Myth-Folklore 2019

The Celestial Herald reporting on... Sun Wu Kung: Troublemaker or Hero? Details emerged just this week that the ape king Sun Wu Kung has achieved immortality for himself and his fellow apes--will he ever run out of luck? Readers will remember how Sun Wu Kung, born from a rock, became king of his fellow apes after stumbling upon the heavenly cave. One of these apes, a witness to Sun's discovery, stated "He just dove right through the waterfall, landing in the cave behind it! None of us knew this cave existed before Sun discovered it. He was unanimously voted king of the apes that very day--long live King Sun Wu Kung!" After rising to the position of king, Sun decided that immortality was the way to go and set out to look for the key to eternal life. Failing to learn the secret among humans, he turned to the one and only Discerner, who became his master and taught him several rather useful tricks, like leaping 18,000 miles in one bound and transforming 72 ti

 For this week's reading, I chose the story of  The Monkey King Sun Wu Kung , as told in  The Chinese Fairy Book , edited by R. Wilhelm and translated by Frederick H. Martens (1921). In one part of the readings, Sun is put in charge of the Queen-Mother of the West's peach orchard. One of the three rows of peaches grants people immortality--thus these peaches are very valuable and must be well-protected. As expected, Sun proves to be a less-than-dedicated peach watcher and is discovered by some fairies lounging near a peach, transformed into a worm. From these fairies, he learns about a great feast the Queen-Mother is hosting, one to which Sun is not invited. After enchanting the fairies and forcing them to stay put, Sun tricks the Bare-Foot God into going to the wrong location for the feast while Sun slips into the feast after transforming himself into the deceived god. At the feast, he puts the servers in charge of the wine asleep and drinks a ton of it. He then wanders off,

 For this week's reading, I chose the story of The Monkey King Sun Wu Kung , as told in The Chinese Fairy Book , edited by R. Wilhelm and translated by Frederick H. Martens (1921). Sun Wu Kung is born from a rock, from an egg of stone. He is a stone ape, nourished in the rock by earth, heaven, sun, and moon. He grows up in peace and happiness, playing all day, every day, until he comes across a waterfall and passes through it, discovering a heavenly cave. The other apes make Sun Wu Kung their king due to his discovery. After several hundred years pass, Sun Wu Kung desires immortality and so travels on the sea, coming across a fisherman. The ape learns the ways of man, but does not find the secret to immortality among them, so he sets off again, coming across a singing man who directs him to the saint called the Discerner who proceeds to give the ape his name, Sun Wu Kung. Sun proves to be a difficult student of his new master, but is perceptive. After his master asks him which wa

For years and years I served the king loyally as his advisor, offering him my wisdom and guidance, of which our dear foolish king needed plenty. This is how I spent two decades of my life, watching over this imbecile, making sure he didn't mess anything up too horribly. I was delighted when I learned that he had been stricken with leprosy, as at this moment my own ambitions for taking over the throne blossomed. The king, never a looker and always rather immature, had never found a wife and was therefore left without an heir. Normally a king would pick out his heir in such a situation, but the king, despite his horrendous affliction, seemed to believe himself immortal and, as such, had no need to prepare for his demise. So my hopes grew as his disease weakened him and my own chance to ascend to the throne approached. Everything was going well until that physician showed up, Douban. Douban was an extremely gifted healer and word eventually reached the king, despite my best efforts,

For this week's reading, I read the Arabian Nights tales in The Arabian Nights' Entertainments by Andrew Lang, illustrated by H. J. Ford (1898.) In this part of the Arabian Nights, the story of Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp is told: Aladdin is the son of a poor tailor (living in what appears to be China, oddly enough) and is incredibly idle, so idle that his father dies from anxiety and frustration. The boy's mother laments his idleness and tries to get him to change, but to no avail. An African magician  tricks Aladdin and his mother into believing he is the dead father's long lost brother. The fake uncle then takes Aladdin and uses him in an attempt to get a magic lamp. The plan fails and the magician flees, leaving Aladdin in the cave with the magic lamp and a magic ring. Aladdin eventually uses the genie trapped in the ring to escape and return home. He and his mother clean up the lamp to sell, at which point a genie pops out, one more powerful than the genie

For this week's reading, I chose the Arabian Nights , as found in The Arabian Nights' Entertainments by Andrew Lang and illustrated by H. J. Ford (1898). In Part A of these readings, the storyteller and daughter of the vizir, Scheherazade, risks her own life to save the lives of countless other women. She offers to become the lover of the murderous sultan Schariar, famous for killing every woman he takes after only a day. Each morning, he has his vizir kill the girl and then select a new one for him. Scheherazade decides to start telling stories to her sister, who the sultan allows to spend this last night with Scheherazade. Scheherazade tells her sister, Dinarzade, a story only to be cut off by the dawn of a new day. The sultan allows her to live in order to hear the rest of the story, thus beginning the main plot of the book: Scheherazade successfully lives day after day by telling interesting stories that intrigue the sultan, thus saving her own life and the lives of other

For my extra credit reading, I finished the story of Cupid and Psyche up with Part B. This story can be found in Apuleius's Golden Ass , translated into English by Tony Kline (2013). In this second half of the story, Venus finds out about her son, Cupid's, deception and is furious. She angrily rails at him and begins her search for Psyche. Psyche flees from Venus, asking several goddesses for help, all of which refuse out of respect for Venus. Psyche eventually decides to turn herself in, at which point Venus is her mistress (possibly because she is her mother-in-law--the reasoning behind Venus "owning" Psyche was a bit odd to me). Venus punishes Psyche cruelly and makes her to supposedly impossible tasks, which the girl manages to do with the help of others who take pity on her in her distress. Almost at the end of her last task, Psyche breaks the rules and as a result falls into a deep sleep of death, from which Cupid awakes her upon finding her passed out. Cupid

My story begins several generations before my birth, when the Egyptian king of the time was appointing a new generation of priests. My ancestor, who had studied the religious texts dutifully from the time he was a young boy and had been taught the rituals by his father as a young man, rightfully expected to be appointed high priest. In the king's ignorance, this holy man was instead consigned to be a lowly priest of no real importance. Upon my birth, I was destined to fill the position of my father, my father's father, and my father's father's father: that of a lowly, underpaid priest with no hope for a brighter future than the one my ancestors' had had. I have never forgiven the royal family for sentencing my family and me to such an undeserved fate. The only comfort in life that I had was the secret passed down through my family for generations of the location of the Book of Thoth, a book filled with incredible power but power that can only be accessed at a grea

For this week's reading, I chose  Ancient Egypt . Part B consisted of two long stories, one called The Book of Thoth and the other called The Two Brothers, and a shorter story called The Tale of King Rampsinitus. These tales come from  Egyptian Myth and Legend  by Donald Mackenzie (1907). My favorite of these stories was the Book of Thoth. The Book of Thoth : In this story, an Egyptian prince who loves reading ancient texts is told by a priest how to obtain the Book of Thoth which allows one to control everything on earth and in heaven and also contains a multitude of powerful spells, all in exchange for the prince paying for the priest's costly funeral expenses--rather an odd request but perhaps the priest was elderly and about to die. He clearly wanted to go out in style. Anyhow, the prince, Nefer-ka-ptah, takes his wife Ahura and son Merab with him to get the book out of the river (the Nile?). Ahura has a premonition that something bad will happen and she is correct.

For this week's reading, I chose Ancient Egypt . Part A consisted of stories about creation, Ra, Hathor, Osiris, Isis, and a couple other tales involving magic. These tales come from Egyptian Myth and Legend by Donald Mackenzie (1907). The Secret Name of Ra : In this story, Isis desires some of Ra's power, so she uses magic to create an invisible snake which bites Ra as he is walking by, causing him to become weak from its venom. In pain, Ra cries out and Isis rushes to his side, offering him healing if he only gives her his secret name, which grants him power and was given to him by Nu, from whom Ra came. After several rounds of Isis asking for the name and Ra refusing, he finally relents and allows her access to the name. Isis then heals Ra and possesses his power. I found it interesting that this story was most likely written to reconcile Ra's worshippers and Isis' worshippers--the tale offers a way to have both Ra and Isis as superior god and goddess, as Isis

Tiger Tales Storybook: To Have a Tiger By the Tale Photo by Kristof Borkowski. Source: Flickr

If I had known how it would all turn out, I would have just let the affair continue. Having a secretly unfaithful wife is far preferable to having an openly, brazenly, unabashedly, and now, thanks to the video, incredibly wealthy and famous unfaithful ex-wife. About two years ago, I was informed by one of my wife's coworkers and our mutual friend that my beloved partner of five years had been cheating on me with my best friend, Richard. According to my source, Carrie and Richard had been seeing each other for several months, with Richard even hanging out at her workplace and taking her out for lunch. My heart, needless to say, was broken. Not only had I lost the wife I had known, but I had also lost my best friend of thirteen years. Richard and I had been friends since junior year in high school and even shared the same interests, table tennis and watching people play table tennis. My heart felt like it was being beaten again and again by a STIGA Master series carbon performanc

This part of Ovid's Metamorphoses from Ovid's Metamorphoses , translated by Tony Kline (2000). covered the stories of Echo, Narcissus, Pyramus and Thisbe, Mars and Venus, Perseus and Andromeda, and Perseus and Medusa. Echo : In this story, a nymph is cursed by Juno for distracting her while other nymphs make love to Jupiter. In her rage, Juno curses the nymph Echo and only allows her to repeat what others say. Echo eventually stumbles across the beautiful Narcissus and falls in love with him but is cruelly rejected by him. She runs away in humiliation and turns into a stone. ( This story might be hard to retell. Perhaps I could have a young shy girl in modern times who stutters fall in love with a popular and beautiful boy in her school only to be cruelly rejected by him when she confesses her love for him. She then grows completely silent, never speaking for the rest of her life. This would be a rather sad story. ) Narcissus : Narcissus eventually sees his own reflect