“Myth of Prometheus”Prometheus was a Titan, one of the children of Ocean. He and his brother Epimetheus were Zeus' and Hera's cousins. They were not as powerful as Zeus and Hera and their brothers and sisters, but still had some god-like powers. They were very big, giants (that is why the famous ship was called the Titanic, because it was very big).

In the beginning of the world, the Titans lived on the earth. There were no people yet, just the Titans and the animals. Prometheus used to play with clay, sometimes, and one day he made a lot of little people out of clay. He showed them to his cousins, and Zeus liked the little people so much he breathed life into them.

At first the people were very grateful to Zeus and they often gave him sacrifices. But then Prometheus, who loved jokes, told them how they could play a trick on Zeus. Prometheus said, "When you do a

sacrifice, take the bones and guts, the parts you can't eat, and put them in a bag with a nice steak on the top. And in another bag, put all the rest of the steaks, with some bones and guts on top. And ask Zeus to choose which one he wants."

So the people did this, and Zeus chose the bag with the steak on top (The Greeks used this to explain why they ate the meat from animals they sacrificed to the gods). But when he found he had been tricked, he was very angry. To punish people, he took all the fire away from the earth. The people were very cold, and they could not cook their food. They complained to Prometheus that this was all his fault.

Prometheus felt sorry for the cold people.And he felt it was pretty much his fault for suggesting this trick. So he snuck up to the sky and he broke off a piece of the sun and he brought it back to earth for people, and that is how people got fire.

When Zeus found out what Prometheus had done, he got mad all over again and chained Prometheus to a big rock. (He also punished the people by sending them Pandora). Every day a big eagle would come and eat Prometheus' liver. But because he was immortal and could not die, every night his liver grew back again, and then the next day the bird ate it again.

Prometheus suffered this torture every day for years and years, until finally Herakles released him.

Does it explain how something came to be? If so, what?

How does the myth connect to other myths, stories we tell today, movies and our lives?

Pandora’s boxOnce up a time, a long time ago, Zeus ordered Hephaestus (Aphrodite's husband) to make him a daughter. It was the first woman made out of clay. Hephaestus made a beautiful woman and named her Pandora. 

Zeus sent his new daughter, Pandora, down to earth so that she could marry Epimetheus, who was a gentle but lonely man. 

Zeus was not being kind. He was getting even. Epimetheus and Prometheus were brothers. Zeus was mad at one of the brothers, Prometheus, for giving people fire without asking Zeus first.  

Zeus gave Pandora a little box with a big heavy lock on it. He made her promise never to open the box. He gave the key to Pandora’s husband and told him to never open the box. Zeus was sure that Epimetheus' curiosity would get the better of him, and that either Epimetheus or his brother would open the box. 

Pandora was very curious. She wanted to see what was inside the box, but Epimetheus said no. Better not. "You know your father," Epimetheus sighed, referring to Zeus. "He’s a tricky one."

One day, when Epimetheus lay sleeping, Pandora stole the key and opened the box.

Out flew every kind of disease and sickness, hate and envy, and all the bad things that people had never experienced before. Pandora slammed the lid closed, but it was too late. All the bad things were already out of the box. They flew away, out into the world.

Epimetheus woke up at the sound of her sobbing. “I opened the box and all these ugly things flew out,” she cried. “I tried to catch them, but they all got out.” Pandora opened the box to show him how empty it was. But the box was not quite empty. One tiny bug flew quickly out before Pandora could slam the lid shut again.

 

The Story Of Narcissus:Once upon a time, there was a boy called Narcissus. He was the son of a god and he was very, very handsome. Many women fell in love with him, but he turned them away. One of the women who loved Narcissus was a nymph called Echo. Echo could not speak properly - she could only repeat what was said to her, so she couldn't tell Narcissus that she loved him. One day, when Narcissus was walking in the woods with some friends, he became separated from them. He called out "Is anyone here?" Echo replied "Here, Here". Echo stepped forward with open arms, wanting to cuddle him. But Narcissus refused to accept Echo's love. Echo was so upset that she left and hid in a cave, until nothing was left of her, except her voice.

The Maiden, a goddess, found out about this, and she was very angry. She made Narcissus fall in love with himself. When Narcissus looked at his reflection in a pond one day, he fell in love. He stayed on that spot forever, until he died one day. Where he died a flower grew, and that flower is called a Narcissus.

The Story Of Echo:Hera, the Queen of Mt. Olympus, cast a spell over her servant Echo for talking too much. As a punishment, Echo could henceforth only repeat what someone else said.

Poor Echo! She was in love with handsome Narcissus, and yearned to tell him so! One day Echo saw Narcissus admiring himself in a clear pond. Looking at his reflection, he vainly said to the face in the water, "I love you."

Echo repeated, "I love you," and meant it. But Narcissus thought it was his reflection that spoke and stood gazing at himself until he died and Hermes led him away to the Land of the Dead. Echo pined for him till she, too, faded away. All that was left of her was her voice that can still be heard in certain hollow places, senselessly repeating the words of others.

The Story of Arachne Athena, goddess of wisdom, was a proud and talented, young goddess. In times of peace, Athena taught Grecians about the arts. She herself was a skillful weaver and potter and always took pride in her pupils' work, as long as they respected her.

One of Athena's pupils was a maiden whose name was Arachne. Arachne was a poor, simple girl who lived in the country. Her father was a quiet man of humble birth. He dyed sheep's wool to earn money for a living. Arachne wove beautiful fabrics of delicate designs, and people began to comment to her that surely she had been taught by the goddess Athena. Arachne denied this and stated that she was certainly better than Athena and that she had learned little or nothing from Athena's teachings. She even went as far as to say that she was a better weaver than Athena !

Arachne was known to have said,"I have achieved this marvelous skill due to my own talent, hard work, and efforts."

Soon Athena heard of the boastings of Arachne and decided to speak to her. Athena disguised herself as an old woman and went before Arachne stating, "It is foolish to pretend that you are like one of the gods. You're simply a mortal who talents are paled in comparison to those of the goddess Athena."

Arachne charged back to the old lady, "If Athena doesn't like my words, then let her show her skills in a weaving contest."

Suddenly, the disguise of the old woman was removed and there stood the radiant goddess Athena standing in front of Arachne. Athena accepted the contest challenge.

As the contest began, it was clear that the beauty of both Athena's and Arachne's tapestries were lovely. However, the goddess worked more quickly and skillfully. Arachne's attitude about her work showed that she felt her weaving was more lovely, but Athena felt it was an insult to the gods. This angered Arachne especially since Athena requested an apology. Arachne refused, and Athena slapped Arachne in the face. Almost instantly Arachne felt her head begin to shrink and her nimble fingers grow into long, thin legs.

"Vain girl, since you love to weave so very much, why don't you go and spin forever." Athena had turned Arachne into a spider.

So it is said that all spiders have been punished for Arachne's boasting, since they are required to live within their own webs. Since then spiders have been called arachnids.

Myth of Phaethon

Phaethon was a little boy who lived alone with his mother. He started going to school, and the other children teased him because he didn't have any father. So when he got home he asked his mother, "Mom, who is my father?" At first his mother didn't want to tell him, but then she said, "Your father is the sun god,Helios. He lives up in the sky and drives the chariot of the sun." Phaethon was like, "Really? Cool ! Wow, wait till I tell the other kids!"

But when he told them, the other kids made fun of him. "Yeah, right," they said. "You just don't know who your dad is and you're making this up. You expect us to believe your dad is a god?" Phaethon sulked for a while and then he decided to show those mean kids what was what. He took a little food in a leather bag and he walked and he walked and he walked until he got to the end of the earth and he found where the gods were and got to Helios. He said, "Lord Helios, are you really my dad?" And Helios said, "Yes, I am." Phaethon said "Well if you are really my dad then let me drive the chariot of the sun one time. That will show everyone at school and they'll stop making fun of me." Well, Helios really didn't want to do that. Phaethon was only a little boy, and he was only half a god, and he certainly wasn't strong enough to handle those wild horses of the chariot of the sun! But Phaethon begged and cried and sulked and teased and after a long time Helios gave in and said "Okay, you can drive them, but just this once. And you must be very very careful." Phaethon promised to be very careful. He was very happy that he was going to get to prove that he was really Helios'son.

So Helios showed him how to do it, and Phaethon got up on the chariot and took the reins of the horses and off they went. At first it went fine, and Phaethon waved at all his friends down on the ground and was very pleased with himself.

But then the horses, feeling that it was only a little boy holding the reins, began to run away! Phaethon could not hold them back, though he pulled as hard as he could pull. The horses went too far up into the sky, so that the sun was too far from the earth. It got dark, and cold, and plants began to die. Everyone was very scared.

Then the horses went the other way, too close to the earth. That was even worse! It got too hot everywhere, and everything began to burn up. Finally Helios, who had

been watching in horror, went to Zeus and said, "Lord Zeus, I made a mistake. I let my little boy Phaethon drive the chariot of the sun, and he is too little. Now the whole earth is going to burn up. Please throw a thunderbolt at him and knock him out of the chariot before things get any worse." He said this, even though he loved his little boy and didn't want to hurt him, but he had to.

So Zeus knocked Phaethon out of the chariot, and he fell to earth and died. But Helios was able to catch the horses then, and made the sun go back in its usual way.