Greek Mythology

Now, before I say anything I want it to be clear that I like Greek Mythology. I have enjoyed it on numerous occasions. I have even read the famous D'Aulaires book. (Once when I was young and

hated it and thought it was Pure Evil, a second time when I was a little bit older and understood its historically and literary value.) I've read re-tellings of Greek Myths. For example, Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson books and Emily Whitman's Radiant Darkness.

But sometimes I think Greek Myths are Way Too Popular. I've been reading this Ancient, Ancient, school book called Myths and Their Meanings, by Max J. Herzberg which was published in 1928 and is So Old I cannot find and ISBN #for it. It's an interesting enough book, but what bothers me is that the first 353 pages is all about Greek Myths. Nordic Myth is lumped in with the Celts for the rest of the book which is under 100 pages long! And there is no mention of Egyptian Mythology at all, and by this time in history people were aware of the Rosetta Stone and there were Egyptologists running about. Suffice it to say, I found it just a little bit disturbing.

Fortunately, it's been a good amount of time since 1928. There have been re-tellings of the Swan Maiden folktale, which is thought to be North-Eurasian as far as I can find. RL LaFevers has used Egyptian Mythology, and so did Rick Riordan in his newer book series the Kane Chronicles. The Nordic Myths seem to be not quite as popular, though I believe a certain blogger is trying to rectify that. (Ohmygoodness. I know she exists. I feel terrible. I have looked for her on twitter, on Google Reader, I have Googled her. I even looked on CafePress and I cannot remember what her blog is and I'm not sure of her name and I don't want to say the wrong thing. I feel so Terrible. But she does exist. I know she does.) D'Aulaires even put out a Norse Myth book as well, which is Very Exciting.

Still, there are certain Mythologies that still tend to be skipped over. Like Sumerian. There is a vast amount of myths in Japanese, Chinese, and Korean culture that is not seen as often. I'm sure there are others that I'm completely forgetting about, but you get the point.

And I do understand that Greek Mythology was adopted by the Romans who ruled the so-called World. I do know that it was considered a normal part of a high education to learn Greek so people could read Homer and the like. Even know you can go to many colleges and be able to take Greek. Not so much Ancient Egyptian. I was blessed to go to a college where I could take a semester of Akkadian, but that doesn't happen very often. Greek Myths are still more widely accessible than most other stories. (I am excluding European folk tales for now, because there is a certain distinction between Myth and Folk tale, according to some.)

I'm hoping this changes, and continues to change. I think it would be fantastic if more colleges offered special classes in Akkadian, or Egyptian, or whatever. I do think that even with the Paranormal shift in YA literature, looked over myths will start to be tapped into. Maybe even because of the shift in YA. (Can Greek and paranormal inter-mix? That would be interesting. Or even a Greek steampunk? Ahem. Anyway. Moving on.)

How about you? Any thoughts on the subject? I'd love to hear what you think. :)

Just a Warning

For whatever reason, this month I have been entirely Anti-Blogging. I have no idea. Probably because of NaNoWriMo... I'm not sure. Either way, I want to warn you guys that I won't be around for probably about a month... Even though I have a list of you guys that I want to read your blogs and stuff, but every time I try I decide to write or stare off into space, or go eat breaded cheese sticks.

Mmmmm...

Eventually I will be back though... Like I said, it's probably just being in the NaNoWriMo mindset, where nothing matters but to Write, Write Write. I hope y'all are having a good month and for those of you writing (whether for NaNo or just for yourselves) I wish you um... not luck because that's not awesome enough.

Yes. I wish you the power of Mythological Creatures. Or something like that. ANYWAY... Fare thee well, my LamNams.

S is for Spakes and Spices and Something Secret

Spakes. Just exactly what are they? And why are they cropping up all over this mad-crazy person's blog? I have questioned sharing information on these creatures, because I want it to be a surprise if it should ever get published. (Which it will because I love Scotch so much.) However, I figure it won't hurt to give you some glimpses into the life of a spake. Beware: They are very vague and will probably annoy you so much that you will not be able to get away fast enough.

[But wait! Don't run away! Stick around to the end for news on an upcoming... ;) I'm not gonna' tell you yet, silly. You have to wait for Something Secret.]

1) Their existence began in ancient Egypt. Never mind, how, for right now. Just know that Egyptian scribes can be stupid when messing around with the Book of the Dead.

My lame attempt at Egyptian artwork

2) Obadiah likes to jump off of pyramids. Solomon, however, likes music. He ended up sitting by the Nile watching the hippos. Yup. He was always a little loose in the head. Still not sure why he went total mad, but my friend and I are still working on it. (Oh! By the way, said friend just started out a blog, which makes me crazy happy.)

No, I did not draw this during youthgroup

when I was supposed to be paying attention

to the message. *Gives innocent look*

3) If you ever meet a girl named Zipporah who is super happy and weird, DO NOT TRUST HER. She is most probably a spake and will probably kill you.

4) Spakes kill people. Most of the time it's not their fault, unless he's Habakkuk. Then it's just from enjoyment, because Habakkuk is a psychopath.

This is what a psycho path looks like

Because psycho paths are stickmen?

5) Sometimes spakes kill people wrong (::cough cough:: Jedediah ::cough cough::) and this causes all kinds of annoying issues for the person being eated. If you find yourself being attacked by spakes, and you have no way of escape, make sure you tell them to eat you properly. Trust me.

The main reason why I bring spakes up is because I'm trying to figure some stuff out about them. For one thing, spices are super important, but I cannot figure out why. There seems no reason for it. Thus, I will have to do more research on Herbs and Spices. If any of you know the names of some good books on Herbs and Spices, feel free to let me know.

With questions of spakes turning through my mind I went to the library and asked the question, "I'm creating a mythological creature. Do you have any book recommendations for that?" Because I've heard numerous times that librarians are good people, and they want to help. Two of the librarians (one of them knows me by name now, which is kinda' funny) went running around, and the one who knows me by name said she had a book at home I would probably like, and she would find out the name of it and get back to me later. How cool is that? I felt very pampered, and even if I still don't know anything about spices, I know more about Dwarves, which is important for Pixie Princess.

It leaves me happily doodling scenes from Scotch's perspective, and leaves me wondering aimlessly about Solomon (a spake). All in all, it can be stated that today was one happy day.

~~~

WAIT! Have you run away yet in fear? In boredom??

First, here's a Pumpkin pic that I forgot, and I asked especial permission from my friend to use it, so I would feel terrible if I didn't post it up here:

Hand made Punkin Love

Alright, moving on.

What is this Something Secret?? It's actually not really a secret, so I kinda' lied, but that's because I didn't want to have any Spoilers by putting the true name up in the title.

Enough of this rambling!

I'm here to tell you about: The Super Sister Contest!!! Yay!!

When my sis, Rebecca/Sonshine, and I each reach 108 followers we will have a slam-bang of a contest. There will be books, and cool things, and stuff, and... Basically it's so cool I don't even know what all we will have yet!! I do know that I will be making mini-pillows for the event. And for any men readers out there, pillows ARE manly.

So get excited, and feel free to get the word out on this slam-bang Super Sister Contest. Check out my sis (if you haven't already) over at:

Sonshine Thoughts

She does a weekly Retail Wednesdays that will make your sides hurt from laughing too much. Or your noise. Sometimes your noise will hurt from laughing too much. (That is, if you're drinking soda while reading her blog, which isn't a safe thing to do.)

And I think that's all! :D

Oh! Wait! Other people are having contests too...

Like, Caledonia Lass over at Writings, Musings, and Other Such Nonsense is having a sister contest with Cheri. Check it out!! It's full of awesomesauce.

And Kristin Creative is having an easy-cheesy contest. Make sure you read the comment entries, they're hilarious.

And check out the Birthday Phenomenon over at Cleverly Inked, if you haven't already. It's crazy!!

AND The Alliterative Allomorph is having a contest tooooo.

I think that's all :)

G is for Greek

There is something about ancient stuff that makes me happy. Especially the Greeks. No idea why. Especially because when I was younger I absolutely refused to read a Greek Mythology for school, telling my mum I would rather FAIL, which for me is a big deal. Then my sis made me read Antigone (by Sophocles) in 11th? grade. Ever since than I have been fascinated with the time period.

Check the link for more random Greek info

Maps... *Drools*

I was so interested, that I wrote up a monologue based on Antigone. I had to go to this boring homeschool Historical Night, (sorry mum, but they were boring) where you dressed up as a historical character and tried to give people clues as to who you are. I picked Antigone, because even though she was a fictional character, she was in a play, and the play was part of history. So there.

A vase from the Louvre!!!

Instead of making up a list of clues I wrote a monologue. I worked my butt off over it, trying to get it just right. Then I stood up, looking all pale and tragic, and gave my little speech about pleasing the gods, and how I'd rather die for the gods than live blah blah blah.

Now, take in mind that I was at a homschool group. One of those Uber Christians homeschool groups (no offense). It was hilarious. There was complete dead silence and everyone was trying NOT to make eye contact with me. I could just see it on some of the parents' faces "What are her parents teaching her?"

Fortunately someone guessed who I was and everyone let out a collected breath as I got my heathen self off stage. It was great.

Following that tradition, I am writing a play in the tradition of Greek Plays for my school project. However, my college is liberal, definitely not Uber Christian (which I could go on a rant about, but I'll spare you that boring mound of words), so I think the Resist eye Contact Stares will be at a minimum.

It's basically about a Dude bringing Sophocles, Aristophanes, and Shakespeare to the modern world to comment on the world of retail. Sophocles and Aritophanes decide to bring the Cashier back to Ancient Greece, because she is treated so terribly, but of course, she is treated just as terribly in Greece. Shakespeare than wants to bring her to England, but alas, a Merchant wants her to be a wench in a tavern, so they have to scurry back to Modern Times. The Dude wants the Three Playwrights to change the world, but they let him know the world "is not there's to save" and that's it's up to him to change it.

I love it. It was so much fun to write, and I included some really super geeky things. Here are a couple of my fav lines, right after the Customer demands the Cashier to be his slave:

CASHIER: The gods must have abandoned me, to leave me in such misery.

CHORUS: We know we should feel bad for you, but we kinda' want our own slave too.

That's where it started. Those two lines got stuck in my head, and out came a really ridiculous play. Some day I want to expand it (the project is 5-10 pages long, just a one act play), because I just have so much fun with it.

This, of course, means I will have to read all of these:

Mine, mine, all mine! Mwahahahaha!

Okay. No. There not all mine. One I stole from my mum, four are my mums, and one is the library's. *Sigh* Aristophanes, I will miss you when I return you to sit on a cold, metal, dead shelf, sitting among other books less worthy than you.

He has a creepy snake beard

*shakes head*

He just lost cool points

E is for Eurghakkkkkkaaaa (Because I Don't Know What Else to Name This)

Okay.

Right now my brain is so fried from school, a symposium thing-a-ma-bob (nothing major, just a lot to think about) so I'm going to do another book blog. Yay!

So awhile ago I won a contest Falen was hosting. Ages, and ages ago, when the moon was still young and the sun was still old... Erm, I mean... *sigh* Reading way to much mythology stuff, anyway. I won a B&N gift card and I finally just HAD to go book shopping today. Look what I got:

I LOVE mythology books. I am so excited to read them, and I've already start going highlighting crazy on the one. The other tiny, tiny pic of one is an herb book. It has led my mum and me to want to start an herb gardening. I am totally doing that this summer.

After I write a paper on the reason why America won't continue because of the lack of mythology.

Oh! And about the Contest: I realized I forgot to ask ya'll to add up your points when you're all done, and leave the total in the comments. With how good I am with math, if I counted points up I'd end up giving someone -23 points and someone else 62.