Mythology and Folklore 2020

Story: Life of the Buddha - The Fair Maiden and Gopa's Dream Microfiction 1: Twitterature Length: 140 characters They went to the woods where the maidens waited. They offered him gifts, but all he could think was, "They laugh because they know nothing." Author's Note: I took the first part of this story, where Udayin and Siddhartha go to the woods where the "fair maidens" are. I assume from the way the girls are described with the phrase "skillful in the game of love" that these girls are meant to entice Siddhartha. They all offer him different things, gifts and affection, but Siddhartha can only think about how they don't know about sickness or old age or death, and that that  is the reason why they laugh so easily. They didn't know suffering the way he did, and to him that meant they were ignorant. I tried to capture the kind of headiness of that whole scene, which reminds me of the scene in the Odyssey with the lotus-eaters that ...

For this microfiction assignment, I will be telling two different versions of the story of Narcissus, from Ovid's Metamorphoses . To read the original version, click here . Hint Fiction (25 words): He saw himself, and fell in love. He moved to embrace himself, and touched only water. He couldn't reach himself, and only Echo mourned him. Author's Note: So, I know this is a bit dramatic. But how else do you tell Narcissus' story in 25 words? It summarizes Narcissus' story, and I feel like anyone who knows at least the rough plot of the story would be able to understand it. I added the part about only being mourned by Echo because I thought that was a heartbreaking part of the story. Echo loves Narcissus, like everyone else, but because of her curse, she can't communicate well with him and instead is forced to watch him fall in love with himself, just like she did, and beat himself to death when he realizes he cannot ever be with the person he's in love...