Bootes

Tonight you can go outside and see the constellation Bootes. It is really easy to find if you can find the big dipper. There is a common saying with backyard astronomers, "Arc to Arcturus." What that means is you follow the arc that the handle of the big dipper to the next bright star. That is Arcturus. Arcturus is the bottom of the constellation and you should be able to see the kite-like shape it takes.

Arcturus is actually the fourth brightest star in the night sky. There is a comet that went through the constellation (from our point of view) and left a debris trail that we keep passing through. This makes for shooting stars. We are passing through it right now and the best opportunity to see shooting stars is all this week the the 26th being the absolute best. Don't get me wrong, you won't be going outside and seeing a hail of shooting stars, but your chances of seeing one is greater.

While you are spending time outside hoping to glimpse a shooting star, you can show off your mythology knowledge to whoever is with you by telling them where the constellation Bootes originates. There are some conflicting tales here. One story, as told by Ovid in Metamorphoses is that Callisto is a woman who was changed into a bear. Her son, Arkas, did not know and was trying to hunt her. Zeus, in a rare moment of pity, saves them by turning them into stars, Callisto becoming Ursa Major (the Big Dipper) and Arkas becoming Bootes.

Catasterimi, by Eratosthenes of Cyrene, says that Arkas was the son of Lykaon. Lykaon killed him and served him up as dinner to Zeus to see if the he really is omnipotent. Zeus punishes Lykaon and sets Arkas in the stars as Bootes. Personally, I don't like this story for Bootes. There is a similar story for Tantalus.Yet another story says that Bootes is modeled after the son of Demeter. He invented the plow (sometimes the big dipper is referred to as the Plow) and so was given immortality in the stars.

Happy viewing!

Update Wikipedia

A lot of fuss is made in some high schools over the validity of Wikipedia as a source. Personally, I think Wikipedia is a great source to use as a starting point, as long as you then backup what new information you may find there. I read a study that said that by far the majority of information found on Wikipedia was accurate, just incomplete. That can be said about most books. What book can have complete information on Greek Mythology, for example.

That said, I found a Wikipedia entry that begs to be updated (it even asks the viewer to help complete the entry). It is a list of mythical objects - swords, jewelry, relics, clothing, etc. It is not a bad list - it even has Clarent on there (you know, the sword of peace that some legends say was the sword that Arthur pulled from the stone). While I don't think this is a good project for students, it is a good project for teachers and lovers of mythology. View the list of stuff at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mythical_objects. You'll find that many things are listed, but far from everything or even most things. While we teach and find things as we read, we should add them to the list. For that matter, it wouldn't be bad to expand the listing for objects already on the page. Let's add some sources to this. If nothing else, it is just a neat list to view.

The list is very similar to http://www.book-of-thoth.com/thebook/index.php/List_of_mythical_objects, so somebody is plagiarizing someone out there (all too common today - makes an English teacher weep).

Currently I would rate this a 2.5 lightning bolts out of 5. Could be better. We can make it better. I would love to have your reply if you can find anything that was left off the list.

Modern Day Unicorn

Behold! Proof that unicorns exist! This picture is of a baby deer born in Italy. It has a twin with two antlers, but this one had some genetic defect that made him only have one. This one's mother was hit by a car and brought to a park to live. The park rangers named the baby, wait for it because it is soooo original, "Unicorn."

Which brings us to mythology. The earliest mention of a unicorn comes from Herodotus, a Greek historian in the 5th century BC. One source I read claims that it was Leonardo Da Vinci who first suggested unicorns could be captured by a virgin. He wrote in his notebook, "For the love it bears to fair maidens [the unicorn] forgets its ferocity and wildness and laying aside all fear it will go to a seated damsel and sleep in her lap, and thus the hunters take it."

Unicorn-like creatures exist in many cultures. You have:

India - the unicorn looks more like a donkey, but larger than a horse. It has a white body, dark red head, and dark blue eyes. In one story, a unicorn mated with a man and gave birth to a unicorn boy.

China - The k'i-lin is a unicorn that resembles a calf, but has dragon scales. Supposedly the scales had symbols on them that became the first language. Confucius was said to have stopped eating when he saw the k'i-lin because it foretold his death.

Arabia - the karkadann is a monstrous unicorn looking more like a rhinoceros and having a curved sickle-like horn. The karkadann and the elephant hate each other and there is a story about a fight between the two resulting in the curved horn getting stuck in the elephant. Both creatures were stuck until a roc came and picked them both up and fed them to her babies. Alexander the Great was said to have a karkadann that he rode into battle.

Japan - the sin-you looks more like a lion and has the ability to know right from wrong. When it found guilty people, it would impale them on its horn.

Biblical - O.K., while not found in the bible, there are stories that exist that say that the unicorn was given the ability to stay in the Garden of Eden, but chose not to in order to help mankind. During the flood, it swam beside the ark until several of the birds perched on its horn and drowned it.

There are others. All of them have different aspects, but one thing remains the same. The alicorn, or the horn of a unicorn, has special properties. It can usually heal almost anything. Doctors in the middle ages sometimes advertised that they had an alicorn that they used to make their medicine. The tusk of a narwhal grows out of its upper lip and is spiral, much like we envision the unicorn's horn to be. This was used often for visible proof of the alicorn.

If you are into unicorns, or at least just want to read up a little, I suggest Nancy Hathaway's book The Unicorn. It is probably available in your public library. While it is not on the edge of your seat reading, you will find more about what I wrote here and other unicorn figures. There is a good Russian unicorn story that I may share on this blog at some point in the future.

Who's That God?

Who is this famous mythological creature about to make his debut on the big screen? Go ahead, make a few guesses. No fair scrolling down and looking.

I found this on the Icelandic Review Online today (no, it is not one of my daily web surfing stops):


Thor on the Silver Screen
Thor, the god of thunders, from the old Nordic mythology is going to star in his own movie. The Icelandic movie producing company, CAOZ, is making a computer animated film about Thor´s adventures.

CAOZ made a 400 million ISK contract with German producers in Cannes so the movie is finally underway and will be in theaters in 2010, but is has been in process for over four years. The story describes how Thor, the god of thunder, finds his hammer, Mjölnir, and battles evil forces, such as the giants of Útgardur who want to take over Ásgardur and Valhalla. The plot is rooted in the old mythology but the story is original. Morgunbladid reports.

Hilmar Sigurdsson from CAOZ said that if the movie proved to be a success, there was enough material in the old sagas to produce up to four Thor-movies.

At this point I was pretty excited. Mind you, I did not see a picture to go with it as you, my dear reader, have. My first thought upon seeing the headline was that it would be another Marvel Comics movie. Then I saw that it wasn't and got really excited. Yes, yes, I know that getting excited over a Thor movie is pretty geeky, but then again, I have never denied my geekhood. Then I looked up CAOZ and found a reference to the movie's web site: http://www.thorthemovie.net/. Upon reaching this site, all my hopes for this movie suddenly died. Take a gander at it and see what you think. They have the trailer for the movie there as well.

I don't know. I'm thinking Hercules Disney style might be looking better and better... Any thoughts on what you guys think? Thumbs up or thumbs down?

Knight Life

If you are a King Arthur fan and have not read Peter David's Knight Life, then I have one question for you, what are you waiting for? Peter David has a great style of writing. It is not a deep, philosophical style. It is humorous, light hearted, and accurate. Peter David is obviously a lover of the Arthurian legend and it shows. Countless times the Arthurian legend has been rewritten. This is the only time (that I know of) that the legend has been continued.

That's right. The "once and future king" is back. It is the future (here and now for us) and we are in a time of need. Arthur has returned. This time, he has come back in New York. Once just can't go around wielding Excalibur and claiming to be president, so Arthur finds himself trying to go through the election process - starting with mayor of New York. Perceval is here, having drunk from the holy grail, he has eternal life. Morgana le Fay is still around, fat and lazy after centuries of a meaningless lifestyle. Merlin, too is around. Here Davis takes T.H. White's viewpoint that Merlin ages backwards, so we see him now as a 4 year old. You don't see too many mayor candidates listing a 4 year old as their campaign manager.

The best thing about this book besides the humor is the accuracy. David knows his legends and tries to keep his story, however light hearted, true to the Arthurian tales. He wrote two sequels that, while interesting, are not quite as good.

The author has a reputation for taking existing stories and breathing new life into them. I give Knight Life a five out of five lightning bolt rating. The next book, One Knight Only I give a 3.5 lightning bolt rating, and the last book in this series is Fall of Knight, which I give a 2.5 lightning bolt rating. Despite this, I am sure that once you have read Knight Life you will want to check out the others for yourself.

Uncegila

This particular blog entry is a result of reading the Symbolic Meanings Blog "Symbolic Sevens entry (http://symbolic-meanings.com/2008/05/30/symbolic-seven-associations-with-the-number-seven/). In it A. Venefica challenges us to find other mythical and symbolic uses of the number seven. I found Uncegila. You can see a lovely rendition of this beast here.


What? You've never heard of Uncegila? Me neither until I started looking for sevens. You see, Uncegila is a terrible dragon from the Sioux Native American tribe, also known as the Lakota. We are perhaps a bit more familiar with some of their other stories involving the trickster spider known as Inktomi (yes, there is a web search engine named ofter this) and their white buffalo legend.


The story of Uncegila is a bit vague at times. It goes like this: Way back when the world was young, an evil witch was turned into the monster Uncegila. She is huge - as long as a hundred horses. Her snake like body is thicker than the biggest tree trunk and she is covered in glittering scales (actually mica). She has a curved horn coming out of her head. She was covered in spots and the only way to kill her was to shoot a magic arrow through the seven spot on her head. That is where she keeps her ice-cold crystal heart.


Heroes all tried to kill her, some to free the people of her wrath, but many to get her heart since it could grant you your heart desires.


Killing Uncegila, however, is not an easy task. Just looking at her will blind you. The next day you go insane. In four days you will die along with all the members of your family. She's got Medusa looking pretty good!

It so happened that two twin heroes came along to kill her. The youngest one was blind and did not fear the look of Uncegila. The older one agreed to take him to and from the place. In order to overcome his blindness, they went to an old ugly woman who could make arrows that always hit the target, no matter how bad your aim was. Her payment, one of them must sleep with her. The sighted brother could not bring himself to do this so he got his blind brother to do the deed. At least he was honest about it and told his blind brother what she looked like. But since this is mythology, she turns into a young beautiful woman. Seems she was cursed to live as a hag until a man came and made love to her.

Once they get to the place, they easily make short work of the dreaded monster - the blind twin shooting it and the other one cutting out the heart. The heart tells them a few things to do which they had been warned not to listen to and voila! They get their heart desires. The sun comes down and burns the body leaving the whole place a barren wasteland (the Badlands of Nebraska and the Dakotas) strewn with her bones. You can actually go there and see her bones today, although some so called "scientists" think they belong to dinosaurs. Ha!

The story doesn't end there. The twins are so tired of having everything they could desire, that they eventually destroy the heart and freed themselves of the curse of having what you want.

You can find this whole story at: http://pyramidmesa.netfirms.com/brulesioux18.html


Of course, Uncegila also has a comic book persona. Wolverine was the one who teamed up with a guy named Blind Owl. This was apparently early in his life and then later in Wolverine's very convoluted story lines was made into an alternate reality story.