Jennys blog

" The artist is a receptacle for emotions that come from all over the place: from the sky, from the Earth, from a scrap of paper, from a passing shape, from a spiders web."    -Pablo Picasso Do you ever wonder where the first spider came from or where their place in life came to be? Why are these aracnid animals so scary but create such beautiful webs? Today Im sharing notes of the myth of Arachne. -In mythology, we see people being able to change and shapeshift into their other forms at their own say so -This is common in important Gods and their abilities - For many morals, the mutations were often unwanted  - Arachne was the daughter of a tradesmen who spent his days dying cloth the darkest shades of purple - She could spin a weave so good that people came around from all over to watch her hands work - After a while her head got a little big and she made a claim that angered the gods - Arachne refused to see weaving as a gift from the gods  - The Goddes...

- How Lord Ganesha got his elephant head -High up in the mountians lived a boy named Ganesha with his mother Parvati and his dad Shiva -This story is told from Ganeshas point of view -Parvati was making a sculpture of a boy that was made of clay - She thought the sculpture was so cute she decided to bring it to life -this is where Ganesha is thought to come from - His mother was dirty from making the sculpture so she decided to take a bath -she told her son to wait by the door and dont let any strangers in - since he just came into this world, he had not seen his father yet -shiva approached the house as he was playing with a stick in the yard - Shiva is a large blue man and Ganesha felt he needed to do something to stop him from entering the home - he yelled for Shiva to stop and shiva replied with a angry response - He told the boy how powerfull he was, then he chopped his head off with a sword - Parvati came running out to find what shiva had done, she told him who he w...

Tuesdays & Wednesdays Reading Notes on one page because of their similarities and order if events What is a Myth? - The word myth is not exactly a word that has a solid definition - We have seen people use this as a word that shows something false - That is actually a myth ( insert joke here ) - Here we have a situation where we don't have solid definition of the word tale because it's described in many different ways - Here we usually see it as a story that is not meant to be taken seriously  -significant and staying power are two essential things that myths show that is why they keep the stories going after thousands and years - We see a lot of myths as origin stories where they describe how the world started - we see many cultures have stories of how the world and the people in it came to be and why they exist - this is a vast subject to tackle considering there are science and religion that fight against these myth stories - we believe that these stories w...

-Offerings to Shiva and Vishnu include leaves, food, and many more -Invoking the mind without domesticating nature is the trait of Shiva -Brahma is the opposite -Durga rides her lion and disobeys domestication -Her nose ring shows she is still free, but still domesticated -She is Brahmas defiant daughter -Kanya-Kumari must marry the next day before sunrise to ensure a happy marriage, but Shiva lives far away in the mountains, so he must travel to her through the night -Laws and rules distract from creativity -Durgas has unbound hair which represents lack of domestication -She complains that her husband shiva does not work but her mother tells her that she chose her husband -Her striking image is her yellow skin like tumeric -Her skin color is a cosmetic and also a medicine -Kali is the one who saved Krishna from the evil Kansa, who tried to kill him as a baby -Durga is not only a daughter of one god, she's the goddess of all gods -She is a mixture of all the devas com...

-Gias Secret- she is the earth mother -The only way her son culd leave her womb was by casterating his father -Sedna and her father were attacked by a flock of seagulls and her father cast her overboard -he cuts of her fingers and arm when she tries to get back into the boat - she sunk into the ocean -Adya laid three unfertilized eggs -Bramha, Vishnu and shiva were born from three unfertilized eggs - They were the three main gods -Adya cursed bramha and said there would be no temples in his honor -She thought of Vishnu as far too shifty and decided to turn to Shiva -He agreed to be her lover if she gave him her third eye, which she accepted -He used it to release a missle that turned her into ash - The ash came three goddesses, who become the wives of Shiva, Bramha, and Vishnu -This was a time before gender -The males have to compete for the femlae- like in birds where they choose based on the based characteristics -There is always remainder males, every womb is special ...

-Krishna had enemy's before he was ever born that tried to keep him from being born - Kunti gave birth to Indra's son Arjuna, the same day as the birth of Krishna -Kansa was an evil ruler and was told from a boom in the sky that the eight children born from his cousin Devaki and his wife Vasudev would slay him -Kansa was mad and tried to kill his cousin and her husband, but she begged him to spare them - He put them in prison and decided to kill their eight children instead; he later decided to kill all of Devaki's children a total of six -When Devaki was pregnant with her seventh child, a goddess transported the child into the womb of Radhini, Vasuduvs first wife. -Krishna was born, and the child could not be harmed -Vasudev was told by a voice to go the Yamuna -Kansa had a horrible dream about his fate -The little girl Mya turned out to be a form of Durga -Durga told Kasma that his slayer was safe somewhere far away -Yashoda was very confused because she though...

The wise man telling the fate of the wikd horses, blogger - A horse named Chestnut that was mean and bit and kicked all the other horses -A king wanted to buy some horses and so the owner drove down one hundred horses for him to look at - The King was a skinflint and wanted to get something cheap, so he let the groomer know this - the groomer thought it would be a good idea to show him chestnut - The King gave the groomer a gold piece -Chestnut started going crazy and started rearing up and kicking in the herd -He bruised and battered a lot of the other horses -When the king came to look at the horses, he scoffed at all the beat up and broken horses -The groomer tried to tell the king that Chestnut had caused all these issues with the other horses and the King was in denial that one horse could do all of that damage -The King said as a favor he would buy all of the beat up horses at half price -The dealer did not like the idea of this but did not want to offend the ki...

The Elephant and the Crab- Blogger - The story of a giant crab starts off with a lake in the mountains that a giant crab lived in -crabs are usually small but this one was bigger than a coffee table and it had very large claws - The crab would sit out at the bay of the water and eat anything that came to the shore to drink water -horses, foxes, deer, elk he would all grab them with his claw and drag them under - The crab grew bigger and bigger, feeding off of all the animals at the lake -The animals grew afraid to drink off the edge of the lake so they decided to not drink from that lake - An elephant wanted to lead a herd of elephants to the lake and watch out for the crab as the other elephants drank. -Two elephants went out the furthest in the lake to watch for the crab -the others cleaned themselves and drank water - After they were done with the lake they walked out and the elephant deepest in the water felt a nip on his leg - the elephant's wife told the crab ...

-Kunti gave brith to nothing but a lump of flesh -Vyvas broke the lumps into one hundred peices and places they in vases of oil -The sons were demonic - Duryodhana did not like the Pandu sons - His mentor (Shakuni) told him he must destroy them because they were pretenders -The Pandavas ate a trap of food filled with sleeping herbs -He pushed bheem into a lake and he was bitten by snakes - He faught the snakes off and found himself deep into another world -When bheem returned unharmed and did not remember what had happen or how he got there - Under the work of Dronacharya, the Pandavas worked to become warriors -Yudishtir was a great charitier and navigated the reigns -Nakula and Sahadev were great swordsmen -the strongest son, bheem, he was a fighter -Archer, was a great warrior, excelled in archery -Drona wanted vengence againt the faraway kingdom - Arjuna was upset because Drona had taught another boy how to become a great archer -Clavius had asked Drona to be his te...

-King Shantanu fell in love with with the River Goddess (Ganga) -The King agreed to do whatever she wanted, and ask her no questions -When they had their first child, she drowned the child -She killed six children of theirs -After Ganga told the king of why she drowned the children, she left him and took his last son he had -Sixteen years later - He saw his son and his wife Ganga -His name was David - Shantanu brought his son back to his kingdom so he could be a king one day -Shantanu fell in love with a fisherman's daughter named Sathyavathi, she refused to marry him - David begged the fisherman and his daughter to change his mind, he even offered to give up the throne to their son. -David took an oath that he would never get married or have any children. Shantanu granted his son Bhishma with the ability to grant his own death - After Shantanu died, he acted as a father to his two half brothers - After one brother had died, he feared for the kingdom so decided h...

- Arjuna refused to fight Bhishma because of their history - Bhishma is killed for his betrayal -Drona is now in charge of fo Duryodhana's army, and his first goal is to make Yudhishthira his capture. -Arjuna has sworn to protect his brother -Abhimanyu dies in the battlefield, and Arjuna gets his revenge - As the war went into the nightfall, all hell broke loose as men started killing their kin -Arjuna calls for a truce -Ghatotkacha and Karna fought, and Karna came out victorious - The Pandava general decapitated Drona -Bhima kept his word she cut off Duhsassana's head and drank his blood - Arjuna told Karna he could not attack a hurt man, but Karna did not listen - Then the tables turned, and Karna was asking for mercy while mocking Arjunas passed son -Arjuna struck the head off of Karna -Duryodhana intervenes from his place below the water -Ashwatthaman wanted revenge for the death of Drona and tried to kill the Pandavas in their sleep - Draupadi demanded that ...

- After the Pandava princes were banished they went into the forest with Draupadi -Surya gave Yudhishthira a copper pot filled with food -For 12 years they were send into the forest with their three wives -Krishna visited the princes in the forest -Arjuna gatheres weapons on his own to fight the Duryodhana when their exile is over -Arjuna is the son of Indra - Arjuna killed a boar during his morniing worshing with a bow - The Great God gave Arjuna the divine bow - Indra is the Father of Arjuna -Arjuna stayed wirh Indra for five years while becoming skilled in music and dancing -the Daityas and Danavas ( the demons and giants) are the enemies of Indra, they live b elow the floor of the coean callled Patala - Arjuna started  war with them but after a long battle came out victorious - He went to the city of demons and giants called Hiranyapura on his chariot  -Indra praised his son for his victory and gifted him a chain of gold, a diadem, and a war shell which has a ...

-The author of the Mahahbharata is Vyasa - He didn't want just anyone to record his story because it was a large task -Brahma told Vyasa that Ganesha would write his story down for him. -Vyasa's birth -The king called Uparichara- king of Chedi - Indra was sent to bribe him with a flying crystal car that could drive him across the sky -Uparichara was flying and his semen fell into a river and was swallowed by a fish, which had an outcome of a boy and a girl. -The fisherman told the king, and the king kept the boy but gave the girl to the fisherman's wife. -The girl's name was Satyavati - When she was on the Rishi Parashara the rishi persuaded the girl to remain a virgin and in return she would smell sweet -Vyasa was born on an island -Bhishma (terrible oath) is the son of King Shantanu and the goddess Ganga -He has powers of the eight gods -Satyavati becomes the love interest of King Shantanu after his wife Ganga leaves him -Parashara was the father of Vyas...

-Sita tells Rama she is pregnant, and he proposes to her that they should partake on an adventure. -Rama tells his brother that he must take Sita to the forest and abondon her there because he can not have her in his kingdom. - Rama had doubts about her inpurity. - She is driven on a chariot to to the forest and left there. -She meets a teacher there Valmiki. - Her two sons were born in the forest, and they were taught by Valmiki - Rama finds his two sons in the forest and he invites them back to Ayodhya Palace to rule by them -His conditon for Sita returning with them is that she must prove her purity again, to come back with Luv and Kush. -She tries to prove her innocence by offering herself to mother nature if she isnt completly pure. - She dissapears into the earth Sita with her two sons Source: Nina Paley,  Sita Sings the Blues , 2008

Sita arises from the ocean as a queen with her record as a peacock or bird of some sort.  The story starts with a cartoon of a sleeping couple, and they are disturbed by their cat. -Rama is about to be crowned by Dasaratha as the new king until Kaikeyi vetoed this and told the king to send him into banishment for fourteen years he listened to her because she had taken care of him while he was sick and she was 1 of his three wives Dasharatha was so upset by guilt Sita is on a journey with her husband Rama, and it shows him defeating anything that stands in their way. -Ravana is the evil king of Lanka and has stolen Sita. - Rama needs to cross a bridge to get Sita back -Suruphanaka is Ravanas ugly sister and warms him that Rama has slaughtered many of his men. -Ravana ignores his sister. -It is her idea to steal Sita from Rama -Ravana's hand disguises himself as a golden deer that Rama goes to capture to bring back to Sita - Sita is in her hut when Ravana ste...

Rama and his brother Lakshmana seek advice from an exiled monkey king, Sugriva. He is alarmed by their presence thinking they are against him. Sugriva asked from Rama's help to defeat Vali. Rama ambushes Vali and kills him in a dishonorable way. Monkeys= Vanars When Sugriva takes the throne, he promises to help Rama rescue Sita after the season. After the season, Sugriva sends an army in search of Sita. The army finds out from a little bird that Ravana took Sita to Lanka. Hanuman finds Ravana palace and finds him but Sita is nowhere to be found. When he does find her, she is a tree area guarded. Ravana tries to convince sita to be his wife. Hanuman and Sita have never met, so this rescue will be weird. One of Ravana's sons captured Hamuman and brought him to Ravana.  Ravana set Humaman's tail on fire as punishment, and he worries about Sita's safety.  They return to King Sugriva and Rama, and then plan to march back to Lanka. They go to court and Ra...

-Dasharatha has his funeral, after Bharata seeks to find his brother Rama in the forest. - Instead of bringing Rama home, he brings sandals back. -Rama and his brother fight a demon in the forest and fight to bring sita back to them. - Rama meets  Agastya who is a powerful sage and receieves a weapon from him -Ravanas sister falls in love with rama, but instead seduces his brother- she is instead turned down and mocked and she reacts in anger.  - Telling her brother of the incident, khara. - Khara attacks rama but is defeated and  Shurpanakha goes to tell her brother, the king of lanka what has happen. -Ramana and  Maricha plan to abduct sita. - lured by golden deer, that has the voice of Rama. -Ravana carries sita off to the sky shaped as a bird and she leaves jewerly behind to leave a trail. -A Curse from the god of Brahma, sita refuses to sleep with him. -An old woman in an abandoned home named Shabari asks Rama to do her funeral rites for her as s...

In this story there is two kings; Dasharatha and Janaka. Dashratha is the ruler of the Koshala kingdom and lives the captial, Ayodhya. Janaka is the ruler of  Videha kingdom and lives in Mithila. The city of Ayodyha was a large city with nature-filled streets and many plants and animals encompassing the area. The city was very wealthy and had great forturne but Dasharatha was still upset because he had not been given a heir by either of his three mates.  Dasharatha was brought to the idea to sacrifice a horse in order to receive a son, he was promised four sons after the ceremony of  Ashwamedha . Th e king received his four sons who grew up to have great qualitie s. They were strong and bold. To defeat the Ravana, the job only a human or monkey could do, Vishnu is reborn as Dasharatha son, Rama.  The King, Vishvamita says the demons were disturning his sacrifice so Dasharatha sent Rama and  Lakshmana with him. Rama fought a  rakshas...