Mythology and Folklore 2020

    I think that in whatever career you're in, whatever your major is, feedback is an incredibly important thing. When I was in middle school and high school, I was very much into music. I was in the symphonic band, the marching band, and the jazz band at my school (I know, a lot, but I'm from one of America's oldest jazz centers and also my mom has super  high standards, but we'll get to that later), and I was often compelled to audition for both district and state bands with other kids my age. Just for reference, I played trombone, and at one point, piano.With music, as with many other things, there is no such thing as perfection. There is always some way, big or small, in which you can improve. But hearing yourself and being able to pick up on your own weaknesses or flaws is hard sometimes, so I had to rely on a lot of external sources for my feedback. Those sources came in the form of my band director, my private trombone instructor, and even my own cell phone. What...

Some possible topics for my final project: 1. Quetzalcoatl  - Quetzalcoatl is a pretty well-known figure in Mexican culture, though there are also related versions of him in other parts of Central America, like in the Quiché tradition of Guatemala. He was the mythical ruler of the Toltec civilization in what is now Tula, in the state of Hidalgo (a few hours northeast of Mexico City). The name Quetzalcoatl means "feathered serpent" in Nahuatl, the language of the Maya, and today there is actually a species of bird found in Mexico that is called the quetzal (meaning "feathered" in Nahuatl) for its bright green feathers. Versions of Quetzalcoatl in Mexican indigenous legend were associated both with wind and creation in general. There are a few different legends floating around about him, and it is even rumored that the indigenous peoples who witnessed the arrival of the Spanish in the 1500s thought that the infamous conquistador Hernan Cortes was the god returned....

    Pygmalion had seen the daughters of his neighbor Propoetus happily married, walking arm-in-arm with their husbands along the streets of their town, and longed for what they had.     A sculptor by trade, Pygmalion was more comfortable around marble and ivory than he was around other people, especially women. So while he waited to muster the courage to go out into the city and seek out the love his neighbors had found, he sculpted a woman from his mind. Her carved her out of rare amber marble, golden and warm like the sun. The figure was so lifelike that one almost expected it to start speaking. When the sunlight came through Pygmalion's studio window and hit the sculpture just right, the eyes sparkled with a brilliance that took his breath away. He found himself falling in love with his own creation, and it made his heart heavy to remember that it was not a real person, just cold, motionless stone.     While Pygmalion works on his other projects, he ta...

The Three Roses , from The Key of Gold , by Josef Baudis (1922) Synopsis:      A Czech variation on the well-known fairytale, Beauty and the Beast . A woman, who is planning a trip to the market in another town, asks her three daughters what they would like her to bring them. Two of her daughters give her a long list of items, and the third simply asks for three roses. The woman goes to the market, and on her way back, realizes she's forgotten the roses for her youngest daughter, Mary. She stumbles upon a palace in the woods, where she sees some beautiful roses in the garden outside. After she's taken the roses, a basilisk appears and demands the woman's daughter in exchange for the roses she's stolen. Terrified for her life, the mother agrees, and returns to her home to tell her daughter what has happened. Mary agrees to go, and once she is there the basilisk tells her that she must nurse him on her lap every single day (um, yeah...we'll get to this, don...

Choose from CLASSICAL and/or BIBLICAL units for Weeks 3 and 4. Week 3:  Ancient Rome -  Ovid's Metamorphoses Week 4: Later Legends - Women Saints Choose from MIDDLE EASTERN and/or INDIAN units for Weeks 5 and 6. Week 5: Folktales and Fairy Tales - Persian Week 6:  Buddhism and Hinduism - Life of the Buddha Choose from ASIAN and/or AFRICAN units for Weeks 7 and 9. [Week 8 is review week.] Week 7:  Asian Mythology - Japanese Mythology Week 9: Folktales - Tibet Choose from NATIVE AMERICAN units for Weeks 10 and 11. Week 10 : Regional Anthologies- Great Plains Week 11: Regional Anthologies - British North America Choose from BRITISH and/or CELTIC units for Weeks 12 and 13. Week 12:  Celtic Tales - Celtic Fairy Tales Week 13: Hero Tales - Beowulf Choose from EUROPEAN units for Weeks 14 and 15. Week 14: Literary Works - Inferno Week 15: Fairy Tales by Country - Italy Final Thoughts:     I was real...