Brainstorming Storybook Styles (Week 3)

Epimetheus by Peter Paul Rubens

Topic: My Storybook will be about the children of Clymene.  I was thinking of doing something like a family reunion or maybe like a day in the life of the separate children in modern times.  I would definitely include Prometheus, Atlas, Phaethon, and then maybe a story combining Epimetheus and Menoitios.  The story of Phaethon is one that I would pull from Ovid’s Metamorphoses.   With Prometheus, there is the obvious story about him stealing the fire, but I think I will focus on him being a champion for humanity and being subjected to his punishment.  For Atlas, I will go with the most famous story.  As punishment for being against the gods, he was to hold up the heavens.  Also, I want to include something about him being tricky.  The last two are a little bit harder to find stories about.  Menoitios was sent to the Underworld as punishment for siding with Atlas and the titans.  Epimetheus was supposed to help Prometheus full the earth.  He created the animals and married Pandora.

Bibliography:

The story of Phaethon:

Prometheus: 

Prometheus Theoi Page 

Atlas Theoi Page

Possible styles:

I think that I would like to tell the stories from the third person (omniscient) points of view of the children of Clymene.  I think that I will try to set it as if the characters are preparing for a family reunion.  It would give them their own individual stories and perspective while still focusing on the group as a whole.  I also think it would make for a really interesting story.  I am thinking that I would like to connect the stories with a frame-tale.  I think the frame would be something along the lines of all of the characters sitting down over dinner and then the individual stories would be them recalling their days. 

Another possibility would be to center the stories around Phaethon’s funeral and I could use that as the frame for the other stories.  This could be interesting, however it might be harder to tie in each individual story.

Another possible style would be Menoitios watching or hearing about his siblings from within the Underworld.  This version would be more of a storytelling than the others.  I could do this one from the first person point of view and have someone tell him about the happenings with the others.

                The last possibility would be for a frame-tale from the first person point of view of Clymene, looking down on the happenings of her children.  This would be fairly easy to do, however it would probably be less creative than the other options I’ve listed out above.

Extra Reading Diary: Ovid III

The Race by Noel Halle

• Eurydice was bitten by a snake
• “What, then, could she complain of, except that she had been loved?”  Interesting.  Even though Orpheus’ love made him turn back and kept her frommou coming back, it came from a good place.
• Apollo loved Hyacinthus, but he died.  Apollo mourned him greatly.
• Pygmalion thought most women were wicked.
• Venus’s admiration for Pygmalion was fair and she heard his prayer.  The statue came to life.
• His reaction to her coming to life is interesting
• Golding’s translation of Ovid was very much a cautionary tale, especially from a religious standpoint.  It is interesting to see that other translations have bits of that, which is shown in the story of Myrrha.
• “Cupid denies that his arrows hurt you, Myrrha, and clears his fires of blame for your crime”
• It is very obvious that Shakespeare was influenced by and pulled from Ovid.  Several of his plays come to mind when reading Ovid
• The whole story of Myrrha is creepy. 
• Interesting that she is still pregnant while she is a tree
• Adonis is her child
• It is interesting to see a woman being a competitor.
• Adonis didn’t think to thank Venus, even though it was not out of malice intent

Storytelling: World Aflame (Week 3)

Phaethon by Hendrick Goltzius

Gods and goddesses should never swear by the River Styx.  Never.  Especially when they don’t know exactly what they are promising.  One might be curious as to why I feel so strongly about this.  I shall tell you.  In all truthfulness, I had never given much thought toward the doings of the gods.  They were on Olympus.  They had their duties and lives, and I had mine.  I liked it that way and the gods didn’t seem to mind either.  Unfortunately, I was fated to bear witness to an extraordinary happening.

It is widely known that the gods and goddess are not often largely involved in the lives of their offspring, not in the way mortals are.  Some gods, however, do carry affection for their children and do try to show it in whatever manner they may.  Phoebus Apollo is one such god.  Clymene, the oceanid, bore him a son whose name was Phaethon.  When Phaethon’s parentage was questioned, he set out on a quest to prove his birth.  Upon his entrance to the palace of the Sun, his father knew him right away.  Though Apollo had been absent from his son’s life, he had great love for the boy.  He promised him riches and great fortunes, the likes of which only a god could give.  He promised the boy anything he desired, if it was within his power.  He swore it all by the River Styx. 

The child, foolish in his youth, asked to drive his father’s chariot.  Immediately, the father begged his son to take back his request, to ask for something else, to ask for anything else.  Unfortunately, the son would not rescind his request and the father, as a god of Olympus, was bound to his oath. 

So Apollo tutored Phaethon in the ways of the chariot.  He try to teach him the tamest paths and the surest ways to calm the fiery horses.  He even gifted to him an ointment to protect him from the flames and heat.  Despite Apollo’s instructions, Phaethon was not prepared for the task he had requested.  Even the path his father had pointed out was dangerous.  Phaethon lasted longer than anyone other than Apollo would have.  Eventually, fear struck him and he let go of the reins.  Phaethon had fallen out of the sky. 

The aftermath is what I bore witness to.  The heavens and the earth were both ablaze.  Thank Jupiter my dwelling was far enough from the smoke and flames.  Entire cities and peoples were wiped away with the fire.  The sky was bright.  Brighter, redder, angrier than ever before.  Never more brilliant and never more deadly.  The earth turned black with soot and ash.  Soon, once the horses found their way back, the sky turned black too. 

So great was Apollo’s anguish for his son that he did not return to the sky for some days.  The mortals who managed to escape the flames were subjected to an extended period of darkness, the lengths of which none had known before.  It was fate alone that allowed me to survive the dangerous ordeal.  Soon though, somehow, the sun rose again.

Author's note:

I chose to retell to story of Phaethon through the eyes of someone who witnessed the event but was somewhat removed from it.  I thought about making it from the point of view of Apollo, but I felt like he would have been too close to the story for what I wanted to do.  One of the main reasons that I chose to do it this way is because I was genuinely surprised when I was reading the original.  Apollo seemed to care so much more than some of the other gods that I have read about.  I wanted to capture that.  I hope that using a narrator who wasn't particularly fond of Apollo or Phaethon would help display how good intentions don't always work out that way.  I didn't change much.  I added the narrator, but I kept the rest of the story the same.  The only part of the story that I didn’t go into much detail with is the part about Phaethon’s origins and his time before he went to meet his father.  From the point of view that I was using, it seemed like the narrator wouldn’t have cared so much about his beginnings as he would have cared about the wreckage.

Word: 517

Bibliography:
Ovid's Metamorphoses translated by Tony Kline in 2000.  UnTextbook
Stories;
Phaethon and the Sun
Phaethon's Ride
The Death of Phaeton

Ovid I: Reading Diary B

Perseus with the head of Medusa by Benvenuto Cellini

• Tiresias changes gender by seeing two snakes mating?
• He settled an argument between Jupiter and Juno.  He agreed with Jupiter and Juno was pissed.
• Juno made him blind, but Jupiter made him see the future to make up for it.
• Echo had a body, but lost it and became only a voice
• Echo distracted Juno and was basically the watch guard for the nymphs who were with Jupiter
• Narcissus is a bit of a butthead to Echo
• Ironically, when he thinks that his reflection is leaving him (rippling) he calls it cruel to leave somehow who has loved him.  He, however, is cruel to those who claimed to love him.
• Wait, does he beat himself to death or does he just mysteriously melt away?
• Pyramus and Thisbe are the basis for Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet
• They live in Babylon
• “No one had discovered the flaw in all those years – but what can love not detect?” Interesting quote.  It really stuck out to me.
• They were supposed to meet by a mulberry tree
• ““Unhappy boy, your own hand, and your love, have destroyed you! I too have a firm enough hand for once, and I, too, love.”  Another line that really stuck out to me when I was reading.  This is right before Thisbe kills herself
• Good guy Apollo (Sol or whatever other names he has in the story)
• “There the two lay shamefully bound together, and one of the gods, undismayed, prayed that he might be shamed like that”  What god is being talked about here?  Dionysus?
• I’m super curious about Atlas.  Isn’t he supposed to be holding up the heavens?  How is he able to do all this if he is holding everything on his shoulders?  Did he take a break?
• Atlas just didn’t want his stuff stolen and told Perseus to go away.  The Perseus acted like he was going to give Atlas something.  Surprise! It was Medusa’s head and Atlas was turned to stone (Atlas Mountains)
•  “‘O, you do not deserve these chains, but those that link ardent lovers together”  Okay, Perseus was a bit of a flirt

Ovid I: Reading Diary A

Peter Paul Rubens' The Fall of Phaeton 

• Deucalion is the son of Prometheus.  (I can use this if I do my storybook over Prometheus)
• The flood resembles the flood in the Bible
• I think it is very interesting that there is an acknowledgement of the uncertainty of the goddess’s meaning
• Juno: “‘Either I am wrong, or being wronged”  Clever wording
• “Shame urges him to it, Amor urges not. Amor would have conquered Shame.”  Does that mean that love is more important/powerful than shame?
• Mercury is super gentle and friendly with Argus until he lulls him to sleep, then immediately off with his head.
• Clymene is the mother of Phaethon.  Isn’t she the mother of Prometheus and his brothers too?  So she is an oceanid?
• Gods swear by the River Styx
• What? Lucifer is in this?
• Apollo seems to be a very concerned father.  This is really surprising
• A lot of the stories in Ovid are connected in small ways. 
• Phaethon is buried in Italy
• Apollo is deeply upset by his son’s death.  He basically quits bringing the sun and daylight into the sky
• ‘Here, surely, my wife will not see my cunning, or if she does find out it is, oh it is, worth a quarrel!’ Jupiter = massive creep
• Yeah, the gods of Olympus should not be giving out quite so many rash boons.