Bubo's Blog

The Eleven Labors of Hercules - Labor # 4

2012-02-02T06:08:00.003-05:00

Eurytheus is not doing so well in the picking of impossible tasks so far. Let's have a quick run-down:

Kill a lion with nigh-impenetrable skin
Kill a monster that regrows decapitated heads
Catch a goddess protected deer

So what does he have up his sleeve for number 4? Robot ninja dinosaurs with laser eyes? That would have been cool.

Instead, Eurytheus chooses to have him capture alive the Erymanthian boar. That's right a pig. We can look back in past movies and books and recall in horror all the evil, scary pigs that pop up in them.

Actually, I still have nightmares over this horror story. All those baby spiders crawling everywhere, floating on strands of webbing... Uggh!

In his defense, the boar was supposedly a really mean pig.

Anyway, Hercules has very little problems with this. It was harder finding the little sucker than it was catching it. All he really does is chase it into a snow bank so that it gets stuck. In fact, the pig scares him so much that he hides in a big vase until Hercules takes it away and then says that Hercules cannot bring any more creatures into his palace. He practically wets himself in fear. At this point Hera is probably smacking her forehead wondering what in the name of Zeus was she thinking when she picked this bozo to torture Hercules?

The big thing about this labor was a rest stop he made on the way to find the beast. He stopped at a friend of his that just so happened to be a centaur (not that there's anything wrong with that) and had a bite to eat. He then saw a cask of wine and went to open it. His friend said that it would be a bad move to do so, but Hercules said, "Ah, what's the worst that could happen?" Upon uttering these words, he opened the cask and the worst happened. Every centaur in the tri-state area came wanting to know who opened their wine. Hercules was forced to kill all of them, including Chiron, teacher of heroes.

In honor of the fallen ones, I'm posting up several pictures of centaurs for your viewing pleasure.

(http://ancieastro.wordpress.com/2010/11/22/sagittarius/)

(http://caseyparkhurst.blogspot.com/2011/03/grasslands-centaur.html)

(http://elvire.deviantart.com/art/Centaur-108595716)

(http://www.everypicture.com/prints/ray-harryhausen/4500/sinbad-and-the-centaur-canvas.html)

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centaur)

(http://www.neatorama.com/2011/05/31/anatomy-of-the-centaur/)

Random horse trivia - a horse's rear end is also known as a curple, which is the only legitimate English word that rhymes with 'purple' ('nurple' doesn't count).

If you want to read the labor in more detail, try this: http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/Herakles/boar.html

Looking for Some Light Reading Material?

2012-01-31T15:46:00.000-05:00

I love books. I love to read them, display them on my shelf, and throw them at unruly students. I am much like the scholar in Canterbury Tales who is poor because he spends all his money on books. I have a Kindle Fire, and I think it is great, but there is something about having that physical book in your hands that I just don't get from the Kindle. Of course you can't play Angry Birds with a book.

Although you could throw the book at some birds and make them angry.

And, of course, I love to get mythology books, which is a shame because they usually cost much more than a plain old fiction book. I once picked up a Celtic mythology book for my class and the lady at Barns and Noble didn't want to let me use my teacher discount because she didn't believe I was going to actually use it for a class. My thought process was who buys these books except teachers?

So I thought I would post a few mythology books I found doing a search on Google that I thought looked interesting but I haven't read. If any of you have read one of them, I would love a comment on if it really is worth buying. If you are the author, feel free to give me a copy (electronic or otherwise) and I'll review here for you!

So, without further ado, the 4 books I think would be good mythology books to read:

100 Characters from Classical Mythology

One of the problems with getting a book with the words "Classical Mythology" in the title is that it probably rehashes the same stories I already know. But since I am male, my memory is selective and sometimes I can find something I already knew and still think it is new.

The cover of this book is nice and, if nothing else, would look impressive on a shelf. I know you're not supposed to judge a book by its cover, but we often do and that's just the way of things. The title is also a nice touch. I'm thinking like a top ten list of sorts (only top one hundred instead). The book description says that each character gets a brief review with all kinds of big color images. I'm thinking that, if nothing else, a student who is new to mythology would be captivated by this book. Maybe someone reading the Rick Riordin books and they are inspired to look up a character. This would be a good easy start.

Price - I found it from between $12 to $23. Google review gave it 4.5 stars (out of 5).

She's All That! A Look-It-Up Guide to the Goddesses of Mythology

I remember that Scholastic put out something about this Mythlopedia series a while back and I was going to get one for my son for Christmas, but I forgot. However, the cover looks funny and promises some new stuff.

The book description is: "the superstars of Greek myth meet the modern age--complete with profiles, headshots, and family trees; fascinating sidebars; and irreverent surprises, this series is for readers who love action, deception, romance, power struggles, and more!" The cover teases you with the words, "You think you know Greek mythology?" Maybe I'll get those surprises that I'm not hoping for in the first book on the list. Plus in the corner, Venus is saying, "Yo! I'm a goddess! Can you get me some clothes?"

There are several books in this series. I picked this one over the others mainly because my friend Alia is all into those goddess stories.

Price: $7 - $14. I would immediately buy this on Kindle if they had it. Google rating: 4.5 stars.

Who's Who in Non-Classical Mythology

Just as a quick reference, I think this book would be a great edition to have around. It claims to be the most detailed book of its kind. In fact, the book description does not just say it is detailed, but it has fascinating details. Who wouldn't want that? I will say, it seems to back up what it means because it even has Basque mythology (and when is the last time you ever saw a book on Basque mythology?). I am a little wary because it says that it has over 2500 "extensive" entries but there are only 256 pages, so how extensive can it be?

Then again, it only would take a few words on this guy from Basque mythology to be more extensive than anything else I have.

Price: $14 - $24 Google Rating: 5 stars

The Book of the Gods: 600 Gods from 20 Pantheons Explained

Are you tired of the same old boring god you've worshiped for years? Looking for something new and exciting? That's the opening of the book description for this book. It is the official book of the God Checker website (which I love). It is also NOT AVAILABLE ON KINDLE (arrgh!). I really want this book. If you need a reason why, just check out on of my favorite mythology web sites: www.godchecker.com.

Price: $15.56. Who cares what Google rates it! This book, if anything like the web site, has to be awesome.

Once again, anyone who has read one of these books, tell me about it before I spend more hard earned money on buying them! Send me suggestions of books I missed, too.

Where Everybody Knows Your Name

2012-01-27T15:07:00.000-05:00

About to open a bar and you need a name? I can help!

You want the name to be mythology in nature? I can help!

You want the name to also be original? Sorry...

I ran across the name Bacchus as the name for a bar in a newspaper article. As you probably know, Bacchus is the Roman god of wine (who, according to Riordin, is currently banned from alcohol and spends his time drinking Diet Coke instead).

The article praised it for its originality. Maybe the author should have checked his sources better. In a quick Google search, I came across these bars already with that name:

Bacchus Wine and Cheese in Corolla, NC (right there on the Outer Banks)

Bacchus Wine and Spirits in Kalamazoo, MI (I always thought Kalamazoo was a made up place)

Bacchus Wine Bar and Restaurant in Buffalo, NY

Plus one in Birmingham, AL; Hoxton, England; Ontario, Canada; and Irvine, CA. I just stopped there. Google has almost 6 millions hits on "Bacchus Bar." "Dionysus Bar" didn't do nearly as well with only 537,000 hits.

I know that they were trying to invoke the god of wine aspect, but I wonder if they thought about the drunken orgies that were also associated with him. Well, this next one did. They proudly proclaim him the god of "food, wine, and debauchery!" and claim that this should put you in the mood for what they offer.

Bacchus Bar in Henley Square, Australia

However, despite that, it's still a cool name for a bar. I now challenge all of you to come up with a better bar name that uses a mythological allusion.

My choice: Acan Wine and Spirits - Acan is the Mayan god of alcohol. Perfect for a doomsday party!

So the challenge is out there - what can you come up with?

The Eleven Labors of Hercules - Labor # 3

2012-01-17T10:58:00.002-05:00

O.K., so we're finally on the third labor. Finding time to write these is a labor in itself!

For Hercules' third task, he is assigned a very boring one. I say boring from my point of view. Researching this was meh at best. Hercules' has to capture the Cerynean Hind. For you deer hunters out there, this is the ultimate hunt. This deer has antlers made of pure gold and hooves of brass. The problem with this task for Hercules is that the hind is sacred to Artemis, goddess of wild things.

Hercules, in a rare display of intelligence, decides NOT to kill the hind, as he task is to bring it back. So he decides to catch it. He chases this animal for a whole year until finally just shooting it with an arrow. He aimed only to wound it, not to kill it. It's a good thing he didn't accidentally use one of those Hydra blood arrows he got on the last trip.

This, however gets the attention of Artemis, who comes down ready to kill Hercules for this affront, but gives him a chance to explain. Once she hears the story and can clearly see that he did not shoot to kill, she heals the deer and lets him take the animal with him as long as he promises to let it go.

That's it. There's no great back story about why there is a deer with golden antlers. There's no constellation. There's no alternative version. I did find a blog titled this, but it had absolutely nothing to do with mythology. The author refers to herself as the Fifth Cerynean Hind. I have no clue what that means. See! I told you. Meh at best.

The only thing remotely interesting is the picture, which I only find interesting because I am a nerd. I found it on http://artwars52.blogspot.com/ and it is a storm trooper helmet with antlers attached to it painted gold.

I'm positive that the next labor will be better.

The Seven Demons

2012-01-06T13:14:00.000-05:00

I was studying up on the Hebrew King David when I came to the notorious scene of Bathsheba. This story is found only in II Samuel. I Chronicles also tells the story of David, but it tries to make David look better and often leaves out negative information. The writer(s) of the Samuel books like to lay it all out - good or bad.

For those not familiar, King David sees Bathsheba, has a one night stand with her, and is done with it. Or so he thought. She gets pregnant. Her husband is off fighting a war for David. David tries to get him to go home and sleep with his wife so everyone will think the baby is his and not David's. However, this doesn't work and David has him killed and marries Bathsheba to make an honest woman out of her. Now, David pays for this later and it serves as a black spot on his history. The author of Chronicles leaves this story out, but they cannot leave out Bathsheba because she is the mother of Solomon. When he does mention her, he changes the spelling of her name. I looked it up and it is all because of Babylonian mythology.

The "sheba" part of Bathsheba's name may be related to the sibatti, or The Seven Demons. These guys are bad news. One site I looked up had this to say about them:

Raging storms, evil gods are they, ruthless demons, who in heaven's vault were created, are they, workers of evil are they, they lift up the head to evil, every day to evil destruction to work.
Of these seven
The first is the South wind...
The second is a dragon, whose mouth is opened... That none can measure.
The third is a grim leopard, which carries off the young ...
The fourth is a terrible Shibbu ...
The fifth is a furious Wolf, who knoweth not to flee,
The sixth is a rampant ... which marches against god and king.
The seventh is a storm, an evil wind, which takes vengeance

A shibbu, I believe, is a weapon of some sort.

You can see these raging demons if you so desire. Just go outside (if you live in the northern hemisphere) and find Orion. He's usually pretty easy to spot with his three star belt. To the right of Orion you will see a patch of sky with no stars but in the middle a fuzzy patch of 6 to 7 stars visible, all clumped together. That is known to us as the Pleiades. To the Babylonians, however, it is The Seven Demons. See if you can see all seven.

The above information came from http://www.piney.com/BabSevenEvil.html and http://www.womeninthebible.net/1.11.Bathsheba.htm. Check them out for more information.

The Magnificent Festival

2011-12-26T12:13:00.004-05:00

Happy Summer Solstice! What? It's not the summer solstice? Well, sure, it passed a couple of days ago on December 22, 2011 ... What do you mean WINTER solstice?!? Ohhhhh ... you must be in the Northern Hemisphere! Well, if you were living in the Andes below the equator, December is actually summer and December 22nd is the longest day of the year (that is, the summer solstice). And just like the Northerners have all kinds of festivals for solstices, so does the South.

In a tradition reaching back to the pre-Hispanic Incans, there is a festival called "Capac Raymi" (which is Quechua for "Magnificent Festival") on this solstice that marks the beginning of the New Year. It's an especially important event for young men and is sometimes called "Fiesta de Fortalecimiento" in Spanish (Strengthening Festival) because it's all about young men testing their spiritual strength and potential.

What's your favorite southern hemisphere celebration?

The Ten Labors of Hercules - Labor # 2

2011-12-20T15:42:00.000-05:00

Hercules, now stylishly dressed in his new lion's fur coat and cap, is given a new monster to kill. His second labor is to kill the Hydra, a nine headed monster who lives in the swamp of Lerna. Not having heard of the Hydra, Hercules just shrugged and took off for it. It wouldn't have mattered if he knew what kind of danger he was facing anyway. That's just the kind of guy he is.

Hercules' nephew, Iolaus, came along for the ride. They did practically everything together. Athena went too, although nobody knew it. She developed a fondness for her half brother and decided to help him out some. She did this time by leading him to the right place to find the monster. Of course, we are very familiar with this story. Hercules cuts off a head, two more grow back. He cuts off another one. Two more grow back. he cuts off another one, two more grow back. This would have happened forever, if Iolaus wasn't with him. Cleverness isn't Hercules' strength. Iolaus ran in with a torch and burned the stumps as soon as the neck was chopped in two. This way, the new necks couldn't grow back. The center head is immortal, so Hercules just dropped a big rock on that one and called it a day. He then coated his arrow heads in the hydra's blood since it is poisonous to any living creature. On his way out of the swamp, he kills Cancer the crab just for kicks (and crab legs).

When he gets back, Eurytheus refuses to count this one as a successful labor since he had help. Thus, the title of these posts will become "The Eleven Labors of Hercules."

The Hydra has many allusions to it. Here are a few:

The Hydra - this little animal lives in streams and lakes in temperate and tropical zones. It has amazing regenerative abilities and never grows old.

Hydra - This is a bad guy group in Marvel comics. This gang was started by a guy named Baron Wolfgang von Strucker. They always go around shouting about how you can't stop Hydra, cut off one head and two more grow back. They usually say this right before they get killed.

THC-Hydra - this is some login hacker program. I didn't want to search too much for this. I figured I was making myself a target for being hacked.

Hydra was the name of a multichannel digital ad platform. I don't really know what that encompasses, but I like the idea that they are playing on the many heads idea and connecting it with their mulitchannels. However, they ditched the cool name and replaced it with the name Adknowledge. Oh well.

Hydra - a made for TV movie in 2009 that stars, well, nobody I recognize. The big tag line for this movie - "Prepare to be consumed." IMDB doesn't even bother to add a summary for this movie. ~~Here's the trailer for it!~~ Scratch that. I can't seem to get onto YouTube right now. I bet it was that stinking login hacker thing above! It's probably best that we not see this trailer anyway.

But wait! There's more! We have:

The Hydra Project

And about 12,000,000 other results on Google. Geez! Everyone loves Hydra.

Next labor - no more killing monsters! That's not working well anyway.

The Ten Labors of Hercules - Labor # 1

2011-12-12T09:40:00.060-05:00

The first impossible task given to Hercules was to slay a lion. Not just any lion, mind you. This lion is the son of Enchinda (mother of monsters) and the 100 headed titan Typhon. This lion was nursed by the moon goddess Selene (why she thought to nurse a lion is beyond my capacity to understand).

This was the . . . Nemean Lion. (Cue dramatic music!)

I don't know why Hercules thought fighting naked was a good idea.
He's probably one of those guys who thinks taking his shirt off at parties is the thing to do.

Hercules was fine with this task. In fact, he thought, "Hmmpft! I thought this would be harder." And off he went, grabbing weapons along the way. He grabbed a bronze sword. He grabbed some arrows with bronze tips. He grabbed an olive tree, pulled it up by the roots, and made it into a club. He was ready.

When he found the beast, it immediately ran towards him. Hercules calmly shot three arrows at it in rapid succession (archery class had kept Hercules' GPA out of the 2.0 range in school - that and killing his music teacher). The arrows merely bent their tips and bounced harmlessly off. The lion leaped and Hercules hit it with his tree/club. The lion was pushed out of the way, but otherwise unharmed. At this point, it probably would have been wise to just run away, but then again, Hercules was never known for his wisdom.

The lion charged again. This time Hercules dropped the club and grabbed the lion around his neck and held him. The lion struggled, but he could not break the head lock Hercules had put on him. Finally, the lion was dead.

Hercules then looked at the beast and thought, "That would be one cool cloak to wear! I ought to skin it and wear it." Upon which he replied to himself, "Cool idea, Herc! Let's do it!" He grabbed his knife and began cutting...

... only to remember that weapons don't seem to penetrate this hide. So he brought out his heavy duty Bronze Sword 2000, which also didn't work. Hercules sat, much like Winnie the Pooh does when he is thinking. He may have even sang the "Rumbly in my Tumbly" song like Pooh occasionally does.

So then Hercules did something quite clever, although it was probably quite an accident. He used the claws of the lion to skin the beast. It worked. So now Hercules goes around wearing the lion's head as a helmet and the skin draped down his back as armor. It's quite impressive and pretty impressive to look at. Most times that is.

One of the better things about Disney's Hercules movie was having Scar be the Nemean Lion.

The lion can be seen still today, as it was immortalized in the constellation Leo. The stars look more like a mouse than a lion and are pretty easily spotted if you are looking in the right direction. That direction would be south in April (about 9:00). Here's what you'll be looking for:

So, one down, nine to go!

See all of the Labors of Hercules Posts

Sissyphus - Again

2011-11-30T15:34:00.000-05:00

I'm swamped right now with swim team coaching, watching my sons wrestle and play basketball, and of course trying to fit work into the mix, so I've been a bit slack of late. To tide you over until I can get some good posts in, here is a video I found on You Tube that is evidently from a video game about Sissyphus called Rock of Ages.

You can see Prometheus and Tantalus in the background on his first try, but the heck is the guy int he wheel on the second try? If you know, please post a comment. I'm sure when you do I'll slap my head in embarrassment for not recognizing it the first time.

By the way, if you've played this game, let me know if it is any good.

It's All Fun and Games until Someone Gets an Eye Poked Out

2011-11-15T14:40:00.002-05:00

O.K., anyone who has followed this blog any knows that I was not going to actually follow up the first post in my Hercules series with the second post. I will get to it, I promise.

However, until then, I found this old movie poster and I thought it just looked cool and wanted to share it with you.

Look at the apostrophe on Homer's. It looks like the artist was doodling and just randomly drew a spear sticking through it. I especially like the red stuff shooting upwards. Is that fire or blood? Either way, looks painful. And speaking of painful, here is the actual movie, or part of it. It is a 1911 silent movie and I could only find the Italian version.

I will, of course, show my class part of it. They got frustrated when I showed them the wonders of the original Clash of the Titans special effects. I can't wait until they see these.

If anyone wants to take the time to find an English version of the movie, please post the link in the comments section for me.

The 10 Labors of Hercules

2011-11-10T09:38:00.005-05:00

I know, you're thinking that I can't count, but trust me, this series of posts should be titled the 10 Labors of Hercules. You'll see as this theme progresses. Before we start, we need to give a little explanation. It all starts with Zeus being a little horny (as many Greek myth do).

Zeus was sitting on his Olympus throne one day, looking down at the many people traveling to and fro when he noticed a beautiful young lady and decided that it was his sworn duty, as a god, to bless this young woman. However, since his sister/wife was a jealous sort, he decided to take a disguise. He ran through a list of options: bull, rain shower, swan... No. These just would not do. He needed something different. The it came to him and off he went.

Meanwhile, the young woman was going about her household chores to get the house prepared for when her husband came home from battle. Suddenly the door opened and she heard, "Alcmene! I'm home! I missed you so much, let's [hold hands]."

She was surprised to see him home so early but very pleased by the best [hand holding] she ever had. Then he abruptly got up and said, "well, I must be off." Just like that he left.

Shortly after, she heard, "Alcmene! I'm home! I missed you so much, let's [hold hands]." Alcmene was a smart woman and realized that the man who just came to her house was not her husband after all. She kept her mouth shut to avoid attracting Hera's attention. This would have worked, however, when she gave birth, she gave birth to twins. One was a scrawny little kid. The mid-wife named him Iphicles. Then out came another baby. The mid-wife remarked how big and healthy this one was. She said that they should praise Hera for such a healthy baby. She named him Herakles (we know him better by his Roman name of Hercules). Alcmene knew it was all over then. Sure enough, this got the attention of Hera and she vowed to destroy the baby. This proved harder than it looked. She sent snakes to kill the infant, but he just picked them up and tied them in knots. Hera, however, was patient. She waited for the right time to strike.

That time was after Herakles was married and had a few kids. One day he just went berserk and thoguht he saw enemies all around trying to hurt his family. Herakles tore them apart. Then his madness went away and he saw his family in a bloody mess. He had killed them. Now Hera was responsible for this madness and she wasn't through playing with him yet.

After trying to come to terms with his guilt in various fashions, Herakles finally goes to an oracle. The oracle, unfortunately, was mislead by Hera to reveal the wrong thing for him to do. She said that he must report to the King of Tiryns, who just so happened to by Herakles' half brother who also hated him. She said that Herakles must serve him for one full year. Herakles, intent on getting forgiveness for his murderous behavior, goes willingly.

Once there, Eurytheus gets all excited and with the help of Hera, comes up with ten impossible tasks that Herakles must do to save his soul.

That, my friends, is where we stop for today. In this series of posts, we will look at each labor and see how much fun Hercules had. Oh, and I'm writing Hercules from now on because I like it better than Herakles. So there. I know I'm mixing Roman names with Greek, but hey! Call it Blogger License.

And Now the Rest of the Story...

2011-11-04T02:38:00.001-04:00

Which of These Things Do Not Belong?

2011-11-02T11:46:00.000-04:00

I am teaching my ninth graders The Odyssey. To introduce the mythology unit, we are watching The Lightning Thief. It is also a good jumping on point to introduce The Olympian books for free read. I was so proud of my students for their observation of Persephone.

In the movie, Rosario Dawson plays a slutty and disenchanted Persephone who hates her Hades abode. She makes reference to the fact that she has time above ground that she looks forward to.

My students, though, remember me telling them that she lives in Hades during winter and one student pointed out that the movie takes place in the summer (the week of June 21st to be exact). I was so proud! I'm sharing it with you since many teachers read this and it could be a fun quiz question or extra credit question.

Now, to be fair to Rick Riordin, he gets it right. In the book, Persephone is no where to be seen. What you do get in the book that is absent from the movie is the wonderful scene of Percy trying to get past Cerberus by playing fetch with him using a nice red bouncy ball.

I'm not sure why Chris Columbus chose to drop Cerberus and use Persephone instead. I don't think it added to the movie any and all it does it irritate myth nerds like myself. I don't know if Riordin had any veto power over the movie script or not. I do know that he never has watched the movie. Why? He says that he never watches movies based on books he's read as he likes the picture in his mind better.

2011-10-25T16:19:00.000-04:00

The Flash is a well known superhero. He got his start, however, in mythology. The original character was inspired by the swift feet of Hermes, Greek messenger god and all around great guy to know. You can see the inspiration from the winged helmet and the winged sandals. The Flash that we know of now has no direct mythology allusion, but was inspired by the original Flash, so the allusion is indirect.

Here are a few of the fastest gods and goddesses around.

Hermes - Greek fast messenger god. He is so fast that he sometimes uses his speed to steal. He stole all of Apollo's cows the day he was born. He had to give them back. He has been used to promote Goodyear Tires and FTD Floral delivery. There is a car named after his Roman counter-part, Mercury. There is a great commercial that shows that he's not quite that fast, though.

Iris - Greek rainbow goddess. She also travels super fast and as such delivers messages like Hermes does. In fact she may have been even faster than Hermes at the job and it is quite possible that she is, in fact, the true mother of Eros, but that may just be a nasty rumor.

Julana - Australian deity who travels fast by burrowing underground. Sounds pretty neat until you realize that he uses his power of fast travel to surprise women and, er, take advantage of them by "holding their hands" very aggressively and without their permission.

Ashvins - These Indian gods were like mythological ambulances. These doctor gods rode around in golden chariots drawn by flying horses to get where they were needed. When not healing someone, they stand on guards at the gates of death.

Pheme - Greek goddess of gossip. She flies at great speed. Her feathers are always moving. Beneath some is a eye, looking for problems, beneath some is an ear, always listening for juicy details, and beneath others is a tongue, ready to tell stories (always with some truth) to others.

O.K., who did I miss? Let me know and I'll add them to the list.

Re-post: A Russian Tale

2011-10-21T10:39:00.000-04:00

nce upon a time in a land now called Russia but then called something completely different, there lived a wood cutter with his five daughters. The oldest daughter was about 20 years old and the youngest was 15. The mother had died in childbirth and the woodcutter was forced to raise five girls all alone. The girls did most of the work around the house, including most of the actual raising of each other. Since they lived in the woods, they had no real neighbors to speak of and rarely went to the nearest village.

One morning, the woodcutter set out early to cut trees. He told his daughters he would be late. Around mid morning, the oldest daughter said that she should take father some food and wine, for he would be hungry after all his hard work. She fixed a basket and set off to find her father. An hour past and she did not return. The other daughters grew worried. Their father was a hard man, a demanding man. If their oldest sister had gotten lost, then he would be angry that he did not get his lunch and would take it out on them. So the next eldest daughter fixed a basket of apples and bread and headed out in search of her father.

The sun reached its zenith, and just as the first, the second daughter did not return. The middle daughter then packed some cheese and milk and she too, set off. The sun began to go down and the next daughter then packed a rabbit stew that she had been fixing for dinner and set off into the woods. The sun set and neither she, nor her sisters, nor her father returned.

The youngest daughter was frightened. She did not pack a dinner, but instead set out to find her family. The moon was almost full and there was plenty of light, even in the dark woods. The young girl searched for a while before she heard sounds of tools off in the distance. As she got closer, she heard her father talking to himself and shoveling dirt. Wary, she eased her way closer. It took everything she could not to gasp.

She saw her sisters scattered around, their bodies twisted and their throats ripped out. The girl did everything she could to supress a scream. She watched, unable to move, while her father spent most of the night digging a large grave and dumping her sisters into it. Late into the night, he stopped, sat down on the edge of the grave and began to drink one of the bottles of wine that one of the daughters had brought. While he did so, he sang a sad song in a language that she could not understand. At one point, the wind shifted. He immediately stopped singing and stood up, sniffing the air as he did so. "Finally. You made me wait. You know how angry I get when I have to wait."

At this the father began to painfully transform. His nose and mouth elongated into a snout. Hair began to rip through his skin. He let loose a howl that almost paralyzed the daughter. She fought it and began to run. "Really?" Even through the growl she could recognize the voice of her father. "You really think you can outrun me?" The half-man half-wolf leaped and covered half the distance. He loped beside her, toying with her until her bracelet ripped on a tree branch, falling to the ground spilling the beads all over the forest floor. The father stopped and immediately began to pick up the beads as is the curse of all lycanthropes to pick up things dropped to the ground. The daughter, not certain why, but not questioning fate, ran with all her might. She was running deep into the forest in a direction she had never gone before. It was not long before her father caught back up to her. She threw off one of her shoes. Again he stopped and went back to pick it up. This went on. The daughter lost her other shoe, her necklace, her hair bow, her skirt, her shirt and finally her undergarments.

As the girl ran out of the woods, the sun was coming up, revealing a farm in a land hse had never been to before. She saw a haystack and hide inside it. The father also found the farm and began to sniff, looking for where she went. Since she had been sweating profusely, he was able to pick up her scent easily. He looked around and found a pitchfork and raised it up to the pile and was about to deliver the death blow when his ears pricked up to the sound of hunting dogs. "Don't worry honey. I'll be back for you." With these words, he left.

The dogs were going crazy at the weird scent they were picking up combined with the woman's sweat. They surrounded the hay stack and barked, waiting for thier master to arrive. When he did, he took a sword and began to poke the stack to see what his dogs snagged. His surprise was great to see a nake woman leap out of the hay. His first action was to praise his dogs. His next was to drape his cloak around her. He could tell that she had some traumatic experience and he did not bother to ask her any questions. Instead he led her to his horse and took her to his home - which just so happened to be the local castle. The young prince received many weird looks as he brought home the nearly naked woman. Nobody questioned him and instead followed his orders to get her taken care of.

She was bathed and dressed and fed. He spent the next several days with her. Days turned in weeks and months. He never asked her about her past and she never brought it up. They fell in love and got married. The whole kingdom loved her. Soon after, the prince's father died in battle and the prince became king and the young girl became queen. She gave birth to twin boys and the kingdom rejoiced.

Tragedy struck one night when the father returned. He climbed straight up the castle wall and entered into the bedroom of the king and queen. He walked down the hall to the nursery, looked at his grandsons, and then took a knife and slaughtered them. He then trailed blood back to the bedroom and placed the knife under his youngest daughter's pillow before leaving the way he came.

The king was awakened by the screams of the royal nanny. He raced to the nursery to see the blood splattered walls and the corpses of his two boys. He then followed the blood trail back to his bedroom where he saw his wife holding the bloody knife, staring at it in confusion. It didn't take a genius to realize what had happened and he cursed himself for marrying a woman that he didn't really know. He decreed to the kingdom that nobody would kill her unless she ever came back into the kingdom. She was to walk away and never to return. She pleaded her innocence to no avail. To make matters worse, he tied the corpses of the babies to her neck and made her walk among the people who cursed and spit at her as she passed.

The head castle guard did not believe the queen was guilty and continued to search for clues. He found grass and dirt on the outside of the castle walls. He saw tracks leading off into the woods. Taking a small detachment with him, he hunted down the werewolf father and killed him right after he was forced to confess.

The king rejoiced at hearing this news, for the thought of his beloved being a killer was too much for him to bear. He sent his fastest rider out to collect her and bring her back. She had been forgiven, could she forgive him?

The young woman blamed herself for not telling her husband her past and forgave him. And they lived happily ever after.

Or at least that is how I remember this story going.

What Are You Going to Do When Zeus Runs Wild Over you?

2011-10-18T14:27:00.000-04:00

It takes a special actor to be able to pull off playing Zeus, King of the Gods. We have had several take the role in past movies. An obvious example for this blog would be the two who took the role in Clash of the Titans.

Laurence Olivier, who plays the classic look of the bearded old looking guy.

Liam Neeson in the remake who takes a younger approach.

Then in the Percy Jackson movie, we have Sean Bean who has taken an even younger look and a more tidy beard approach.

I actually think that the younger approach works. Zeus is the youngest of the original six gods, after all. To have him looking like an old man but having Hades and Poseidon looking younger seems a bit off to me.

You can see a complete list of Zeus actors at http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0489210/

There is a another actor to take the mantle of Zeus that I have yet to mention. In fact, he is the purpose of this post. In a movie that defies logic in casting, we now have ...

Wait for it . . .

Terry "Hulk" Hogan stars as the big man himself.

Really?

Come on, I'm as much a Hulkamaniac as the next guy, but really? I got to say, though, in the picture above, it looks like Hera is doing a pretty good job fussing him out. The movie is titled Little Hercules 3D and I doubt I'll be using one of my Netflix DVD mailings for it. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe it is a masterpiece. I have been known to be wrong once before (my freshman year in college when I dated . . ., well let's just say that was a mistake).

Here's the trailer for it:

Anybody out there see this movie?

New Blog

2011-10-15T10:42:00.001-04:00

Because I am obviously so stupid that I don't realize how little time I have, I have started up a new blog. I am still going to keep this one going. This new one is about teaching high school English (middle school language arts might find it useful too). The title of this blog is Hard Core English Teacher: Why Be Common Core When You Can Be HARD CORE? For those of you not in the business, the US is slowly moving to all states having the same standards, which they call Common Core. My state is just moving over to it. I originally started it up to address those concerns, but before my first post went on, I changed it to just whatever I happened to like to write about as long as it was tied into to teaching. Those teachers out there who have enjoyed Bubo's Blog, I hope you'll enjoy this one.

Worse Mythology Allusion - EVER!

2011-10-13T14:41:00.000-04:00

Congratulations to Burger King for winning the coveted Bubo's Blog award for WORST MYTHOLOGY ALLUSION EVER! (applause) (cheers)

I was going to give them an award for a current commercial about the god of hamburgers, which is just a cheesy commercial. Not cheesy as in Thunder Cats cheesy or old Batman TV show cheesy, but as in OMG(s) that's stupid cheesy. However, I could not find that commercial on You Tube yet. No worries, because I found another ad by Burger King that tops the bad cheesy commercial and wins this award hands down. Here is the ad:

This ad appeared in Spain in 2009. For those of you who don't read Spanish (like me) the above slogan reads "A SNACK THAT'S SACRED." The goddess on the sign is Lakshmi, a Hindu goddess.

Lakshmi is the goddess of wealth and prosperity. She is also a goddess of fertility and courage. People look to her to bring good luck and she can keep you from economic woes. Unless, of course, you use her to sell meat, which is forbidden.

God Checker says this about her:

She can pop into your feet, thigh or naughty bits, or your bosom, heart neck or face. All these will bring good fortune appropriate to the part involved.

We can hear you muttering 'that's only six', but she will also do your head in if that's where she enters — and that is bad fortune. So the odds are six to one.

So I guess Burger King got it in the head.

Now I might say that using a goddess from a religion that is not only opposed to meat, but look at cows as sacred beings, to sell your hamburger products is clever. I might would, if people no longer worshiped the Hindu gods. However, there are approximately 950 million Hindus in the world. It is an offensive comparison and down right stupid on Burger King's part. They truly deserve this award.

Just to be fair, Burger King did issue the following statement shortly after the ad was released: "Burger King Corp. values and respects all of its guests as well as the communities we serve. This in-store advertisement was running to support a limited-time only local promotion for three restaurants in Spain and was not intended to offend anyone. Out of respect for the Hindu community, the in-store advertisement has been removed from the restaurants."

I challenge anyone to find me a worse allusion than this.

Arabian Nights Mythology Allusion Quiz

2011-10-10T15:45:00.001-04:00

I know that the Arabian Nights were written as entertainment, but since they have so many Arabic mythological features in them, I've always included those stories as myths here at Bubo's Blog. I was reading a book the other day about comic book history (I know - nerd) and I ran across this little tid-bit of useless knowledge that I excel so much in. Let's see how well you fare. Answer the question in the box below and then scroll down for the answer. A No-Prize to all my winners!

Click Here for Poll Online Survey
Conjoint Analysis
| Polls
| Mobile Surveys

| Feedback Tab
View MicroPoll

Scroll down for the answer.

___________________________________________

The correct answer is:

The Green Lantern! A handy dandy no-prize awaits you if you got the answer correct! The writers, Bill Finger and Mart Dellon claim that the idea of the lamp being all powerful was the inspiration for their green lantern that gave the ring all those powers.

Thor, Percy Jackson Style

2011-10-05T16:54:00.000-04:00

According to a news article I saw today, it seems that Rick Riordan is satisfied with writing in the Greek, The Egyptian, and the Roman pantheons. Evidently he plans to take on the Norse gods as well. According to the article, he had planned to write this before he ever wrote Percy Jackson.

I think this is good news. I enjoyed reading his Olympians series. I'm having a hard time getting into the Kane series (the Egyptian ones), and my son is dying to go out and buy the new Son of Neptune book. I also think that mythology teachers can expect a boon of students signing up for these classes when these kids reach high school. All in all, these books are great for mythology.

Don't hold your breath, though. While he has already signed a deal with Disney Publishing Worldwide, the books aren't expected to come out until 2015.

One quote from the article that was interesting was an answer to a kid who asked him if he had seen the Percy Jackson movie. His response? Classic teacher: Nope. "The images from the book you make in your head are always going to be the best images."

You can read the whole article here: http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9Q4R1180.htm

The Odyssey Graphic Novel

2011-09-29T15:28:00.001-04:00

Those who have followed Bubo's Blog for any length of time know that I love a good comic book. I especially love a good comic book with mythological allusions. That's why it pains me to give this review for The Odyssey graphic novel by Gareth Hinds.

It pains me because I just do not like it. It is not that it doesn't have good information. It's not that it changes the story to where it can't be used in class. It is because I do not like the art. I do not like the word type. I also do not like the amount of words in each panel. Hinds both writes and draws the book as far as I can tell. This is usually a bad combo. A graphic novel writer must do more than put words on a page. He/she must know how to put the words. One of the benefits of the graphic novel format is that the picture tells the story as much as the words. The words are there for what the picture cannot convey and the picture is there for what the words cannot tell. Without this distinction, all you have is an illustrated story. With that in mind, look at a page I scanned below:

It reads much too slowly with all the long speech bubbles. Whoever did the word balloons should have at least used multiple bubbles to break it up. As it is, it feels like reading prose without paragraph breaks. Gareth Hinds writes and draws graphic novels for several classics. My thought is this. He has gained some success in this market because schools are eager to bring in more graphic novels and feel that they can justify the money expenditure if the graphic novel is a classic. Thus, they don't read them themselves, they just put them on the shelves.

Hinds does take a full 248 pages to tell his tale, so there is a lot of story here. One of my students, however, does not share my dislike of this graphic novel. He was excited when he found this in our school library and gave it to me to read as soon as he finished. Since he was so excited, I guess it has potential for its intended audience.

Now, if you'd like to know what a graphic novel can be, I suggest that you check out The Pride of Baghdad at your local library. It is not mythological in nature, but it is an excellent blending of word and image.

Since my student did like it, I'll raise my rating from 2 lightning bolts to 3 lightning bolts.

You can buy this book at Amazon.

Strange Women Lying in Ponds

2011-09-26T19:30:00.000-04:00

Another one from Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal:

Medusa's Shampoo Revisited

2011-09-22T14:48:00.002-04:00

Not too terribly long ago I added the most viewed posts widget to the side. I find it interesting to see what is being looked at. Some come and some go. The Medusa shampoo post is a consistently top ranking one. Recently, when doing a You Tube search, I ran across a longer version of that same commercial. So I am going to post both of them here so that you can see the difference in the two.

The Short Version

The Long Version

Which do you like better? I'm kind of partial to the short one, but that is the one that inspired me to begin with.

While we're at it, I might as well throw in this little Red Vines Medusa commercial:

Justified Genocide?

2011-09-19T14:33:00.000-04:00

The Old Testament has a passage in it that people who tend to be anti-God like to point out as a weakness for the belief in a loving God. I'm addressing it here, because it involves mythology when you look at it closer. here is the passage:

I Samuel 15:1-3 (NIV)

¹ Samuel said to Saul, “I am the one the LORD sent to anoint you king over his people Israel; so listen now to the message from the LORD. ² This is what the LORD Almighty says: ‘I will punish the Amalekites for what they did to Israel when they waylaid them as they came up from Egypt. ³ Now go, attack the Amalekites and totally destroy all that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys.’”

The question is raised, when is genocide the answer? If you are to avoid absolutes and say that there could be times when genocide is best for the world, then you'd have to agree that the culture in question really needs to be a vile one, one that is beyond redemption. So, were the Amalekites beyond redemption?

Let's look at these people. The point mentioned as a the final straw was the Amalekite attack on the Israelites on their way out of Egypt (you remember the movie The Ten Commandments or Prince of Egypt depending on your age). The Amalekites agreed to let the Isrealites move through their land; however, as the line of refugees moved through, the Amalekites continued to attack them from behind, picking off the elderly and the sick. Why is not really known. This part of the caravan was not particularly wealthy. It seems that they just enjoyed killing easy targets. Now, Saul is being told by Samuel to kill them all several generations later. I guess this is because God gave them a few generations to change their ways before this punishment and apparently they did not. This, though, doesn't seem to warrant the complete destruction of the entire culture (note it specifically mentions women, children, and infants).

So what else do we know about Amalekites? Well, their religion seems to be the main thing. This is where this blog steps in. What a culture chooses to believe says a lot about who the people are. Once the Israelites moved through their lands, the Amalekites went into to Egypt for easy pickings. Egypt was weak after the plagues and the Amalekites took over several outlaying areas. They took with them two of the Egyptian gods: Set and Apep. Set, you may recognize as the donkey headed villain god of chaos who killed Osiris. Apep is the fiery serpent who tries to kill Ra twice a day. This tells us quite a bit about who these people are. They don't want to worship Horus, Osiris, or Ra. Instead they choose their enemies. Interesting.

More interesting than choosing Set or Apep is their main god. They didn't get their main god from Egypt. They had him before. His name was Moloch. Moloch looks like an older man with ram horns sprouting from his head. We don't know a whole lot about him except that his worship involves child sacrifice. Not children of your enemies, your own children. The sacrifice is not quick and painless, either. The proper way to sacrifice to Moloch is to burn them alive.

The fact that these people choose these gods lets us know that they were more than likely pretty bad guys. God told Saul to wipe them out. He even told them to kill the animals so that it wouldn't be a war for plunder. Saul, however, didn't listen and did not wipe them all out. David must fight them later and there is one more time the Israelites face them. The picture of Moloch here comes from a pretty interesting blog post on the Jewish concept of Hell and how this burning children in sacrifice plays into the concept of it.

So the question I leave with you guys is this: could you justify genocide if the culture was full of child burning bad people? Leave your own viewpoint of Christianity or Judaism out if it. Leave a comment to weigh in.

Mythology Posters

2011-09-16T04:14:00.001-04:00

As a teacher I get all kinds of junk mail asking me to buy stuff. Come on! I'm a teacher! Like I have money to buy stuff. Anyway, I normally just throw them in the recycling bin, but this one caught my eye. It's from Teacher's Discovery. What caught my eye were the mythology posters. When I turned to that page, i thought to myself that I had to have these posters! So now I need to find a way to not only get the Mythology Teacher posters, but these too!

They're all in the form of a 1950's comic book cover.

You can order these posters at: http://www.amazon.com/Mythology-Poster-Set-of-6/dp/B005FM4FFY?tag=nongying-20 for $30.

The Riddle of the Sphinx

2011-09-14T08:42:00.001-04:00

From Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal

Recycling on a Mythic Level

2011-09-12T15:39:00.001-04:00

I love a scene in the TV series Mad Men where the main character takes his family on a picnic and when they are done, they just shake the blanket and let the trash blow down the hill. Today, of course, not only will that get you severe mean looks, but you can get fined pretty severely. Nowadays, you also can't just throw your trash away, either. We should recycle it. You know, go green and all of that. I don't know about the rest of the world, but in America, I think the whole trash movement was largely inspired by millions of kids seeing the Native American crying when people pollute. An even more effective ad might have been showing the Native American scalping litterbugs, but the crying thing seems to have worked.

What, you might say, does this have to do with mythology? Well, while ancient cultures didn't have recycling bins to put their used stuff into, they did recycle gods from time to time. Take Dagon, for instance. Dagon started off as a simple Babylonian fertility and crop deity way back in 2500 BC. He hung out with Shala or possibly Ishara. Sometime he judged the dead. Nobody really cared about him there since they had cooler gods like Marduk and Nergal. Then came some Canaanites who took up the worship of Dagon. They brought him into what is now Israel. Then the Philistines (of David and Goliath fame) took up the guy and gave him a new look. They gave him a spiffy fish tail and added fish duties to his reign.

As a god, he is a bit wimpy. There are no good stories to tell about how Dagon crushed the mighty giant of Kulferth to create the world or anything. In fact, he got his head handed to him by a box. That's right, a box. The Philistines captured the Ark of the Covenant. They placed it before Dagon's statue to celebrate. The next day, the statue was lying face down in front of the Ark like it was worshiping it. They set him up and that night it fell over again. This time it had his head cut off and he was holding it in his hands.

That's what he is best known for now. Bowing down to the Ark. Milton even has him hanging out in Hell in Paradise Lost. He is crying about losing his head.

God Checker has an enigmatic entry for him. All they say is

Inventor of the Hebrew Plow, before it plowed itself into becoming a Plough if not a Pluff.

I don't know really know what that means. Plough does have a dirty slang meaning of "holding hands" but it really does quite fit right. God Checker also ranks their gods in popularity. Right now it is 3892 (it actually went down one in the researching of this post). I think that we should all click on the God Checker link and see if we can raise his status some! Come on, it could be a modern day crusade. Could we actually pull enough power to get him to 3850? This is your chance to be a part of mythic history!

~

Tornadic Mythology

2011-09-06T15:17:00.000-04:00

We just had the wonderful experience of taking all the students downstairs and making them sit in the hallway while a tornado was going by. Lucky for us, the tornado turned out to be a few miles away and did not head in our direction, but school secretary come over the intercom and it sounded like the storm was upon us.

So now as I sit here, my mythology nerd brain turned to which god or goddess was in charge of tornadoes? A quick search popped up the harpies. Now most of us know the harpies as just monsters creatures famous for pooping on people from up above and grabbing people in the dead of night (or daytime, the harpies were so hideous that they didn't have to sneak around).

However, the origin of these creatures is that of goddesses. They are the daughters of either Thaumas and Electra, or Neptune and Terra, or Typhon and Echidna. There is also disagreement of how many of them there are. As few as one have been mentioned to as many as five. When they started out, they were storm goddesses, causing hurricanes, strong winds, and tornadoes. Their names are: Podarge (Racer), Aello (Hurricane or Whirlwind), Ocypete (Swift), Celeno (Dark), and Aellopus (although some say she is the same as Aello). Usually only two or three are mentioned by a particular author and they cannot agree on anything.

Once they started being referred to as monsters, their descriptions turned hideous. They look like a mixture of birds and women with bears' ears. they tend to hang out on the islands of Strophades (which, by the way, I checked out the tourism site for the Strophades and they don't mention anything about the harpies - go figure - they do, however, mention their wonderful sea bird population - just don't get too close). Oh, and they smell really bad.

One of the most famous stories involving harpies is the one that is often included in the Jason and the Argonauts story. A guy named Phineus (his brother Ferb was not mentioned in the story) was blessed by Apollo to be able to tell the future. Zeus, however, was ticked that he knew what was going to happen before it happened, so he punished him for it by sending the harpies to poop on his food. It's kind of like when you win an autographed home run ball, but then the government taxes you for it so you can't keep it. Two Argonauts (Calais and Zetes) were fast enough to chase them away.

Either Aello or Celaeno was the mom of Achilles' horses. The dad was Zephyr and we can only guess if it was when they were goddesses or monsters.

So next time you find yourself sitting in a hallway with several high school students waiting for the tornado warning to be lifted, you can pass the time by telling them all about the creatures that make tornadoes, the wonderful harpies. Students will look up to you for it. They will think you are cool and hip and swell. Trust me.

Be safe!

The Bubo's Blog Staff

2011-08-31T14:50:00.005-04:00

Life has a way of getting in the way of things. Take me, for instance. We just celebrated the first birthday of my third child. Now you would think that by the third child, this would all be old hat and I could do this in my sleep (ah sleep... I remember sleep). However, I don't know if it is because this one is a girl (the other two were boys) or if it is because I am just hard headed, I just can't seem to get time for everything. As you can tell, one of the things that has fallen by the wayside for me is this blog.

Never fear loyal readers! This blog will continue to go and will be greatly improved the by addition of two guest writers - Ailia and Mr. Mythology. These fine outstanding mythophiles will add much needed class to the site and will be posting whenever they get the urge. I look forward to seeing their stuff.

Now to make this an official post, I need to include some mythology. So here it goes:

Kali is the Hindu goddess known as the Dark Mother. She is also known as "She who destroys" and "The Black One." That guy she is standing on is not one of her conquests (at least not in the destroying sense of the word). He is Shiva and she consorts with him from time to time. She is often shown standing on him.

How do I relate this to the above entry? Well, the above entry is all about time and the lack of it. Kali just so happens to also be the goddess of time. I assume it is because she is a destroyer and time destroys all things ("O Time! The fatal wrack of mortal things..." Sorry - allusions to Bradstreet are a result of my geeky English teacher nature).

Speaking of geeky, Kali is also the Kali Ma that is chanted to in The Temple of Doom. There is so much to her, that I don't have TIME to give her a proper post right now. Anyone who knows more about her (especially if you are Hindu) should certainly post a comment to set the record straight.

Mythology Books

2011-08-29T15:09:00.005-04:00

Another teacher asked me about some young adult fiction dealing with mythology. I am ashamed that outside of the Rick Riordan books that I couldn't think of many. So I went to the internet and searched for books.

In my search, I ran across these two books:

Here is the blurb:

When Phoebe’s mom returns from Greece with a new husband and moves them to an island in the Aegean, Phoebe’s plans for her senior year and track season are ancient history. Now she must attend the uberexclusive academy, where admission depends on pedigree, namely, ancestry from Zeus, Hera, and other Greek gods. That’s right, they’re real, not myth, and their teen descendants are like the classical heroes—supersmart and superbeautiful with a few superpowers. And now they’re on her track team! Armed only with her Nikes and the will to win, Phoebe races to find her place among the gods.

Seems to me to be a female take off on Percy Jackson, but I may be wrong. I'm interested in knowing if anyone has read it and can shed some more light here.

So now I'm giving you homework. Can you add any more books to a young adult list of mythology themed books? Post them in a comment. I would like to compile a list. I know that Ailia did over at Paleothea a while back, but I believe that post is long gone.

We'll Miss You

2011-08-27T20:49:00.003-04:00

Well, after years of having his liver torn out, Prometheus is finally free!

Unfortunately for us, that means that the strip is finally over. If you've never read it, go over and read what you've been missing. It was one of the best comic strips I've read and THE best mythology based one.

The Miserable World of Prometheus

Mythology Teachers Buy This Book!

2011-08-19T14:18:00.007-04:00

Hey guys,

This has been a hectic year. I'm hoping to get the blog back up and running on a regular basis soon. However, in the meantime, I want to do something that I've been meaning to do for quite a while now.

School is starting up and everyone is getting ready. Those of you that are mythology teachers (and those of you who just love things associated with mythology) really need to visit Mythology Teacher. I've reviewed the site before for a whopping five out of five lightning bolts. It is packed with everything you need. You truly will NOT find a site more helpful to you as a mythology teacher. Zak does his own art work, reader's theatre, and more. He's not just limited to Greek and Roman, either. Zak includes Arthurian, Japanese, Norse, Russian, and local legends. He's got web quests, freebie activities to print out, posters to buy - what could be better than this?

I'll tell you! Reaching Olympus is his newest book. It has nine plays for use in the classroom. By using the play form, it gets the students more involved and into the story. Plus, you can do a quick unit on Greek plays and perform the plays in class if you like.

The plays are the stories of:

Perseus

Atalanta

Jason and the Golden Fleece

Narcissus and Echo

Oedipus Rex

Orpheus and Eurydice

and my personal favorite, Icarus.

But wait! There's more! Not only do you get the plays, you also get a a summary and all the background info you need, questions for before and after the play, terms and literary devices, games, puzzles, glossary, and pronunciation guide. Plus a secret bonus myth thrown in for the heck of it.

I give this book my highest recommendation. Five out of five lightning bolts. If you don't buy this, you won't be my friend.

You can order this book in hard back form or eBook form as well as see some sample pages at:

http://www.mythologyteacher.com/Learn-More-About-Creative-Mythology-Textbooks.php

God of Awesome

2011-07-30T07:44:00.000-04:00

Check out this Scion commercial:

So the question is, is that Hera with him?

Here are some "Behind the Scenes" with Zeus:

Odes to Olympians

2011-07-25T04:33:00.000-04:00

I recently ran across this mythology poetry contest open to both adults and children at the Tapestry of Bronze web site. Thought some of you might be interested. Here is a winner from a previous contest. They do two a year and each one is on a different god or goddess. This one is the adult winner (they have a winner for 18 and over and 17 and younger) for Zeus:

“In the Words of Salmoneus”

by Lisa Maloney

When I heard the thunder roll
I knew you'd found me out
that I should have crept, unnoticed
unworthy beneath your feet
instead of daring to ride out as
a god, girded, clothed in power
instead of borrowing your voice
as it called out the rain.
And yet
in the moment before you smote me
I knew
that as a god of thunder should,
I had finally
called down lightning from the sky.

Think you can do better? Try it out for the upcoming Artemis contest. Deadline is in November. If you

The Tapestry of Bronze is sponsoring a series of poetry contests to celebrate Greek and Roman mythology and the Olympian gods. The subject of the eighth contest is Artemis (also known as Diana), the Goddess of the Hunt. The deadline is November 30, 2011.

All poems remain the property of the authors. However, the Tapestry of Bronze reserves the right to post winning poems and those receiving Honorable Mention on the Tapestry of Bronze website. E-mail your poem (no more than 30 lines) to the following address: tapestryofbronze@yahoo.com

Do NOT e-mail any ATTACHMENTS! Paste the poem into the e-mail instead. Don’t get fancy with your formatting – pretty pictures and peculiar fonts are distracting and may irritate the judges. Please limit your creativity to your poem.

MAKE SURE your poem is about Artemis / Diana.

Please include your real name, and your alias if you have one. Make sure we can respond to your e-mail.

If you are an adult (18 or over), simply indicate that you’re an adult!

If you are under 18 please include the month and year of your birth. If you are under 13, then we need the permission of your parent or guardian. So, when you send us your poem, please also include their e-mail address too. (If your age is 13 to 17 you may get parental permission but we don’t need it.)

For more on our privacy policy go here.

Entries will be evaluated by the owners of the Tapestry of Bronze and additional experts at their discretion. No cost to enter, but each contestant can only enter once, so take time to make your poem your best!

The first prize winner in each age group will receive $50 (US).

Good Luck! If you have any poems, I would love to post them here as well. Just shoot me an e-mail.

It Speaks To Me Too

2011-07-22T07:57:00.002-04:00

My wife says this is us:

Hopping Vampires

2011-07-21T13:18:00.000-04:00

My friend who teaches at writing camp with me is from Vietnam. She told me about growing up watching Chinese vampire movies and that the vampire hopped. She said as a kid, it was very scary and it was not the hands curling around the coffin that was a scary vampire interest, it was when the toes popped up from the coffin.

Well, I couldn't pass this up, so I You Tubed it. Here you go - four minutes of hopping evilness:

A jiang shi is the proper name for the hopping vampire. It sleeps the day away (much like a teenager) in a coffin or dark cave. When it kills you, it sucks your life essence. There are a couple of ways to ward of a hopping vampire. A few are sticky rice, the blood of a black dog, and a spell written on rice paper. My friend said that when she was little, she copied those spells off the TV and kept them handy - just in case.

Thanks, Hoa!

More Cool Mythology Wallpapers

2011-07-14T17:02:00.000-04:00

I was so inspired by yesterday's whale picture, that I decided to hunt for more to display for you. Nothing proclaims your mythic geekness like a mythology centric computer wallpaper.

Most of the following come from Wallpaper Abyss (link).

We'll start with a little Poseidon vs. Zeus action that looks pretty cool.

Pretty cool, but not better than Destroyer of Ponies

(link)

My first thought on this last one is that it is Aztec, but the more I look at it, it could be a Chinese dragon. What do you think? Which one is your favorite?

Island Whale

2011-07-13T13:09:00.001-04:00

I ran across this picture. I'm too busy to go into places this image has cropped up, like St. Brendan and The Arabian Nights, but it was too good of an image to not share it.

You can get it for your wallpaper at:http://wall.alphacoders.com/big.php?i=81760

Enjoy!

Tribute to the Unknown God

2011-06-16T07:09:00.002-04:00

If you are familiar with weddings, then you are probably familiar with the book of Ruth from the bible, though you may not realize it. Often at weddings you hear this quote (or something similar):

"Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if anything but death separates you and me." Ruth 1:16-17

Two things get my attention from this quote. First, although it is used at weddings, this is not a quote from a wife to a husband or vice versa. Instead, this is Ruth talking to her mother-in-law after her husband died. The other comes from the your God my God part. See, Naomi, the mother-in-law, told Ruth that she was released from her duty (widows were supposed to stay with their husband's family) and that she could go back to her gods. Well, who were Ruth's gods?

Ruth was a Moabite. Traditionally they were not friends with the Israelites (who was?) and often the two groups of people fought. Ruth's first husband, Naomi's son, moved to Moab because of a famine. When Ruth married him, she gave up worship of Chemosh to worship her husband's god, Yahweh.

We don't know a lot about Chemosh. He was the top dog of the Moab gods. He was a war god as well. It does seem that human sacrifices were common in his worship. The most we know about him comes from the Mesha Stele, a stone tablet that was craved about 830 B.C. that boasts of Chemosh leading the way to destroy entire Israelite towns.

Unfortunately for the Moabites, Chemosh didn't help them much after that. They fell to the Israelites and paid a fortune in tribute until finally pretty much disappearing. Ruth, however, is one of the most famous Moabite. When she decided to leave Chemosh and stick with Yahweh, she moved to Bethlehem with her mother-in-law. Now if you're silently singing, "Little Town of Bethlehem" in your mind, you're on the right track. See, once she moves to that little town, she marries a relative of her former husband (no, not incest, it was tradition) and gives birth to a boy named Obed. If Obed doesn't sound familiar, try Obed's son - Jesse. If Jesse doesn't sound familiar, try his son - David. That's right. The killed-a-giant-with-a-rock-and-became-super-king David. It is because David was born in Bethlehem that Jesus was later born in Bethlehem.

So pretty interesting that the whole line of Israel and all of Christianity relied on a former worshiper of a human sacrificing war god switching sides. Don't you know Chemosh is probably a bit embarrassed by it all.

~

Changeling Moon

2011-06-14T07:03:00.002-04:00

Dani Harper, paranormal blogger, romance writer, and all around good friend of Bubo's Blog, has written a new book - Changeling Moon.

He roams the moonlit wilderness, his every sense and instinct on high alert. Changeling wolf Connor Macleod and his Pack have never feared anything ~ until the night human Zoey Tyler barely escapes a rogue werewolf's vicious attack.
As the full moon approaches, Zoey has no idea of the changes that are coming, and only Connor can show her what she is, and help her master the wildness inside. With her initiation into the Pack just days away and a terrifying predator on the loose, the tentative bonds of trust and tenderness are their only weapons against a force red in tooth, claw ~ and ultimate evil.

You can find out more information about, read the first chapter, and find out how to buy it at http://www.daniharper.com/CHANGELING_MOON.html.

Odd Dogs

2011-06-11T18:41:00.003-04:00

Our post today is another post from a different blog. This time it comes from Oddee.

We've looked at Oddee before. This time we are going to check out a post about dogs there. Two of their dogs in the Eight Weirdest Dog Breeds post were worshiped by ancient cultures.

Xoloitzcuintli

The Xoloitzcuintli (pronounced Sho-lo-eets-quint-lee , although it's sometimes called “Mexican hairless or just shortened to” Xolo”) is a hairless Mexican dog that is so primative that it was actually worshipped by the Aztecs. According to the mythology, the god Xolotl made the dogs from a sliver of the Bone of Life, which was also used to create all of mankind. Xolotl gave the dog to man, asking him to guard it with his life. In exchange, the dog would guide man through the world of death.

Because the breed is not well-known in the US, the Xolo has been mistaken for the mythological Chupacabra in US border states such as Arizona and Texas.

The Xolos are mellow and loyal dogs once they reach adulthood, but up until they become emotionally mature at age two, they are still highly noisy, chewy and high-energy. The breed was not imbred like many other purebred animals, so they are incredibly healthy, but they do require moisturizer, sunscreen and baths to prevent sunburn, acne and blackheads.

Peruvian Inca Orchid

While they may be called orchids, these pups are 100% dog. In many ways, they are like the Xolos, an ancient hairless breed. Like their Northern neighbor breed, these pups were worshiped by another ancient civilization, this time, the Incas, but the breed is actually a lot older than the Incan culture. Pictures of the breed appeared in Peruvian artwork from as far back as 750 A.D.

Peruvian folklore, much of which is based on Incan stories, says that hugging the dogs can help with medicinal problems, particularly stomach problems.

Sadly, the animals were almost ran out of existence after the Spanish conquest of Peru. Small villages in rural areas are all that kept the breed alive and more recently, Peruvian breeders worked to protect the remaining Inca Orchids, ensuring significant bloodline diversity.

These pups make great dogs, but they can be a little headstrong and require proper training from a young age. They also need lotion and lots of baths to prevent sunburn, acne and dry skin, and they do very poorly in warm weather.

Sirens, Large Whales, and Coffee

2011-06-04T22:21:00.000-04:00

What do those things have in common? Check out this post from www.brokensecrets.com:

Starbucks Is Named After a Moby Dick Character

By Chad Upton | Editor

In 1971, an English teacher, a history teacher and writer started a coffee roasting business in Seattle.

It’s not surprising that such an intellectual group would have an affinity for classics like Moby Dick. In fact, Starbucks was nearly called Pequod, the name of the whaling ship in Moby Dick. Thankfully, one of the partners rejected the name. Instead, they went with Starbucks, the name of Pequod’s first mate.

Although Starbuck was a fictional young quaker from Nantucket, there were a number of real sailors from that era named “Starbuck.” Naming a coffee company was not the first time the Starbuck name was borrowed either. There is an island in the South Pacific, a popular region for whaling, called Starbuck Island.

Starbuck Island was heavily mined for phosphate in the late 1800s and many ships were wrecked there. The high frequency of shipwrecks was probably caused by the reefs that surrounded the island, but there is a mythical explanation too.

In Greek Mythology there are seductresses who lure sailors to shipwreck on the coast of their islands. These mythical creatures are called Sirens and the Starbucks logo contains one.

Check out the Broken Secrets blog for more good stuff - like how to keep the aluminum foil from coming out of the box.

Immortals

2011-05-26T02:46:00.003-04:00

While waiting for Thor to come on, I saw this preview of a mythology based movie.

It's a Theseus finds the bow from the old Dungeons and Dragons cartoon story told with the same care and dedication to actual mythology as Clash of the Titans. I doubt I'll be hiring a babysitter to catch this one in the theaters.

Am I wrong? Anyone out there excited about it?

Better Book Titles

2011-05-23T14:46:00.000-04:00

I just found a fantastic web site that re-titles books. There are several I like. The one that first grabbed my attention was for The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne (a horrid book, I assure you - good story, horrid book):

Once I saw that, I thought, "Hey, do they have any mythology titles?" Obviously since I'm writing about it here on Bubo's Blog, they do. Oedipus the King by Sophicles is the best by far:

Here are a few runner ups:

Argonautica by Apollonius of Rhodes

Antigone by Sophicles

Paradise Lost by John Milton

Gilgamesh

Check out more at: http://betterbooktitles.com/. Can you come up with better? Can you think of a mythology book (or movie) that should be retitled? Post here no matter when you come across this post.

Thor Images

2011-05-20T10:57:00.002-04:00

In honor of the new Thor movie, I've put together a list of Thor images for you. Enjoy! I haven't seen the movie yet. I would appreciate any comments on your thoughts of the movie (should I waste my money on it) and any comments on which pic you like best.

*Update* I saw the movie this weekend. I was pleased both as a comic book fan and mythology fan. Obviously the movie is focused more on the comic book version, but I felt that overall, the story remained at least as accurate to Norse mythology than, say, Clash of the Titans did to Greek mythology. So if you're looking for a pretty good mythology movie, this will work. I still would like your opinions below.

From Marvel Comics (link)

(link)

Thinking is not one of Thor's strengthes. Also, doesn't this look like the end of the Conan movies? "...and he wore his crown upon a troubled brow." They seriously need to make another Conan movie. Just my opinion. *Update* At the Thor movie, there was a preview for a new Conan movie. Judging from the preview, I probably should take my suggestion back.

(link)

One would think that a Norse god would probably wear more, but who am I to judge?
(link)

Bet we won't see his goat chariot int he movie. It's hard to make goat chariots look cool, but Thor pulls it off somehow.

Simpsons Thor

(link)

And last, but not least...

Frog Thor from the Pet Avengers! (I'm not lying, there really is a Pet Avengers out there - Mrs. Lyons from the old Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends is in it, no less - please don't ask me how I know this)

(link)

~

Aboriginal Google

2011-05-05T14:27:00.000-04:00

I ran across this news article that you might find interesting. It deals with Aboriginal mythology, something I know very little about. Here is the article.

Google Earth Images Confirm Mythological Meteor Impact

by Stuart Fox

Australian Aborigine mythology begins in a period known as the "dream time", before the emergence of humanity. Many stories about the dream time include legends about stars, gods, or rocks falling from the sky. And new research utilizing Google Earth surveys of the outbackshow that many of those myths may actually be historically accurate.

Writing in the journals Archaeoastronomy and Meteoritics and Planetary Science, Duane Hamacher, an astrophysicist Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia, describes how examination of Aborigine myths led him to discover previously unidentified blast crater about 81 miles south of the town of Alice Springs.

In the myth, a star falls to Earth at a site the Arrernte tribe call Puka. Hamacher located the Puka site on Google Maps, and sure enough, the image looked just like another blast crater, Gosse's Bluff, which is located just west of Alice Springs and part of another Aborigine myth about something falling from the sky (this time a giant baby). Analysis of the magnetism and geology of the Puka site confirm that it is indeed the remnant of a meteor impact.

However, the impact occurred long before humans evolved. So how could the impact be part of the Aborigine mythology? Hamacher believes that the Aborigines witnessed enough actual impacts to correctly identify the resultant craters, and accurately deduced that the older, similar, formations must have resulted from the same kind of event. Which is pretty much the same thing scientists do with Google Earth now.

You can find it here: http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2010-01/google-map-images-confirm-aborigine-mythology

The Shoes Make the Woman

2011-04-25T04:48:00.001-04:00

Check these babies out. If you don't have a pair in your closet, you should seriously get shopping. Fertility goddess high heels will cost you only $1600. Notice the pregnant goddess as the heel and the snake skin pattern shoe. Snakes are often associated with fertility for their phallic property.

This particular fertility goddess is African. I did not find which one and the problem with doing African mythology is that there are several different mythologies due to there having been several different tribes that did not always interact with each other.

I was going to be real smart and try to track down which goddess was the source of the inspiration for these shoes; however, my search pulled up a virus problem twice, so I'm stopping here and letting Malwarebytes finish scanning for anymore problems.

Anyone who knows is more than welcome to post it in the comments. If you do, you'll win a No Prize!

Survivor Ragnarok: The Aftermath

2011-04-22T11:41:00.000-04:00

We had originally planned for a live reunion show to re-live the more famous Survivor moments, but as all but one of our contestant is unable to make it due to death, we'll just have to improvise. We'll take you now to the battlefield to hopefully gauge the reaction of the man on the street. Assuming we can find any who are still outside and alive, that is.

The title matches are done, but battles continue to be waged. Minor gods still fight giants, Valhalla warriors still fight creatures of Hel. The Ultimate Survivor, Surt, continues to wave his fiery sword. The forces of evil have the upper hand and the forces of good are struggling. Every last one of them preferring to go down fighting rather than to surrender.

Surt's sword gets fierier and fierier and soon the whole battlefield is engulfed in flames. Forces of good and evil alike are consumed in flames. The fires spread out of control and the nine worlds burn. Pretty much everyone who survived the initial battle is dead.

Now we pause for a word from our sponsors:

Welcome back. Where were we? Oh yeah, the worlds burn. Practically everyone dies. We're not sure, but we fear the worst for poor Ratatosk. To make matters worse, the earth sinks into the sea.

After sometime, a new earth, one with plenty of resources rises from the sea. This new world isn't dark because the sun, right before being swallowed, conveniently gives birth. That was smart.

Some gods survive and make it to the new earth. We have Vili (Odin's brother), Vidar and Vali (two of Odin's sons), Modi and Magni (Thor's sons). They inherit their father's hammer. Hoenir (one of the gods who helped Odin make man) also survives. He was known to be indecisive; however, none of us at Bubo's Blog feels confident enough to ask him if he survived the battle by not participating. Balder and Hod return and take up residence in Valhalla. We could not see if any goddesses survived, although there is hope for Frigg and Freyja.

Yggdrasil, the world tree, survived the fire. Two humans were smart enough to have hid in its branches. Their names are Lif and Lifthrasir. They will be needed to repopulate the earth. Since none of the forces of evil survived, there will no longer be pain and misery in this new earth (hopefully there will be no forbidden fruit trees to screw things up).

The gods that survived vow to live side by side with man (maybe because no goddesses survived and they're lonely?). Since the afterlife seemed to be only a means to fight the final battle, there is no need for it anymore. Now when people die, Nidhogg, the dragon, will take a break from chomping on the roots of Yggdrasil and drink the blood of the dead. Hmmm. Well, I guess it could be worse.

So there you go. The end of time Norse style. If you missed any of these posts, you can read them all here. As for the details, our lawyers here at Bubo's Blog is making us include some fine print.

The outcomes in Ragnarok are as reported here in Survivor: Ragnarok. The details of each battle are somewhat made up. No details could be found for each battle so in the interest of artistic license, a little fluff was added. Survivor is trademarked by CBS and a great TV show.

So, let me know what you thought of the series. More like it or more individual posts? More story like posts or regular posts. I don't know unless I hear from you. LEAVE A COMMENT! :)

Ragnarok: Heimdall vs. Loki

2011-04-19T11:04:00.001-04:00

And now, for the long awaited for Title Match of the Night...

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, children of all ages, it is time for the heavy weight championship of the worrrrlllllllddddddddd!

LET'S GET READY TO RUMBLE!!!!!!!!!!!!

When the earthquakes ravaged the lands, Loki was set free from his confinement. His head ached and there was a hole in the forehead from where the poison dripped. His wife came running to his side, but he cast her to the ground. There will be time enough for love and for paying her back for spending hundreds of years trying to capture the poison later after taking his revenge upon the gods. The only question now is which god should he kill first? He sees the hosts of Hel gathering and he leads them to Asgard where his giant kinsmen await for battle.

Heimdall did not need his super hearing nor his super sight to see the coming of the forces of evil. He sounds his horn and he too doesn't hesitate to say goodbye to his love, but instead races out to lead the gods into battle.

The battle lines are drawn. Heimdall surveys the area. All around him are battles between the warriors of Valhalla and the residents of Hel. Giants are fighting lesser gods. Far off he sees Odin and Freyr and Tyr and Garm doing battle. Freyr and Surt are just off to his right. While nobody knows what became of Thor, Heimdall sees him battling Jormungand as clearly as if he were next to him. But where was Loki? Heimdall must find out.

"Help me..." It was just a whisper, but it was enough for Heimdall to hear it, even above the din of battle. To his left, about 25 yards away, one of the Einherjar was about to be cleaved in half by a particularly nasty looking frost giant. (To be honest, all are nasty looking, but this one was so much so that even his mother hid her face in shame). Heimdall hesitated not a moment and leaped half the distance. Yelling, he distracted the giant just enough to close the distance. The giant forgot his prey and turned to meet a more promising battle. Heimdall, however, was not looking for a long fight and instead decapitated the giant in one blow. Heimdall took a deep breath and turned to face the fallen warrior. It was at this time he heard the sound. It was a sound much like the bending of a blade of grass, only with a bit more twang to it. Heimdall had heard that sound before many times. In fact, he was the only one who could hear it. It was the sound of Loki shape-shifting. However, the race to battle and the exertion of the beheading had slowed Heimdall enough to make hearing the sound not enough warning.

The fallen warrior of Valhalla morphed into the trickster himself. His sword blade swung and cut into the back of Heimdall's left knee, dropping the mighty god to one knee. Loki smiled. He wanted Thor first, but since Thor was nowhere to be seen, Heimdall would make a good first sacrifice. "Already bowing before me? Well, I should take that into consideration, but I think I slay you anyway." With that, he swung his sword quickly toward Heimdall's neck.

Without looking, Heimdall slapped his hands flat against Loki's blade, stopping its motion abruptly. With a jerk, he dislodged it easily from Loki's grip and threw the hilt at Loki's stomach. As Loki doubled over, Heimdall said, "There you are, three eyes."

Loki's finger went directly to the spot on his forehead. With a sneer, he spat, "Made a joke? Since when have you ever had a sense of humor? You know it reminds me of..."

But of what we'll never know as Heimdall took this moment to swing at Loki's head. With lightning speed, Loki transformed into a ram and as the sword swung by, he rammed his horned head into the god's stomach. The armor took most of the blow, but still it knocked the breath out of him. Heimdall grabbed the right horn and twisted the ram's head with the intent of snapping its neck, but just as quickly as before, he heard the tell-tale sign and the ram became a large eagle and flew away.

Heimdall shouted, "Come back here you coward!" Soon the eagle dipped low and was lost to Heimdall's sight.

The battle continued to rage all around. Heimdall continued to slay one giant after another. Finally he stood with two warriors, panting and weary. Heimdall heard Thor's hammer from afar and was only mildly startled by the massive blast that swept the battlefield. His two comrades, however, were completely taken aback. It was this moment that Heimdall noticed that one of the warriors had a wound on his forehead, right about the spot of Loki's mark. With no hesitation, he cleaved the trickster in two.

"Your tricks are at an end, rabbit-sucker!" Then he heard the sound.

Behind Heimdall, the other warrior transformed into a large snake and struck, biting deep into Heimdall's exposed cheek. The god sank to his knees, grabbed the serpent by the throat, and squeezed. The result was more poison being injected into his body and the snake's neck snapping in half. Heimdall fell, not quite getting the satisfaction of seeing the snake transform back into a broken, dead Loki.

TIE!

Good Guys: 3

Bad Guys: 5

Who is the last man standing and winner of Survivor: Ragnarok?

SURT

Next - The Post-Game Show

Read all the Survivor: Ragnarok posts

A Living God in the Hospital

2011-04-05T14:50:00.000-04:00

Hey guys,

I've been terribly delinquent in posting for quite a while now. I have several posts I would like to get to, but have just not seemed to have the time to do it. You know what they say about life getting in the way.

I'll give you a post today and get to work on updating the blog some and finishing out the Ragnarök series soon (I think). Thanks for your patience!

I was looking at the news when a headline caught my attention: Living God in India in Critical Condition. So I read it. Here is the short version of the article. You can get the whole version here: http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.8fb83dbd49bee8cae7e88172dbbed82f.e1&show_article=1

One of India's best-known spiritual leaders, famous for his apparent miracles and long list of influential followers, is on life support in a southern hospital, officials said on Tuesday.

Satya Sai Baba, 85, who has devotees in more than 100 countries, was admitted to a hospital funded by his organisation in the town of Puttaparthi with lung and chest congestion on March 28.

His condition has since deteriorated and he is now on a ventilator and is receiving kidney dialysis, the most recent health bulletin from the hospital said on Tuesday.

Thousands of followers have begun arriving in Puttaparthi, home to Sai Baba's ashram in the southeastern state of Andhra Pradesh, with many agitated by conflicting information given out by local authorities.

The wild-haired leader has a following of millions in India and abroad, many of whom believe him to be a living god, and the reincarnation of the great spiritual guru, Sai Baba of Shirdi, who died in 1918.

The guru, who claims to have performed several miracles including bringing men back to life, counts former Indian prime ministers, top businessmen and even the country's cricketers among his devotees.

His organisation funds health and education projects in India, including a string of hospitals that claim to be able to cure ailments beyond the capabilities of mainstream medicine.

The swami's birth in Andhra Pradesh is shrouded in mystery.

One hagiographical account by a biographer claimed the mysterious sounding of drums signalled his impending birth.

In his teens he is said to have begun singing verses in Sanskrit, a language of which he had no prior knowledge, and then became able to materialise flowers and sweets to the astonishment of observers.

His devotees also credit him with an ability to remember his past lives, a frequent claim of Indian holy men, and he is believed to produce sacred ash every day.

I find this all very interesting. Now, if he dies and brings himself back to life, we've got a real story. If someone reading this knows more about it, I am curious - is he really seen as a god on earth or as a great man? The article says god, but I am wondering if they are just trying to boost the story some.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

2011-03-17T05:00:00.001-04:00

Survivor - Ragnarok: Tyr vs. Garm

2011-03-07T14:38:00.001-05:00

PROUDLY PRESENTS

Based on voting, odds are 10 to 1 in Garm's favor. Last chance to place your bets...

At the gate of Hel, Garm paced back and forth as much as his chain allowed him. His fur coat was covered with the blood of those foolish enough to try to enter or leave Hel without permission. Suddenly the ground shook beneath his feet. Being a dog, even one as large and mighty as he was, he had no clue as to the impact of this shaking or what was to come. All he knew was that he felt an urge to kill unlike any he had ever felt in his life. The urge manifested itself in the form of a mighty howl that actually shattered his chain. Then the inhabitants of Hel began to come forward. Garm didn't know what this meant, he just knew that he wanted to kill and here are victims. Hel's guardian (also called Hel) stepped forward and with a few soft words (soft for Hel, that is), she redirected his blood lust toward the gods.

Tyr's stump ached. It had during the last three winters something fierce, but today's ache was different. It was a warning that the end was near. Before the roosters crowed, even before Heimdall heard the coming battle, Tyr began his war preparations. On his way out of Asgard with the other gods, Heimdall tells him that he heard a howl of rage like none other. He wasn't sure, but the fierceness of it seemed as if it came from Fenrir. "Time for pay back," muttered Tyr, absentmindedly rubbing the stump of his right arm.

Once on the battlefield, Tyr began to survey the skirmishes. On the far side he found Odin and Fenrir locked in a deadly embrace. Despite knowing that Odin would not appreciate help, Tyr ran toward them to intervene. The canine was his to kill, not Odin's. He owed the wolf for the loss of his right hand. Sword drawn and focused on the impending battle, Tyr was almost instantly killed when the second largest canine in history leaped toward his head. Barely getting the shield up in time, Tyr had to check his focus and turn it towards Garm instead.

The dog growled and leaped, this time, Tyr was completely ready and attacked with his sword. Still not used to being left-handed, his sword arc only sliced off the tail of the great beast. Garm sounded a pitiful howl and now knew to be wary of the thing in the god's hands. Never before had anything fought against Garm. This strange new sensation only heightened the bloodlust and the dog attacked again, this time dodging the sword and clearing the shield enough to get his mouth on Tyr's head. Tyr pushed back with all his might and slammed the dog into a tree nearby, causing the massive oak to fall. The dog lay stunned in the snow, back not broken, but close. Tyr stood, but with difficulty. He had pushed the dog away, but not before it bit a chunk out of the side of his face. Tyr's left ear was completely gone and blood flowed freely down his armor.

Tyr regained his balance and hefted his sword for the killing blow. Garm began to stir, but it was evident that it would be too late. Just before the killing stroke, Tyr saw out of the corner of his eye a giant about to decapitate one of the Einherjar. Without a moment's hesitation, Tyr threw his sword at the giant, saving the brave warrior.

Garm, however, was now fully recovered and grabbed the shield with his teeth. Under other circumstances, this game of tug-of-war may have seemed comical, but Tyr's very life hung in the balance. The shield, which had been strapped so tightly, began to slid off the arm and Garm fell backward with the shield at the same moment the lightning struck with such ferocity. Both Tyr and Garm glanced in that direction, but quickly resumed the battle. Garm, no longer needing to be wary of the sword or the shield, ran straight for Tyr and his mighty jaws clamped down on Tyr's throat. Tyr staggered backwards, but kept his wits about him. He could feel the throat crushing and knew he had little time. He glanced and saw the stump of the oak that had fallen earlier. The stump had very jagged edges where the tree had splintered. With all the might he had left, he picked the dog up and threw him down upon the stump. The force of the throw combined with the strength of his jaws caused Garm to completely rip out the throat of The Brave One. Tyr had one vision before fading to black, and that was the glorious sight of Garm impaled on the oak.

Judge's Ruling - TIE!

The Bad Guys: 4

The Good Guys: 2

The next fight is for the title, folks. Heimdall the hearer of growing grass vs. Loki, the shape shifter that once got pregnant when in the form of a female horse. . . come to think of it, I could have probably picked better introductions for these two mighty warriors...

Anyway, come back to witness the final fight and then we'll find out what happens next.

WHO WILL BE THE ULTIMATE SURVIVOR?

See all the Ragnarok posts. Just scroll down to the bottom to start reading if you want to read them in order.

Camp Half-Blood

2011-02-28T06:50:00.001-05:00

My department chair sent me this article a week ago. I thought you guys might be interested. It tells about Camp Half-Blood, the camp from the Percy Jackson series - only this is an actual camp kids can attend for $375 a week. Now I've heard of this before from Rick Riordin's page. My question here is is this the official camp or is it a home made version? Sounds home made to me, especially the price. I would love to hear from someone who has been to one of these and can let me know.

You can read the original here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/17/nyregion/17camp.html?_r=1

~

Ragnarok: Freyr vs. Surt

2011-02-25T14:00:00.002-05:00

Technical difficulties were experienced after Thor's lightning strike. We over here at Bubo's Blog have been drifting through time much like the cast aways in Lost. However, things are back to normal and though it has seemed like a week since the last Ragnarok post, for us here, it has been about 5 years.

Now, without further ado, we present tonight's fight:

Surt is patient - especially for a giant. He knows the time will come for him to bring death and destruction upon Midgard and Asgard. He does not know when. He does not know for what reason, other than the obvious pleasure of watching mortals die. He doesn't know much of anything, really. I mean, after all, he is a giant. However, he knows enough to wait. And wait he has for centuries. Now the cock has crowed and the forces of the giants and Hel have combined to finally put an end to the gods. He looks forward to the day he can sit back and enjoy life in the finer parts of the world. Maybe even sit in Odin's throne. He can taste to roasted raven now. His sword is made of solid flame and he knows that there is only one sword in existence that can match it. Freyr's self-fighting sword. He saw that sword the day Skirnir, Freyr's servant, brought it into his lands and threatened to use it against the giants unless Gerd, the pretty giantess, agreed to marry his master. He's thought of that weapon ever since and has always wanted to see which weapon was the stronger. Surt smiles. Killing the weak will have to wait. For now, he must seek out the one sword he fears.

Freyr's mother-in-law is a giant, so he has no problems at all with the upcoming battle. He kisses his dear Gerd goodbye and rides out to the battle field on his chariot. Once there, he releases the mighty boar that pulls the chariot. For a moment he watches Gullinbursti's glowing mane as the beast tears into the enemy and the he too jumps into the fray. He makes short work of many giants and the warriors of Valhalla fight even stronger when they see him by their side. Out of the corner of his eye, he sees Tyr and Garm already locked in battle and briefly wonders where Thor has run of to. Before he can act, however, he hears his name bellowed out over the field. Surt, king of the giants, has challenged him to battle. Nobody even seems to notice these two mighty warriors squaring off as the battles continue to be waged.

"Where is the sword?" Surt demanded.

Freyr realizes that this is why Surt has chosen him for battle. Skirnir has had the sword ever since the mission to get his wife, but Freyr fears that the servant will not be able to match Surt, should Surt come after him. "The sword is broken," the god lied. "I do not need one to take on the likes of you giants. Have you not heard of the way I killed your friend Beli with an antler? But never fear, I have another sword and it is sharp and will take care of the likes of you."

The giant grumbled. Then there is no other need for me to worry. You are nothing. With that, he raised his fire sword high and came down for the killing blow. Freyr, however, was not ready to die and managed to block this blow with his sword, though he could feel the sword shake under the pressure and knew that it was no match. He knew he would have to end this battle quickly if he wanted to survive. Thinking fast, he whistled for his boar and then jumped to avoid another strike from the fire sword. The flames on the sword were starting to get bigger and hotter and his shoes smoked from the heat.

Surt's eyes glazed over as blood lust began to take control. "I can do this all day, but you'll soon get tired. Die now and I will only make your death agonizing and not excruciating!" For those of you viewing at home, you will no doubt be impressed by the depth of Surt's vocabulary. Now you know why he's king. However, before Freyr could even consider this sweetheart of a deal, the grunt of the glowing boar interrupted the giant's speech. As Surt skewered the pig with the flaming sword (thus cooking it at the same time), Freyr picked up a shattered shield and threw the point of it right into Surt's eye, killing him.

Well, that was supposed to be what happened. Instead, the shield (which is a clumsy object to throw unless you are skilled in shield throwing like Captain America) bounced off the side of Surt's head. Surt, furious at this insult to his battle prowess, chopped down with a speed and fury unlike any other and sliced Freyr in half. At this killing, the flames on the sword began to burn brighter and hotter than ever. Even Surt could feel the heat blistering his gloved hand. It did not stop him, though. At this point Surt goes into a beserker rage and begins to tromp through the battlefield, burning all with his wild sword strokes.

The Winner - SURT!

The Bad Guys: 3

The Good Guys: 1

Next up, Tyr must stop the second deadliest canine in all of existence - and he must do it short handed (ha! get it?) Oh well. None of you voted for poor Tyr to win. Can he overcome the odds? We'll find out next time on SURVIVOR RAGNAROK!

See all the Ragnarok posts. Just scroll down to the bottom to start reading if you want to read them in order.

Reward for Return

2011-02-23T18:57:00.000-05:00

Just a little something found on Oddee.com. I promise, Freyr vs. Surt soon. Life just keeps getting in the way.

Norse Mythology vs. Science

2011-02-14T16:19:00.000-05:00

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. I really want to get this next post up soon, only life keeps getting in my way. On the positive note, I now know what an air handler is, what a capacitor does, and (unfortunately) the cost of a new blower motor for said air handler. *sigh* Donations can be sent to . . .

Anyway, I'm posting this oldie but goodie rerun to tide you over until the next Survivor: Ragnarok fight. Enjoy! If you can't see it well, try checking it out at http://www.thepaincomics.com/.

Thor vs. Jormungand

2011-02-07T15:31:00.003-05:00

PRESENTS

Thor, growing weary of fighting giants, goes after his true foe - the world serpent Jormungand. He has longed for this day his entire existence. Time and time again the worm has slipped through his grasp, but no more. This is the war to end all wars. The time has come for him to seek out Jormungand one last time. After scanning the battlefield, he saw the snake was no where to be found. Finally, he notices that the fiend is attacking a beach village nearby. As he ran past the hordes of bleeding and dying men all around him, he could not help but smile and think of what a glorious day this day was!

Jormungand was finally free of his confines in the ocean. He doesn't know what is different. He doesn't care. It feels good to release destruction without fear. All he knows is that his time has come to bring death to the world and that for the first time ever, he feels truly indestructible. There will be no running away from that hideous thunder god any more. Sinking ships quickly becomes boring and he approaches land. Feeling the poisonous gasses in his stomach churning, he belches his venom upon the beach village and laughs with a hissy laugh as the people's very skin bubbles off of them in their death throes. The land, even the very air around him, are stained with his baleful breath. Such power as he never felt before. What a great day!

Thor yells a battle cry that no one completely makes out. Only one being would dare stand up to this god in his beserker rage. Jormungand sees him running and turns, readying his pernicious gas for his most welcomed enemy. Thor, however, is faster than usual. In his rage, he moves like the very lightning he commands. The god leaps and, using both arms, swings Mjolnir downward and hits the beast's black heart. Thunder rumbles like it never has before, or ever will again. The only two beings who do not pause at the might of the thunder are Odin and Fenrir, locked in their deadly embrace.

Jormungand staggers, his serpentine next swinging from side to side trying to get balance, and then falls. As his head hits the ground, toxic vomit spews forth, soaking the Asgardian warrior. Thor, at first laughs, reveling in the thrill of battle. This wasn't the first time he emerged victorious from battle covered in gore. But then a strange thing happens. Thor's leg begins to twitch and then seizes up. His arms begin to convulse. He falls to the ground. As his eyes grow dim, he looks one last time to make sure his foe paid the price first. Then he grabs Mjolnir with the last bit of energy he can muster. He doesn't know what will come next as he enters death, but he knows he may just need his hammer.

The ruling... TIE!

Bad Guys - 2

Good Guys - 1

Next up - Freyr vs. Surt Who will be the ultimate Survivor?

See all the Ragnarok posts. Just scroll down to the bottom to start reading if you want to read them in order.

The Gates of Hell

2011-02-01T11:48:00.001-05:00

This is a 328 foot wide hole that has been burning for 38 years. In the early 1970s, the Soviets were drilling a hole when they (oops) punctured a large natural gas pocket. The ground collapsed pulling the drilling equipment with it. Poisonous gases leaked out and to prevent a catastrophe, they set it on fire.

Need to enter the underworld for any reason? Here you go. It is located in Turkmenistan.

Odin vs. Fenrir

2011-01-28T16:17:00.004-05:00

Presents

Odin sends his ravens off to the battle field in search for which of his warriors is in need of assistance. They have trained night and day for centuries for this very battle and the skill with which they fight makes him proud. Seeing some Valkyries fly off to the right, Odin heads left...and shivers. There he sees his foe, unawares. A moment's hesitation is all it takes for Odin to decide on his tactic. The All Father already knows the outcome of the battle. Now all that is left is to decide how it will happen.

Fenrir prowls the field and delights in ripping into the flesh of the Einherjar. These souls are merely a warm up as he looks for the treacherous Tyr. The hand of Tyr he swallowed centuries ago can still be tasted, and he wants more. Fenrir shrugs off a few arrows and sword thrusts, for his fur coat is thick enough to serve as armor and is about to snap his jaws on yet another one of Valhalla's brave warriors, when he feels the smack of a battle axe swung with such force it can only be a god. Tyr, perhaps? The wolf smiles and turns to face the one-eyed Odin. He doesn't have time to register the feeling in his stomach - is it anticipation or fear - before the two lock themselves in combat.

For hours these two rage. During the battle, thunder hits so hard, that the two combatants shake with the force of it, but neither one noticed nor cared. Odin's axe hurts, but does not do serious damage. Fenrir's teeth can't seem to crack the god's mighty armor. Wherever they go, both giant and Einherjar alike stop battle and watch. News of the battle reaches the far side of the field where Vidar, Odin's son, has been searching for Fenrir. Vidar has been preparing for this battle all his life by creating the ultimate shoes, ones he created by taking the scraps of leather left over when mortals make their shoes. As a result, the sole of his shoes are thicker and stronger than plate mail armor. If only he can get to the battle in time, but the shoes are slow going.

The battle appears to be a stalemate until finally Fenrir, in a streak of brilliance, enacts a new tactic and swallows Odin whole. He barely has time to finish swallowing before he hears the shout of Vidar across the field. He turns and decides to try the same strategy. Just as he opens his mouth wide, Vidar slams his foot down on Fenrir's bottom jaw. The fangs tear into the leather and stick, doing no damage to Vidar's foot. Vidar then took his hands and grabbed Fenrir's top jaw. With a mighty thrust, he rips Fenrir's jaws apart. A mighty victory, but one too late.

The ruling... Fenrir!

Bad Guys - 1

Good Guys - 0

Things aren't looking so good for our predictions. Most people voted for Odin to win. Go grab some popcorn, 'cause this war has just started. Next up on our fight card... Thor vs. Jormungand. At the moment, Jormungand is the favored, but Thor just doesn't care.

Who will be the ultimate survivor? Stay tuned my friends.

See all the Ragnarok posts. Just scroll down to the bottom to start reading if you want to read them in order.

I Know, I Know

2011-01-27T20:56:00.000-05:00

O.K., I know I've promised the big fight between Odin and Fenrir, but man has my week been packed between swim team conference and state testing here at the high school, not to mention that this is Pine Wood Derby week! So, give me a day or two and the big fight will begin.

While you are waiting, look at this cute kid here:

Luckily for him, he looks like his mom. This poor deprived child has a bad playground at school. They are trying to get Pepsi to buy them a new one in the Pepsi Refresh Everything Challenge. Since you don't want to see this poor boy cry, you can vote for his school to get their playground. The best thing is - it takes no time at all. Just text 73774 and put 105202 in the subject line.

Please do this by Jan. 31 and this would do it for their school. Currently they are 22nd. They need to 10th. HELP!

Next post - I promise - Odin vs. Fenrir

Here They Come to Save the Day!

2011-01-24T12:50:00.002-05:00

The Final Pre-Game Post

The bad guys have amassed. So what are the good guys doing? Sitting around sorting socks? Perish forbid! They too are getting ready. However, their preparations are not as snazzy as the bad guys.

The gods have stationed at Bifrost (the Rainbow Bridge that connects Asgard with the rest of the worlds) the one, the only - Heimdall! Heimdall not only has golden teeth (assumingly the metal and not just the color) but he also has heightened senses so much so that he can see up to a 100 leagues away and can hear grass growing. For comparison, the longest distance recorded being seen was in a report by Korzenewsky in 1923 who saw some mountain peaks at 750 kilometers (466 and change miles) (more on this at: http://mintaka.sdsu.edu/GF/explain/atmos_refr/horizon.html). In case you are wondering how that stacks up against a god, well, 100 leagues is roughly 326 miles. However, Korzenewsky had perfect conditions and Heimdall is said to be able to do this night or day. As far as grass growing, I could not find a recording of it on the Internet, but I did read someone on a forum somewhere say they could hear grass growing and that it has a distinct hissing sound. Personally, I think that person may be a bit loony, but I'm not ready to rule out the possibility that grass does make a sound while growing. It would be interesting to know if anyone out there can shed any light on this.

Anyway, Heimdall blows his horn to warn the gods. I'm not so sure they really needed Heimdall for this job. If you read the previous post, the bad guys weren't really acting all ninja-stealth. Who answers his call? All the gods and the warriors in Valhalla. The warriors in Valhalla are the dead who died courageously in battle. They have been preparing for this battle ever since death by fighting the other Valhalla inhabitant, getting drunk, and passing out. The next day, they all rise (even those who died in the previous day training) and do it again.

They all meet on the plain of Vigrid ("battle shaker") where the last battle will be fought. Vigrid is a flat space of land that stretches 100 leagues in every direction (good for Heimdall...).

I looked up Vigrid on Google Maps and they couldn't find it, but it did point me toward South America. I did a Wikipedia search and found an organization that believes in Odin as creator of the universe and also says that all non-Aryan races are the cause for all bad things on earth. Neither really helped me figure out where this battle will take place.

At this point Yggdrasil (the world tree) shakes (no mention if Ratatosk falls out) and the battles begin!

Next post - It's on! Odin vs. Fenrir in a cage match of death! ~~Two~~ ~~men enter~~, ~~Two gods enter~~, One god and one really big wolf enter but only one can leave!

See all the Ragnarok posts. Just scroll down to the bottom to start reading if you want to read them in order.

Bring on the Bad Guys!

2011-01-21T10:50:00.003-05:00

The earthquakes have rumbled. The chains have been broken. Everyone has cursed the green movement. The roosters have crowed. It's time!

Those still left by the sea notice the oceans begin to swirl. Jormungand, the Midgard Serpent, twists in fury and makes his way toward land. Those unfortunate enough to witness this rare event will soon die a horrifying death as Jormungand breaths on the land. The ground is stained by his poisonous breath. The sky is stained by it as well. There is just not enough Scope, Listerine, or Orbitz gum left in the world to clean that dirty mouth!

As he continues to churn the waves, the ship Naglfar gets loose. This is no S. S. Minnow. This ship is made from the fingernails of dead men. The giants quickly board this boat and sail towards the battlefield.

A second ship sets sail from Hel (that's right, H E single hockey stick) carrying all it's inhabitants with Loki as their leader. Who are the inhabitants of Hel? Well, if you die bravely in battle, you go to Valhalla (or get picked up by Freya and taken to her love palace). If you drown, you get taken to Ran's palace under the sea. everyone else, which pretty much includes those unfortunate to get sick, the cowardly, and the evil go to Hel. And now, they ride with Loki.

Surt, a giant with one big fiery sword, leads the fire giants into battle against the gods. The sword he carries is so big and fiery that is scorches the earth, killing most of those who survived the winter, survived the darkness, survived the crazy immorality, and survived Jormungand's halitosis.

The weight of all these giants causes the rainbow bridge (Bifrost) to shatter!

So now, the good guys must answer the call - or find good hiding places! Time to vote is running out! Who will be the ultimate survivor?

See all the Ragnarok posts. Just scroll down to the bottom to start reading if you want to read them in order.

Fimbulvetr

2011-01-19T21:14:00.003-05:00

With Fenrir locked up, things go on as normal. Loki too gets locked up for killing Baldur, the beautiful god. While he's stuck in a cave with a snake dripping acid-like venom on his head, Fenrir strains against his ribbon chain. These actions are to no avail since neither creature will be free until the end. The end starts with Fimbulvetr.

Fimbulvetr is the winter of all winters. Actually it is three winters. The harshest of all winters and they are so harsh that spring, summer, and fall all get skipped so that they can happen back to back (to back). Families will begin to go crazy and fight among each other. All morality disappears as people, desperate to stop shoveling snow, resort to all sorts of depravity. This is why we should NOT listen to Al Gore. Global warming will keep this harsh winter from occurring and will save all of us. That is why I have my SUV outside running and pumping as much carbon dioxide into the air as possible.

Once this happens, the end begins to speed up. Skoll, a great wolf (not as great as Fenrir, but this wolf makes the wolf from the three little pigs look weak) will eat the sun. His brother, Hati, will eat the moon, plunging us into some pretty heavy darkness. On top of that, the stars will vanish (no mention of any wolf eating them).

The humans that survived Fimbulvetr, will shutter when they hear the dreaded three cock crows. One, named Fjalar, will crow to alert the giants. Gullinkambui, the golden cock, will crow to alert the gods. The cock will crow to raise the dead.

This pre-game show to the end of times ends with massive earthquakes. These earthquakes will not only kill many humans left, but will break all things tied or secured. ALL THINGS. That means Loki and Fenrir will be free to play, and they aren't having good thoughts towards the gods at the moment.

Things are about to get ugly... Place your bets by voting on the side for the gods you think will win. At the time of this posting, no one believes in Tyr. Only one believes Odin has what it takes. Who do you think will win?

See all the Ragnarok posts. Just scroll down to the bottom to start reading if you want to read them in order.

Survivor Ragnarok: It Begins...

2011-01-18T03:00:00.003-05:00

In order to talk about the end of the world, we first need to go back to the past. You see, when two divine beings love each other very much . . . um . . . well, let's just say that Loki and a giantess held hands and the resulting baby was a wolf. Don't ask me how that happened, let's just say that the reproduction unit in health class is a lot easier now than it used to be.

Anyway, they called the ~~baby~~ puppy Fenrir and it was love and adored by all the gods. O.K., it was at least tolerated. It didn't bark too much and the Norse aren't too picky about a potty trained dog. Once they learned that the wolf would be the end of world, Tyr, the bravest of the gods, locked him up in a cage. Only Tyr would feed Fenrir everyday.

The pup continued to grow and it soon became apparent that the cage would no longer hold him. So, they decided to chain him up. Knowing that the wolf would put up a fight, they decided to trick him:

"Hey dog!"
Woof bark bark.* "That's wolf." (translated for you slackers that haven't studied Norse wolf)
"Right. You look pretty weak. I bet you couldn't break a simple chain."
Growl growl woof bark.* "I can break anything you can make."
"Yeah, right. You know, forget it. It wouldn't even be worth the time make a chain."
Grrr growl woof!* "That's because you know I can break it!"

It's not really that hard to talk a Norse monster wolf into doing something stupid. They bring out this incredibly huge chain and shackle it around his neck. With ease, Fenrir snaps it. Dejected, the gods go to the dwarves and explain the problem. For a small fee, the dwarves create the unbreakable chain. The dwarves used some strange ingredients (the footstep of a cat, the roots of a mountain, a woman's beard, the breath of fishes, the sinews of a bear, and bird's spit) and created a thin ribbon they named Gleipnir.

This time they try the same approach. Fenrir, however, is suspicious since they tried a huge last time and now they have a small thin ribbon. Fenrir figures that they are either very stupid gods or it is a not so crafty trick. Remember, he may be a wolf, but he is the son of the trickster figure of all trickster figures. So he makes a deal. He will allow them to put the ribbon around his neck IF one of the gods will put his hand in Fenrir's mouth while they tie him up. Since all the gods know that once Fenrir realizes he can't break it that he will bite off the hand, no one volunteers. Well, no one but Tyr, the bravest of the gods. Tyr is not only a war god, but old myths have him as being top god once (before Odin takes over). He also was the god assigned to feed Fenrir since the others were too scared. Tyr willingly puts his hand in Fenrir's mouth and once Fenrir realizes he's been duped, he bites off the hand (that fed him!).

They then anchor the ribbon deep under ground and stack a huge rock on top of it. When Fenrir tried to bite some more gods, they took a sword and shoved it in his mouth to keep him from biting down. Fenrir now has nothing to do but to bide his time and wait for his release, which is predicted to occur at the end of time.

So the seeds for Ragnarok begin, but it is far from over. Next time we see what Al Gore and Ragnarok have to with each other. Until then!

Don't forget to vote for which god(s) you think will win their battle.

See all the Ragnarok posts. Just scroll down to the bottom to start reading if you want to read them in order.

What's Your Sign?

2011-01-15T09:34:00.001-05:00

Next post will continue the Ragnorak discussion (so be sure to vote), but this is breaking news and we here at Bubo's Blog had to bring it to you first (well, O.K., it is week old news, but maybe you haven't heard about it yet...)

As I'm sure that you know by now, it has been suggested to modify the zodiac to adjust for the movement of the earth. As a result, all the dates slightly change and a new zodiac sign gets added. Now I remember reading about this a few years ago in Sky and Telescope magazine. In that case, it was an article about the constellation that makes up the new sign and the author of that article was saying that if astrologers wanted to be accurate, they would change the zodiac to add this guy in. Nobody got in an uproar about that. Recently a guy said the same thing and now everyone is upset. No need to worry, however, as astrologers have said that the new classification system only applies to people born 2009 or later.

The new sign is Ophiuchus, the serpent bearer. It is the only sign that is based on a real person - Imhotep. That's right, the same guy from The Mummy. The Greeks didn't refer to him by that name. They saw him as Aesclepius, the god of medicine and healing. He carried the Caduceus that has become so well known for medicine.

O.K., so now we have a new sign. people born between Nov. 29 and Dec. 17 are now classified as Ophiuchus. What are their traits? These people are

Seek out peace and wisdom

Often the recipient of both good luck and jealousy

Can interpret of dreams

Like to reach for the stars

And they like to wear plaid

I got most of my information from: http://www.nowpublic.com/style/ophiuchus-personality-traits-13th-zodiac-sign-2747550.html so feel free to check them out for more info.

So what are the new dates? Here they are. Note, you may have changed signs:

Capricorn: Jan. 20-Feb. 16
Aquarius: Feb. 16-March 11
Pisces: March 11-April 18
Aries: April 18-May 13
Taurus: May 13-June 21
Gemini: June 21-July 20
Cancer: July 20-Aug. 10
Leo: Aug. 10-Sept. 16
Virgo: Sept. 16-Oct. 30
Libra: Oct. 30-Nov. 23
Scorpio: Nov. 23-29
Ophiuchus: Nov. 29-Dec. 17
Sagittarius: Dec. 17-Jan. 20

I went from Scorpio to Libra. Funny, I don't really follow my horoscope, but I feel a bit disappointed in moving to Libra... So what about you? Did you change?

Survivor - Ragnarok Edition

2011-01-10T12:00:00.004-05:00

With 2012 quickly approaching, we here at Bubo's Blog have decided to focus on the end of times. But what do a bunch of Mayans know? The Norse have it down pat. They know exactly how the end arrives - and they are preparing for it. There are several battles that happen in Ragnarok and we are going to detail each one for you. So while the posts start coming in, you will need to decide who will win and who will lose by choosing the gods on the poll to the side that will be beat their foes. Here is the fight card:

ODIN vs. FENRIR

Odin - One-eyed head god that keeps all the Norse gods under control

Fenrir - Monster wolf who already bit one god's hand off as a pre-fight snack

THOR vs. JORMUNGAND

Thor - Warrior god of thunder, uses magical hammer and is the strongest of the gods

Jormungand - Monster snake also known as the world serpent, so big he circles the globe

FREYR vs. SURT

Freyr - This important farming god has a magical sword that fights on its own

Surt - An angry giant who has a sword of fire

TYR vs. GARM

Tyr - War god and bravest of the gods - he lost his hand to Fenrir early

Garm - Monster dog, second canine only Fenrir

Final Title Match!

HEIMDALL VS. LOKI

Heimdall - Watchman of Asgard, has senses so precise, he can hear grass growing

Loki - Shapeshifting trickster figure, grew up with the gods, but has betrayed them now

O.K, now it is up to you. In the next few posts, we will lead up to Ragnarok, then each fight will be detailed out in their own post. You pick which god you think will win. I will say this, not all gods win, not all gods lose. So go ahead and take a stand! Who will be the ultimate Survivor?

See all the Ragnarok posts. Just scroll down to the bottom to start reading if you want to read them in order.

What's Worse Than Medusa?

2011-01-07T10:48:00.000-05:00

Why, Medusa in spider form, of course. For the record, I HATE spiders with a passion. Check this little bugger out:

The big one is the female and the little one is the male. I've actually seen one of these in Hawaii where they are called Garden Spiders. In Guam, somebody brought in a brown snake of some sort which had no predators. It practically ate all the birds so now there are pretty much no predators for this spider and they overrun the place. Scratch Guam off my "To Visit" list.

Now why would this spider make my mythology blog? Well, in Lost, which I am currently mid way through season 3 (catching up via Netflix), they show this spider in an episode ("Expose"). However, in the show, it is not the harmless little garden spider, it is revealed to be the dreaded Latrodectus Regina, a type of widow spider that is nick named the Medusa Spider. It appears that one bite from this monster will paralyze you for about 8 hours. To make matters worse, when we see the spider to begin with, the science middle school teacher, who is one of the island cast aways, is catching one in a jar. He tells a girl on the island named Nikki about the paralysis poison and that the female (the one he has in the jar) emits pheromones that will attract every male in the area to her. Pretty nasty stuff.

(*Spoiler Alert* if you are also catching up on Lost and haven't gotten this far)

Now, as the episode goes on we find out that Nikki and her boyfriend Paulo (also stuck on the island) are really thieves who killed this older man and took 8 million dollars worth of diamonds. The diamonds seem to be lost in the plane crash and eventually Nikki gives up the search. Paulo, however, has found said diamonds and is not telling her because he loves her and is afraid that if she has the diamonds, she might leave him when they get rescued. Due to his stupidity, she finds out and thinks he was trying to keep them all for himself. She meets him out in the jungle where she opens the Medusa spider jar that the science teacher had. Then she throws the spider on him, which bites him and he falls paralyzed. She then retrieves the diamonds and sets off, but not before those pheromones kick in and she gets bit by a male spider. In classic Twilight Zone fashion, the other castaways find them, mistake them for dead and do a quick burial.

I love the connection to Medusa here. However, the Lostpeida website has this to say: "'Medusa' could also reference a creature of Greek mythology." Come on! Could be? Could be? What's an English teacher to do...

If Anyone Has Any Objections, Let Him Speak Now or Forever Hold His Peace

2011-01-03T16:42:00.000-05:00

Just saw this in the news. Thought I'd pass it along. I hope to get some real posts out soon. I am thinking of starting a series of posts on Norse Death. If you are interested in knowing where Vikings go after they kick the bucket, let me know.

'Magic Pythons' in Cambodia Begin Wedded Blissssss

BY SOPHENG CHEANG Associated Press

SVAY ROLUM, Cambodia (AP) — Hundreds of villagers flocked to a wedding ceremony Monday between a 16-foot (4.8-meter), 200-pound (90-kilogram) female python and her slightly smaller mate — both believed to be magic snakes that bring prosperity and peace.

The two-hour ceremony in Svay Rolum village, 12 miles (20 kilometers) south of the capital Phnom Penh, ended with two Buddhist monks blessing the pair and villagers showering them with flowers as wedding music played.
Most Cambodians, almost all Buddhists, also subscribe to animism — a belief that spirits can inhabit all sorts of living and inanimate objects. Whenever an odd animal makes an appearance, it is cause for the superstitious to celebrate.
"We married these pythons to ask for health and prosperity in our village," said 41-year-old Neth Vy, owner of female python named Chamrouen.
"We were told (by fortunetellers) that the two pythons are husband and wife and they need to live together, and if we don't marry them we will meet bad luck," said Neth Vy, who found the then-tiny python while fishing 16 years ago.
He said since the snake became part of the household, the family's living conditions had steadily improved and no misfortune had befallen them.
The male python, named Kroung Pich, was caught 12 days ago by Hin Mao, a 44-year-old, childless woman who said she regarded it as her son.

Lego Mythology

2010-12-27T13:48:00.000-05:00

We had a great Christmas here at Bubo's Blog headquarters. Hope yours was jolly and cheerful as well. We had a couple myth-inspired gifts. One, which comes highly rated from Grant, our official Bubo Blog's game reviewer, is Minotaurus.

This is a fun game that you build using Legos based on the Theseus and the labyrinth myth. The object is to get your heroes to a secret temple in the center of the board. Living in the temple is a minotaur that, if you role the black side of the die, you get to move toward your opponents. There is also a grey side that allows you move some walls to block your opponents or to free the way for your hero. Our current champion is my youngest son and I am ashamed to say that I beat him only by teaming up with Grant to trap his heroes in the movable walls. Grant gives this a 5 lightning bolts out of five.

Well, I'd like to continue reviewing, but there is a seven year old here demanding a rematch for the World Championship title.

Up on the House Top Sleipnir Hooves...

2010-12-21T15:30:00.001-05:00

This post was originally posted in 2008, but I felt it was time to show it again. By the way, did you get to see that lunar eclipse the morning of the 21st? It was pretty cool.

Other titles for this blog could have been "Here Comes Odin Right Down Odin Lane!"

That's right. It is that time of year again and time to get ready for Odin coming and giving presents and such. Yes, I have probably lost it long ago, but no I'm not like Linus believing in the Great Pumpkin (well, maybe a little). No, I'm referring to Odin's big Yule hunting party.

During Yule, Odin leads a large hunting party through the sky on his great eight-legged horse Sleipnir (a great story about Sleipnir's birth involves Loki, a randy horse, and the rest can wait for another time).

Now Sleipnir can't fly (silly - only reindeer), but he can leap great distances (like the Hulk). Children

would leave their boots near the chimney. They filled it with carrots, straw, and sugar so that Sleipnir would be able to eat. Odin, touched by the children's kindness, would fill up the children's boots with sweets and gifts.

Happy Yule!

Way Past Normal

2010-12-19T19:04:00.000-05:00

My Alaskan friend over at Way Past Normal has been knocking the blog stuff out of the park lately. She always does a good job, but I've have really been enjoying her Christmas themed posts lately.

I encourage you to check out some or all of the following:

Beware Krampus, the Christmas Demon!

Our North American Santa Claus is loosely based on the European Saint Nicholas, a kind, gift-giving fellow traditionally portrayed in long bishop’s robes instead of a red suit. Saint Nick grew out of stories about an actual person, Nikolaos of Myra, a Greek bishop with a reputation for secret gift-giving such as leaving coins in shoes and working miracles. So understanding Saint Nicholas is easy. It’s the company he keeps that raises questions and eyebrows....

Christmas Superstitions Part One

As you know, I just can’t resist anything related to the paranormal. But Christmas? Who would have suspected that there was anything supernatural about such a warm fuzzy holiday? I mean, a big jolly fellow travels all over the world with his flying reindeer in a single night, squeezes down tiny chimneys with a neverending bag of presents, knows if you’re naughty or nice but is never seen himself…

The Myth and Lore of Mistletoe

Today we use mistletoe as a Christmas decoration (and occasionally steal a kiss under it). But mistletoe has a much longer history than Christmas itself....

Io, Saturnalia!

2010-12-16T11:40:00.000-05:00

Starting tomorrow (Dec. 17), Saturnalia begins! Get ready for a ~~7 day~~, ~~3 day~~, ~~5 day~~, oh what the heck, celebrate as long as you want to. The Romans couldn't decide how long to celebrate, why should we? some even celebrated until Jan. 3rd!

We are obviously celebrating Saturn here (Cronos to the Greeks, although they are exact pairings in my opinion) and during this week everything goes. If it is fun, do it. Like to eat? Feast while shouting "Io, Saturnalia!" Like to gamble? Throw your dice with wild abandon. Like to sing naked? You're in luck.

What is pretty cool about this celebration is the fact that slaves participate. In fact, this seems to be more of a slave's holiday than free man's. During the holiday slaves don't work, they can dress in their master's clothes, they can be waited upon at dinner, and they get to wear these nifty little felt hats called a pileus.

Social lines are broken down and you can associated with anyone as equals during these days. You have a mean boss? Well, hang out with him and take him to a local chicken wings restaurant. Challenge him to a trivia game at a bar. Whoever wins can get a laurel. Sure, things will go back to normal next week, but for now, live it up. Or you can just do like Pliny the Younger and hide in your bedroom until it is all over.

So what are you waiting for? Decorate your house with festive greenery! Give some gifts! Break some laws! Io, Saturnalia!

Most of this information I got from the latin teacher down the hall, this website: http://www.squidoo.com/saturnalia, and this website: http://penelope.uchicago.edu/~grout/encyclopaedia_romana/calendar/saturnalia.html. Picture from: http://www.alanbaxteronline.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/saturnalia-1.jpg

Another Plea For Help

2010-12-13T14:38:00.000-05:00

If you have enjoyed this blog at all, then please help me get some graphic novels for my students. They struggle with reading and I am constantly trying to find some good materials to get them to read. The following actions will help me win a contest that Yahoo is doing in conjunction with DonorsChoose.org. I did this a few weeks ago and have gotten no spam or e-mails except one follow up e-mail thanking me for supporting a project in Donors Choose. THIS MUST BE DONE BY FRIDAY! If everyone who visited this site in one day did it, I'd win no problem.

All you need to do:

Go to http://www.yahoo.homepagesforhomerooms.com/

Click FIND A PROJECT TO SUPPORT.

Click PROJECT ID (this is found in the middle of the page)

Enter 484817 into the project id box

Click Support This Project.

In the new window, look at the first thing – Change Your Homepage to Yahoo – click the link that says click here

Then choose the last option – Add this webpage to your home page tabs

Enter your e-mail address twice, click the box, and enter the security words.

That’s it! Total time – 2 minutes. Thanks!

If you don’t want it there anymore, just click TOOLS on your internet browser, scroll to the bottom of the menu and choose INTERNET OPTIONS. There you can just delete the Yahoo.com on your homepages. Easy!

If you really like me, you can do it again and again for every e-mail you have (just refresh the screen).

Thanks for the help!

Can't Get Enough Clash of the Titans?

2010-12-10T02:58:00.001-05:00

Well, try Wrath of the Titans! I have never heard of this until just now when I saw it in a news article. More on that later. This DVD is a motion comics sequel to the original Clash of the Titans and picks up five years after the movie ends. Perseus is ruler of Argos. Andromeda is expecting a child. Everyone is happy. Almost everyone, that is. Calibus did not die like we thought, but is instead lurking around waiting to get his revenge. Buy it from Amazon and you get the DVD and the comic. You can always give it to someone you don't like very much... :)

Motion comics do very little for me, but I might be willing to give the comic a try. I'm looking on the cover and I don't see Bubo, so it can't that that good.

I found a trailer for in on You Tube:

Now, what news article did I find that alerted me to this literary wonder? I'm only calling it a news article because it popped up on Google News search result for Greek Mythology. The source is MTV Blog and it revealed that Liam Neeson is returning to play Zeus in a new version of Wrath of the Titans. This won't be a motion comic, but rather another live action movie. Production begins March 2011 and will have a new director, Jonathan Liebesman. I don't know much about him other than He directed Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning and that I have never seen one of his movies.

Rumor has it that the other major actors will return (unfortunately along with Io - nothing against the actress, I just didn't like the character) along with James Franco (you know, Harry Osborn?) who will play Poseidon's son Agenor. I think Ares will have a role to play as well.

Too early for me to say that I will be watching it, but I'll probably pick it up on Netflix. I enjoyed Clash of the Titans as a movie for a movie sake and I'll probably get a kick out of this one.

~

The Odyssey: Stop 11

2010-12-08T08:58:00.001-05:00

It's been awhile, but I've come back to the different stops of Odysseus. At the moment, we have him holding on to a piece of his ship (the rest was sunk by Zeus because the men wanted to eat steak) and heading right back toward Charybdis, the maelstrom monster. When I think of maelstrom, I think of a giant whirlpool like someone flushed the ocean. The largest one is Saltstraumen in Norway. I was really disappointed when I saw a picture of it:

Not at all like I thought it would look. I felt better after reading that Discovery Channel did a show on the third most powerful maelstrom, Corryvreckan, which is off of Scotland. It is so loud that it can be heard ten miles away. They threw a dummy into it with a depth gauge. It got sucked down and popped up a good ways away. The depth gauge registered 262 feet deep and it seems the dummy was dragged along the bottom for a while. That sounds more like it.

Now Charybdis is even better than that. It is the big flushing whirlpool in my imagination and it sucks everything down to eat it. Every so often it spits out the water. Luckily for Odysseus, he hit the monster right as she was spitting out the water. It sent him flying away, free and clear, but with little hope of survival.

Here are some images of Charybdis. She is certainly not a favorite subject for authors but I found some anyway. The first one is a more traditional look at the monster and gets the idea of the spitting. The second one just looks freaky and really brings out the monster look. Kind of reminds me of the Sarlac from Return of the Jedi.

We'll leave Odysseus here, floating in the water, unable to control his destiny as he learns that there are some things he just can't control. Maybe I'll hit the next stop soon. Maybe I'll wait until another year has passed...

First picture of Charybdis from http://galeriamit3.tripod.com/. Second picture of Chrybdis from: http://www.bestofalltopics.com/scylla-of-greek-mythology/the-legendary-whirlpool-charybdis-of-greek-mythology/

Let Us Pray

2010-12-04T16:30:00.000-05:00

The UN recently opened it's climate meeting with a prayer. To whom? God? Allah? Zeus? Nope. Try Ixchel. Here is a shortened version of the article by Juliet Eilperin:

With United Nations climate negotiators facing an uphill battle to advance their goal of reducing emissions linked to global warming, it's no surprise that the woman steering the talks appealed to a Mayan goddess Monday.
Christiana Figueres, executive secretary of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, invoked the ancient jaguar goddess Ixchel in her opening statement to delegates gathered in Cancun, Mexico, noting that Ixchel was not only goddess of the moon, but also "the goddess of reason, creativity and weaving. May she inspire you -- because today, you are gathered in Cancun to weave together the elements of a solid response to climate change, using both reason and creativity as your tools."

U.N. climate chief Christiana Figueres places a building block in a miniature Mayan pyramid at the site of climate negotiations in Cancun, Mexico, Sunday, Nov. 28, 2010. The "Pyramid of Hope" monument was erected by the TckTckTck climate awareness campaign to symbolize the many building blocks needed for a new climate agreement. (AP Photo/Karl Ritter)"Excellencies, the goddess Ixchel would probably tell you that a tapestry is the result of the skilful interlacing of many threads," said Figueres, who hails from Costa Rica and started her greetings in Spanish before switching to English. "I am convinced that 20 years from now, we will admire the policy tapestry that you have woven together and think back fondly to Cancun and the inspiration of Ixchel."

Two weeks from now, we'll have a sense of whether Ixchel -- and the delegates -- were listening to Figueres's appeal.

Here is the whole article.

Which God Are You?

2010-12-01T03:42:00.000-05:00

There's a quick little test on Winged Sandals that tells you which god or goddess you would be. Me? I came out as Apollo. Well, I am incredibly good looking and smart, so the test might be pretty decent after all. Take it and see who you are. As always, I love comments. Leave a comment telling me who you were.

http://www.abc.net.au/arts/wingedsandals/make_do/QUIZ/default.htm

Sunday Funnies

2010-11-28T04:17:00.000-05:00

There in the Sky! It's a Bird! It's a Plane! No, It's a Woman Sitting Upside Down in a Chair!

2010-11-22T03:40:00.002-05:00

Now that I'm a dad of a little girl, I look at things differently than I did when I only had little boys. For instance, if someone came up to me saying that they were better looking than my daughter, I would unleash some crazy monster that I happen to keep in my backyard to eat someone they love. Those of you with little girls understand me. I would like to take credit for such a great idea, but someone beat me to it. This guy is like Father of the Year in my book. Here's the story:

One day, a beautiful woman named Cassiopeia was sitting on her balcony playing one of her favorite games: I'm-More-Beautiful-Than-______. I'm sure all you females out there play this game often. Being a queen, she had a very high balcony and could see a lot of different people that she was more beautiful than. It was a fun game, but as most of her subjects were rather ugly, she began to get bored of it. That is until she looked a bit farther away and saw some beautiful Nereids. These creatures were not mere mortals and were super beautiful. Cassiopeia, however, using an objective judge (herself) determined herself the winner in this little beauty challenge and declared herself the world champion.

The Nereids did not like this at all. They cried and posted stuff on their Facebook (which back then was called Facescroll) about how mean she was. Then they went to daddy and complained. Daddy, being Poseidon, decided that no one makes his little girls cry and went straight over to Cassiopeia to set the matter straight. He made them offer their daughter, Andromeda, up as a sacrifice to one of his sea monsters. They did and watched as the monster came forward to devour their little sweetheart.

Perseus just happened to be flying by on his way back from killing Medusa when he saw this beautiful, naked woman strapped to a rock about to be eaten by a monster. He flew down to Cassiopeia and her husband Cepheus to ask if he could marry her (always the opportunist that Perseus). Cepheus says yes, if he can beat the monster and save the girl. As he just happens to have the head of Medusa in his back pack (I'm imagining this as a Dora the Explorer episode - "Can you see anything in my back pack that could defeat the monster? Say, Medusa! Louder!) he turns the monster into stone. Strangely enough, Poseidon doesn't really care.

Cepheus and Cassiopeia, however, renege on their promise since they really want Andromeda to marry some dude named Phineus (which was her uncle - EWWW!). Perseus turns everyone against him into stone, scoops up Andromeda and lives happily ever after.

Now, I lied a bit above (I am prone to do that from time to time). I said that Poseidon didn't care about the loss of his sea monster. That is not entirely true. Poseidon does punish Cassiopeia after her death by turning her (and her husband) into constellations. This is usually reserved as a reward; however, she was placed in a chair that spends half its time in the sky upside down. Early drawings show her being strapped to a torture chair. Later drawings show her holding a mirror.

You can see her right now, if you live in the northern hemisphere. Just look north and up. If you don't know which way is north, pay attention to the sun as it sets. Apollo always sets it in the west. Then face that direction and turn right. Viola! North!

What you are looking for is pretty easy to spot. It is five stars in the shape of a W. You can't miss it. If you have a pair of binoculars or a telescope, looking in that direction is a pretty neat thing too. This constellation is right in the middle of the Milky Way, so you will be bombarded with stars.

This should give you something to do if you are stuck with your in-laws over the holidays and just need to get out for a moment.

Pictures from: http://www.storiesinthestars.com/constellations/cassiopea.html

~

Have you ever heard of this guy?

2010-11-19T05:21:00.000-05:00

I can't find a picture of this guy anywhere. His name is Deiphobus. He is one of the sons of Priam, King of Troy. That means he is the brother of Hector, Paris, and Helenus. During the Trojan War, Paris dies. The only two sons left are Helenus and Deiphobus. The argue over who gets Helen of ~~Sparta~~ Troy. Deiphobus wins, but when Menelaus finally gets in the walls of the city, Helen of ~~Troy~~ Sparta rats him out and Menelaus cuts out his liver and bowels.

Nice story, huh?

I challenge you to find a picture of him. I gave up.

Sr. Perseus

2010-11-17T14:15:00.000-05:00

How Many Kids Did Zeus Have?

2010-11-13T03:21:00.003-05:00

Also, at the same site that I presented in the last post, is a .pdf file that shows the family tree of the gods. I'm a little miffed about Percy Jackson being left off...

Anyway, it came from that same site: http://web.cn.edu/kwheeler/resource_lit.classics.html and here is a screen shot of it:

Once again, this shot is hard to see. It really looks a lot better as a .pdf. You can get the file here: http://web.cn.edu/kwheeler/documents/Gods_n_DemigodsGrk.pdf. I love how for Athena it has Zeus and Headache!

Any other family trees that you can think of?

We Are the Titans, the Mighty, Mighty Titans

2010-11-11T03:14:00.003-05:00

A friend of mine (yes, I do have one or two) sent me a link to another mythology teacher's web page. I encourage you to go to it at: http://web.cn.edu/kwheeler/resource_lit.classics.html. On it, I found a pretty good .pdf file that has a titan family tree. Here is a screen shot:

This view is a little hard to see, but you can see that it has a nice look to it. Could definitely be used in a class or just to reference who is who.

The actual file can be found directly at: http://web.cn.edu/kwheeler/documents/Gods_n_TitansGrk.pdf

Enjoy!

~

Ho! Ho! Ho!

2010-11-09T03:23:00.000-05:00

No, the title today has nothing to do with Santa, but everything to do with giants. There is an e-mail floating around that tells of a gas explosion that revealed some bones underground. Archaeologists came in and excavated to find an amazing discovery:

Pretty amazing, right? All those myth stories about giants just gets a bit better. No crack in between the eyes, so I assume this isn't Goliath!*

Not so. You see, in the days before Snopes, these e-mails were a lot more fun. But now, you just look it up and find out that this was merely a clever photoshop done at worth1000.com. Here is the original that the fake was made from:

1000worth.com is a website devoted to good photoshopped pictures. This was part of a contest.

However, all is not lost. These pictures are also floating around on the internet and Snopes cannot find where they originated, although they say that the square-cube law makes these images impossible. I read a little on this law. It bored me, so I didn't get very far. I'll just try to suspend disbelief enough to say, here are some REAL pictures of giants!

* Couldn't be Goliath even if the picture was a real one. According to the bible, Goliath was only about 9 feet tall. That's not too far out of reach. The tallest man in the world that we have record of is Robert Pershing Wadlow, he was 8 feet 11 inches.

Maybe there is some magic left in the world after all!

The Good Year Wingfoot

2010-11-07T01:05:00.001-04:00

Almost everyone is familiar with the Good Year blimp and the simple logo that represents that company. You may have even paid attention to the fact that there is a winged foot in between the words. I wondered how closely was it to mythology and how much was it just a need to have a symbol for speed and someone chose that one.

Goodyear has a history page on their website that explains all that. It seems that the founder of the company, Frank Seiberling, grew up with a statue of Hermes/Mercury in his house. It made an impact on him and when the time came, he wanted to somehow use this god as part of the company logo.

In 1900, a meeting was held to figure out how to make this work. Out of several sketches, this one was the one that stuck:

This works great because of the speed symbol that a Hermes allusion brings, but also because of the fact that he is the god of commerce. However, it was the messenger status that really led to using Hermes as a symbol. Seiberling loved the idea of the good news that the messenger god brought and wanted people to feel that by using Goodyear products that they too were getting good news.

Can you think of any other logos with mythology allusions?