Here is a fountain in Rome dedicated to Neptune.
Cupid waits around the corner in this statue in Japan:
How about these pretty neat face paintings?
That's enough. I think I've exhausted the myth value of Oddee! Real posts to come soon!
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
More Odd Stuff
Just to piggy back the last post, here are a few odd mythology pictures that I found on Oddee.com:
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Tribute the the Unknown God
We here at Bubo's Blog have had a tribute to the unknown god entry before. Basically, it is a review of a lesser known deity (or at least lesser known me). I have had ten entries (something I need to correct) and of them all, my favorite is "Eating Hearts and Reading Comic Books." Today, however, I really want to know more about the actual unknown god, or at least how the Athenians saw him.
According to the story, Athens was bothered by a plague. They couldn't figure out why this problem was, well, plaguing them so. One chap by the name of Epimenides came up with a good idea. Rather than spend a lot of time sacrificing to the wrong god and only getting the one that is upset with them even madder, he suggested letting a lot of sheep loose and whenever they stopped and laid down, sacrifice it to the god of the area they laid down in (apparently the Greeks had most of their little corners and niches dedicated to this god or that goddess). The idea was working great, except a few sheep kept laying down in areas that were not dedicated to any particular deity. Epimenides suggested that they build an altar and dedicate it to the unknown god. He said that this must a pretty powerful god and wouldn't mind that they didn't know his name. This covered all their bases. The plague stopped and you had one very happy unknown god and several dead sheep.
The Greeks called this unknown god, Agnostos Theos. This practice wasn't limited to Athens. The altar you see here is a Roman altar dedicated to an unknown god. The Romans were very concerned about offending any deities, which is one reason that they were pretty liberal in accepting other cultures' gods and goddesses as the empire spread. In fact, the Romans were happy to have people worshipping their own gods after they got taken over - the only catch is that they needed to worship the established Roman ones too. This is one of the reasons that the Jews and early Christians had so much conflict with the Roman Empire. If you believe in one and only one god, a god that has specifically said, "Hey! No worship
ping other gods and goddesses," then you can see where the problem comes in.
ping other gods and goddesses," then you can see where the problem comes in. In fact, in Acts chapter 17, Paul (about 50 years later) is walking down the streets in Athens and comes across one of these altars and comments on it to the people of the area, suggesting that the unknown god they are missing is really the one and only God.
I guess it is a good point by the Athenians. Ignorance my be bliss, but when you neglect a god because of it, then that's just ignorance.
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Odd Stuff
What does Jane Austen and zombies have in common?
Think about and we'll get to the answer in a minute. But first I'd like to show you a web site that is really odd. It is www.oddee.com. It is a collection of, well, odd things. I found my answer to the above question there and I found several other things as well. You might want to consider looking at the 10 Most Creative Escalator Ads or even the Most Bizarre Soft Drinks (and let me tell you, Pepsi's Ice Cucumber drink is the most reasonable drink they have!).
Oh yeah, this is supposed to be a mythology blog, so here is one that has a mythological collection, but the others are much more funny. In fact, I figured that my question above deals with zombies and that has mythological ties, right? Yeah, we have to break the rule of mythology being a non-practiced religion, but I've been breaking the rule whenever it suits me in the past, so why change things now? By the way, if you're ever attacked by a zombie, you would thank me for showing you this self defense against zombie web site.
So finally, what does Jane Austin and zombies have in common? I found this too on Oddee:
See you around folks, and we'll finish our trip through mythological space soon!
Friday, February 20, 2009
Mythology Bee
No, not talking about the god of honey (which would be the Mayan god of bees and honey, Ah-Muzen-Cab by the way). No, bee as in spelling bee. We've covered national mythology exams before here. This one was inspired by the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, which I have already told you to read, despite the fact that they are kids books. I found an article about this contest and thought I'd present it here in case you were wanting to get it at your school next year:
HAMPTON — Those not familiar with satyrs, centaurs or Gorgons may have felt a bit out of place at the Percy Jackson Mythology Bee, but for the young mythology buffs who took place in the contest it was familiar territory.
The contest, held at Lane Memorial Library on Feb. 12, was open to students ages 10-15. The eight contestants who participated were faced with a barrage of multiple-choice questions focusing on Greek and Roman mythology.
Designed to celebrate students' knowledge of the subject, the bee capitalizes on the success of the Percy Jackson & The Olympians book series. Authored by Rick Riordan, the series follows the adventures of 12 year-old Percy who discovers that not only is he the son of Poseidon, god of the Sea, but that Greek monsters and mythological figures still roam the Earth.
Sixth-grader Hunter McKenzie, 11, ended the day standing alone atop Mount Olympus as the first-place winner. As the winner from Hampton Academy, Hunter will be entered into a sweepstakes with a chance to win the grand prize of a trip for four to Greece, which will include a tour of ancient ruins with Riordan.
Hunter, who first became enthralled by the series when he was ten, said that he was fascinated by mythology, and had done many projects and written stories on the subject.
After he took first place, he said he was feeling both amazing and lucky. On the prospect of meeting Riordan and getting to travel to Greece, he said it would be "a dream come true."
Even if he is not chosen for the grand prize, Hunter may end up winning a chance to Austin, Texas, to attend Camp Half-Blood. In the novels, the camp is a secret training ground and camp for those who are descendants of the mythological gods.
The camp was started in 2006 as a way to keep children interested in reading by bringing elements of the books to life.
Runner-up and fellow sixth-grader Daniel Katalichenko, 11, reiterated Hunter's love of fantasy and myth and said that he had also started reading the books about a year ago.
Daniel did not leave empty handed, however, as he got to take home The Battle of the Labyrinth, the only book in the series he did not own.
Kirsten Rundquist-Corbett, the teen librarian at the library, said the contest allowed her to branch out to the home-schooled and high school students she encounters in the library.
Stef Metalious, a librarian at Hampton Academy, said those who entered the contest were excited to compete and enthusiastic about the subject matter.
She went on to say that if the bee was offered next year, she would hold it again.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
The Odyssey
Well, since I've moved high schools, I'm no longer teaching a Mythology class. I am, however, teaching The Odyssey, which is required to be taught in the ninth grade. My approach is simple: get the kids to understand it and enjoy mythology. A lot of my students really struggle with anything in the unreality realm, so for some of them all this weird stuff and the weird names are just a bit much. First approach, get rid of the poetry.
Now I know, some of you might be saying, "But it's an epic, it is supposed to be poetry!" and you're right. However, since my main goal is to teach reading comprehension for the state test and I know that chances are slim that they'll put an epic poem on here, I'm willing to let the poetry thing slid. After all, once you've translated it from the ancient Greek, you've really lost the whole poetic feel to it. All you have left now is some translator's poetic feel, not Homer's.
Despite that, I expose them to the poetry int he invocation and the sirens. Otherwise we talk about it, read story excerpts from different books, read it in play form, and, of course, watch The Simpsons "Tales from the Public Domain" episode (just the first ten minutes) for their take on Odysseus's travels. If you are a teacher and are tired of the text book translation, scoot on over to my class page and you'll see all of the handouts that we used to read this beast. Oh, and you have to begin the unit by watching Star Wars: A New Hope. There is just no other way to teach it.
Feel free to leave a comment for suggestions on how to improve it! I was frantically creating it as we went along, trying to keep up with the class.
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Saturday, February 14, 2009
Hello Out There In Internet Land!
This is a call for submissions!
O.K.! If you run across any mythology-related book, commercial, product, mascot, business, whatever - let me know by commenting here or e-mailing me at lordalford@gmail.com.
Got or found a website for me to review? Tell me!
Got a book I should look at? Tell me!
Got a favorite god, reclic, culture, whatever you'd like to see done here? Tell me!
This is an open call, so no matter how old this post may be, comment! I'll know!
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Out of Touch
O.K., I've been a bit out of touch lately, but I'm back now (I hope) and will be a bit better staying up to date on this blog.
Now, this caught my eye, not because of the word nudity (believe it or not), but because it dealt with schools and I found it by searching mythology in the news. Here is the complaint:
Speaking of being out of touch, I found this in the news today: "Menasha Schools to Review Film Policy After Parent Complaint About Nudity"
Now, this caught my eye, not because of the word nudity (believe it or not), but because it dealt with schools and I found it by searching mythology in the news. Here is the complaint:
"Eric Hjortness told the board this week the high school’s World Mythology course requires students to watch eight films, three of which he says include inappropriate sexual and violent content."
Wait! Back that up - did it say that the parent is upset over nudity in a World Mythology class????? Obviously this parent is not in touch with what world mythology is all about. Let's face it, nudity is the rather tame part of all of this. If you are getting a story without (insert any type of socially amoral activity that I do not wish to type so that every web filter in the US will shut my site out), then you're pretty lucky. The gods will, um, "hold hands" with anyone (and anything for that matter).
Back to the story. It seems that one of the movies in question was the latest cartoon of Beowulf. Yep, a PG-13 cartoon. Now, I might would object to this one, not for the immoral nudity scenes, but for the plain inaccuracies this cartoon has.
One more article quote for you:
"They are also concerned about the social repercussions for a student whose parents refuse to give permission to watch a film in class."
Apparently we're not too concerned with the social repercussions for a student whose parent gets in the news for going to the school board to complain about watching a movie in school. I bet this kid doesn't get invited to the movies by his/her friends anymore...
Now, don't get me wrong, I do appreciate any parent's concern. If this were an English class, history class, science class - O.K. I just find it hard to believe that they didn't see this coming in a mythology class...
It didn't mention the other movies. I'm trying to think of the other two. I would say Troy, but the article seemed to imply that they were all PG-13 movies and lower. Any guesses from you guys?
Read the article at: http://www.postcrescent.com/article/20090210/APC0101/90210137/1979/APC0404
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