Finding Your Inner Goddess: Brainstorming Styles

Topic:
This will be part self-help, part storybook. I'm going to use examples of strong goddesses to teach others how to find their inner goddess and become more confident, powerful, and strong. It will tell of these amazing, powerful goddesses and would choose a story for each goddess to use as an example of their awesomeness and why someone would aspire to be like them. Each story will aim to teach a lesson and help guide the reader to empowerment. It will be fun, but include some of the ways self-improvement could positively impact your life. It would be mostly geared towards women but would also be both insightful and (hopefully) entertaining for the males in this class.


This will also be a fun way to do some self-evaluation and soul searching for me. I have to think about what aspects of goddesses are positive and important and how I want to incorporate that into my own life.

Bibliography:

1. The Journey of Isis  from Egyptian Myth and Legend by Donald A. Mackenzie (1907).
2. Britomart the Faerie Queen  from Stories from the Faerie Queene by Mary Macleod, with drawings by A. G. Walker (1916).
3. The Japanese mythology unit from the un-textbook, taken from The Romance of Old Japan by E. W. Champney and F. Champney (1917).

Possible Styles:

• Interviews
• For this style, each story would be an interview with the goddess who we'd be learning from. The site would be set up like a self-help blog/magazine and would literally give a voice to each different woman but would connect the stories together because they'd be interviews with attached articles written by a writer who hopes to change her chaotic, unfulfilled life. The writer would have her own story which I think would really pull the stories together and make readers connect with the writing. 
• Narratives with instructions for how to integrate teachings into your individual life
• This storytelling style would be written more like a self help novel or book with chapters and third-person stories. I would use lots of pictures and diagrams as well as some possible "quotes" from the women being featured. It would be a pretty simple style but would allow for continuity in my project. It is probably a little bit of a cop out, because it's not a difficult way to write but I think it would still be a lot of fun and would make it easy to read for the other people in the class that would have to read and critique it. 
• World traveler
• This style would be written like a scrapbook/travel journal with lots of pictures from the places the women come from as well as art from those places. It would be a coming of age tale of sorts; a story about a woman who decides to go on a trip around the world to find herself and learn the type of woman she wants to be. It would be enlightening for her and would include an over-arching story about the female narrator.
• Writings from the goddesses
• This would be written as if each story was a letter from the woman being featured. Each would tell her story and what she thinks we could learn from her experience. They would each be written differently to try and show the personality of each woman. After each letter would an author's note of sorts that gives my learning and tips for how to interpret and integrate each goddess's story and teachings. 

Week 3 Famous Last Words

ANOTHER WEEK, ANOTHER BLOG POST 

Hey everyone! I hope y'all had a wonderful week! My week had its ups and downs, but i'm thinking positive and trying to keep making gains both in school and my personal life. So, what did I do this week? Well... 

• Monday I had class for the second time so far this semester, and as usual I enjoyed it. It's great having the same cool profs multiple semesters in a row. Plus, I only have 2 classes that I actually go to.
• Tuesday was pretty crappy. I was sick all day and ended up not going to my practicum site or doing anything fun because all I wanted to do was sleep and groan in frustration.
• Wednesday I had a doctor's appointment with my primary care physician, Dr. Rice, at Goddard Health Center. I went in because my hip is bothering me so much that I can't sleep and I'm constantly messing with it. We did X-rays and talked before my doctor told me I would have to do physical therapy. I've done it before, a year and a half ago when my back AND hip were seriously messed up, and it made my situation so much worse. I feel like that's what is going to happen again, and I'm going to have to either do 3 months of physical therapy or do it until I get desperately worse. Then, maybe, I will get referred to someone who can help me. Also, until then, I have nothing to give me any relief. I'm a little annoyed, but trying to stay positive. 

Inability to sleep sucks

Gif by Vanillery Garden, found on their blog

• Thursday (Today) I was at Calm Waters from 9:30 to 5:00. It was relatively I eventful but I did get to do two client intakes for new members of our divorce groups.
• Tomorrow I meet with my field instructor/mentor, Rita, to do my weekly supervisory conference, talk about meeting a new patient last week, and possibly get introduced to my patient for the semester. I'm so excited! Last semester I was introduced to a patient and was excited to work with her and her family, but a week later she died and I was out of town so I didn't get to be there when it happened. 
• This weekend is still a little uncertain. I know my best friend from high school, Ashley, is coming up to Oklahoma for her birthday but I don't know if I'm going to be able to spend any time with her. She might spend it with her boyfriend's family. Other than that, I might go to someone else's birthday party or I might just lounge around the apartment and try to get some much-needed sleep. 

Week 3 Essay: Ovid's Metamorphoses II (Books 5-7)

Secret's in the Sauce

Fried Green Tomatoes (1991), Found on Red Hook Flicks

This week I choose another story from the Classics reading unit and went with Greek Myths: Ovid's Metamorphoses II (Books 5-7). I very much enjoyed this unit, as I expected I would. My favorite readings were the stories of Prosperine (who I learned was the same person as Persephone) and Dis as well as Procne's Revenge. The overall story of Prosperine is not a happy one, but it did inspire me to learn more about Prosperine and who she became later on in her role as Queen of the Underworld. It also made me wonder why Cupid chose Prosperine to be he wife of Dis. As for Procne, I did not enjoy the story much because it is a horrific story, but got a weird since of justice served at the end and also liked that it went on to explain why a few birds look the way they do. Origin stories have always been of interest to me.

I felt like this unit was somewhat lacking in background information. I'd have liked to have a sentence or two about many names who popped up in this story and who they are/what their significance is. For instance, I ended up Googling who Ceres was as well as who Typhoeus and why they could influence the weather. I also thought the sing-song nature of the stories made them more difficult to read and understand, but was grateful that the entire story was not told that way.

This story was chosen because it featured females that I knew were powerful, however they were often not portrayed as such and many times were made victims in their stories. I suppose this is how many strong women are thrown into the light. Their power is often not known and their ability to create great change not realized until something terrible happens and they have to demonstrate their abilities in response. I am possibly going to write about strong females for my storybook, so I chose this set of stories based on that. I learned a lot from this reading because, apart from Medea, I had not read the stories of the other women (I was slightly aware of Persephone's story).

Week 3 Reading Diary B: Ovid's Metamorphoses

This week's Myth-Folklore reading unit is Ovid's Metamorphoses (Books 5-7)

Tereus Marries Procne

• Tereus = King of Thrace
• Procne = daughter of King of Athens 
• The two were married with none of the gods, fates, etc there under the bad omen of a screech owl- they also made babies 
• Procne's sends her husband to go pick up her sister for a visit. When he gets there and sees her, he becomes completely filled with list for her. Now Tereus REALLY wants Procne's sister to come home and he pleads quite passionately with the king, even going so far as to cry during his speech. He is viewed as incredibly loyal and is given the a-ok. 

Tereus Rapes Philomela

• Tereus spends all night thinking of Philomela and the next day the king sees her off with love and the promise of return. They shove off and arrive in his domain where he takes Philomela off to a high-walled tower and locks her away. Then, he rapes her- taking her virginity as she cries out for help (what a douche).
• Philomela mourns and screams at Tereus. He gets scared and angry so he cuts out her tongue with his sword before raping her again. Then, he went back to his wife, leaving Philomela in his tower, and told her that her sister had died which sends Procne into deep mourning. 

Procne's Revenge
This crazy story can be found here!

• Holy crap this one was a trip! I think I might use it for my storytelling this week. 
• A year had gone by now.
• Procne has woven a tapestry illustrating the crime committed on her. She gives it to a servant to give to her sister who reads it and rushes off with vengeance on the brain. Procne adorns herself with a deerskin, vine wreath and javelin. She breaks down the tower door and rescues her sister before taking her secretly into the palace. Procne tells her sister that she's willing to go to war with her husband over his wickedness. Procne kills her son- stabbing him and slicing his throat open. She then chops her son up and cooks him before serving him to her husband. When she reveals that he has eaten his son, he asks where the boy is and Philomela throws the child's dismembered head at him. 
• Tereus then goes after the women with his sword, but they turn into birds and fly awau. Procne becomes a nightingale. Philomela becomes a swallow (and that is why the swallow has a red belly-because she was forever stained from the murder). Tereus also changes into a bird, a hoopoe, which looks like it's armed. 

Tereus Confronted with the Head of his Son Itylus

By Peter Paul Rubens, found on Wikipedia

Medea and Jason-The End 

• I've actually read the entire Medea tragedy before and love sit. I read it for my Revenge Tragedy class a few semesters back. 
• Medea loves Jason with all her heart. The two get married, she tries to use magic to extend his father's life-it works, the two work to kill Jason's evil brother who stole the throne from him, and pop out a few pups before Jason turns out to be a total douche and leaves Medea even after she had to betray her family (and therefore get country) to be with him. He leaves to go be with a younger princess. 

Week 3 Reading Diary A : Ovid's Metamorphoses

This week's myth-folklore reading unit is Ovid's Metamorphoses (Books 5-7)

Cupid and Dis

• Quick note: Dis = Hades, Tartarus = the underworld 
• Ceres, goddess of agriculture, grain crops, fertility and motherly relationships = Demeter
• Typhoeus = immortal storm giant 
• OKAY, on to the story:
• Typhoeus wants to be a god up in heaven and as such is creating a serious ruckus on Earth. The ground is splitting open and Dis worries his domain will soon be cracked open and exposed to the lights. As such, he makes his way to the sky and circles the island Typhoeus is on before retiring back to the underworld.
• Venus sees Dis and tells Cupid to go make him fall in love so that she may claim Tartarus as her own. Cupid complies and takes his sharpest arrow, draws it back, and fires it right into Dis's heart. 

Dis and Proserpina 

• Prosperine = Persephone 
• Proserpine is picking flowers when Dis sees her and falls in love. Dis snatches her up and takes her off in his chariot back toward his domain. As they are flying and she's crying out for help, a nymph  named Cyane stops the god and tells him he can't just take that girl! He is supposed to ask her hand in marriage, not abuse her. Cyane then stretched her arms out wide, blocking Dis from moving further, but he just opened up the Earth below him and created a doorway to Tartarus where he escapes to.
• Cyane weeps and is so consumed with grief over Prosperine's rape that she withers away and becomes one with the Earth. 
• Ceres was having something to drink when a foul-mouthed boy offended her and she turned him into a newt. She was searching for her daughter, but could not find her. Then, she happens upon Cyane who no longer can talk, but instead shows her daughter's bow in the mystical pool that sits in her area. Ceres freaks out and condemned all the lands for taking away her daughter. The lands grew infertile and barren as a result. 

Ceres and Jupiter 

• Ceres asks for Jupiter's help
• Arethusa pleads to Ceres- please don't take it out on the land, it did not want to open up and let Dis escape with your daughter in tow! 
• Ceres is shocked, then mad. She goes to the heavens to ask Jupiter for help. He agrees to bring back their daughter (even though he thinks her being with Dis isn't so bad) but only if she has stayed true to her fast and not eaten anything.

Persephone's Fate

• The problem was that she HAD eaten something- a pomegranate from the garden. Only Ascalaphus saw her eat it but he rattled anyway. In response, Ceres turned him into he bird of bad news. 
• Jupiter decides to split the year in half and have Persephone spend half with Dis and half with Ceres.

Arachne and Minerva

• Minerva = Athena 
• Minerva is mad because Arachne is well known as a spinster and she doesn't worship Minerva. 
• Arachne says she won't give credit to Minerva unless she proves she is better than her. So, Minerva takes the form of an old lady and tries to tell Arachne to respect the wisdom of her elders. Arachne essentially tells her to buzz off and have Minerva come challenge her herself. Minerva then takes her true shape, but Arachne is not shaken. They sit down to weave. 

Minerva Weaves a Web

• Minerva begins weaving stories into her cloth. She includes Jupiter and Neptune arguing over the name of the city, herself, Athens, an olive tree, and Victory herself. She also does scenes of mortals who used to be gods, the date of the queen of the pygmies, Antigone who was turned into a bird by Juno, and Cinyras holding his daughter's limbs and weeping. She finished by adding olive wreaths of peace around the edges and her emblem of a tree.
• Arachne weaves scenes of Europa being deceived by a bull, Asterie held by the eagle, Jupiter as a satyr, daughter of Nycteus with twin offspring, Prosperine as a spotted snake.
• The judges liked Arachne's tapestry and Minerva gets jealous so she turns her into a spider.

Niobe Rejects Latona

• Latona decrees that all the women of Thebes must celebrate and worship her with displays of dancing, doing their hair, and music in the streets. Niobe, however, rejects Latona and refuses to worship her. She gives reasons why she is better and breaks up the celebration, ordering people to go home and take that crap out of their hair. 

The Death of Niobe's Children

• Latona sends her sons to punish Niobe for her pride and unwillingness to let the worship of Latona occur in Thebes. They killed 4 of her 7 with arrows, then Apollo stabbed one. Next, an arrow flies through another son's throat. The last son begged for mercy but was shot down too.
• Niobe falls upon her sons' bodies and weeps, but then talks crap to Latona about still being better than her. In response Apollo kills 6 of Niobe's 7 daughters. She begs for Latona to spare her one child, her youngest daughter. Latona refuses and she is killed. I'm her grief Niobe turns into a marble statue, frozen in her sadness.

Latona and the Lycians

• Latona had just given birth to her two twins and went to get a drink of water when she met the Lycians who refused to let her drink from their pool. They jumped around and stirred up the bottom, their rudeness producing anger in Latona. She says, fine live in that swamp forever! She turns them into frogs. 

Marysas

• Marysas is a satyr who challenged Apollo to a flute playing contest and lost. His punishment for losing was being flayed alive. 

The Fate of Marysas the Satyr 

By Marfias, found on FanPop