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 wander...

 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...