15 April 2005

of Gods and Men

There was a time when men were not the only dominating beings in this world. Long before men discovered machines that paved the way to industrialization, there were nymphs and centaurs in the woods, there were mermaids and monsters in the sea, and there were gods ruling the elements. It was an age of wonderment, when men found creative ways to explain why things are as they are; why there are stars, why lightning is cast-off from the skies, how the very universe was created. It was a time when men were close to Mother Nature, and they respected each other.

These stories are not lost to us. Pages upon pages of wonderful stories filled with love and war and adventures await as we turn the pages of Mythology. I have loved these stories since grade school, and I am now revisiting these wonderful times in my spare time, and before I call it a night.

Some of my favorite stories include the love story between Cupid and Psyche, and of how the Big Bear and Little bear became constellations, the Quest for the Golden Fleece, and of Pegasus and Medusa. What are your favorite mythological stories?

[I bought the book Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes by Edith Hamilton. Here are some book notes to some of the chapters, but these are condensed versions of the stories. Photo credit goes to newciv.org]

8 comments:

  1. My wife just purchased an used Greek Mythology book from the local library for $0.25 or about php12. I have read a few stories out of it and it brings back a lot of good memories from my childhood when I heard them for the first time.

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  2. What a coincidence. I also bought this book (again) 2 days ago after getting the DVD of Troy. I still love the story of Hercules and the Trojan War.

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  3. so THAT'S the buk u wr readin sa tulala corner a few nyts ago. nway, i remember takin up greek myth during high school and i loved it!i like the story of hercules!(enjoyed the disney cartoon too) and learning about the gods. zeus and aphrodite (how she came to be and stuff), helen of troy (hus beauty i think, is overly exageratd) were my fave topics.

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  4. Hello Mr. Abbey! I bought mine at around P150.00 because it's new. I was thinking of buying at Books for Less but I was already at National Bookstore at that time, so I went ahead. It's a nice book to have lying around, and the short stories keep you company in your idle time.

    Jgotangco! This is also the second time I'm buying a mythology book. The first one was by Thomas Bulfinch, and included King Arthur. I don't know where it is now, and I was supposed to buy this version again, but was turned off by the price tag (a little less than P400.00) harhar

    Hello dessagirl! We also had mythology in high school, and I loved it, especially since I knew most of the stories already since grade school! Yabang! hehehe

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  5. hey nick!
    never thought I'd run into you in blog-space.

    anyway, i have the edith hamilton book somewhere but I think I have to buy a new one. There's another book, a dictionary of mythological terms, that was pretty darn useful in my college days. It was especially useful since I did a baby thesis on Norse mythology. That was great paper to work on.

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  6. Hello Cherry! Nice to see you in the blogosphere too! I'll link you up! I read the story of Phaethon and the Minotaur last night and somehow found myself unable to sleep til 2AM. Wierd.

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  7. Anonymous6:25 pm

    I like Pyramus and Thisbe and the tale of Nine Muses :P

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  8. Hello tlm! I blogged about Pyramus and Thisbe last Valentine's! I have to read up on the muses, I recall the Pleiades right now ...

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