Robin Hood (New and Improved Entry!)

I recently saw Robin Hood and it was O.K.  The legend of Robin Hood, though, inspires me from time to time.  I have an old book by Pyle that has a pretty good compilation of the Robin Hood stories.  This, however, is not a post about Robin Hood per say.  Instead it is merely inspired by Robin Hood as wee look at mythical archers.  Who in mythology can match the famous Prince of Thieves?

Apollo -  Greek - obviously we start with the most famous god of archery - Apollo.  I've always thought of Apollo as being a bit of a goody goody and not much fun to read about, but his archery skills are supposedly second to none.  Once he was shooting at two of Poseidon's sons (who were giants).  The giants threw their javalins back at the first thing that they saw moving, which wasn't Apollo, but a doe (obviously they weren't the smartest things in the world, but hey, it is easy for me to say since I don't have the god of archery shooting at me at the time).  They missed the doe and hit each other instead.  Giants lose, Apollo wins! (Please see comments for additional notes on this loser.)
 
Orion - Greek - maybe a bit of a closer match, since Orion is not a deity.  He is one heck of an archer.  However, his archery story deals with someone else's shooting ability.  Orion is a hunter and he fell in love with Artemis, who actually fell in love with him as well (not Artemis's usual behavior).  Apollo didn't like it and tricked Artemis by challenging her to a shooting match.  Artemis, quite possibly Apollo's equal, agreed to shut her brother's mouth up a bit.  Apollo kept finding things for Artemis to demonstrate her skills on until he cleverly led her to shoot at this thing swimming in the ocean way, way off shore.  Apollo knew it was Orion, but Artemis did not and she shot him.  Because of her grief, he has been placed in the heavens by Zeus, with his bow and hunting dog.

Arjuna - Hindu - This guy is also named The Undefeatable.  He has description after description of his mighty archer exploits. I he deserves more than this blurb, but I'm not going to give it to him. 

Karna - Hindu -This guy is Arjuna's rival and is so cool he used a snake arrow (like James Earl Jones in the Conan movie). 'Nuff said!

Odysseus - Greek - His bow was so tight, only he could string it.  Not only that, he was able to kill several guys hitting on his wife after several years of being out of practice with it.

Cupid - Roman - I can't leave this little guy out.  He of course shoots people and makes them fall in love.  Not as cool as the snake arrow, though.

Ull - Norse - He is a god of archery among other things (much like Apollo).  He spends his winters hunting and his summers he likes to kick back in Hel for a while.  God Checker said he invented skis as well.  I thought they were joking, but it appears that he did. 

Atlaua - Aztec - the patron of archers.  That's about it for him.  I looked and couldn't find any great archer stories.  I'm only including him on this list because I looked for him and didn't want to waste my time.

Hercules - Greek - threatened to shoot the sun because it was too hot.  Maybe this would be good enough for my list, but he didn't do it and so I do not count him as a great archer.

Houyi - Chinese - this guy, however, didn't just shoot the sun, he killed nine of them.  There used to be ten suns and they acted like brothers act.  Houyi, tired of them scorching people and ruining the land, killed nine of the brothers with his bow. 


In my opinion, Houyi is the Archer Supreme!

In light of recent events, the title of Archer Supreme has been stripped from Houyi.  It is not due to the steroid use rumors that have been circling on the internet (they were only herbal treatments).  It is due to judges review - Artemis!  I know, I know, she wasn't even listed in the running, but read the comments and you'll see why she should have been.  I know that I have seen the error of my ways.  So let's hear it for Arrow-Pouring Artemis!

Don't Forget

To mark the poll to the right.  We'll find out the answer on June 4th.

Myth Movies

Well, Alia has done it again.  Another great post on Paleothea.  She has a great post recently on which movies need to be made into a movie.  Her pick?  Antigone.  At first, I thought she was off the mark on that one, but I like her explanation of it.  Me?  I still want a good Jason and the Argonauts.  One that doesn't try to have a happy ending and one that doesn't shy away from Medea chopping up her brother to escape from her father.  I don't need the gore, just the portrayal of Medea as both victim and villain.

Check out Alia's post at: http://blog.paleothea.com/?p=113

And vote on the side bar before you do!

Jaganatha

I was sitting at a birthday party this weekend when I noticed a tattoo on one mom's arm.  Being the nosey person that I am, I asked it it had any meaning or if it was a design that she liked.  You never know.  I have high schoolers who get tattoos and they have no idea what it means, they just liked the look of it.  Anyway, it looked like this:

In Puri, India (about 300 miles southwest of Calcutta), there is a temple dedicated to the worship of Jaganatha, Lord of the Universe (I actually saw one site that titled him Master of the Universe and I just couldn't get the image of He-Man out of my mind).  He is an ancient Hindu deity that is either an incarnation of Vishnu or Siva (people differ as they sometimes do).  In this temple is a fiercesome looking idol that is a black block of wood with a blood-red mouth.  In a midsummer festival, the idol is placed on a 60 foot tower with wheels and is pulled by priests with some ropes.  Once the towers starts moving, it does not stop.  Devout worshipers throw themselves in front of it to be crushed by the wheels as a sacrifice to him (sheesh, and some people think tithing 10% in their church is too much!). 

This sacrifice is the origin of our word juggernaut (that which cannot be stopped).  These festivals are very popular and I read that about 70 to 80 thousand people go there to worship.  During the festival, all castes can eat together.

Pretty cool, huh?

Superman vs Thor

As you can see, I've placed a poll here on who would win in a fight between Superman and Thor.  Superhero vs. Norse god.  Now, I've already found a cheesy little video online that reveals the answer.  On June 6th, I'll post it here and we can find out together who would win.  So, you have until then to decided and cast your vote.  Go ahead and cast your vote even if you don't care!  Then we'll see if Norse deity has what it takes to go toe to toe with that stinking superpowered alien. If you guess the right one, you'll get a no prize!

VS

Another Medusa Post

Sorry I've been gone for so long.  I had many papers to grade and now the final state tests are approaching.  As a teacher, it is my busiest time of the year.  To tide you over, I thought I'd give you this clip from Clash of the Gods. If you have not seen this show, it is a good one to DVR or TiVo.  It is a documentary, but they usually do a good job of making it interesting.  Here is a clip of Medusa's transformation.  Warning!  This clip may not be suitable for children to watch (nothing dirty, just may be scary).

Duties

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