Sparked by my friend's comments on my blog, I decided to start this new blog to capture stories I know, and love and to encourage you to also share yours. I have grown an ardent love for tales since my grandmother started telling me bed time stories. Her favorite was "The Golden-Haired Dog" (หมาขนคำ), an old myth from Northern Thailand. (But that's a whole separate blog all together). I love stories behind things, or places, or phrases; stories about fairies, and magic creatures. Stories keep us young at heart and guard us against losing our imagination as all adults do. To see whether you have grown up?
Do you see this picture as a hat?
Or a serpent that just ate an elephant?
As the Little Prince explained:
Les grandes personnes ne comprennent jamais rien toutes seules, et c'est fatigant, pour les enfants, de toujours et toujours leur donner des explications.
"Le Petit Prince, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, (1943)
Grown-ups never understand anything by themselves, and it is tiresome for children to have to explain things to them always and forever.
Note: Seen atop - Echo and Narcissus by John William Porterhouse
The Big Dipper (Ursa Major, ดาวรูปกระบวยใหญ่)
ReplyDeleteZeus (Jupiter), the chief Olympian God, earned fame for his many love affairs. This story involves his lover Callisto and their son Arcas.
Callisto was the daughter of Lycaon, king of Arcadia. So attractive was she that Zeus fell madly in love with her. Eventually Callisto gave birth to a baby boy, naming him Arcas. Hera (Juno), forever the jealous wife of Zeus, grew furious over the affair and decided to take drastic action. She changed Callisto into a bear and left her wandering in the Arcadian forests.
Years later, Callisto's son Arcas grew into a handsome young man. He enjoyed hunting very much. One day, Callisto spotted her son hunting in the forest and wanted to go to him, forgetting that she was a bear. Having no idea the the bear was his mother, Arcas drew his bow on the approaching bear. Luckily, Zeus was watching. Before Arcas could shoot his mother, Zeus grabbed Callisto's tail and flinging her into the heavens where she became Ursa Major. Zeus wanted Arcas with his mother, so he changed his son into a bear as well, and grabbed his tail and flung him into the heavens, where he became Ursa Minor. Both Ursa constellations have unrealistically long tails because they were stretched out when Zeus threw them.
Hera, still not satisfied, begged her brother Poseidon (Neptune, the sea god) never to let the pair of bears rest. So even now, Ursa Major and Ursa Minor turn around the circumpolar sky without resting (setting). There are other versions from other countries but the Greek version is more fun.
The Big Dipper has been helpful to travelers and seafarers since the ancient time. One can find the North Star by following the pointing star near the nose of the Big Bear or the rim of the ladle if you follow Thai tradition.
I actually don't know the story about why Thai people call the Big Dipper ดาวกระบวยใหญ่ (literally translated as "The Big Ladle").
Van Gogh included Ursa Major in his painting "Starry Night Over The Rhone".
Nice:)
ReplyDeleteThanks.
ReplyDeleteเห็นรูปหมวกกับช้างก็รู้เลยว่า "เจ้าชายน้อย"
ReplyDeleteเป็นหนังสืออีกเรื่องที่อ่านสนุกดีครับ
Achilles Heel
ReplyDeleteAchilles is known mostly for being the great Greek warrior of the Trojan War. Achilles was born the son of King Peleus of the Myrmidons of Thessaly and the sea nymph Thetis. To make her son immortal, Thetis dipped Achilles into the River Styx as a child. With this, Achilles did indeed become immortal with one exception...his heel by which his mother held him during the dipping.
Achilles story begins when Calchas prophesizes that in order for the Greeks to take Troy, they would need the aid of Achilles. Thetis, Achilles mother knew that if Achilles went into this battle, he would die. She then sent young Achilles to Scyros where he was hidden away and disguised as a girl. Eventually, Achilles was caught by the crafty Odysseus, who placed some armor in with the women's things and caught Achilles as he was the only one to be fascinated by the hardware. Achilles then agreed to venture off with Odysseus to Troy, leading an army of his father's people, the Myrmidons, his tutor Phoenix and his close friend Patroclus.
Once at Troy, Achilles quickly showed himself to be an unbeatable warrior. Along the way, Achilles captured many towns in the Trojan territory. In the town of Lyrnessos, he took the woman Briseis as his own personal prize. In the midst of the war, Agamemnon, leader of the Greeks, was forced by an oracle of Apollo to give up Chryseis, his own prize. He then proceeded to take Briseis from Achilles to make up for his loss. This of course began the central plot of the Illiad. After Briseis was taken, Achilles was enraged and refused to fight. From there on out, the war turned in the Trojan's favor. The Greeks pleaded and begged Achilles to return to battle, but he refused. His best friend Patroclus then asked to fight in his place, wearing his armor. Achilles agreed to this and the next day Patroclus was killed and the armor of Achilles was taken by Hector, who thought Patroclus was Achilles.
Achilles then got into a fit of utter rage. Thetis then got Achilles new armor made by Hephaestus, and he returned to the war and slayed Hector. Achilles the proceeded to drag the body behind his chariot in front of Troy and refused to allow Hector's body to be properly buried. When King Priam secretly entered into the Greek camp to plead for the body, Achilles gave in and allowed him to take the body. This is one of the more intriguing parts of the Illiad as Achilles showed complete respect for Priam who for all intents and purposes was the enemy.
From there, Achilles went on to defeat many foes and fight heroically until finally Paris, with help from Apollo, shot Achilles with a poison arrow in the one place where he was vulnerable...his heel. This of course is where we get the expression "Achilles Heel" basically meaning your weakness. No matter how great you may be, you'll always have a weakness, your Achilles Heel.
Shown below is Peter Paul Ruben's painting of Achilles in the court of Lycomedes and recognized by Odysseus.
I for Icarus
ReplyDeleteA lot of people regarded the story of Icarus as "the first flight in history, but for me his story reminds me more of the phrases "curiosity kills the cat"; and "playing with fire, and you'll get burnt". Here's how his story goes.
Icarus' father, Daedalus, a talented craftsman, attempted to escape from his exile in Crete, where he and his son were imprisoned at the hands of King Minos, the king for whom he had built the Labyrinth to imprison the Minotaur (part man, part bull). Daedalus, the master craftsman, was exiled because he gave Minos' daughter, Ariadne, a clew of string in order to help Theseus, enemy of Minos, survive the Labyrinth and defeat the Minotaur.
Daedalus fashioned two pairs of wings out of wax and feathers for himself and his son. Before they took off from the island, Daedalus warned his son not to fly too close to the sun, nor too close to the sea. Overcome by the giddiness that flying lent him, Icarus soared through the sky curiously, but in the process he came too close to the sun, which melted the wax. Icarus kept flapping his wings but soon realized that he had no feathers left and that he was only flapping his bare arms. And so, Icarus fell into the sea in the area which bears his name, the Icarian Sea near Icaria, an island southwest of Samos.
This is Henri Matisse's "Icarus" (1947).
Influenza can be transmitted by nasal secretions and aerosols. Danger is everywhere!
ReplyDeleteHundreds of anti-flu remedies advertised nowadays are more myth than real salvation.
Influenza can be transmitted by nasal secretions and aerosols. Danger is everywhere!
ReplyDeleteHundreds of anti-flu remedies advertised nowadays are more myth than real salvation.