Myth-Folklore 2019

For this week's extra credit reading, I read Japanese Mythology, Part A. The story I will be writing my notes over is the story of The Miraculous Mirror in Romance of Old Japan, Part I: Mythology and Legend by E. W. Champney and F. Champney (1917). The Miraculous Mirror: Amaterasu, the Japanese sun goddess, is busy weaving the "dark web of Doom" when her brother, Susanoo, the Japanese storm god, frightens her and causes her to run off and hide in a cave. The people and gods of the earth miss her rays of light and warmth and desire her to come back and let everyone experience the sun again. However, Amaterasu remains in her cave. One god fashions a mirror and the goddess Uzume dances about and makes noise until Amaterasu emerges from her cave. The mirror is right in front of her and Uzume exclaims about a beautiful goddess that everyone loves. Seeing her own reflection, Amaterasu assumes she is looking at her rival and emerges, at which point Taji-Karao rolls a huge b...

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...

The story I chose to read for extra credit was Part A of Cupid and Psyche  from The Golden Ass by Apuleius, translated into English by Tony Kline. The story begins with a young girl being captured on her wedding day. Her wails annoy an old woman who threatens to have the men who kidnapped the woman burn her alive if she continues wailing. The girl tells her sad story and her fears that her betrothed will be killed by the kidnappers,  as she saw in a dream, to which the old woman tells her not to worry, that dreams occurring in the daytime do not come true. ( Perhaps here I could add some details about the old woman or the curious narrator? This story might also be fun to do in a modern setting. ) The old woman then tells her the story of Cupid and Psyche. Psyche, a beautiful princess, is worshipped by people for her beauty, arosing the jealousy of Venus. Venus orders her son, Cupid, to make Psyche fall in love with a horrendously ugly, poor, and sick man. An oracle at Apol...