Joe's Myths

One day, there was a very proud seagull. He went around all day boasting that he was truly the strongest of all the animals. He was largely ignored at first, with everyone thinking he was simply trying to draw attention to himself. Eventually, he became enough of a nuisance that the other animals decided it was time for him to show his worth or shut his mouth. When asked to prove himself, he would simply challenge the other animal to a contest. Whoever could throw a rock the farthest would be considered stronger. All of the animals would take their shot at this, each thinking they could easily beat the small bird. After all, the rock weighed almost as much as the seagull himself! First came the lion, who proudly threw the rock over a hundred feet. The bird, still looking smug, simply picked up a rock and flew that far before dropping his rock just beyond the lion's. This pattern continued with the other animals. The dog would throw, and the seagull would drop his rock just beyond...

This week, I read some fables from Aesop . I wanted to know the actual definition of a fable , so I went to there from Aesop's page. One of the features of a fable is that its characters can be " legendary creatures ." This sounded awesome so I wanted to see what qualified. A Minotaur is an example of such a creature. A Minotaur. Link

I tried the reccommended test at https://www.keyhero.com/free-typing-test/ . I typed at 71 words per minute with a 95% accuracy. I liked using this website because it allowed for mistakes and accounted for them later.

I came in to this class expecting to spend most of my time working with Greek gods. they were the bit of mythology that I was most familiar with and enjoyed quite a bit. I have been pleasently surprised by the variety of material I've covered this semester, broadening my horizons. That being said, some of this reading did cover gods (mostly roman, but tomato tomato), so I enjoyed this section specifically. One of the reason I liked this era of gods is how they are shown interacting with the world and its inhabitants. Reading how they deal with even the most ridiculous things like monkeys, bulls, cats, and specific types of people is always just so fun to me. It's Jupiter, or Zeus if you prefer the Greek. Link Bibliography: Fables of Aesop and Other Eminent Mythologists by Sir Roger L'Estrange Link

I like that there are multiple stories that all contain the same animal. It's interesting to get to see the same character, which usually maintains the same archetype, from slightly different perspectives. For instance, at first the wolf is unforgiving and unreasonable, then he becomes deceitful and sly, finally he becomes more of a trickster. It was also interesting to watch religion get to seep into the life of the wolf. It was an aspect of life I hadn't considered to apply to these animal characters. I like how dogs were portrayed. I think that dogs have probably the most sides that could be showed, and these stories did a good job in trying to acknowledge all of them. An illustration from one of the wolf stories. Link Bibliography: Fables of Aesop and Other Eminent Mythologists by Sir Roger L'Estrange Link