough, when looked upon, any given person can see that the cracks stretch into a circle.  The Magus, written by John Fowles is just a mirror showing the circle of life as he sees it.  He portrays the puppeteer Chonchis as fate, the hammer that cracks the mirror, but has no decision on which way the cracks are chosen to be looked upon.  Fowles even writes the novel as a giant circle itself; never giving an ending, because in life there never really is one.  Upon looking into the mirror, the mirror never changes, but there are always differences in the face looking upon it.  The face will continue to change, as long as it never chooses to keep walking along the cracks, choosing to go around the circle and understand more each day.

           

Black Tie Affair's

Final Exam

December 15th, 8 pm-9:50. Same class room as usual.

The exam should only take about 30-45 minutes.

Papers are due this Thursday

Presentations no longer than 5 minutes.

Check blogs for paper topics as most people are on the right track.  Simple topic of myth and Magus is just a set up, go deeper.  Minimum of three pages long, beginning middle end, must hold attention. Cite sources!!!  Paper must also have a theme, which should be supported with actual quotes from the text, do not overgeneralize. God is in the details, do not BORE your audience!

Thursday:

1. Christine

2 Stefanie GRRRR bad luck!

3.Lucia

4.Mathew

Group 5 had a fantastic movie! I have nothing but praise for their amazing performance.  For anyone who missed their movie, they did the story of Demeter and Persephone.   They titled their masterpiece Myth and Marriage. They interwove many different myths within the main myth and story.  They also provided popcorn for audience enjoyment.

Following the wedding was a funeral.

Group 6
This group did a great play showing the many different types of Funerals.  The class attended the death of Kyle Miller, with flowers, candles, prayer cards.  For the Irish funeral, we were given the alcohol(apple juice).  The body stays with the family and a party is thrown all night.  Whiskey is put at the mans feet, because of the man who climbed the ladder and fell and once they splashed whiskey on his face he revived.
The viking funeral-boat brought onto land, the mans harem of women get to choose to die, and then are raped, lifted up through a doorway, and then killed and put with the man.  All of his treasures are there as well.  The boat is burned on land.
The pirates sink their men to the bottom of the sea.  The cowboys are buried into a cedar and poetry is present.  In heaven they ride the perfect horse who does not buck, or kick.  A lot of the burial terms we currently have come from cowboys. Their saddle, hats, and stones were usually placed on top of the grave.  Chinese burials include bowing three times to the dead, and burning incense and money so that they may pay their way out of hell.  Egyptian funerals were the last to be covered.  The bodies are taken apart, and a blessing is said so that they may come back to life.  We know much about Egyptian death because of all the things they wrote down about it.

What different cultures were represented in the funerary rights of group 6.
Sati-Indian funeral service. the wife jumped into the grave, and twirled her finger while they placed dirt on her until her finger stopped in death.

The changing butterfly

Before class thoughts:

• Do NOT use the word "like" or "stuff" in our presentations.
• The term paper is worth 100 points.  Sam asked if that was part of our presentation grade, which it is not, it is a completely independent grade.
• We must have about 25 to 30 blog entries, however, if we have 15 awesome blog entries it will be accepted.  We can do many blogs at the end of the semester, they just have to be good quality.
• Final paper over 3 under 100.  Due the same day as our presentation.
• Copy of our paper must be posted to our blog.
• 
  

The end of the end: Notes for November 15th, Tuesday.

1.) Jennifer's Blog  http://jennythornburgsmyths.wordpress.com/

• Has an amazing title. Myth and the Word Made Flesh.  Homophobia is always recognized with speragmos.  It is also sacramental.
• Sacrifice comes from fice- to make something sacred.
• Requirement of the books, deface them with underlining.  Make them un-returnable.
• The most important line of the Magus Page 311 or page 333 "All that is past, possesses the present".  How does ending where we began stress this one sentence?  whatever happens here now, is essentially what happened in the past, in the Norwegian forest.
• Masque-theatrical term that refers to a type of theater, performances that we put on in people's houses, characterized by events that took place in mythology.  It was not supposed to be thought of as real, because people were dressed up, and people coming back from the past.
•  Pablo Picasso-Nicholas 
• Myth is the precedent behind every action.  You are carrying with you everything of the past.  The same thing as "all that is past, possesses the present".  We carry the great present of the past everywhere with us.
• Abby writes "History" on the background, his tory- his story.  Whereas if a women were to make history it would not end up there.
• Our lives are quotidian, we watch tv, and we usually talk jibberish.  For us the world is compellingly present.  All the mythological and historical pressure is there.  It is known as the collective unconscious.
• There is a trap door to remember when we were born, and to remember everyone else's conscious since the beginning of time. The only way to make people conscious of their collective unconscious is through shock.
• Our job is to wake up, and realize what is happening in our collective unconscious.
• Jennifer has pulled a quote from Calasso and put it in her blog about the Magus.  She also referenced Jerrod "not only is he humanity, he is fallen humanity"
• It has all been planned, including the rock.  We need to know the stories so that we can see the blueprint of our own story. We know that Nick is a narcissist.  Every man must make a trip to see Persephone before they can go on living.

2.) Darrell Blog  http://darrellsblog-unknown.blogspot.com/

• The truth beyond magic.  The only reality is magic, the only reality is fiction.
• Devita is Professor Sexson's grandaughter, Devi is also a name referenced in Darrell's blog.

3.)  Jerrod's blog  http://ohmygodzjerrod.blogspot.com/

• A man dying of terminal cancer wrote to Fowle's that he hated the answer.  He wrote to this man that they got back together.  To an awful woman the same day he wrote that they never got back together.
• In all other classes, the answer is right or wrong.  In this class, every answer is a kind of death.  
• Jerrod writes that the ending of the book gives us the ability to ponder the characters.  The ending plants a seed, that gives the reader the ability to let the story bloom.  The story will remain in our minds, it has been made immortal.  It provokes us to keep thinking about it.

4.) Rosemary's blog  http://rosemarysmythologicaladventure.blogspot.com/

• The thing that makes us neurotic is the insistence that we are not.
• Rosemary says that Nick will continue on because it is all about himself, that is why he is narcissistic.
• Sexson's daughter says "Dad, it is not about you".  The collective unconscious is impersonal.  "it is not about you"  It is about every person. Nick continued because he wanted it to be all about him, but he only ended up alone with all the magic gone.
• Madi disappears, but she becomes something far more amazing, fantastic, magical. 
• Zeus says you do not want to see me as I really am because you cannot really see. She was not able to hold the reality of everything, so she exploded.  Do not consider the fruit of action-the bub of agita?  Do not do things for a reward, the only reason for action is for the action itself for it is divine.
• Do not read this book for an A, read it to be divine, to understand reality.  One by one they closed their eyes because they were not ready for the divine of what really was.  

5.) Parker's Blog  http://parkersmythology.blogspot.com/

• Diving into the depths, exactly as Nick does. "about it's veiled implications"-->Sam's idea of Harry Potter and JK Rowling and the veil that Serious falls through, joining the past, the present, the future, the collective unconscious.
• Detail is a construction of deconstruction.??
• The deadly female, the negative archetype of the female.  Often portrayed as spiders.  The black widow waits for the male to come to her web "and uses him for some purpose"-Teresa.  Women are spiders.
• Mae West-very sultry seductive woman, "common up and see me sometime", "is that a gun in your pocket or are you just happy to see me" She was the devouring female, she gives them a good time then she devoured them.
• We must quote a passage from the book in our final paper.  
• The theme of the Magus is the narcissism of Nick.

6.) Madi's Blog  http://madismythology.blogspot.com/

• Stranger than Fiction- about a man who hears his life being written out.  Reminds me of the uncollective conscious,  we are all just characters of a novel.
• It is all the same, God, the gods, afterlife.  It is all a circle, from the beginning we have just been characters, reliving the original book.  No one knows where it starts, no one knows the end.  We are all part of it, every religion, every story, the universe, nothing, and everything.  It is all the same.
• Get up and act, every movement must become a movement of the sacred.  Do it in the remembrance of the sacred.
• Taoism-religious or philosophic tradition in which the basic concept is to establish harmony with the tao, which is the mechanism of everything that exists.
• Mircae Eliade and the story of the butterfly.

The singing Cicada

Tuesday November 8th Class Note

- Exams were passed back, average grade was a 88%

-Magus was due today, Mr. Sexson has given us some extra time to finish it.  We are also to blog about it, and a substantial blog at that

-The paper is a 3 page term paper that is assumed to be about the Magus unless you tell Mr. Sexson a different idea to write about. 

•  Dead Man-THE Johnny Depp movie made in 1995 about William Blake, who is going to the far west, he is an accountant, he is an oaf.  He gets in a fight with the man who shovels coal. (One scene has them riding through the red wood forest by the looks of it)  Native American (nobody) says to William Blake-I have prepared your canoe, it is time for you to leave now, to go back where you came from, to the place where all the spirits came from, where they return, this world will no longer concern you.   
•     Sexson cannot say enough positive things about this film
•   In the movie, he is already dead through the entire thing...he just does not know.This is about Odysseus in the Cyclopes cave.  Odysseus says his name is nobody to the cyclopes.
• Tibetan book of the dead = documentary, before the soul can go to the other world, it must first repeat all the violent          things of its past life.  You are already dead, you just need to prepare for it.
• We have forgotten about myths, because we watch movies like Pirates of the Caribbean and not Dead Man.
•  Before Kevin was a gleam in his daddy's eye, he was nobody.
• The Swerve ( a book about how the world became modern) written by Stephen Greenblatt. Pagio discovered it and copied it. It was read by many people of the word.  It had a lot to do with how the world turned out today.
• All the world is already made, we are just its players.  When we die, we do not grieve ourselves, those we left behind grieve.
• Socrates once said, all of life is a preparation for death.

Page 335,  Mircae Eliade-Primitives to Zen

• Moment of death-http://www.mircea-eliade.com/from-primitives-to-zen/160.html
• Nobody knows who you are, and nobody knows what to do. 
• Need to send people off with the proper things seen, proper things done, and the proper things said.  Not all fake like funeral homes make them.
• William Shakespeare - 
• Eschatology-(logos-a ground) (the soul) has to do with the things at the end.  A branch of theology concerned with the final events in the history of the world or of humankind
• Metempsychosis-transmigration of the soul, especially its reincarnation after death.  Nothing ever dies.
• Parabola is a magazine of myth and rituals and symbols.  First created in Dylon Montana,written by D.M. Dooling. ( Montana knows about Myths)  A parabola is a swerve, it is a conic section of a right circular conical surface and a plane parallel to a generating straight line of that surface.  Means coming in off the side. 
• Parabola-Parabol ( a story told to illustrate a moral point)  Parable of the lost sheep, the good Samaritan...A story that deconstructs the point you thought it would make.  A man walking down 8th street in Bozo is come upon from Pike thugs who beat him up, and a Catholic priest passes him by to go to mass, a Methodist passes him by on his way to lunch, a Middle Eastern who lives in an attic  takes the injured by to the pickle barrel and buys him a full sandwich, plus anything else he wants.  Morale?  (Impressive if he can eat a whole sandwich.) The person you thought would help didn't, and the person you didn't think would help did.

Page 375 Mircae Eliade

• On the Transmigration of the soul-http://www.mircea-eliade.com/from-primitives-to-zen/181.html
• Spokane = sex, drugs, and rock and roll. Father tells his 2 son after his trip to Spokane, come home and we will forgive and throw you a party.  The other 1 son is furious because he has worked every day in his life and been good. Father says, I see you every day, but son 2 was lost and now he is found.
• Mary and Martha- Mary is sitting at the feet of Jesus, Martha is washing the dishes.  Martha says I have to spend all my day working and slaving so that YOU can go out and do whatever you want! Jesus tells Martha, you are distracted by many things, there is only one thing that is needful.  What is this thing? He suggest that Mary has chosen the right thing
• Gesang ist dasein- Sonnet to Orpheus... translation. A god can do it. but tell me how a man can follow him thorough the narrow lyre.  the human self is split; where two heart ways cross, there is no temple to Apollo.  Song, as you teach it, is not desire, not a wooling of something that is finally attained; song is existence.  Easy for the god....
• The ant and the grasshopper  grasshopper (cicada) spends his time fiddling around, while the ant works.  The grasshopper is cold for the winter, the ant is warm.  ~Who chose the right path?  Song is existence, we are hear in order to sing!  
• Cicada leave behind a beautiful case, there is no death there is only translation.
• Justin's Blog, why do we suffer?  Justin says we should be our own bards!  We are here to sing.
• Socrates says Cicadas were once human beings, the muses taught them to sing, and it was so enjoyable that they forgot to sleep, eat, they forgot to do everything, so they died.  Zeus transformed them into cicadas (song is existence  because he loved the song so much.

Zeus God of Awesome

Has anyone seen the High Voltage TC commercial?  The one with Zeus, I just watched it before I started writing this, so I figured that I would start my blog with a quote about Zeus (God of the gods, and god of awesome) according to the commercial.

"Everybody was there and almost ready.  In their midst, taller and invisible, stood Zeus.  He held the lightning in his left hand while his right fell empty on his hip but radiated tension.  His chest was a wall." page 178

This quote, I think embodies how Zeus is awesome, just like the commercial.  Lame reference I know, however, we are supposed to find Myth in everyday life as an assignment of the class, I have done this in the easiest way possible.  

Notes from 9/22

To be....simple--> complex  Hamlet was the most complex literary character ever.  This is his famous speech for anyone who is wondering, since no one seemed to remember in class.

To be, or not to be: that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep;
To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause: there's the respect
That makes calamity of so long life;
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,
The pangs of despised love, the law's delay,
The insolence of office and the spurns
That patient merit of the unworthy takes,
When he himself might his quietus make
With a bare bodkin? who would fardels bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscover'd country from whose bourn
No traveller returns, puzzles the will
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,
And enterprises of great pith and moment
With this regard their currents turn awry,
And lose the name of action. - Soft you now!
The fair Ophelia! Nymph, in thy orisons
Be all my sins remember'd.

"With music loud and clear...weave a circle around him thrice.

www.mircea-eliade.com is the web site that Sexson gave in class about the stories to read.

In class Sexson told the story of Apollo and how he killed the snake , and how from this place comes the Delphic Oracle.

Dyaus ---> Dayeus--->Ze-eu  Du-s   = Jupiter

Beginning  =   Seperation

Middle       =   Initiation

End            =   Transformation

This is common with life and all hero stories.  Hercules was separated from his life, he went through many trials from his uncle, then he was transformed into a demi-god.  

The first breath of a baby is a shutter. They are so shocked by what has happened that they shutter at their first breath, and then they cry.

King Lier- wiping hand of king, we cry as we first come to a stage of fools.

My notes are sort of scattered, sorry for all those reading....

The Elephant's Child

"In the Cretan story, there's a bull in the beginning and a bull at the end." Page 21

    So in the Cretan story there is a bull in the beginning and a bull at the end, most of the stories in the class did not end with a bull and begin with one, however a vast majority of them were earth diver myths. Most of the myths were about the creation of life, or the world.  Not many stories were simplistic.  My story seemed very simplistic compared to everyone else's, mine was about how the elephant got his trunk.  Here is how it goes....

THE ELEPHANT'S CHILD N the High and Far-Off Times the Elephant, O Best Beloved, had no trunk. He had only a blackish, bulgy nose, as big as a boot, that he could wriggle about from side to side; but he couldn't pick up things with it. But there was one Elephant--a new Elephant--an Elephant's Child--who was full of 'satiable curtiosity, and that means he asked ever so many questions. And he lived in Africa, and he filled all Africa with his 'satiable curtiosities. He asked his tall aunt, the Ostrich, why her tail-feathers grew just so, and his tall aunt the Ostrich spanked him with her hard, hard claw. He asked his tall uncle, the Giraffe, what made his skin spotty, and his tall uncle, the Giraffe, spanked him with his hard, hard hoof. And still he was full of 'satiable curtiosity! He asked his broad aunt, the Hippopotamus, why her eyes were red, and his broad aunt, the Hippopotamus, spanked him with her broad, broad hoof; and he asked his hairy uncle, the Baboon, why melons tasted just so, and his hairy uncle, the Baboon, spanked him with his hairy, hairy paw. And still he was full of 'satiable curtiosity! He asked questions about everything that he saw, or heard, or felt, or smelt, or touched, and all his uncles and his aunts spanked him. And still he was full of 'satiable curtiosity! One fine morning in the middle of the Precession of the Equinoxes this 'satiable Elephant's Child asked a new fine question that he had never asked before. He asked, 'What does the Crocodile have for dinner?' Then everybody said, 'Hush!' in a loud and dretful tone, and they spanked him immediately and directly, without stopping, for a long time. By and by, when that was finished, he came upon Kolokolo Bird sitting in the middle of a wait-a-bit thorn-bush, and he said, 'My father has spanked me, and my mother has spanked me; all my aunts and uncles have spanked me for my 'satiable curtiosity; and still I want to know what the Crocodile has for dinner!' Then Kolokolo Bird said, with a mournful cry, 'Go to the banks of the great grey-green, greasy Limpopo River, all set about with fever-trees, and find out.' That very next morning, when there was nothing left of the Equinoxes, because the Precession had preceded according to precedent, this 'satiable Elephant's Child took a hundred pounds of bananas (the little short red kind), and a hundred pounds of sugar-cane (the long purple kind), and seventeen melons (the greeny-crackly kind), and said to all his dear families, 'Goodbye. I am going to the great grey-green, greasy Limpopo River, all set about with fever-trees, to find out what the Crocodile has for dinner.' And they all spanked him once more for luck, though he asked them most politely to stop. Then he went away, a little warm, but not at all astonished, eating melons, and throwing the rind about, because he could not pick it up. He went from Graham's Town to Kimberley, and from Kimberley to Khama's Country, and from Khama's Country he went east by north, eating melons all the time, till at last he came to the banks of the great grey-green, greasy Limpopo River, all set about with fever-trees, precisely as Kolokolo Bird had said. Now you must know and understand, O Best Beloved, that till that very week, and day, and hour, and minute, this 'satiable Elephant's Child had never seen a Crocodile, and did not know what one was like. It was all his 'satiable curtiosity. The first thing that he found was a Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake curled round a rock. ''Scuse me,' said the Elephant's Child most politely, 'but have you seen such a thing as a Crocodile in these promiscuous parts?' 'Have I seen a Crocodile?' said the Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake, in a voice of dretful scorn. 'What will you ask me next?' ''Scuse me,' said the Elephant's Child, 'but could you kindly tell me what he has for dinner?' Then the Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake uncoiled himself very quickly from the rock, and spanked the Elephant's Child with his scalesome, flailsome tail. 'That is odd,' said the Elephant's Child, 'because my father and my mother, and my uncle and my aunt, not to mention my other aunt, the Hippopotamus, and my other uncle, the Baboon, have all spanked me for my 'satiable curtiosity--and I suppose this is the same thing. So he said good-bye very politely to the Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake, and helped to coil him up on the rock again, and went on, a little warm, but not at all astonished, eating melons, and throwing the rind about, because he could not pick it up, till he trod on what he thought was a log of wood at the very edge of the great grey-green, greasy Limpopo River, all set about with fever-trees. But it was really the Crocodile, O Best Beloved, and the Crocodile winked one eye--like this! ''Scuse me,' said the Elephant's Child most politely, 'but do you happen to have seen a Crocodile in these promiscuous parts?' Then the Crocodile winked the other eye, and lifted half his tail out of the mud; and the Elephant's Child stepped back most politely, because he did not wish to be spanked again. 'Come hither, Little One,' said the Crocodile. 'Why do you ask such things?' ''Scuse me,' said the Elephant's Child most politely, 'but my father has spanked me, my mother has spanked me, not to mention my tall aunt, the Ostrich, and my tall uncle, the Giraffe, who can kick ever so hard, as well as my broad aunt, the Hippopotamus, and my hairy uncle, the Baboon, and including the Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake, with the scalesome, flailsome tail, just up the bank, who spanks harder than any of them; and so, if it's quite all the same to you, I don't want to be spanked any more.' 'Come hither, Little One,' said the Crocodile, 'for I am the Crocodile,' and he wept crocodile-tears to show it was quite true. Then the Elephant's Child grew all breathless, and panted, and kneeled down on the bank and said, 'You are the very person I have been looking for all these long days. Will you please tell me what you have for dinner?' 'Come hither, Little One,' said the Crocodile, 'and I'll whisper.' Then the Elephant's Child put his head down close to the Crocodile's musky, tusky mouth, and the Crocodile caught him by his little nose, which up to that very week, day, hour, and minute, had been no bigger than a boot, though much more useful. 'I think, said the Crocodile--and he said it between his teeth, like this--'I think to-day I will begin with Elephant's Child!' At this, O Best Beloved, the Elephant's Child was much annoyed, and he said, speaking through his nose, like this, 'Led go! You are hurtig be!'

THIS is the Elephant's Child having his nose pulled by the Crocodile. He is much surprised and astonished and hurt, and he is talking through his nose and saying. 'Led go! You are hurtig be!' He is pulling very hard, and so is the Crocodile: but the Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake is hurrying through the water to help the Elephant's Child. All that black stuff is the banks of the great grey-green greasy Limpopo River (but I am not allowed to paint these pictures), and the bottly-tree with the twisty roots and the eight leaves is one of the fever-trees that grow there. Underneath the truly picture are shadows of African animals walking into an African ark. There are two lions, two ostriches, two oxen, two camels, two sheep, and two other things that look like rats, but I think they are rock-rabbits. They don't mean anything. I put them in because I thought they looked pretty. They would look very fine if I were allowed to paint them.

Then the Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake scuffled down from the bank and said, 'My young friend, if you do not now, immediately and instantly, pull as hard as ever you can, it is my opinion that your acquaintance in the large-pattern leather ulster' (and by this he meant the Crocodile) 'will jerk you into yonder limpid stream before you can say Jack Robinson.' This is the way Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snakes always talk. Then the Elephant's Child sat back on his little haunches, and pulled, and pulled, and pulled, and his nose began to stretch. And the Crocodile floundered into the water, making it all creamy with great sweeps of his tail, and he pulled, and pulled, and pulled. And the Elephant's Child's nose kept on stretching; and the Elephant's Child spread all his little four legs and pulled, and pulled, and pulled, and his nose kept on stretching; and the Crocodile threshed his tail like an oar, and he pulled, and pulled, and pulled, and at each pull the Elephant's Child's nose grew longer and longer--and it hurt him hijjus! Then the Elephant's Child felt his legs slipping, and he said through his nose, which was now nearly five feet long, 'This is too butch for be!' Then the Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake came down from the bank, and knotted himself in a double-clove-hitch round the Elephant's Child's hind legs, and said, 'Rash and inexperienced traveller, we will now seriously devote ourselves to a little high tension, because if we do not, it is my impression that yonder self-propelling man-of-war with the armour-plated upper deck' (and by this, O Best Beloved, he meant the Crocodile), 'will permanently vitiate your future career. That is the way all Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snakes always talk. So he pulled, and the Elephant's Child pulled, and the Crocodile pulled; but the Elephant's Child and the Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake pulled hardest; and at last the Crocodile let go of the Elephant's Child's nose with a plop that you could hear all up and down the Limpopo. Then the Elephant's Child sat down most hard and sudden; but first he was careful to say 'Thank you' to the Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake; and next he was kind to his poor pulled nose, and wrapped it all up in cool banana leaves, and hung it in the great grey-green, greasy Limpopo to cool. 'What are you doing that for?' said the Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake. ''Scuse me,' said the Elephant's Child, 'but my nose is badly out of shape, and I am waiting for it to shrink. 'Then you will have to wait a long time, said the Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake. 'Some people do not know what is good for them.' The Elephant's Child sat there for three days waiting for his nose to shrink. But it never grew any shorter, and, besides, it made him squint. For, O Best Beloved, you will see and understand that the Crocodile had pulled it out into a really truly trunk same as all Elephants have to-day. At the end of the third day a fly came and stung him on the shoulder, and before he knew what he was doing he lifted up his trunk and hit that fly dead with the end of it. ''Vantage number one!' said the Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake. 'You couldn't have done that with a mere-smear nose. Try and eat a little now.' Before he thought what he was doing the Elephant's Child put out his trunk and plucked a large bundle of grass, dusted it clean against his fore-legs, and stuffed it into his own mouth. 'Vantage number two!' said the Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake. 'You couldn't have done that with a mear-smear nose. Don't you think the sun is very hot here?' 'It is,' said the Elephant's Child, and before he thought what he was doing he schlooped up a schloop of mud from the banks of the great grey-green, greasy Limpopo, and slapped it on his head, where it made a cool schloopy-sloshy mud-cap all trickly behind his ears. 'Vantage number three!' said the Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake. 'You couldn't have done that with a mere-smear nose. Now how do you feel about being spanked again?' ''Scuse me,' said the Elephant's Child, 'but I should not like it at all.' 'How would you like to spank somebody?' said the Bi- Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake. 'I should like it very much indeed,' said the Elephant's Child. 'Well,' said the Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake, 'you will find that new nose of yours very useful to spank people with.' 'Thank you,' said the Elephant's Child, 'I'll remember that; and now I think I'll go home to all my dear families and try.' So the Elephant's Child went home across Africa frisking and whisking his trunk. When he wanted fruit to eat he pulled fruit down from a tree, instead of waiting for it to fall as he used to do. When he wanted grass he plucked grass up from the ground, instead of going on his knees as he used to do. When the flies bit him he broke off the branch of a tree and used it as fly-whisk; and he made himself a new, cool, slushy-squshy mud-cap whenever the sun was hot. When he felt lonely walking through Africa he sang to himself down his trunk, and the noise was louder than several brass bands.

THIS is just a picture of the Elephant's Child going to pull bananas off a banana-tree after he had got his fine new long trunk. I don't think it is a very nice picture; but I couldn't make it any better, because elephants and bananas are hard to draw. The streaky things behind the Elephant's Child mean squoggy marshy country somewhere in Africa. The Elephant's Child made most of his mud-cakes out of the mud that he found there. I think it would look better if you painted the banana-tree green and the Elephant's Child red.

He went especially out of his way to find a broad Hippopotamus (she was no relation of his), and he spanked her very hard, to make sure that the Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake had spoken the truth about his new trunk. The rest of the time he picked up the melon rinds that he had dropped on his way to the Limpopo--for he was a Tidy Pachyderm. One dark evening he came back to all his dear families, and he coiled up his trunk and said, 'How do you do?' They were very glad to see him, and immediately said, 'Come here and be spanked for your 'satiable curtiosity.' 'Pooh,' said the Elephant's Child. 'I don't think you peoples know anything about spanking; but I do, and I'll show you.' Then he uncurled his trunk and knocked two of his dear brothers head over heels. 'O Bananas!' said they, 'where did you learn that trick, and what have you done to your nose?' 'I got a new one from the Crocodile on the banks of the great grey-green, greasy Limpopo River,' said the Elephant's Child. 'I asked him what he had for dinner, and he gave me this to keep.' 'It looks very ugly,' said his hairy uncle, the Baboon. 'It does,' said the Elephant's Child. 'But it's very useful,' and he picked up his hairy uncle, the Baboon, by one hairy leg, and hove him into a hornet's nest. Then that bad Elephant's Child spanked all his dear families for a long time, till they were very warm and greatly astonished. He pulled out his tall Ostrich aunt's tail-feathers; and he caught his tall uncle, the Giraffe, by the hind-leg, and dragged him through a thorn-bush; and he shouted at his broad aunt, the Hippopotamus, and blew bubbles into her ear when she was sleeping in the water after meals; but he never let any one touch Kolokolo Bird. At last things grew so exciting that his dear families went off one by one in a hurry to the banks of the great grey-green, greasy Limpopo River, all set about with fever-trees, to borrow new noses from the Crocodile. When they came back nobody spanked anybody any more; and ever since that day, O Best Beloved, all the Elephants you will ever see, besides all those that you won't, have trunks precisely like the trunk of the 'satiable Elephant's Child. Photo evidence, my myth is true. In the version I told in class, I shortened up the story a little bit.  However, the basic story line was still there. This is the picture that i showed the class, proving that my myth is in fact very true, I have photo evidence.

I picked this story because it was very simple, and well, I had no clue to read the online book. Most of the stories in class started in illo tempore, or in the beginning. 1. Dustin Taylor- The moon and death  The creation of the moon, the moon cannot die because it made a deal with death 2. Megan Bruggeman-A Tale of African Origin Black dirt= black people, white sand=white people, mud=brown people, he gave each of these people legs to make food and mouths to eat food with. 3. Lauren Scull- A turtle Creation Story Nothing but water and sky was in the beginning, water was for the fish, sky was for the man and woman.  Woman had a dream that the sacred tree had been uprooted.  So her husband uprooted it and tossed it through a hole.  The woman peered though the hole, fell, grabbed seeds while falling.  Swans saved her, and then ducks took over. Lots of animals dove under water to grab land, the muskrat succeeded and the turtle offered his shell to plan them on.  This was a Hopi Story. 4. Juniper Chapman-The Saga of the Legend of the Stag Couple had stars in their robes were the rulers of the sky. The son went to get seeds at the bottom of the water, he couldn't dive that far so he changed himself into a duck. The seeds he planted, grew into beings.  This was a Scandinavian Story. 5. Sam Middlestead- The Origin of Mt. Everest Mother nature and Father Winter had a love child.  Father Winter brought five clouds to the people.  The five clouds turned into five goddesses who made everything on earth.  The prettiest goddess had an affair with Father Winter and they produced a child, this child became Mt. Everest. 6. Theresa Brown- Who Can Say   Desire descended upon nothing and this made a seed.  Theresa had great troubles reciting this poem?  which makes me believe it was very difficult.   Nice work on trying!  I have the basic idea I  believe.  This story is located on Page 56

7. Wena Tsan- La'lorna (The Weeping Woman)

• Maria was the most beautiful woman in the village, however she was very arrogant.  Men were not good enough in her village.  However, one day a man was riding though town and she fell in love.  They had two kids.  Soon the husband started to forget about his wife and felt only love for his children.  He found another woman, Maria was so angry that in her rage she drown her children.  When she returned to right of mind, she was so sad that she killed herself in the spot where she drowned her kids.

8. Andrew O'Donnell- The Beginning of the World

• In the beginning there was a tree, a nest, and water.  In the nest were animals, coyote, condor, eagle, panther, falcon, wolf and eagle.  Eagle made the land, then Wolf howled.  This made everything go away.  Then the eagle repeated the process, Wolf howled again and this created an earthquake that started everything.  Page 50

9. Jennifer Thornburg- Legend of the Lady Slipper

• I didn't not copy this story down because I was so mystified by Jennifer's story telling.  She had great eye contact, and her story was compelling.  I wish I had wrote it down, however, I did not.  THis story was of the Obiwa Indians.

10. Ashley ________? (sorry i missed your last name.)-The Beginning of the Earth

• This story was another earth diver myth.  In the beginning there were may men and one woman-a dreamer.  She dreamt that the sacred tree had light around it, the men made this dream come true by digging.  However, soon the tree fell through, so they pushed the woman through.  The rest of the story is very similar to other earth diver myths from that point on.

11. Madi Cole- Origin of Medicine

• People and animals lived peacefully until people killed them and took up to much space.  The animals took the people to war and created their arrows.

12. Lisa Cold-Flood/ Creation Myth

• In the beginning there was a flood, there was an eagle, and a crow, they had flown over water for a very long time until they finally found a stump.  They each fished for food, until they found a duck.  They fished for food for the duck in return for the duck diving for mud and creating land.  The crow created more land, the eagle was mad, so he gave the duck more food.  The crow never found out.  THen they noticed that the water decreased and there was land everywhere.  The two piles of land turned into the Sierra Nevada's=the eagles, ad the Coastal Mountains were the crows.

13.Vittoria Porcella-The Norse Creation

• This story is from the Illiad on page 61

14. Jill Yoder-Legend of Devils Tower

• Some kids were playing ball, when they hit the ball too far, they had to chase it.  They soon came upon a giant bear, the bear was about to eat them when they prayed to the gods and the ground beneath them shot up.  The bear scratched the sides as he was just as big  as the ground.  He gave up one day.  This was a very fascinating story!  I loved listening to it.

15. Parker Dunn- Old Man Coyote Creates the Earth

• This is another diver myth.  Coyote meets ducks.  Humans were made of mud.  I didn't copy this one down either because Parker's story telling was so compelling.  It was a very funny story.

16. Mathew Smag- The Creation of the Lamp

• This story is from the book of Narnia.  It is about the witch and the children and Aslan.  If you have not read this book I highly recommend it!  Matthew told a very shortened version, the entire book is very good.  Especially read with the series then moving on to the Lion, the witch and the Wardrobe.

All myths are true! The remaining myths will be added at a later date because I took those notes on my computer and currently do not have it with me.

Student Stories